Daily Kennebec journal., 1906-04-20
Efiday, April 20, 1906.
The San Francisco Horror.

greater the proportions of the stu
pendous Calamity which las over
wbelmed the city of San Francisco.
The whole story is not yet told, nor
will II be- for several days until the
,pins are thoroughly searched and
careful estimates made Of the property
,css The area over which damage
WAS done by the earthquake is much
gre ater than was indicated by the first
bulletins, and the surrounding section
and many other Californian cities sur
fered the loss of many lives and the
obstruction of millions of dollars worth
of property. No pen will ever be able
To do Justice to the frenzied panic anu
the mad terror which must have pre-
x,;Ied I'm the city during the hours fol-
lowing the shock. 1t is easy to oeiie'e
the dispatch which says that some
people dropped dead in the streetS
from sheer fright. for with the great
city a seeming holocaust with loi'S
structures. of stene crashing IN RUNS
with thest1eartns reeling and ROCKING
beneath, and with the screams OF the
crazed and m1imed resounding on eV~
cry sile, tte person who did not pos
sess a Strong heart might naturally
enough snccuInb.
Until the final figures OF the losses
and deaths are at hand. comparison
can hardly be made with other great
calamities> i'm recent years. but the dis
matches indicate that the fire loss will
be greater than any American city
ever before sustained. The three great
est fires in our history were In ORDER:
the Chicago fire in 1871. where the loss
was 500, 900; the Boston fire in
1872, with "a loss of $75,0OO0OO. and
the Baltin ore fire n 1904. where the
loss was s6o.O0O.OOO. Evidently the
loss in San. Francisco. unless the first
reports were greatly exaggerated will
be much larger than even Chicago sus-
tanned The loss OF life, of cturse, is
a terrible and saddenirg factor in the
calamity. but it is by no means as
large as WAS the loss of life at the
Jobnstown flood, in. 1889, when $500
PERSONS were drowned. or In the Cal
weston tidaI wave IN 1900 when 5000
lives were lost; or at st. Pierre in
1903 when>a a whole city of 10000 per-
SONS was wiped out in an hour. In
dc ed, fewer lives seem to have been
lost than at the Iroquois theatre fire
in Chicago i'm 1903, or the burning of
the excursion steamer General Slocum
I'm New York harbcr in the following
year. Indeed it seems remarkable
when we consider the great damaS"
done by the San Francisco earthquake
ttat many thousands of lives. instead
of seYeral hundreds. were not lost.
A great many thousands. however,
were made homeless and destitute. and
the aid which was so promptly and
sympathetic ally offered by Eastern
cities will he very necessary Fortu-
nateIy the season is mild and life in
promptly supply will not be a serious
hardship. Thousands of families. how
ever, not only lost their homes, but
also everything they possessed and q
great amount of relief work will be
necessary. There will be no lack of
money. however. for this purpose, for
the great he art of the American people
i; deeply stirred by the crushing mis-
fcrtOue of San Francisco and contri-
butiorts will be prompt and abundant.
The. San Francisco earthquake is the
fifth really important seismic disturb
ence which North America has suffered
since it's occupation by white people.
The first of these was i series of
earthquakes in 1911 and 1872 in the
Mississippi valley. 1t was very Sc
Nere SHOCK. rather 4 series of
sl:Ccks. though as TIE region was only
sparseIy settled the resulting loss of
life and pr, pcrty was small Such an
earthquake in that section today would
be one of the greatest calamities which
ever befell the human race. The next
severe earthquake 70 visit the United
States was that of October. 1853, and
San Francisco was the chief sufferer.
Many buildings were shaken down and
several persons were killed.
In 1872. there was another series of
earthquakes. southeastern California
Nevada and Arizona being the chief
sufferers. Biologists regarded this as
the greatest earthquake of modern
times on this continent. and grea,
mountains slipped into new positions
as result of it. It's chief effects. how
ever. were i'm a relatively uninhabited
region. The fourth great earthquake
in this country was that of August 81
1886. which destroyed one-third of the
city of Charleston. S. c., killing a