The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-04-20
the dryest of summer.

the dryeSt or summer
 In the Mission district to the south of Market street the zone of ruin was extended further westward, toward the extreme southern portion, but was checked at Fourteenth and Mission streets by the wholesale use of dyna- mite. At this point are located the Southern Pacific hospital the St. Fran cis hospital and the College of Phy- Isicians and Surgeons. In order to save tthese institutions buildings were blown up all around them and the danger threatening them had been averted up Ito noon.
 In the Hayes valley district, south of McAllister and north of Market, the fire was confined on the west by Octa- lvia street and on the north by McAllis- ter street. In these confines the de- Fstruction was complete. Therein were located St. Ignatius school and church, of which only the side walls remain. Of the Mechanics pavilion, the scene of hundreds of great political, social and sporting events, not a timber remains. Opposite it was the St. Nicholas hotel and it is now simply a pile of ruined bricks. From this point down to the Oakland ferry an Associated Press man made his way through the menacing wall frontages and climbing over hill- ocks of masonry and junk of all sorts in the middle of the city's greatest thoroughfare. The journey was heart- rending, the scene appalling. On either side was ruin, nothing but ruin. To the south, in hundreds of blocks hardly a building remained whole. The United States mint escaped almost unscathed on account of it's isolation and it's pecu- liar fireproof construction, but the force of rending power of the earthquake could be seen in the cracked walls of the new postotfice building In front of the postoffice on Seventh and Mission streets the ground had sunk for several feet.
 Across an alley from the postoffice stood the Grant building, one of the headquarters of the army. This was gutted. Opposite the Grant building on Market street the ruins of the Hiber- nian Savings bank loomed up, its for mer beautiful frontage transformed into hideous aspects. This was the great bank of the middle and poorer classes, and it's loss will cause possible greater sorrow south of Market street than the loss of any one institution. From this point down to the ferry the same story could be told of each successive block.
 Last night at ii o'clock the north side of the street had been untouched and hope had been expressed that the great Flood, Crocker, Phelan and other build ings would be spared, but they to-day are included in the list of destroyed property The Palace hotel still stands. a huge monument to the awful disaster of yesterday, its blackened walls and
 empty interior bearing little resem-
 blance to the huge hostelry of two days , ago.
 The handsome gigantic St. Francis
 hotel on Powell street, fronting on
 Union square is a ruined shell. This
 was one of the high steel structures < that had defied the terrible tremble ot o yesterday, but this morning it is an
 other sad tribute to the completeness Eof the devastation that has visited Sar
 
 2 Among the other high skyscrapers r north of Market street that fell prey
 to the flames were the fourteen-story . Merchants exchange and the Millf 4 building, occupying almost an entire z block
 V Chinatown at noon to-day was fur. { nace and the denizens of that quarter # earlier in the day had their simple pos a sessions bundled for departure. On tht s farther western side the flames cut : wide path to Vanness avenue, but here s owing to the width of that thorough e fare and to the additional fact thal ! Ithere was weak water supply in thu a mains it was hoped to check the ruin. s There Is still much confusion concern e- ling the loss of life. This forenoon there - were twenty seven corpses lying il
 Portsmouth square gathered from va o rious sections. It is said that elsewhere . bodies are lying in the streets, there be < ing no means avialableto remove them Y In his travels down Market street, tho