The San Francisco call., 1906-05-10
'WIGWAGGERS"
DO GREAT WORK
While City Burns
They String
WireS*
Keep TelegraphiC
Service Open
All Day.

IN the story Of military achieve
ment during the great catastrophe
there is no chapter more thrilling
than that recording the work Of the
Signal Service Corps. The men who
performed that work are reticent
when questioned concerning (which
IS 2 way they have in The army-but
the Two commanding generals. Greely
and Funston, and officers attached
u other branches Of the service,
speak gloWingly Of tie readiness
resource. intrepidity and physical
endurance displayed BY the wig
Waggers" while the city blazed and
clLmbled Their allotted portion OF
the fight was 10 establish and main
tain means OF electrical cOmmunica-
tion between General Funston and
those points he was most desiroGs 10
correspond with. How they succeeded
81 doing il by stretching wires
through smoking streets and over
ruined walls and risking life and limb
to- repair breaks can never be ade
ouately described. because they -Si-o
ci6 Il would not be 50 unsoldierly as
TO sing self-praise. But from other
sources Z comprehensive idea OF the
general campaign has been obtained
Some day. perhaps. individual effort
may receive the credit that IS its due
The earthquake occurred al 5:l5
O'Clock q m. and three-Quarters OF
an hour later Captain L D. Wndnlan
arrived al his Office, in the Phelan
building, 10 find all wires crippled and
his four civilian aids awaiting orders
After irstructing them 10 remove the
Office raphernGlia 10 - place Of
safety he took possession OF an auto
mobile ana reported 20 Generll F'urs-
Ion al Fort Mason A few minutes
laler he was speeding tc the Clay
street wharf with orders 10 dispatch
the steamer Mcdowell 10 AlratraZ
ana Angel islands and convey the
troops thence TO the city. Rut the
Clay-street wharf was q ruin, and
the Mcdowell was pursued 10 Folsom
street dock. whence she started on
her mission. Then TO the Preside
hastened the captain. and after nou-
fylng the troops at Fort Miley 10 come
at once TO the city he took in charge
The four or five men Of his corps sta
Ifont q AZ the Preside an@ - 10
o'clock had a line stretched from the
Zost 10 Market and Haight streets.
When the fire crossed Market street
and began eating ifs way nOrthwsrd
The Preside line was extended 10 the
Phelan building hut by that time the
department headquarters had been re-
moved to Fort Mason, and thither
Captain Wildman followed it,
AS the Western Union had moved
70 Oakland. there was no regular
means Of opening communication
with Washington. so Captain Wild
man hustled" until he discovered
a telegrapher sticking 10 his instrli-
ment in the Southern Pacific build
ing and the wire was at once adopt
ed for governmental service exclu-
Eively. In the meantime orders had
been sent 10 Benicia to send here all
available telegraphic material. and
the response came IN time TO enable
the Western Union TO establish N
Thursday afternoon an Office IN the
Ferry building with twenty-five sets
OF instruments and fifteen .rerators
Similar aid was extended 70 the
Postal Telegraph Company. ana q
wire was quickly stretched from the
Hawaiian cable hut a. the ocean
beach 10 the Ferry depot. In q word
the Signal Service Corps furnished
the two big telegraph corporations
with tae material and men that en-
sbled them to resume business IN San
F:Gncisco ere the fire was totally con-
cuered
Then began the work OF recon
structing the PROSTATE telephone SER
vce. Working in conjunction with
Superintendent Glass OF the Pacific
States telephone system, Captain
Wfldman and his corps hastily got
the main lines cleared and repaired
but the dynamiting Of buildings un-
did much OF the work as fast as It
VS. done. and finally the slots Of
tie cable car lines were utilized as
ccnoldts for the wires.
Telephooe wires were first stretched
into an the Government offices, so
thai when Secretary Metcalf arrive
h exPerierced no dif1culty in CORE
spending from Fort Mason with any
Ioint he desired. After that was done
ths stringIng OF private wires was
proceeded with, until now IN the city
Z IRE are thirty-three telegraph OF
fees and 200 telephones N active ser
vice.
General Fans on wa never KEEP,
waiting any longer than one hour to
obtain communication with any point
desired 10 reach
Wireless telegraphy also played an
L.. Ia -