Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-04-24
QUAKE AND FLAME DESTROY FRISCO


stronger as the morning wore away.
1t famed the several blazes in the
heart of the business district and
threatened TO spread the fire through
out section filed with valuable mer-
chandise. As the noon hour drew near
the flames were spreading in every di-
rection, and the destruction by fire bid
fair to eclipse the damage wrought by
the earthquake. The loss of life seems
to have been confined to the poorer dis
tricts and manufacturing territory. On
lower Market street, the main thor
oughfare of the city, block after block
of substantial buildings was destroyed.
The Valencia Hotel, between Seven
teenth and Eighteenth streets, on Va
lencia street, a five-story frame build
ing, toppled over into the street bury
ing seventy-five people in the debris
At Eighteenth and Valencia there is
a crevice in the street six feet wide and
entire sidewalks are torn up. The
street cartracks are BADLY twisted all
through the southern section of the
city.
Where Ruin Is Worst.
Davis street, Font street, Battery
street, SAMSON, Montgomery, Kearney.
Spear, Main, Beale and Fremont
streets-all We're in the area of the
earthquakes greatest fury. Early re
ports indicated that the quaking earth
shook all buildings along these thor
Oughfares from their foundations and
piled the debris high.
The cheap tenement house districts
suffered terribly. Old buildings, con
structed in the days of redwood, and
dilapidated and tottering, collapsed
with succession of roars Fires APP
peared in the ruins, but the fire fight
ers were almost powerless to extin-
guish the flames
Big Buildings Fail.
The offices of the Postal Telegraph
Company, in the Hobart Building. were
wrecked. The Associated Press Build
ing at 302 Montgomery street also was
destroyed. The $7O00,00O City Hall
rocked and creaked in the earthquake,
portions of it collapsing, bringing added
terror to the people who had rushed
into the streets near by.
Scarcely had the people realized the
extent of the great calamity when re-
ports began to come in from surround
ing places indicating that the shock had
been disastrous throughout wide area.
Some experts on seismic disturbances
estimated that portion of California
100 miles in diameter had come within
the zone of greatest activity.
Berkeley Is Damaged.
Later reports extended the region of
earthquake to the Rocky Mountains and
included much of the Pacific slope in
the area of shocks. At Berkeley where
the State university is located, there
was big fire, the result of the earth
quake. Nevada felt the force of the
quake. All wires west of Reno were
thrown down. From Sacramento came
the report that miles of railroad track
between Suisun and Benecia had sunk
out of sight. Wires were carried with
the rails.
The Postal Telegraph Company got
into communication with the East, but
Immediately the first message of disas-
ter had been sent out, that wire was
lost. The Western Union wires worked
spasmodically, but long enough to tell
the world that the residence district
suffered only slightly. But the shock
was great enough to do some damage
to nearly every house.
The Postal Telegraph Company got
wire working at 8 O'Clock, and its
Office was besieged with people filing
messages Frantic men and women of
fered big sums to get kilograms to the
East announcing their safety.
The entire street car system of the
city was shut down, and communication
with various parts of the city was slow
and difficult. Telephones were put out
of commission by the destruction of
wires.
Though a break in the coast range
the Sacramento river flows through
to the great bay inside the Golden
Gate. San Francisco lies at the riv-
er's mouth. The city was reclaimed
from desert of hills and wet sand.
Big holes stand to-day where fishing
was good in the sos.
Most of the houses in the residence
district are wood and insurance men
looked askance when asked to guaran-
tee the residents against fire loss. But
business men relied aon the splendid
fire department and built some of the
finest office buildings in the world.
As whole the city is not especially
well built. A large proportion of the
are foreigners. There are
10000 Chinese alone.
San Franciscohas n 100000 city
hail. one hotel with 1,400 rooms. the
aters open throughout the year, a pub
lie library Of 10000 volumes. a pub
lie bath accommodating 2,O0G, and a
population Of 100000.