THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8145, 21 May 1906, Page 3

THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER.

A STIRRING NARRATIVE. Mr Wm. MoOutoheon, stage manager of the William Collier Company tells an interesting story with regard to the earthquake in San Francisco. After telling of his escape from the St. Francis Hotel he goeß on to say:—Our party stayed in the Union Square until ,11 o'clock that night. We believed that the fire would not spread to our hutel but at the hour the sol- ■ idiers told us that the tiro had crossed I Market Street and ordered us to * 1 retreat up the bill. We went to the corner of Post Street and Van Ness Avenue and camped in a garden, ■ but a couple of hours later we had to shift further away owing to the rapid approach of the flie. Next morning some of ua tried to make our way to the Hotel but when we got there we could do nothing. Some of our compauy were seen BY THE SOLDIERS and were immediately put to work shifting stores off the roadway so that the carta could get al ongThere was no "please ' about it either. It was a case of do it or strike trouble. For an hour and ■ a half they kept at it and their jrouble was all FOR NOTHING for when the party got to the hotel they could save nothing and all we got except clothes we stood up in was a small handbag and our manager cabled for 1000 dollars and divided it amongst the company and we've been buying clothes ever since at Seattle,, Vancouver, Honolulu and Suva. We were all telling about the great tbincs we were going to do in Australia and the first thing handed to us was an earthquake and then a fire. These things generally come in threes, you know, and we have been expecting to be shipwrecked or cast away on a desert island or EATEN BY CANNIBALS tut we are all right so far though rather reduced in wardrobe. We went to Oakland on the Thursday and eight of us spent *he night in two rooms. We found very little damage done in Oakland. A few building 3 damaged and nearly all the chimneys down and church spirea on the roadway bijt little beside that. People were not allowed to LIGHT FIRES i owing to the absence of chimneys and almost everybody dined at the restaurants. We lined in the road and as soon as one contingent reported, another filed in, eatmg houses be'ng hard at it all day long. Next day we got away by the train to Portland and here we are. On the previous day we skirted the fire and reached the water froat only to find that the Sonoma was not going to sail for 17 days. AN EXCITING STOKY. Tbe most exciting earthquake story | waa told by Mr Stewart, a member of Mr Collier's theatrical comDan y:—"Have you ever been in a haunted room you sometimes get in an exhibition? That was what it felt like. The whole i»lace shook with strong firm pulls from side to -Bide, but I kept my presence of mind and called out to my sister 'don't be frightened its only an earthquake go to sleep again. Ihen the ceiling began to fall in and walls to bend ana crack. In 48 seconds a 9 I learned after, it was over. Luckily there was a fire escape in my room so 1 allowed myself to dresa in comfort except that there was no water to be had, and packed UP "Although through open windows 1 bad seen buildings ROLLING LIKE TREES in a gale, I did not realise the extent cf the disaster till 1 got outaide and saw the crowd of startled women in their nightdresses. A drug store in our block was blazing but we "decided (another member of the Company and myself) that we, had time to get the peoples' luggage downstairs.. When we finally passed out into the street things were confused, of course, but there was hardly any panic and the SPLENDID BEHAVIOUR of the women was beyond all / praise. There was never a whimper through it all. It is only as I talk that hundreds of incidents come crowding in upon me. I Baw a ipan crawling down the waterpipe of a wrecked house in which everyone else bad been killed. Despite their own sufferings the crowd was UNSELFISH ENOUGH to cheer the poor refugee. "Many of the women were seasick ali day long through the , series of minor earthquakes, and the number of lesser afflictions was endless. 1 saw TWO MEN SHOT for looting. The first for cutting a ring off a dead woman's finger. . The second was a man who was offered four or five dollars to carry some baggage. He demanded twenty, saying '1 am out for stpff! 'Oh! are you?' said a <=oldier who was standing by and SHOT HIM DEAD. I never saw suoh a sight as that, in Sacramento Square. The people living near brought out their beds but others like us had to put up with the bare ground and from there I counted NINETEEN FIRES each a block wide sweeping irrepressibly over the city and wondering when it would get to us. A wonderfully PATHETIC SIGHT was the hauling of endless boxes up teiflflo hills wbioh are so common about ?Frko6; For nights afterwards my sister has been baanted by the sound of dragging trunks. Jjarge nam hers of these people were Japanese and Chinese and Italians."

Mr Stewart was also enthusiastic with regard to the Oakland people and be told in this connection a delightful story of a ruined waiter from San Francisco who came into a restrauant and said he was starving and asked for a job/ adding that he had four otiildren dependent upon him. The proprietor said he had hundreds already and could do nothing for him. Another waiter wa9 standing by and asked "How many children?" "four." "Well, I've only two," and tie took off his aproa and gave it to the refugee. Then all along the railway to Vancouver people stood on the platform giving away ooffee and paper bags of provisions. "One more instance," eaid Mr Stewart, "the Oaklund shops with every opportunity to charge famine prices aotualy put up this notice 'Prices materially lowered on account of the general distress.' "