Danville intelligencer. [volume] (Danville, Pa.) 1859-1907, 1906-05-18
Among the Ruins of SaT
Francisco, Once one of
the Most Prosperous
and Beauiifu! Cit.
les of sh I World.
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL, May 7th., 1896

THE following very interesting let,
ter was received by our townsman,
Mr. Richard W. Eggert, who SO
kindly handed it to US for publica-
ton. Ed.
DEAR FRIEND RIcuARD:-
Having a lew idle moments to my
self today, so will write you short
letter:
Well, | am still among the living;
and that, for one thing, is more than
a great many others can say at this
time, for there is much suffering here,
now, and God only knows what oc-
cured here on April 18th, has caused
suffering untold, and pen cannot de-
scribe the situation. 1t was one of
the worst calamaties the world has
ever experienced. | will not attempt
to tell you all about it.
am well but feel very blue at
times, for | began to love this once
grand young city, in fact saw the
greater part of it grow since | came
here, and to see it all in ashes seems
to me beyond realization. We cannot
realize the destruction. First think
five square miles of burnt district-of
all the Government and Municipal
buildings; twenty-nine school houses,
all the moving and evening newspap-
ers, publishing houses, all the whole
sale and retail houses; manufacturing
establishments in Frisco are laid in
ruins Estimated loss, s400, 600, 600.
The balance Of the city that remains
is badly damaged by the earthquake,
and there will have TO be several
thousand of these buildings that will
have to razed. You have been here,
so you have some idea what Frisco
was like. Not a theatre or hotel
stands in Frisco, all of them were
destroyed. Well, Richard, | will try
and give you some of my experiences
of the earthquake and fire, as best l
can.
| was awakened by violent shaking
that kept me busy to keep in bed, and
it first seemed to me as if every piece
of timber in the house was coming to
pieces, or they were being split into
pieces. This lasted twenty-eight sec
onds and it seemed to be about one
hour. After the shake | got up,
dressed are went on the street. The
sights that / saw were awful. Houses
torn assunder, chimneys and brick
walls were all torn down. The big
power house stacks is no more in
sight, and people, frantic with fright,
did not know where to go for safety.
The house | am living in has all the
plastering broke on the walls. Struc-
ture is out of plumb, and the front of
the home is torn from the main build
ing. But this structure is among the
lucky. Now let us go down farther
in the city where the fire started
when the buildings collapsed. They
have found, up to date, over four
hundred dead, but they have not as
yet, reached the district where the
cheap lodging houses were. One
building had something over two-hun-
dred people in it. They have only
recovered one person as yet, and he
walked out of the window on the
fourth story that lay on the ground.
After the shock they will find two or
three thousand yet in the ruins when
they begin to clean the city. 1t was
nothing to follow after the paths of
the fire, and see the burnt corpse-la lay
ing along the streets and did not have
time to pick them up as they were en-
gagged in fighting and keeping out of
the way of the fire. One hotel had
one hundred-six dodgers out of which
only three escaped, the building col
lapsed and the fire did the rest.
On Jackson, Washington and Sac
ramento streets, in the wholesale meat
and vegetable markets. where the men
start into work at 4 A. NJ, build
ings collapsed, burrying men and
horses which were afterwards consum-
ed by fire At this time they do not
know how many were incinerated.
They have not been able to reach
them as yet. So you can see how
terrible it has been. God only knows
the shock was bad enough. At the
hospitals, of which we have quite a
great many, they would take the
wounded, but the fire would soon
thrive them out. In many cases they
would leave their dead behind; all
they could do was to save the living,
and sometimes that would be through
flames. And so it continued for four
long days and nights. All one could
see was the lashing flames licking up
the beautiful structures and nothing
to stop the elements, as the earth
quake had put the water mains all
out of commission, which the flames
seemed to know, for they came on
more angry than ever. The only
thing then to be done was to dynamite
the rest of the city to stop the rush Of
the fire. The United States arsenal,
at the preside, responded and used
all they had Then call was made
to surrounding towns for explosives
and then the work of destruction OIL
the line commenced again. The flames
would come up to the falling build
ings and continue on, as there was
no water to stop their progress. Th'
only hope of saving any of the cit,
was from the water main of the west
ern addition which was all right. Or
Van Ness avenue stand was taken
This street is one hundred feet wide
and if there ever was gallant fght
made to stop fire one could see i
here and although the fire department
had been fighting the fire now 70
three days and two NIGHTS made thei