The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-04-25

"Mr. Ballas of New York, who was
with me, was sleeping on, the eleventh
floor when the shock came. Tho he is
a man of co., he. got out of the st.
Francis without injury and together
we wandered about looking at the
wrecked city.
= The Dead and Injured.
r tsWe saw dead and injured being
taken from a five-story frame struc-
ture on the further side Of the square,
WHICH had been crushed by the falling
walls of brick buildings on either side
of it. We visited the city hall. The
dome was gone, all but it's steel frame,
and one of it's three wings was leveled
to the ground.
NThe shock came about 5 :13; that Is
the time most of the clocks stopped; I
looked at my watch as soon as the first
shock was over and noted the time as
Is or 16 minutes after 5.
"We wandered about for four hours.
We entered the Palace hotel, where they
were serving coffee, tho the flames al
ready threatened them. At 9 o'clock we
returned to the St. Francis, where I
finished dressing and packed my suit
case. Then we went to the University
club, where we had friends. They asked
us to join them. They had wagon
ready to leave the city.
Slept in Park.
HLate In the day we made our way to
Golden Gate park. 7 slept there off and
on, that is, fifteen minutes on one side,
fifteen on the other, and half-hour
walk to get rested enough to go to bed
again. park s s is poor place etc to
sleep ~ ndsrs from the acfg CITY city
| ders half as big as your hand fell at the
sBurlingame club, fifteen miles out Of
town.
| ."Thursday morning we tried to make
our way to the ferry, but the livery man
! told us that he had, sent out men to try
three different routess and found them
all blocked by fire. The same cond1:
ton prevailed the day before A solid
wall Of fire, apparehtiys mile, long
cut us off from the ferry. r..-
Escaped Overland.
"When we learned Of this state o.
1 affairs we decided to make Our way
out overland. The first stage Of oul
Journey took us to the Burlingame club
Our journey took us past many ruined
villages.
"Friday morning we hired an auto
mobile and were planning to go back
to the city and see some Of the mel
with whom we were doing business. JUS
Scott, president Of the telephone com
pany, and told him where we were go
ing; .nu +,or
with that auto he said, mot If yo7
want to keep it. My son had two car
taken away from him at the point Of
gun yesterday and impressed into tn
public service, carrying supplies an
wounded You will be impressed your
selves and set to work. Don't go.
And we, didn't.
s'We turned to San Jose instead. O.
the way we passed thru Redwood, wher
we knew the sheriff They had arme
guards posted to keep refugees out o
the town, and while we were jollyin
the sheriff we saw deputy escorting
well dressed man outside the city lin
its. They were arguing every step Q
the way and to us it looked Humorous
r Many Funny Incidents. ...
"There were many funny incident
, despite the serious nature Of the disa
j. ter, We passed at least one hundre
:. men who were hauling their trunk
along the sidewalks on casters. The
i. were so thick that other people had t
i take to the street. Everything from
wheelbarrow to hayrack, from bah
carriage to an automobile, was presse
| into service. We saw one man an
:. woman, walking on either side Of
]. bicycle, which was loaded fully ten fe'
t high with stuff. More vehicles WEI
v drawn by men than by horses.
"The train took us from San Jo'
. to Oakland, which means that we ira
9 eled two days and about one hundre
and fifty miles to get to the other sit