The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1906-04-26
STORY OF THE DISASTER
TOLD IN PARAGRAPHS

,iSc0. 1t is hard to realize the frightful
Gate City until the full import of the
subjoined summary has been impressed
Upon the mind and brain by reading
and re-reading the awful record.
Thousands of residents fed from the
city.
An embargo was placed on all food
supplies.
The 100000 new postofice building
is a wreck.
Three hundred thousand persons were
made homeless.
No newspapers were published Thurs
lay or Friday.
Cavalry and infantry patrolled the
downtown streets.
Many dropped dead in the streets from
heat and suffocation.
The fame-swept area is nearly fifteen
square miles in extent.
The Moreland Academy at jacksonville
was wrecked and burned.
Firemen were suffocated in the street
by gas from broken mains.
The tunnel on the Santa Fe road, sew
eral miles out of town, caved in.
Scores of mansions are in ruins, blast
ed by dynamite and leveled by fire.
Fearing a tidal wave, steamship COM
panies held in port vessels due to sail.
Most of the docks and warehouses on
the water front were saved by fire tugs.
The Leland Stanford, Jr., University
at Palo Alto was almost completely de-
stroyed.
The Spreckels sugar factory, three miles
from Salinas, was destroyed with loss of
81, 0 600.
The governments estimate Of the loss
sustained in United States army and navy
stores is $3,5O0,OOO.
San Francisco's inanciers and mer-
chants, gathered at Oakland to plan re-
building of the city.
Details of troops guarded the water
front to prevent the frantic people from
destroying themselves.
Thousands of dollars in money and
gems were secretly buried in the earth
by the frenzied populace.
The gas works was blown up with dy-
Mantle to prevent leaks in the downtown
district which caused fires.
The smoke that arose from the business
district took the shape of a funnel and
could be seen far out at sea.
Scores of injured in the Mechanics Pa.
vilion, which was used as an extempors
hospital, were burned to death.
In the collapse Of the Kingsley hotel
a cheap hostelry on Seventh street, seven.
ty persons were crushed to death.
Lives by the score and property by the
tens of millions of dollars have been lost
through a dozen California cities.
The sheds over the Union Pacifc's
wharf on San Francisco bay collapsed
sending hundreds of tons of coal into the
sea.
Living victims Of the disaster were du.
out of the ruins of buildings collapsed b,
the earthquake, but which escaped the
fire.
Crowds of frantic citizens strove t.
beat their way into the banks. The troops
beat them off. No bank in the city wa.
open.
Nothing worthy of the name of a build
ing in the business district and not mor'
than half of the residence district es
capped.
The old adobe mission Dolores. bull
more than 100 years ago, and the nucleu|
of the old town of Yerba Buena, was de
stroyed.
The greatest death rate was in thu
poorer districts. The ruins of one cheal
hotel on Eddy street was found fllet
with bodies.
The fire that overwhelmed the city spar
ed only some of the homes of the rich
The poor lost everything save what the,
carried away.
The reports indicate that the propert,
loss outside of San Francisco will b.
enormous, running into the scores of mill
ions of dollars.
Skeleton walls that totter with eacl
breath of air threaten to crush the sol
diers guarding the ruins of banks AM
other property.
The pastor of st. Francis church, Oh
the slope of Telegraph Hill, gathered hi
flock about him on the sidewalk and hell
a prayer meeting.
Chinatown is a ruin. Hundreds of &c
~lestials were crushed to death when thei
rookeries fell. The flames finished tn
work of destruction.
While the center of the earthquake de
struction seems to have been in Sal
Francisco, reports from other cities SHOW
appalling loss of life.
For days there was no street car ser
vice in San Francisco, and every vehicl'
was pressed into service to haul ava.
the dead and the dying.
Dynamite, gun cotton and cannon wer'
used to blow up buildings, whole block
being destroyed at a time in efforts t
stop the spread of the fire.
The Cliff House, one of the finest pleas
ure resorts in the country, was shaker
from its place On a rocky cape and plung
ed out of sight into the sea.
The property loss at Salinas will reac1
$2,5 900; San Jose, $1,000,000; Napa
$3OO,000; Palo Alto, S2,225,000; Vallejo
$4,000; Agnews, 100000.
The famous G. Z. Huntington art col
lection, bequeathed to Metropolitan Mu
scum of Art of New York, has been de
stroyed in the Huntington mansion OF
Mob Hill.
The State Insurance Commissioner an
nounced that eighty fire insurance com
panies nave decided to pay dollar for dol
lar of their policies, not ~distinguishin:
fire from earthquake losses.
The Metropolitan Grand Opera com
pany, playing at the Grand theater, which
was burned, lost all its scenery. Thu
members Of the cast, including Caruso
Games and Fremstad, lost their costumes
The work Of the regular soldiers il
suppressing disorder, preventing footing
etc., is reported worthy of the creates
praise. Everywhere they showed thu
highest degree of courage.
Several innocent men were shot fol
vandals by soldiers. One nan was killed
for washing his hands in precious drink
ing water. A bank clerk, searching il
the ruins of his bank, met the same fate
The fire. which WAS believed undar con