The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-05-13
os ANGELES. Cal, May 6.-In the
 terrible calamity which has befallen

terrible calamity which has befallen
 L San Francisco the preacher today finds lesson for the whole nation. The text is l Kings xix II. 12 An earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.
 Extra! Extra Extral" cried the news boy in the street. Like the fish-monger's call the voice echoed up and leaped through my study window. It did not cause even the tremor of the hand that held the moving pen. Why, l have hea,d that call of Extra! Extrar' so often that it was like the cry of ''Wolf! Wolff in the legend of old l did not even have in terest enough to say, Another railroad accident" or Another eruption of Mount Vesuvius," or Another threatened war between France and Germany over the African troubles" But suddenly my self complaceacy was reused to vehement ac- ton. A member of the family rushed into the room and said Have you heard the news? San Francisco is destroyed by an earthquake. The Palace hotel and the Call building and the great city hall are in complete ruins. All the great ho- tels are gone All the places of amuse- ment are in flames A thousand people are dead. The city has taken fire and the water mains are burst" God help themi God help themi" was my answer
 But very probably. like all first rumors there is cxaggeration in the report. San Francisco with it's spiendld buildings, could never have it's foundations ruined Let me find out gfrom headquarters So I stepped to the telephone and called up a friend at one of the prominent city newspaper offices and asked, Are reports as bad as the first telegrams' intimate?
 Much worse, much worse, he answered. The city Is in flames. and we fear it will be completely destroyed The city is said to have sunk. What the earthquake did not upheave we fear that the holocaust will oblterate. That is the last report re- i ceved. but the communication is broken now. The wires are all down."
 Oh. the horror of itl The city of Los Angeles lay stunned Two-thrds of all our population had friends or relatives or business interests in the city of San Fran cisco The bleeding, moaning, helpless cry of Americas metropolis of the Pacific was nowhere answered by a deeper sob of anguish than that which arose from the City of the Angels. We were one-one in family love- one in business interests. We seemed to he more than sisters. San Franciscos sufferings were Los Angeles
 suffernss. We are next door neghbors in the family of cities
 The Wait for News.
 Then the long wait. No news-wires down; communication stopped. An, Los Angeles knew then what must have been the feelings of the fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters when the tele- | h 4ln aa~ .1I
 over the northern and the southern states
 that the battle of Fredericksburg was | being fought. Oh, the anxious moments of waiting for the dead list! They say | 1t is hard to go to the front and die. l | do not think 1t is nearly so hard as to stay at home and live and think that your dear ones are soon to be numbered among the dead. They say that all of 15.000 men were killed at Fredericksburg.
 The rumors at first declared that 10000
 were dead in San Francisco. What will my telephone bell never stop ring ing?" My husband is in the Palace ho-
 tel" says one My mother and sisters are living there.' says another. Aye they
 could say it, but what could say? Moth
 ing. The wires were down. There seemed
 to be no hope. Then the telegraph in- 1 strument began to click. The streets
 about the different bulletin boards were | blocked. News. newsl Give us the | newsi" was the cry. But when the news began to come in instead of smile upon
 the lip, the blanched cheek became paler, | if that were possible.
 Point Richmond has tumbled into the sea-" was one notice. "The Cliff House has disappeared, was another notice. One hundred and thirty blocks of busi- ness houses annihilated" "The scavenger carts are carrying the dead through the streets blocked by falling walls, was still another report. "rhe ghouls robbing the dead are being shot by the soldiers" City is under martial law" Five miles of water front ablaze." People fighting each other in the streets like stampeding herds of cattle" O God. is there to be no end to this horror? Agony seems to be bling itself upon agony Then the old and feeble-what are they doing? Then the mothers with their new born babes by their side. Think of the hospitals being turned into charnel houses! But still the telegraph instrument ticks on. Every little movement of that instrument seems to be a sledge hammer beating against the suffering heart of nation.
 Cries for Help.
 Then, as the crowds grow thicker and denser, we find men fighting their way out. What is the matter with you?' we ask Let me out!" they cry. Let me out! l want to get the train and start noftn al once. must get into that doomed city and go to my dear ones'' Crowds are now blockading the railroad offices for passage; but, though a thou sand cars were to start it would not be a long enough train to accommodate those who wished to go to San Francisco to rescue their friends, Then the reports | came in awfully monotonous regularity: Flames spreading. Buildings being dynamited to stop onward progress of confagration. General Funston forbids any one to land in the city. Water fam inc threatened. All wholesale houses de- stroyed Hunger and famine staring the people in the face People dying in the streets from exhaustion and starvation. Napa Insane asylum destroyed. Stanford
 university buildings down. San Jose a | wreck" Then, as wailng cry, came the | telegrams from Oakland, from the mayor
 and the governors Help! Help! Give us
 help! San Francisco Is starving! Help! | Helpr
 Then the revolving wheels of the rail- road trains come rumbling into our de- | pots and the passengers alight. These are the first refugees from the city of death. Were the stories overdrawn?" we ask. | "No, no.'' they answer. "Tell us about your experience" We were asleep. Sud denly in the morning we were flung from the bed. The earth felt like a mouse that a rat terrier had grpped by the neck, l shaking the life out of 1t, and then
 dropped for dead. Then the streets were | filled with men and women and children | in their night robes Some were praying, 1 some shreking, some muttering like mad
 men. The walls began to totter and to | fall. Buildings which had not been over | thrown became blazing furnaces. At one 1 time the flames leaped out of every win