The San Francisco call., 1906-06-24

By taking the Fillmore-street car
out over the hills to Greenwich street.
and walking east along Greenwich
street to Larkin. one arrives at the
edge of the burned district at a point
where the fire swept up Russian Hill.
The trip is worth taking for nobody
can visit that part of the city without
marveling that the block bounded by
Greenwich. Lombard. Polk and Larkin
streets escaped the flames. The fire
swept all around it; on the other side
of Larkin street the roof was burned
off the Spring Valley Company's reser-
voir; across Greenwich street is a waste
of ashes. The standing buildings on
the block. apparently favored by provi-
dence. are blistered and scorched, and
not a few of them had more or less of
their roofs burned away. But not a
building burned; every house in the
block. save for the comparatively in
consequential scorching. escaped unin-
jured. But this is not a case of the in
tervention OF providence. The block
bounded by Greenwich. Lombard. Polk
and Larkin streets escaped the flames
because it is block peopled by house
owners.
Now, these houses are not of the
palatial class that grace the hills of
in the direction of Van Ness avenue
Many of the houses are poor little
houses enough, but they are more than
houses. They are homes. Not homes
by the grace of the rent collector. but
the property of the families which they
shelter.
In the block live twelve families.
Eight own the houses they live in.
Four of them are renters. But two of
these rent from residents of the block
The only building owned by a non
resident is store building. which is
occupied by a grocer. who himself
owns two houses In the block and
rents the rooms over the store. His
stock of goods in the building of the
non resident gives him as great an
interest in the building as has its
owner. So the people of this block
passed by the fire practically own the
whole of 1T.
"wednesday these home-owners
watched the flames sweep the down
town district of the doomed city with
out a thought of danger to themselves.
BY Thursday noon the fire had crept
toward them until the great smoke
hung threateningly over their homes.
In the afternoon of Thursday much
excited man in civilian dress. but with
some show of authority, visited them,
and ordered them to leave on the
ground that the buildings in the neigh
boring block were TO be dynamited.
Leave their homes at such a time. Not
il the people bounded by Greenwich,
knew themselves They remained up
all Thursday night watching lest the
fire reach their property. Friday morn
ing the. soldiers came and drove them
out
But the one thought of the evicted
people, as they retreated before the
bayonets. was to get back to their
threatened homes. Their homes repre-
sented the savings of a lifetime. and
associations Infinitely more dear II
ever there was reason for them to
stick by the block. they reasoned. that
was the time. They. watched their op-
portunity. and when the fre had driv-
en- the soldiers out. one by one. the
house-owners lodged through the
binding smoke back to their fire-en-
circied houses. Soon practically all the
property owners of the block had as
sembled at the grocery at the corner
of Greenwich and Larkin streets
The tar-covered roof over the reser-
voir across Larlxin street was burning,
and from 1t a great cloud of binding
black smoke was sweeping over their
property. The block across Greenwich
street was in flames. Their own roofs