The San Francisco call., 1906-05-06
SCHOOL CHILDREN
OF SMYRNA GIVE
UP THEIR PENNIES
Little Ones of Del
aware Town
Send Check.
Contribute $50
San Francisco
Relief Fund.

OAKLAND, May 5.-Out of the hun
dreds Of letters of sympathy received
by Governor Pardee, one arrived today
which touched the chief executive deep
". The message, enclosing a check for
$l.50, was from school children in the
little Delaware town of Smyrna. 1t
reads:
Smyrna, Del, April %, 1906. Dear
Governor Pardee: We little primary
folks in Smyrna are very sorry for the
little girls and boys of San Francisco,
so we send you some Of our pennies.
Please use them to help build a school,
II your schools were burned. We have
all been looking at the dreadful pictures
in the papers all the week, and although
we are away over in the Diamond State,
we pity our Golden Gate brothers and
sisters. Every little win help.
Your little friends,
John Hall, Victor Boyer, Mary Bur
ris, Edward Fell Jardine, William B..
Meagear, Victor Armstrong, Alethia
Spruance, Florence Cummins, Bertha
Archer, Matte Wallace, Pearson Hill,
Rena Ford, Katharyn Price, Helen J.
Jacobs, Henen R. Jones, George Hill,
Fred Shelton, Elva Morris, Earle Brad
ley, Lawrence FAIRIES, Harold Deakyne,
Homer Deakyne, Gertrude Foraker,
Ethel Archer, Wendell Warner, Crea-
dick Ennis. :"
Governor Pardee laid aside every
thing to make reply, and he wrote:
Oakland, May 5, 1906. Ny Dear
Young Friends of the Smyrna Primary
School: have received your letter and
your check on the bank, and l want to
thank you for being so good and kind
as to think Of the little boys and girls
in San Francisco who now have no
schools to go to, because their school
houses were burned down in the dread
ful fire.
There were nearly thirty school
houses burned in San Francisco. and
some Of them were very large buildings
IN which hundreds of bows and girls
attended school, First, there was
great earthquake, which shook down
some of the buildings, and scared a
great many people; but the earthquake
alone would not have been one-quarter
so bad as the fire which followed it.
This fire burned for three days and
nights, and all the great business build
ings and many thousands Of homes were
burned up. There was no water to use
in putting out the fire, and nothing
could be done to stop it except to blow
up the buildings in front of it.
"The people whose homes were
burned fed to the parks and other open
spaces, and great many little girls
and boys, with their parents, were COM
PEELED to sleep outdoors and suffer from
cold and hunger, until tents and provis-
ions could be furnished. Some little
children became separated from their
families and have not even vet found
them. If the kind people all over the
country had not come to their help with
money and food, thousands would have
soon died. But trainloadS of provisions
and great sums of money were sent from
every city and town, and SO the poor
people were saved.
cit will be long time before all
Of the burned school houses can be re-
built, but it will be done just as soon as
it can be accomplished, because the peo-
pie of California believe in schools and
do not mean that any of their boys and
girls shall grow up without an educa-
tion. 1 think that is true Of Delaware,
also.
$50, I thank you for sending your
pennies to aid in the good work. I will
send the money to the men in San Frrn-
cisco who have charge Of the relief
fund, and I feel sure they viii use it
for the purpose for which you sent it.
every truly yours,
"GEORGE c. PARDEE,
Governor Of California"