The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-05-07
THE THOMPSON BOYS
IN THE RUINED CITY
One Writes an Interesting Story to Their Par
ents-..Msny Street incidents Described 80.
The Boys on Special Police Force in
Berkeley.


the fre-devastated streets which are
| wildly described therein, the subioined
letter from one of their two sons at
tending the University of California
to Mr. and Mrs. Z. Thompson, of Ka-
mehameha Schools, is deemed worthy of
especial prominence. 1t will be seen
from the letter that the Thompson girls
as well as the boys have taken hold,
like good Honolulu people, of work for
alternating the Astounding distress
Berkeley, Cal, April %, 1906.
Dear Father and Mother: We have
been through four terrible and exciting
| days, though our excitement has been
| mild compared to that of the people in
/ San Francisco. S. F. is blotted from
| the ground, if not from the map. And
| yet this a. m. the Oakland papers gave
| plans for larger and more beautiful
| Frisco, to be begun at once. We have
watched the flames from Berkeley day
and night. 90 Your sons have been
| through the most terrible earthquake
and fire that the L. S. has ever had
/ have seen with our own eyes the mis-
| cry, or part of it, of half million
homeless people.
We got ready to go over to S. F.
Thursday evening to offer to help, but
Alice put tabu on that, but agreed to
| let US go Friday morning. So we went
down to the town marshal and got a
permit to carry gun, and pass to
the city, as no one was allowed to
ter S. f. without pass. We spent
good part of the night watching the
flames leap hundred feet into the air
We could feel the heat though we were
nine miles away. All night we felt the
rumble and crashes that We're caused
by the dynamite in blasting down
whole blocks of buildings to stop the
fire. There was not a drop of water in
Frisco. and all means of pumping
water from the bay were cut off. All
the university boys had gone over to
act with the militia in keeping order. |
Friday morning we got up early and |
took a lunch and a lot of lemons
Two other boys went with us.
The ferry boat was packed full. [ |
didn t hear one person speak while we
were crossing the bay, but all looked
with awe at the burning city. The
flames extended three miles in length
and the heat was intense. AS we
walked through the ferry building, a
CHASTITY sight met our eyes. There was
Market street, the car tracks and the
fog; but the buildings were gone, ex
cept the Call building, and we could
look through its windows into space.
The St Francis Hotel, the City Hall,
the Occidental Hotel, all were in ruins.
The end of the ferry building was
down, giving us a cross-seetion view
IF its interior. South of Market street
we're thousands of people, homeless and
destitute of everything except what {
hey wore or carried in their hands.
Women carried dogs, eats, bird-cages 9
sometimes without birds) and brooms.
They had picked up the first thing they
Jaw and ran. The streets were sunken L
Is much as four feet in places. Hun
lreds of freight ears stood on side
racks. s
We walked north from the ferry a
building, passed the piers and along u
he waterfront. We met thousands of 5
'eople. some in rags, some well dressed. n
they were going to the ferry to get
way from the city. We saw one a
amboo pole. The Chinese saved more d
f their stuff than other people. a
We had brought a large bottle of n
!
tes Men and women lay fainting in g
he streets, and we gave them sips of a
-ater. Others lay dead or unconscious. a
hundreds had dropped in the streets CT
rom exhaustion and were fast asleep, fl
Though the fire burned fercely around G;
lem Firemen who had been out for b,
40 DAYS and two nights dragged one W
Dot after the other with eyes half k
osed Soldiers sat on the ground with IL
leir guns. too exhausted to stand. W
romen were dragging babies by the ht
ms and carrying birds or some use us
IS thing in their own arms. Drunk
.ds were everywhere. Never have / ] to
en- such conditions. Farther along we tn
ct refined, we'll dressed people, wan
,ring about like chickens. We spoke ru
them and directed them to Berkeley,
here relief camps and hospitals We're
ing made. They thanked us and Z
arted. Many didn t even know that 4
erkelev was safe; and we sent more
an 200 people over before we re-
rned
The Cooper Medical building had
en- partly shaken down by the earth tn
axe. and every church We passed was ex
total wreck. Soldiers had orders to rel
DOT any one found stealing or selling ca
NOR, and they did it. too. Over 100 TIL
IN were shot by the militia. They its
V one man was shot and several go
gers were found in his pockets with re1
lgs on. so you see martial law is wa
the
We must have walked twenty miles sol
fore we returned to the ferry build cor
,. We intended to walk down Saera- scr
INTO street and Market street. he,
rough the burned district, but the of
diers stopped us and we had TO go ges
# through Franklin street. So we hel
ssed within . block of the raging in
J. and watched the fremen and police VIII
+box- dvpamitpH the buildings TO no,