The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-20
THE CITY OF THE MAD.
Pitiful Scenes as the Destruction OF the
Great City Goes On.

Pftiful Scenes as the Destruction OF the
Great City Goes On.
OAKLAND, Cal, April 1e,-San Francisco
is apparently gone. To the west, across
the bay, there is nothing but a great cloud
Of smoke, shot tonight with streams Of
fire and shaken now and then with the dy-
Mantle explosions by which they are trying
vainly to check it. The fire is now every
where.
Every refugee who makes his way to US
through the smoke cloud brings news Of
a new region burning and gone, As nearly
as we can learn, it has run all the way down
the Mission Valley, taking the little houses
of the working people, leaped up the Cal
ifornia street hill, taking Chinatown in its
path, and swept away the mansions which
have crowned the city and is breaking out
sporadically in the Western Addition, where
live the prosperous people.
So it has spared nothing, for the business
district is already gone, and the fire is reach
ing further and furtherIevery hour into the
tenement district to the south. 1t has
taken all the thiokly crowded parts Of the
tenement district and is reaching toward
the thinly scattered parts on the Potrero.
How much will be left when the fires finally
burn down and go out we oannot dare to
guess. If there is anything left, it will
be the hills Of the western addition. 1t is
hard to see how anything else, absolutely
anything. can escape.
Without sleep, many OF us without food,
we watched all night, all day, looking of
toward that veil OF fire and smoke which
hides from us the city which has become
a hell. Back Of that sheet of fire, and re-
treating backward every hour, must be most
OF the people OF the city. forced toward the
! Pacific by the gradual advance Of the
flames.
PARK AND PRESIDE AS HAVEN
Thank heaven for the open space Of The
Preside and for Golden Gate Park The
great park, largest in any American city,
runs on its western extent past a thinly
populated district. The flames cannot
leap across that; it will shelter the inhabi-
tants on their last stand, The Preside,
wide spreading and with only a few houses,
is also safe, provided that the forests which
form part Of it's area do not catch on fire,
There is at least an escape; but half the
people whom the fires have cut Off from
| the waterfront and an escape from the
peninsula are homeless.
This afternoon a launch ventured out
from the Oakland waterfront and made
the run as far as the Gate. The bay is
| overhung with smoke, but a change Of the
wind blew a rift as they passed the Western
Addition, which stands on the hills skirting
the bay. Through this rift the passengers
could see sporadic fires in a dozen places
! and the little black forms Of men fighting
the flames without water, This part of
| the CITY may be saved--probably will be
! hut il will owe it to the scattered buildings
in that part Of the city and to the character
Of California redwood, which shoulders
rather than burns.
Z. o for a rain The time of heavy rains
Is over; but often at his season of the year
there comes a gentle and soaking spring
rain. We cannot see the heavens for the
smoke: but the feel Of the air is dry, and
even that mercy seems to be denied,
upREAp OF THE rIAArE AT NIGHT.
At intervals news comes to us from the
refugees Of what is doing behind the smoke
cloud. 1t appears that the area Of the
flames spread all night. People who had
decided that their houses were outside Of
the dangerous area and had decided, to
pass the night, even after the terrible e Z
perience Of the shake up, under theiF roofs
hourly gave it up and struggled to the
parks. There they lay in blankets, their