Omaha daily bee., 1906-05-14


fact. it is quite likely that the one which
scratched the most going down would be
called the best whisky.
1t isn't as II San Francisco had been a
prohibition town always. like certain be-
nighted places throughout our fair land.
1t all descended so suddenly. No one was
prepared No one had a chance to taper
on Soldiers with bayonets suddenly
stepped in and the poor man who had beer
accustomed to his dram in the morning
and his nip before lunch hadn't chance.
II vas like putting Jack Munro up against
Jim Jeffries, and everybody knows how
that affair ended.
man has to do something, so he might
as well write poetry. Put your ear to the
ground and get this one:
l haven't any money,
And my credit, too, Is gone;
didn't save the tickets
For the things I had to pawn.
1 didn't mind the earthquake,
Though it shook me out of bed.
And ] didn't cuss the fire,
Though II made me beg for bread,
But | called myself a Spartan.
And prepared to face the worst
TIL / found myself afflicted
With a cultivated thirst.
Then the awful con1a grafton
And the horror of the crash
Made an idol of the beer check
That 1 had and couldn't cash.
Affairs are getting to a point where 1t
isn't safe for a man to have anything in
his hip pocket that bulges out. All his
friends suspect that IL might be a bottle,
and they follow him for blocks. II they
can get him near a dark alley, it's all off
with him.
AS a matter of cold news, the saloons
are likely to remain closed for three
months or more
When the first shock came an old woman
residing in a three-story lodging house at
Seventh and Howard streets sprang from
her bed and rushed to the window. While
deciding what to do the building collapsed
with the second and most severe shock
The old woman was hurled through a win
dow of the top story. yet landed upon
her feet absolutely unframed.
In the very next house a young and
athletic man jumped from a second-story
balcony. sprained both ankles and was al
most burned to death before he could be
carried to a place of safety.
Another man in the same vicinity when
rescued from the debris of lodging house
which collapsed was speechless with fright
and today can only make himself UNDER
stood in a whisper.
During the rapid progress of the fire
a rig consisting of two bicycles dashed to-
gether beneath a rough platform of plank
upon which was a bundle of shawls and
comfortables. was pushed by two lads amid
the tumble of trunks and other para
phernslia for a day and a night. 1t at
tracted unusual attention, yet no one took
the trouble to inquire what 1t meant until
the rush to Oakland was over and the
boys sought a hospital.
Then for the first time it was learned
that the bundle on the wheels was the
aged mother of the youths, who had fall
len downstairs and dslocated lrer hip in
trying to escape after the earthquake. Be
ing unable to secure an ambulance or
medical attention before the premises in
which they lived caught fire. the lads
wrapped the old woman in comfoTtables
and blankets and, hastily making an i'm
provised ambulance with their wheels,
trundled their suffering, but uncomplain-
ing, mother over the hills to safety, block
by block, for more than twenty-four hours.
An elderly couple, who were just on the
eve of departure for the east, hastily
packed what few things remained out OF
their trunks when the fire was two blocks
away from their dwelling and the man
rushed outside to find some conveyance in
which to transport their goods TO a place
Of safety. The only vehicle in sight was
rickety buggy, pulled by an old broken
kneed and broken-winded horse.
He bought the rig outright for about
Ave times it's worth and drove back for his
wife and their goods. Some ten hours
later the old man dragged his weary limbs
and the buggy, i'm which crouched his wife,
almost dead with fatigue and fear, into
one of the camps at Golden Gate park
Their horse had fallen dead half a dozen
blocks from the starting point. and after
vainly struggling to drag the buggy over
the steep grades the old couple had dropped
first one trunk and then another in the
streets, until everything was sacrificed.
Then the old womans strength gave out
and as a last resort her husband lifted
her into the ramshackle vehicle and hauled
her the rest OF the way.
At the relief stations across the bay,
when the exodus 10 Oakland began in ear