The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-19

'hIee uhnuUebJ Wnen Jner0 seemed no nelp
in earth or heaven. There was a roar in
the air like a great burst Of thunder and
from all abou came the crash Of falling
walls. 1t died down at last, leaving the
earth quaking and quivering like jelly.
Men would run forward, stop as another
shock, which might be greater any moment
seemed to take the earth from under their
feet, and throw themselves face downward
on the ground in an agony Of fear.
SCREAMS AMI SHOUTS OF II PEoPLE.
1t seemed to be two or three minutes
after the great shock was owe before people
found their voices. There followed the
screaming Of women, beside themselves
with terror, and the cries Of men. With one
impulse people made for the parks, as
far as possible from the falling walls. These
speedily became packed with people in
their nightclothes, who screamed and
moaned at the little shocks which followed
every few minutes. The dawn was just
breaking. The gas and electric mains
were gone and the street lamps were all
out, But before the dawn was white there
cam a light from the east-the burning
warehouse district. The drawer men, and
those without families to watch over, struck
out, half dressed as they were. In the
early morning light they could see the
business district below them, all ruins
and burning in five or six places. Through
the streets from every direction came the
fire engines, called from all the outlying
districts by the general alarm rung in by
the assistants of the dead chief.
PANIC IN PoRrsMoUT SQUARE.
On Portsmouth square the panic was
beyond description. This, the old Plaza
about which the early city was built, is
bordered now by Chinatown, by the Italian
district, and by the "Barbary Coast" a
lower Tenderloin. A spur OF the quake
ran up the hill upon which Chinatown is
situated and shook down part of the crazy
little buildings on the southern edge. 1t
tore down, too, some Of the Italian tone
ments. The rush to Portsmouth square
went on almost unchecked by the police,
who had more business elsewhere.
N SEAT THEIR LONGS
The Chinese came out Of their under
ground burrows like rats and tumbled into
the square, beating such gongs and playing
such noise instruments as they had snatched
up. They were met on the other side by
the refugees of the Italian quarter. The
panic became a madness. At least two
Cinnamon were taken to the morgue dead
of knife wounds, given for no other reason,
it seems, than the madness OF panic. There
are 10 900 Chinese in the quarter and there
are thousands Of Italians, Spaniards and
Mexioans on the other side. It seemed as
though every one of the Sc. with the riff
raff Of "Barbary Coast made for that one
block of open land. The two uncontrolled
streams met in the centre Of the square
and piled up on the edges, There they
fought all the morning, until the Regulars
restored order with their bayonets.
TAKING AVA BANK sEcURITIEs.
AS the dawn broke and the lower city
began to be overhung with the smoke of
burning buildings there came a back eddy.
Cabmen, drivers of express wagons and
trucks. hired at enormous prices, began
carting away from the lower city the
valuables of the hotels which saw their doom
In the fires which were breaking out. Even
the banks began to take out their bullion
and securities and, under guard of half
dressed clerks, to send them to the hills,
whence came to-day the salvation of San
Francisco. One old nighthawk cab, driven
by a cabman white with terror, carried
more than a million dollars in currency
and securities. Men, pulling corpses or
injured people from fallen buildings stopped
to curse these professions as they passed.
Time and again a line Of wagons and cabs
would run against an impossible barrier
Of debris where some building had fallen
into the street and would pile up until
the guards cleared a way through the
streets.
yANDAIs GET TO WORK.
Then the vandals formed and vent
TO work. Routed out from the dens along
the wharves, the rats Of the San Francisco
waterfront, the drifters who have reached
the back eddy of European civilization,
crawled out and began to plumber. Early
in the day a policeman caught one OF these
men creeping through the window of q
small bank on Montgomery street and shot
him dead. Rut the police were keeping
fire lines, beating back overzealous rescuers
from the fallen houses and the burning
blocks, and for a time these men plundered
at will.
News Of the plundering was carried early
to Mayor Schmitz. It was this as much as
anything which determined him, when Gen.
Funston came over on the double quick
with the whole garrison of the Presidio, to
put the city under martial law. Orders
were issued to the troops to shoot any one
caught in the act OF looting; and the same
orders were issued to the First Regiment,
National Guard OF California. when they