The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1906-05-04
HOW THE RAIN FELL
UPON SAN FRANCISCO


dronChing rain fen upon san Francisco
last night From midnight until three
o'clock it poured and drzzled at in
tervals, while a high wind added a.
melancholy accompaniment. whistling
and signing about the buildings i'm the
burned district. Five days ago, when
the fire catastrophe was i'm its infancy.
this down pour would have been re-
garded as a God-send. This morning,
it could be looked upon i'm no other
light than as an additional calamity. 1T
meant ndeScribable suffering to the
tens of thousands of people camped up
on the naked hills, and i'm the parks
and open places of the city.
Few of these were provided with
waterproof covering. For the most
part, their only protection from the wet
was thin covering of sheeting tackled
upon improvised poles Through this
the water poured as through a sieve
wotting the bedding and soaking the
ground upon which the refugees lay.
When it is understood that thousands
upon thousands of delicately nurtured
women, and infants i'm arms and old
and feeble people were i'm this plight,
nothing need be added to describe the
misery of their condition. The down
pour has aggravated the already in
sanitary conditions of the camps, and
will doubtless add great number of
pneumonia cases to those already
crowding the regular and temporary
hospitals of the city.
What could be done was done by
the guards in charge of the camps to
relieve distress. Wherever covering
could be had for women and children,
it was taken advantage of. They were
housed i'm the chill and cherries church
es, garages and barns, and those who
had been fortunate enough to save their
homes were called upon to take care
of these unfortunates. With few eX-
ceptions, these people responded readily
to the new call made upon them, and
where they did not the butt ends of
Krag rifles quickly forced way
through their inhospitable doors.
While the storm has added to the
difficulties of the general committee,
and especially of those having i'm charge
the care of the sick, the sanitation of
the city and the housing of the home
efforts to bring order out of the chaos
prevailing. Regular shelter tents will
be provided. as we'll as cots standing
off the ground. 1t is realized that these
provisions are imperative, as much so
as the provision of food.
Alter several hours of clear weather,
there was another precipitation at b
a. m. and at 9 o'clock the fall was re-
sumed and continued at intervals
| throughout the day.
OF individual cases of suffering, the
number is legion, but one will tell the
story of them all. About A o'clock when
the rain had been falling heavily for
an hour. a middle-aged man, white
faced i'm his distress and fatigue, APP
peared at the headquarters of the gen.
| eral committee. He had walked two
miles from his camping place in the
park to make an appeal for his suffer-
| ing wife and little ones. AS he told
of their distress the tears welled up III
| his ewes and coursed down his cheeks.
They were, he said, without covering
other than a sheeting overhead, any
were living on the naked ground their
bodies protected only by quilt and
blanket. which was all that he had
managed to save of his household bed
ding. These had quickly been soaked,
and while unwilling to complain on
l his wn account he had been unable
to listen to the walls of his little ones
and had tramped all the way from his
canning place to the committee head
quarters i'm the fOrlorn hope of there
finding some means to get his family
under shelter.
San Francisco has a Vigilance Com
mittee, the first organization of the
kind since the early ffties. DR., Donate
McCulloch Gedge is the chief of it. lie
fought with the French army, with th'
United States army and i'm the emma
war. and was at one time resident OF
Honolulu. His chief Of staff is eX'
Auditor Harry Baehr. The headquar
ters of the committee is at 1924 Steiner
street one hundred and thirty per
sons have Joined the organization, APP
plicants for membership are coming II
rapidly. The committee has cnarg'
of the Golden Gate Valley district neal
the Preside.
The military authorities of Nortl
Beach are separating the Asiatics IRON
the Concessions and putting them n
camps of their own nationalities. Many
large manufacturing companies have
arranged to receive and care for re
fugees at their respective plants alonl
the eastern shores OF the bay Two
thousand seven hundred and fifty per
sons can be accommodated.
Arrangements are now being mad,
to provide for the gubernatorial cleo
ton which must be held in the cit!
next fan, and the meetings of the con
ventons to nominate candidates.
The San Francisco real estate boarc
met ma local synagogue yesterday ant
took measures for the protection o
tenants who have suffered through tn
fire. Steps were also taken to secure
a remission of the penalty imposed