The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-04-24

San Francisco, April ga drench-
ing rain fell upon San Francisco last
night From midnight until o'clock
1t poured and drizzled at intervals.
while a high wind added a melancholy
accompaniment, whistIing and signing
about the ruins of the buildings in the
burned district. Five days ago when
the fire catastrophe was IN its infancy
this dOWnpour would have been re-
garded as a mercy and GOdSend.
This morning it could be regarded in
no other light than as an additional
calamity. 1t meant Understandable suf-
fering to the tens Of thousands of peo-
pie camped upon the naked hills and
in the parks and open places of the
city.
Few Were Protected.
Few Of these were provided with
waterproof covering. For the most
part their only protection from the wet
was a thin covering of sheeting tackled
upon improvised tent poles Through
this the water poured as through
sieve, wetting the bedding and soak
ing the ground upon which they lay.
When it is understood that thousands
upon thousands of delicately nurtured
women and infants in arms and old
and feeble people were in this plight,
nothing need be added to describe thd
misery of their condition The down
sanitary condition of the camps, and
will doubtless add great numbers OF
pneumonia cases to those already
crowding the regular and temporary
hospitals of the city.
Everything Possible Done.
What could be done was done by the
guards in charge of the camps TO re-
lieve the distress. Wherever covering
could be had for the women and chill
dren 1t was taken advantage of. They
were housed in the chill and cherries
churches, garages and barns in the
vic9iiage, and those who had been for
tunate enough to save their homes
were called upon to take care of these
1Iufortuuates With few exceptions
these people responded readily to the
new call made upon them, and where
they did not the butt ends of Krag
rifles quickly forced a way through in
hospitable doors.
Spur to Greater Efforts.
While the storm has added to the
difficulties of the general committee,
and especially TO those having in
charge the care of the sick, the SAM
tetion of the city and the housing of
the homeless, it has been a spur TO
even greater efforts to bring order out
of the chaos prevailing. Regular shell
ter tents will be provided, as well as
cots standing off the ground 1t is
realized that these provisions are i'm
perative as much so as the providing
of food.
After several hours of clear weather
there was another precipitation at a.
m. and again at o'clock the fall was
resumed and continued at intervals
throughout the day
OF Individual instances of suffering
the number is legion, but one will tell
the story of them all.
PitlabIe Case of Suffering.
About O'Clock, when the rain had
been falling heavily for an hour, a
mfddIe-aged man, white faced in his
distress and fatigue, appeared at the
headquarters of the general committee.
He had walked two miles from his
camping place in the park to make an
appeal for his suffering wife and little
ones. AS he told Of their distress the
tears welled up in his eyes and coursed
down his cheeks. They were he said
without covering other than a sheet
ing overhead and were lying on the
naked ground. their bodies protected
only by a quilt and blanket which of
all his household bedding were all he
had managed to save. These had
quickly been soaked, and while I'M
willing to complain on his own ac-
count, he had been unable to listen to
the walls of his little ones. and had
tramped all the way from his camping
place to the committee headquarters
in the forlorn hope that there he might
find some means Of getting his family
under shelter
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