Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-05-05
FRISCO SIDE LIGHTS
Peculiar Contrasts In the Ruin
 Swept City.
A PAUPER DEcKED IN DIAMONDS

The Eternal Feminine Uppermost
 Amid Misery - Dynamite and New
 Quakes Had No Terrors - Childish
 Glee of Little Family over Pro-
 visions-Blowing Up Palace.
 We are so accustomed to dismay and disaster that nothing surprises us any more, says special correspondent of the New York Times writing from Oak land, Cal, under the date of April 23. Even the earthquake shocks we have learned to take with sort of equanim- ity. A shock which few days ago would have sent the whole community scurrying in wild terror to the streets is now taken with toierable degree of composure. For we have had small CT shocks at varying intervals ever since the big one of Wednesday morn.
 There was very little sleep for any of us, for how could we sleep with the rain pouring down in wild sheets and floods of water? We ourselves are sheltered, but we think of the people near us, lying on the rain soaked ground, with the storm beating merci- lessly down upon them. We think of the delicate women and children hud- dled in tents at the Presidio. no floor to the tents, with mattresses spread on the wet ground. The great ocean beach is strewn with tents, and the poor people in them are passing the night with the pitiless beating of the storm overhead. and the great roar of the ocean, as 1t surges high upon the beach. Those of us with homes spend hours of the night thinking of our friends who are homeless.
 The morning hours are full of activ- ity. Soldiers from all over the coast are arriving, and their coming brings sense of safety. Immense wagons are going by full of provisions for the various encampments. Some one says cheerfully: Enough to last us for three days.' We brighten up. Three days, according to our present time measurement, Is an endless period. San Francisco and Oakland are living only from day to day.
 Another great hegira from the ruined city Is setting In. The people who fled to the Presidlo and to the ocean shore are no longer afraid to come through the city. and with their belongings they are taking refuge with us. still further swelling the tide of refugees. We make our way through Oakland to the dock, where the creek boat will bring the people across. And surely never in the history of the world has such a strange sight been seen, such unique and pathetic cavalcade.
 All sorts of vehicles have been i'm pressed into service. Market street yesterday was only pathway over debris. ashes and wreckage generally. At the point of the bayonet men were made to work. hundred of them ht time. and by this morning there was a rough roadway. It was not safe roadway for minute of the time. for the tottering walls of the big buildings threatened destruction at any moment. But the big crowd that had lived through the earthquake. that had pass ed through the fire, took yet one more chance in reaching place of safety across the bay in Oakland. It was a motley crowd that passed of the boat into what seemed to them new world and new<uture. ...-
 A woman drives from the boat goat harnessed to little goat wagon, in which are all her worldly possess sions. Close beside her walks wom- an whom we saw at the opera. She wears an her diamonds, having noth- ing to carry them in, and they look like a mockery, with her set face and star ing eyes. She hasn't had a drink of water for hours, and she Is faint from exhaustion. Her jewels seem to mock her in her misery.
 Many of the men are pulling wagons and little runabouts. In one sits a wo- man with a month old baby, and be- side her is a little girl with her doll. The husband and father has drawn them many miles from the Preside.
 .T will look up to the hills from which cometh my strength" the wom- an keeps whispering over and over.
 A man comes along carrying a par rot, and he begs piteously for water for the parrot. For answer q soldier wrings the birds neck. we have women and children to care for" he says.
 A beautiful victoria with a crest on the door comes into view. It Is drawn by a woman and a man. and in 1t sits a woman evidently in the last stages of exhaustion. They have come many miles by the sea wall. over a long and tiresome way. As the fire drew near them a coachman in a neighboring house said: Take this carriage if 1t will be of any use to you. If you don't | take it. 1t will burn up.' Y
 They filled the victoria with provi- sions-we saw eggs and milk in it- and started ahead of the fire. Their adventures would all a book One of the women tainted by the wsyside. so the other two pulled her along. and up | by the lake they are living now in the | victoria. This Is only a typical scene the whole caravan Is full of such sto- ries.
 The women tell us how frfghtful the nights have been to them Candles were only allowed to burn until 10 o'cIock. and the refugees must pass the rest of the night in utter darkness. The voms beg first of all for water with which to wash their hands and