The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1906-05-03
BY S. S. OLYMPIA.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 19.-With
each succeeding hour the devastation
and destruction in this stricken and
PROSTATE ruin of city, grows and
grows At 6 o'clock tonight it seemed
as If nothing could save the compare
lively small portion of the city that
yet remains unburned.
The entire business and wholesale
district is now only a glowing furnace
while the giant tongues Of fire have
reached westward far beyond Van Ness
avenue and are wiping out buildings
and seeking more to devour.
At O'Clock Mayor Schmidt and Chief
Oman saw that the only hope of saving
the Western addition with ) g forest of
frame dwellings, and the Richmond
district with its thousands of homes,
was to check the cruel march of the
wall of fire at Van Ness avenue, which
crosses the city from north to south,
where the retail store and fine apart
ment house district ends, and where
the residences begin. This avenue is
ninety feet wide and the possibilities
of checking were hopeful to those who
We're seeking ways and means in the
hour of awful horror.
Orders were given to concentrate ev-
cry fire engine in the city at this ave
nue., to marshal troops of soldiers
there, the police and all the army of
workers and make one last determined
stand to save the remainder of the
city.
CANNON CAUSE HAVOC
The cooperation of the artillery was
secured and huge cannon were drawn
to the avenue by the madly dashing
horses to aid the dynamiters in blow
ing up the mansions of the milliopaires
on the west side of Van Ness in order
to prevent the flames from lqaping
across the highway and starting on
their unrestrained sweep across the
Western addition.
Every available pound of dynamite
was hauled to the spot and the might
was one of stupendous and appalling
havoc as the cannon were trained on
the palaces and the shot tore into the
walls and toppled the buildings in
crashing ruin.
At other points the dynamite was
used and house after house-dwellings
worth mIliions-were lifted into the
aid Ly the power of the blowing, blast
and dropped to the earth a mass OF
dust and debris
The work was necessarily dangerous
and many of the exhausted workers,
kept going and working through a
stretch of forty-eight hours, without
sleep and scarcely any food, through
force of instructive heroism alone, may
have been killed while making this last
desperate stand. Many of the work
ers IL placing the blasts took chances
that spelled injury or death
All efforts to check the spread of the
flames proved fruitless. The fire here
at o'clock extends a mile along the
east side of Van Ness avenue, from
Pacific street to Ellis. AN behind this
excep; ng the Russian hill region and
small district along the north beach
has been swept clean by the flames
and great shafts and spires have beer
dropped into the molten mass of debris
like so much melted wax.
The steady booming of the artillery
and the roar of the dynamite above
the howl and cracking of the flames
continues with monotonous and dazing
regularity. Such noises have been bonn
harding the ears of the panic stricken
populace since the earthquake Of forty
eight hours ago. These have ceased t
heed sound and rush pell nell, drown
ing their senses in a bedlam of theii
own creation.
Sufferers are invading what few
buildings remain in the hope of finding
something to eat. They only desis
when warned or shot by soldiers.
At the ferry building a crowd of
thousand people gathered, begging TO
food and transportation across thu
bay. Hundreds had not even the i
cents fare to Oakland. Most of the re
fugees at this point were ChinameI
and Italians, who fled from thei
burned tenements with little or no per
sonal property
Tonight the suffering to many from
hunger is extreme. On the water from
what bread is to be had is sold for
dollar loaf, and in some instances a
a much higher price. At o'clock
mob of a hundred or more mobbed I
bread wagon and took the contents
The police made an attempt to inter
fere but were powerless. Bread is be
ginning to arrive from Berkeley ant