The Democrat-sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1906-1935, 1906-05-10
The Truth About San Fran
cisco.

PHYSICALLY AND MORALLY
San Francisco was built on mud.
Much of lower Market street was
on made ground-old cans, refuse
muck lifted from the harbor and
dumped over behind piles. The
City hall was in what was once
swamps and later sand lots. Fine
roadways had taken the place of
creeks or estuaries of the swamps
and tide flats. The quaking earth
rocked and toppled buildings erect
ed on sponge.
Not owning her own waterworks-
the city burned when the emerg-
ency came under which she must
depend upon the equipment and
structural conscientiousness of
corporation.
Leaving the theologians to quar-
rel over the proposition that this
catastrophe was u vengetul vista
tion Of divine wrath, it is fact
that nc modern city better deserved
the fate of Gomorrah than beauti-
full San Francisco.
She was notorious for her har-
boring and laxity toward the So
cial evil-white, black, yellow and
brown.
She had more murders per 1000
than any other city in the nation.
She was the only big city where
in man could safely kill another
in the prize ring, and there had
been four such killings.
She was the only city where lot
terry tickets were peddled from
house TO house, office to office.
She had one saloon for every $50
citizens, one church for every 2500.
She averaged one suicide a day.
She handled over 500 cases of
insanity the past IA months.
She harbored unspea kable Chin
ese and Japanese infamies that
would not be tolerated day in
China or Japan.
She WIS the haven for every
race horse gambler and prize ring
tough in the country.
Her conspicuous wick ednesses
were not only tolerated by the
authorities, but practically ignored
by the ministers.
When the seismic shock came,
the main terror was as to what the
vicious elements would do. The
city was afraid Of itself and all
fled who could. Men trembled less
for the houses and stores than for
their women and children, the
Legitimate prey of the vicious and
pestilence, until Funston began to
shoot and hang.
On the second day, when the
ground shook with more earth.
quake and the dynamiting of
buildings, while the flames threw
a curtain of blood red over every
thing, and volumes Of smoke
charged up and down the business
thoroughfares, the street railway
platforms of Market street were
covered with men dead drunk
scores of them, vomiting, cursing |
and howling, They knew the
wickedness Of the city and thought
God was striking it from above
and below.
Ihe great majority OF San Fran
cisco were as good people as could
be found anywhere else on earth
The public conscience was asleep
Good business men winked at one
1r another species of sin because
/ meant gain to them. The ad, l
ninisUration was for politics only
md had not yet learned that it is
good politics to rely on the good
iense, love of justice and decency
# the whole people.
The local press was Ell ther too
owardly or too neutral, or too
lireetly interested to stir for q
moral awakening. Vice ruled
Ghile the public conscience slept
'ut today those who can do right
y the city raise their empty,
eorehed hands and swear they
ill build anew, with no infamous
chinatown, no regions of profes
Ional and assorted vice, no foun
alton of mud, either physica, o.
loral. Citizen.