The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1906-04-26

San Francisco, April ga smould-
ering heap Of ashes is all that remains
OF San Francisco. The great fire has
practically burned itself out.
With little more to feed on, the de-
vouring element, the twin sister to
earthquake, has finally succumbed to
the unrelenting efforts of the army Of
Californians and daybreak yesterday
gave the stricken people of this wreck
of city the first chance they have
had to survey the scene since the first
tumblings early on Wednesday morn
ing gave warning of the approach OF
the direst calamity in the history Of
| the republic.
City Laid Waste.
What the beholder sees is pros
porous city laid waste by fire and
earthquake, the entire business Sec
ton of the city destroyed, the residen-
tial section for the most part in ruins,
the locality throughout the broad acres
of the Golden Gate obliterated and
| 100000 of it's inhabitants huddled to-
gether on the hills outside the city,
homeless, penniless, sleeping under
the skies, abjectly dependent for the
nonce upon the assistance of sympa-
thizing sister cities which is being
rushed from all points Of the COM
pass.
San Francisco But Memory.
San Francisco is but memory. 1t
is hopeless to attempt to describe the
conditions which exist here where but
a few hours ago thriving city nestled
on the shores of the Pacific.
Every bank, every hotel, every busi-
ness house, all the theaters, the NUM-
cipal government buildings, the school
houses, churches, libraries, art
temples, newspaper Offices, railway
depots and shipping piers have been
wiped out of existence as though a
scourge had passed over the land.
Rich and poor have suffered alike.
Fortunes Wiped Out.
| Fortunes have been wiped out.
The palaces of the rich, together
with the novels of the poor, have alike
succumbed, and to-day San Francisco
may be likened to broad stretch OF
land offering a fair site for city
which the early settlers in the days OF
the forty-niners beheld when the first
rude hut was thrown up on the site OF
the metropolis of the Pacific coast.
Back to that point must the people
of San Francisco return, and such Is
the spirit of the people here that, with
the smoke still lifting lazily from the
| ruins, as though the demon was
Utterly Worn Out
from his labors with the bent and
twisted girders-attesting to the fury
of his passion-and the gaunt frag-
ments of walls rising up as fearful
monuments to a dead and gone COM
munity, they are already astir in the
work of rearing a new city on the
ashes of the old.
The promise OF a new and more
glorious San Francisco is held out on
every side as an incentive to the
stricken thousands to put their Shout
ders to the wheel.
Scenes of Great Activity.
Had it not been for the sight of the
rude affairs set up in the open air
wherever San Franchises homeless
thousands were camped, one would
have had some difficulty in finding
any of the peaceful associations of the
Sabbath in this city yesterday. Every
where throughout the burned as well
as the remaining section of the city
there was the greatest activity.
Streets were being cleared of debris,
laborers were repairing broken water
pipes, sewers and gas mains; electric
ians everywhere were seeking to I'M
tangle the almost hopeless confusion
of wires; in fact, San Francisco was
in the first stages of its regeneration.
Gaunt specter Banished.
There were no hungry people last
night! the gaunt specter of starvation
has been banished by the magnificent
response of the people of California In
particular, and by the entire nation in
general, to the appeals that went out
for assistance. Food by the car load
and boat load poured into Oakland
Saturday night and yesterday in suffi-
cient quantities to overwhelm the
committee which has in charge its dis.
| tribntinn SO oyoat was the volume al