THE 'FRISCO OF TO-DAY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3220, 18 June 1909, Page 7

THE 'FRISCO OF TO-DAY.

THREE YEARS AFTER THE GREAT FIRE. AN UGLY SCAR REMAINS. It was on April 18th, 1906, that San Francisco, the city built on sand, was shaken to its foundations by the great tremor; on that day and the two following days fire ravaged the city till the greater part of it was in ruins: over twenty-eight thousand separate buildings had been destroyed. The third anniversary of the great disaster brought back vivid recollections to every home. Some spoke of with awe of those lurid, fearful days; some talked with sad resignation of their losses; some mourned in tears; some vented hot anger against the dishonesty of man that had killed their chance of recuperating their lost fortunes.

The newspapers celebrated the anniversary in their own way—a way that seemed laughable to most of the people. "San Francisco is herself again! The city is rebuilt!" This was the tone of their stories. , One paper went so far as to publish \ a picture representing St Francis with a miscroscope-looking vain for the scar on the city. St. Francis must have very poor eyesight. There are still acres at a stretch covered with hideous piles of debris; in , other parts the desolate waste of several blocks is thrown into relief by a single bare building; there is hardly a hlock in the burnt area without one or two vacant lots—vacant save for the piles of blackened bricks and warped iron. The scar is so clear that a stranger might trace with almost perfect accuracy the bounds of the fire zone. It is always a reief to pass thence to the clean quiet wholeness of the old city. ! "Yet the people of San Francisco have done a mighty work. It is recorded that 18,000 new buildings have been erected, but this total j certainly includes some temporary j structures; yet, temporary or not, the work done since the fire has cost 150,000,000 dollars, while the property destroyed wa.° valued at only 105,000.000 dollars. Probarly half the burnt area has been covered with new buildings, and on.. the average these are on a bigger scale than the buildings they replace. Within three years have been erected hundreds of huge structures of stone and steel, and thousands of big dwellinghouses; but another work almost as great had to be done before the actual buiding began. The ruins had to be removed, and innumerable temporary shacks and stores had to be built and then demolished.

The people of San Francisco have received little help from the insurance companies, writes a San Francisco correspondent under date May 3rd. Most of the German companies, and several of the others, refuse to pay a cent of the claims of their policy-holders. Other companies were able to settle their claims with insignificant payments, for the insurers were glad to take a bagatelle at -mce rather than wait months with a risk of geting nothing. Others, again, were unable to meet the claims, and so were forced into liquidation. Within the past few days news has come that the Americian Insurance Company has settled claims amounting to 273,000 dollars arising out of the great lire with a payment of 27,000 dollars. Of the insurance companies had acted differently, if the full amount of the insurances had been paid, and paid promptly, it seems likely that San Francisco would by now have been a finer city than before the fire.

The citizens' resources, public and private, have been severely taxed; the financial panic of 1907 added to their difficulties. Is it to be wondered at that bad times have come upon them? On one building there if a notice, "160 rooms to let," and there are many others in similar plight. It has been reckoned that the number of unemployed in the city at present is fifteen thousand; that may be a little exaggerated, but not much. Business men in almost every line complain that things are "quiet;" some of the large firms are rumoured to be struggling to keep their heads above water; some, it is certain, are reducing their staffs. In the retail stores the trouble is great ly increased by the confusion due to their return to the old sites in the burnt area; neither buyers or sellers know whether the "shopping district" is now "down town" or in the residence district whither it was moved after the fire. However, the migration will soon be complete. I In spite of all, the work of rebuild- [ ing pioceeds apace. The builders work seven days in the week; en some of the great steel structures they work in shifts right through the night; enormous quantities of building material—steel, cement and lumber--are poring into the city; often four or five million feet of lumber come in in a single day, exclusive of what is brought overland. In February San Francisco spent more on buildings than any other city in the United States except New York and Chicago; the amount was ; close on half a milllion pounds sterling. And, be it remembered, February is a winter month.

While the rebuilding is proceeding, the a:ene within the burnt area is one of disorder and dust. Builders are allowed to almost block whole thoroughfares, and most of the streets and sidewalks, where they are not blocked, are rough and broken. The street car service is frequently dislocated; new rails are continually being laid. Anu dust flies everywhere. The new San Francisco will not be so handsome as the old. In the business part almost all the new buildings are on a square, ulitarian plan with any pretension to beauty. Only in Chinatown has a touch of the picturesque been added; the big Oriental stores have been built in pagoda style. Behind the busy mercantile centre right out to Van Ness Avenue, where the fire was stopped, there is block after blockhundreds of blocks—of hideous, barracklike apartment houses, with occasional hotels, small stores or saloons. No longer do the magnificient old family mansions grace the steep slopes of Nob Hill, which R. L. Stevenson described as the best part of the city. With the exception of its pretentious hotel, it seems that this spot, too, is to become a barracks. In another part the City Hall, which was perhaps, the most handsome public building in the

place, is being demolised after years of litigation as to its fate, and it i 3 not known what is to take its place. It is utterly remarkable to an outsider that no attempt was made to use the excellent opportunity tlie fire gave for laying out the city on a better plan. Of the many streets that were already overcrowded with traffic not one was widened, not one of the crooked and, irregular ones was made straight. ■ Charles the First did more for London than -the grafters of the Schmitz regime did for San Francisco. One thing has been done. The fire-fighting system of the city has been much improved, and regulations have been brought into force compelling the erection of only fireproof or fire resisting buildings over a large area.