The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-06-10
WORKING FOR FRISCO
 IN MIDST OF ALARMS
How the Employees of Business Concern Fought the Flames and Then Carried on Work as UsuaThe Electrical Apparatus They Saved Helped Restore Telephone Service and Kept Red Cross Am
 balances Running Women Workers Braved
 Danger With the Men,

until 5:30 in the afternoon. Then
 when the flames had been finally beat en back, the little band of men. cov- cred with smoke and soot. looked with smarting eyes over waste of ruins, extending block after block in every | direction, with the electrical works the only building remaining intact.
 Newspaper and magazine writers
 who were In San Francisco at the time of the fire or who reached there in the days Immediately after had much to say about the coolness of the refugees
 who, living in parks and streets, read fly and cheerfully adapted themselves to new conditions. Down here in this oasis in the midst of a flame swept des-
 ert the same spirit found expression in
 a different way. With the saving of
 the building the devoted band of en-
 ployes realized that there was unique
 opportunity to be of general public ser
 vice merely by carrying on the ordi-
 nary vocation as well as possible In
 the circumstances. As they say in
 their magazine, which was prophetical-
 ly named Energy" They quickly re-
 alized that the building had been saved
 for purpose, and without loss of time
 set to work to overcome the obstacles
 which had been placed in the way of
 progress"
 On account of the destruction of a
 neighboring plant the electrical works
 were without power and light. How
 ever, as soon as possible a 40-horse
 power gasoline engine was shipped by
 express from Los Angeles and this, to-
 gether with generators taken from the
 stock that was saved, served as a
 makeshift lighting plant. The difhcul-
 ties overcome in locating and obtain
 ing this engine, which was dropped, so
 to speak, in a distant railroad yard at
 Oakland, across the bay, and the sub-
 sequent obstacles encountered in trans porting 1t to San Francisco and install ing it in the electrical works by hand
 can better be imagined than described.
 Now that the works had power. such as 1t was, the question arose what use
 could be made of 1t. No other electri- cal concern in the city remained. First
 of all, by means of the temporary pow
 CT plant the house telephone system
 was placed in working order and then
 line was run from the electrical
 works to the West exchange. one of
 the two telephone central offices left in working order in San Francisco. Thanks to the saving jof the works this exchange was enabled to furnish an emergency telephone service for the
 police and fire departments and for the civil and military authorities.
 In addition to furnishing this tele- | phone service the men at the works managed to fill an order for 150 cells gravity battery for the use of the fire department, The order came in the shape of a lead pencil scrawl on a pa per bag and 1t bore the signature of 1 man unknown to anyone in the cleo trical plant. But it was realized that this was no time for ordinary business
 methods and the order was filled with rush.
 So, indeed. was the order for dry bat terles for the automobiles used by the Red Cross workers Without these batteries the automobiles would have been useless and without the automo- biles, which were the only vehicles that could make their way around the burning city, the relief work would
 have been seriously handicapped For tunately the electrical works had In
 stock a large supply of dry batteries and orders were filled as soon as re- ceived. Owing to this the work of car ing for the sufferers continued unin- terruptedly'