Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-05-18
GIVES WORD PICTURE
Benz. Montgomery Describes
Frisco Disaster.
SENSATIONS DURING SHOCK
Inky-Black Smoke Arose, Genii-Lke,
From the Gas Tanks.
GREAT sOLICITOUS FAMILY
Multiplicity of Wrecks-Human Side
Of the Catastrophe-Heat Per
sonal Menace.
SENSATIONS DURING SHOCK
GREAT soLICITOUS FAMILY

One of the most graphic word pictures
oS tho conditions in San Francisco during
and after the recent shock has just reached
this city from Mr. Benjamin Montgomery,
son of old Ben" Montgomery. long chief
telegraph operator at the White house
The story of the fearful conditions In the
doomed city is regarded as one of the most
vivid that has been written.
Mr.. Montgomery's descriptions OF the
personal sensations during the shock are
interesting, but do not differ much, except
in wording. from many of the stories that
have already been told. He says that oe
ing awakened and rushing down the corr
ridor to his wife's room was like going from
stateroom to stateroom on an ocean steam
er in motion, being pitched to and fro every
instant The walls OF the front room, he
says, fell. leaving only a sheathing Of wood
on that side between the interior of the
house and the street. The water tank In
the bathroom was an index Of the intensity
of the shock, every drop of water being
thrown out of it. while from mantle and
piano every ornament was thrown to the
floor. Continuing, Mr.. Montgomery says:
Smoke Arose Genii Like.
when reached my wife and brought her
and the baby out we stood trembling. look
Ing. like children gazing on an imitation
ghost, out upon that portion of the city
visible from our house. The surface of
the nearby bay was like a sheet of glass
Toward the eastward and about four blocks
away slowly. genii like. rose the inky black
smoke of the exploded gas tanks. l hur-
riedly shut off all gas, which l later dis
covered to be a needless precaution, there
being no possibility of gas in my home for
many months to come.
Leaving my wife In the care of the nurse
and the people next door. all of whom In
stantly became one great SOlIcttouS family,
/ made my way rapidly as the dfsman-
tied houses and sunken streets would allow
to the downtown district to locate my wife's
family and see If they were alive and un-
injured.
''The multiplicity of wrecks and the de-
tailed description of same Is q task for
other hands. Only those that were more
appealing to me personally have l time to
touch upon.
ION one corner was an octagonal stone
house. Two sides of 1t were thrown out.
From the street II looked much like the
plans OF furnished homes which appear in
the great furniture windows of the eastern
cities. At Van Ness avenue the tremendous
and inconceivable power of the force that
caused the earthquake will perhaps never
be forgotten by those who saw 1t in the
first hours of daylight on the tragic morn
ing. For six blocks downward toward the
Bay of San Francisco this street, with its
majestic sweep of asphalt, wider than the
widest boulevardes Of Europe and lined
with residences that are incomparably ele-
CANT in their structure, has gentle slope
downward. l counted eight or ten percep-
tible disintegratfons of the surface of the
earth in this area having a vertical eleva-
ton of from six to ten feet. In other
words the cracks ran at right angles to
the direction of the street. and one block
had slid down and overlapped the block
next below it. In doing so 1t had ploughed
up the earth and the superimposed asphalt
was twisted back like structural iron in
IN rnll feat mid Ia L., ,,fa
Wells of Gushing Water.
Added TO this was the exceedingly dis
concerning appearance of great wells of
gushing water, where the twelve and
twenty-four and thirty-six inch mains had
parted and the stln more dangerous gas
from the Illuminating feed pipes. At one
point a magnificent stone church hay like
child's tuubled building blocks hurtled
across the wide thoroughfare. At another
point the top store of an eight-story stone
and steel apartment house had fallen into
the adjacent sidewalk. At still another
point q wooden house. which I had often
remarked for its beauty OF architectural
outline, had telescoped its upper stories
down upon its brick foundation and lay like
a pile OF old lumber with its loose tinbers
swaying In the morning breeze.
IN the first hours OF the catastrophe the
human side of the situation was perhaps
as thrilling as any phase of the whole
calamity. Every one was out upon the
streets lame and halt and able-bodied
young and old. both sexes and all races
each living human being was in the OPEN
without restriction to mode of dress, and
most were but scantily and hastily clothed,
without restriction to caste and without
restriction to wealth. Every one exchanged
emotions and some were dangerously near
the line of violent insanity.
when I reached the hotel In which my
wife's family had made their home 1 made
my way TO their apartment through
halls that were stepped In utter darkness
and over fallen bric-a-brac and tons OF
plaster from the walls. Later / found
them on the street, hurriedly dressed and
open-eyed. gazing. even as myself. at the
fire, which was already raging near the
wa ter front AS the hotel was on the sum