The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-04-20

jured. Its high tower still stands,
but will have to be torn down.
MANY BUILDINGS WRECKED.
a portion Of the new city hall to
cost over seven million dollars, COL
Iapsed. the roof sliding into the court
yard and smaller towers tumbling
down. The great dome was moved
but did not fall
The new postOffice, one of the finest
IN the United States, was badly shat
tered
The Valencia Hotel, a four story
wooden building, sank into the base
ment, pile Of splintered timbers, un-
der which are pinned many dead and
dying occupants of the house. The
basement was full of water and some
of the helpless victims were drowned.
NO WATER TO FIGHT FIRES.
Scarcely had the earth ceased to
shake when fires broke out simulta-
neously in many places. The fire de.
partment promptly responded to the
first calls for aid, but it was found
that the water mains had been render
ed useless by underground violence.
Aided by light breeze, the flames
quickly spread, and soon many blocks
were seen to be doomed. Then dyna-
mite was resorted to and the sound Of
frequent explosions added to the ter
ror Of the people. ALI efforts to stay
the progress of the fire, however,
proved futile. The south side of Mar
ket street from Ninth street to the bay
was soon ablaze, the fire covering a
belt two blocks wide. On this, the
main thOroughfare of the city, are 10
Gated many of the finest edifices in
the city, including the Grant, Parrott,
Flood, "CaH,'" Examiner and Mo-
nadnock buildings, the Palace and
Grand hotels, and numerous wholesale
houses
At the same time the commercial es-
ket street were burning The burning
district in this section Of the city eA-
tended from SAMSON street to the
water front, and from Market street to
Broadway. Fires also broke out in
Mission and the entire city seemed to
be III flames.
FERRY AND TRAIN SERVICE.
The flames, famed by the rising
breeze, swept down the main streets
until within a hundred feet Of the
Ferry depot, the high tower of which
stood at a dangerous angle. The big
wholesale grocery establishment of
Wellman Heck & Company, was on
fire from cellar to roof, and the heat
was so intense that passengers from
the ferry boats were obliged to keep
close to the waters edge in order to
get past the burning structure. 1t was
impossible to reach the centre of the
city from the bay without skirting the
shore for a long distance so as to get
entirely around the burning district.
At 8 o'clock the Southern Pacific Of
ficials refused to allow any more pas
sengers from uans-3ay points to land
and sent back those already On the
boats The ferry and train service Of
the Key route was entirely abandoned
owing to damage done to the power
house by the earthquake at Emeryville.
SOLDIERS ON PATROL DUTY.
At O'Clock this morning a thousand
men from the preside arrived down
town to patrol the city streets. The
130tn infantry, 1000 strong, arrived
from Angel Island little later, and
went on patrol duty. The soldiers
have been ordered TO shoot down
thieves caught. in the act of robbing
the dead, and to guard with their lives
the millions of dollars worth of prop
erty that has been placed in the
streets that it may escape the ravases
of the flames
The First California artillery, 200
strong, two companies have been de-
tailed to patrol duty on Ellis street
Two more companies are patroiling
Broadway in the Italian section. The