The Hawaiian star., 1906-04-18
Golden Gate
Wrecked
Continued from Page One).

cry street corner were men and women
who had relatives i'm the stricken city,
and they could get no news. The bus
lest of business men dropped their large
affairs and did little but wait for mes
sages. But there was none to be had. |
Gables were sent round the world to
New York. AS the morning wore on
the news came that New York could
not telegraph to San Francisco and
could not even get Oakland. and the
general impression was that the worst
had not yet been heard. san Francis
co has apparently been visited by a
disaster such as no other American city
/ ever experienced
The various accounts pointed to a
sudden subsistence of large section of
the ground on which the city stood.
| The waters Of the bay were reported
to be dividing Market street from
the ferry up. and this expression, with
the other details. indicated that the
earthquake was a sudden drop of this
whole section of the city. If this is the
case hundreds of big buildings are in
the water and the whole geography of
the city is changed. The fact that New
York could not communicate with Oak
land shows, further that that city and
considerable distance towards the in
terror were affected. Not a word came
from Oakland, presumably the first
terrible shaking of the earth broke the
lines by which SAN Francisco is con-
nected with the mainland as they
broke those by which Oakland should
be able to telegraph East San Fran
cisco was apparently cut off, from all
the rest of the world. struggling alone
under martial law to restore some kind
of order and save the lives and proper
ty left
The terrible conditions prevailing in
the city We're shown eloquently by the
8 very quick declaration of martial law,
b. and by the messages from the cable Of
I five operators, which intimated long be-
5 fore cable communication was aband-
? oned, that it was no use for Honolulu
I to send messages Very early this
, morning the messages began to pour
- in to the local office. The operators at
o the other end received them for a time.
I Then they sem a message saying. it
p was no use,-messages could not be de-
I tivered. The city was in an uproar and
s it was no use trying to get messages
- delivered Everything going to bla-
zes," said one operator over the two
thousand miles of wire
As hour after hour went by the local
c suspense grew worse. Rumors of the
, most alarming sort were spread and
a Superintendent Gaines did everything
possible to allay them, by giving out
f all the information he had But new
, ertheless the reports went around that
the bottom had dropped out of the city
"a that it was sinking away. that fire
q was sweeping it entirely out of exist
q ence, and that the whole peninsula on
f which the splendid city stood last might
: was going down into the sea. Thes,
. rumors We're denied as fast as the,
q rose, but no one was able to tell ius
! what the truth was. The probabilities
J. as regarded by those best Informed
were that the delay in reobening com
l. municatiOn was due to the difficulty o
10 getting cable instruments from tn,
m burning building in the business cente
Z of San Francisco to the hut at the beach
4 where the cable line was to be pickle,
, up.
, The establishment of martial Law
st was very quick, and suggests tina
% someone i'm authority took the reins o
10 power with great promptness. to pre-
n vent unnecessary confusion and t,
r stop the sort of riotng and pilagin:
10 which usually accompany such terri
Bile disasters. 1t was probably Mayo
Schmidt. The immediate control b,
military is full of significance.
The reports all indicated that tn
earthquakes ceased after the first grea
shock.-none Of the operators mention
n ed any other shocks. The fire thei
took hold of the situation. and the sun
OF the damage by connagrations wa
probably far greater than that of, tn
earthquake. The water supply CAV
o out at the start, giving the flames ful
:, swing, and the sun must have rise,
upon an awful scene in the great west
ern metropolis. San Francisco de
pends for its water upon a gravity sys
TEN of the Spring Valley Company. an,
Id the trembling Of the earth doubles
, broke the pipes and left the city un
supplied.
X 1t was the general Impression tina
'l the damage in the residence sections
D must have been far less than in tn
st business sections. The wooden build
= ings in Ohich most San Franciscan
D. live can stand an earthquake shocl
a much better than the great steel fran
r ed stone buildings, and probably thou
TX sands more lives would have been los
Of had the disaster occurred during bust
ness hours, when the great office build
to ings are full and the streets are crowd
~, ed
m As it is, the first and most authen
40 tic dispatch,-sent by a responsible
10 news association,-indicated that tn
- loss of life was not thought to be yer,
= great. This IS deduced from the lit
/, tie prominence given to the matter f.
y, the dispatch However, the report
~ sent two hours after the shock. mus
have been from information obtainabl
only in the heart of the city. and unde
dincuties at that, for the newspape
buildings were probably destroyed an
the centers of information demoralized