The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-23

OAKLAND, Cal. April 22.-The sanitary
conditions are such that unless the greatest
precautions are enforced an epidemic may
follow. In the temporary camps for the
refugees all sorts and conditions OF folks
are damned together in the narrowest
limits, with not the thickness OF a tent wall
separating them from their fellows in many
instances.
The authorities have found that there
are many cases Of measles prevailing and
a few cases Of smallpox and scarlet fever
have also been discovered. There is great
fear Of smallpox but there seems to be GOOD
rea son To believe that it will not become
epidemic.
The open manholes Of the sew ers are
made to do sanitary work. In TWO cases
agents of the water company have tound
that the EARRING Of the earthquake had
permitted sewer water to seep into the
water mains, and the supply for drinking
purposes was being contaminated Inc
defect was remedied, but how many people
had unknowingly risked the danger OF
disease before the break was discovered Is
a matter for conjecture.
Probably worst of all the menaces that
now hang over the health of the homeless
people Ia the unburied dead. Along what
was once Mission and Howard streets, where
the collapse Of cheap lodging houses fol-
lowing the Jar Of the earthquake Wednes-
day morning buried hundreds of sleepere,
and In the red light district of Turk and
Eddy streets, where drunken jewellers re-
turned to sleep, the stencil proclalms a
warning. Yet nothing can be done toward
any systematic clearing away OF the ruins
and interment of the dead until a force OF
laborers can nave full swing.
CHINESE REMOVING BODIES.
Under the direction of the military. gangs
Of Chinese and Japanese refugees have
been impressed into the task of removing
bodies from the edges of the ruins and slip
ping them into shallow graves. The press
Of time does not permit Of any elaborate
burial arrangements being made.
Merely a three or four foot trench is dug,
and into this are tumbled the bodies as fast
az they can be recovered. Yesterday the
following interments were made in the
public squares: Portsmouth, ~; Lafayette,
81; Jefferson, AZ; Fort Mason, 60: Union, 81.
Yet there are many hundreds of bodies
that still lie under tons Of brick and mortar.
WHICH CdIlIlO INC OdNlFcu " Va y o w NS''>
The bread lines stretch to pitiful lengths
from every bread shop doc in the relief
districts of the city. For blocks the ranks
OF old men, wan mothers and half dressed
children move step by step to the door OF
the ba kerry through the fog of morning to
obtain the days ration Of one five cent loaf.
Milk is a drink for the gods. Meat is a
luxury that few can indulge. Dry break
fast food, moistened with a cupful of water.
is all the provender that passes the lips OF
many a hungry, homeless one. Yesterday
morning a warehouse of the Western Meat
Company was opened by firemen and 5000
pounds Of pa rtly roasted meat was dug from
the ruins and distributed to the hungry
out in Golden Gate Park.
Throughout all the ruined district imminent
danger threatens from every topping wall
and cornice that still hangs out over the
streets. Yet the restless pedestrians who
wander unafraid through the ruins seem
to be fear proof. An uninterrupted strea m
of wagons and people on foot passes up and
down Market street past walls that would
be condemned as unsafe if the police depart
ment had nothing else to do.
SOLDIERS IN @
Alarge section of the interior of the Phelan
building. near the Fourth street end, fell
with a crash about 8 O'Clock yesterday after
noon, Passing at the time we're several
companies Of soldiers bound toward tho
ferry and there was also two streams of Wagon
and passengers bound in each direction.
These we're temporarily obscured by the
great cloud Of dust that arose, but when the
atmosphere cleared all were found unhurt.
The ruins had fallen straight down inside
the building, and the,outer wall still remained
standing. For a while all passersby gave
the shaky building a wide berth, but soon
the makeup Of the crowd shifted and the
newcomers drifted back to the same old
pathway.
Some lit lie excitement occurred on Market
street and City Park avenue in the middle
of the afternoon. A couple Of Italians
got too close to the ruins Of the City Hal
and we're called upon to halt. They were
apparently ignorant of the English language.
however, and, not understanding the
command, became frigh tened and started
to run. The soldier fired n shot over their
heads and they decided it would be best
to stop, anyway. When they were headed
back they heat a hasty retrea down Eighth
street.
Martial law, rouBh ana HnpoIlte, stepped
IN yesterday to bring a little order outof the
bewildering chaos. On Market street. from
Third to Ninth where the obstruction of
the highway was most severe, determined
deputy marshals stood at various places
with pistols in hand, and every group of
able bodied pedestrians that came or went
was forced at the point Of the gun to pause
and put in ten minutes work at pitching
bricks out OF the roadway.
The pistol point was memorable. Presi-
dents Of banks sweated under their i'm
p~ressive silk tiles side by side with team
sters from the Mission for the enforced ten
minutes, and then moved away to look
gleefully back at the relay gang that was
forced to take their places.
Last night as the setting sun glowed red
through the smoke a reporter passing down
the desert about lower Van Ness avenue
encountered an old man who wore the
clerical cloth and whose beard swept his
breast like the beard of a prophet. He
raised his arms above his head and cried:
-Desolation! Desolation!"
Then he swung into the sonorous psalm
OF David, Il will lift up mine eyes to the