Los Angeles herald., 1906-04-29
MONEY IS SCARCE
At SAN FRANCISCO
UNCLE SANS APPROPRIATION
NEARLY EXHAUSTED
Finance Committee Faces Serious
Problem as a Result and the
Chairman Is In
ouandary

t1O0- Is not seen ABROAD aICer Lne nrSI
hour of darkness.
While the most rigid patrol system
is maintained everywhere, the people
are free to come and go as they please.
but as there are no more places of
recreation to attract them, few ven
ture abroad at night.
Slghtseers Cause Trouble
The influx of sightseers is adding to
the troubles OF the authorities and to
the discomfort of those still residing
in San Francisco.
Thousands of these people crowd the
ferryboats, block the few open streets
with all sorts OF useless vehicles and
seriously interfere with those engaged
in relief work. Today they added to
the terrific jam at tine main ferry depot
ard cholSed the narrow passages
cleared in a few streets for the passage
OF vehicles.
They overran ruins of buildings
wherever safety would permit and were
absolutely ruthless in their frantic ef-
forts to seize upon some article of his
toric and intrinsic value and cart it
away.
Some of these thousands probably
will find lodging and food at the ex-
pense of the relief committee, thus
needlessly adding to the already tree
lnendous burden of stricken San Fran
cisco.
Many Libraries Destroyed
One of the greatest and in a meas
ure, irreparable losses resulting from
the great fire, is the magnificent IL
braries of San Francisco. r
No accurate estimate can be made
of the monetary worth of the books
destroyed, but 1t is believed that their
market value was in excess of $3,OO0,-
COO.
Among the collections that vanished
were those contained in the public Ii
brary and two of its branches, the Me-
chanics' institute library the Mercan-
tile library, the Sutro library, the Pi-
oneer library, the Bohemian club Ii
brary, the Bnai Birth and the library
OF the supreme court.
Fire Destroys 100000 Volumes
The number of volumes in these coll
lections was not less than 100000 and
the loss of individual owners ran up
the total to more than a million.
The public library was the eighth
largest institution of its kind in the
United States. Librarian George w.
Clark said:
"In the main library in the eastern
wing of the city hall we had 10000
books. This was total loss, the struc-
ture housing the volumes being shat
tered by earthquake and swept by fire.
q, ''When our branch collections are
brought together" said Mr.. Clark, I'VE
will have good working library Of ref
erence books and also fine collection
of standard literature.
I'VE have $750,000 that Andrew Car
negie gave us, which sum Is still intact
and is. I believe, now available.
"We have the square block of land.
bounded by Van Ness, Hayes, Franklin
and Pell streets, which was bought
with bond issue money, and we have
$1,000,000 of bond money available for
a new library building.
viii Build New Home
"Our greatest disaster will result in
hurrying the work of construction and
doubtless the building of the new home
for San Francisco's books will begin in
the near future.
Meanwhile the various branches of
the library that escaped the fire are
open for the return and donation of
books.
Next week the trustees will meet to
devise method of circulation. The
Mechanics Institute library and the
Mercantile library combined few
weeks ago.
Their collections had not yet been