Bisbee daily review., 1906-05-13

cisco, l feel justified in saying that the automobile will soon displant the horse. even in warfare.
 Chugging motor cars and puffing steamers saved unnumbered lives fol lowing the earthquake. They convey ed thousands of persons from the widening danger zone during the height of the conflagration. They transported hundreds, aye thousands, of cripples, invalids and fainting Der. sons. paralyzed with fright to hvspit- als, emergency camps and places of safety.
 They dashed through blazing ave nues 10 effect the salvage of moneys, papers and chattels They formed speedy lines of communication be- tween executives when telegraph wires grounded and telephones were dumb. They carried corpses, that would have lain to decay and spread contagion, to the lime-strewn trenches and burning funeral pyres. They car ried food, provisions. water. where horses could not go had they been available. They aided nurses, doctors, police and soldiers.
 When horses, mad at scent of smoke ard sight of flame, dashed blindly to destruction, unmindful of the cruelest curb or tightest rein, the swift, power ful, little motor cars, proved their met tie for time and eternity.
 The big men of California, who coped with the flames with such brav- cry and courage, deserve credit for this bringing out" of the automobile. Hardly had the realization of the ca lamity dawned when Governor Pardee, Mayor Schmitz and others, placed all the 1000 automobiles in and about San Francisco, under emergency seiz- bre.
 An automobile management commit tee was quickly formed and all own CTS of cars were compelled to place them at the temporary disposal of the authorities. For the most part this was cheerfully done. Local agents, in many instances, volunteered the use of all the cars in their stores and garages. The wisdom of this act on the part of the authorities became ob- vious at once. All trolley. surface and steam cars stopped. Horses were slow. and but few escaped death in the flames. Those that were to be had could not travel the ruin-seattered streets, and could not be controlled into the smoke-laden atmosphere. The walls of roaring flame turned them mad
 But the automobiles-in and out, be- tween walls of flame and over debris strewn streets they dashed. Some | low hung, deep-chested six cylinders sped over the ground at rate of six ty miles an hour. They whizzed like shots past horses that had fallen by the way from exhaustion. They liter ally combed the burned area, loaling i up with cripples and injured men &nd women, and then shot them away 10 places of safety.
 Veteran chaffeurs and drivers were astounded at the efficiency of the cars. 1 Streets, so blocked by litter as to be considered difficult for even a Rocky
 Mountain goat, were covered by the cars with such speed tkat the wheels touched only high places.
 Records of the city and county of ficials, bank files not protected in | vaults, entire stocks of jewelry and art and costly stuffs were saved from the flames as result of the readiness of tue automobile.
 The mighty work of the dynamite crews was done entirely from auto
 mobiles A huge car, carrying sol. diers and workmen, bearing great
 signs "Dynamite-Danger" were in
 evidence everywhere while the city was burning and for several days after
 ward while the wrecking was going or. The tonneau was loaded with ouinous looking yellow boxes contain. ing dynamite and nitro-glycerine. A hanI1ad A single jolt, a jar, if severe, might free this awful power and whisk men and Sky-scrapers into annihilation. Yet the big black car dashed over the bricks at reckless pace-pneumatic tires and ingenious springs providing
 the safety that no wagon could guar antee.
 | I saw the big car dash up to loom ing sky-scraper in the fire zone time
 and again. Trained men carried 8 few boxes of explosives and disappear into the buildings. When they emerged they trailed an electric wire. The
 men and car sped away, still trailing the wire, to safe distance Then one of them attached the wires to g
 battery and touched the button. A flash
 of yellow flame, a great pillow oi
 white smoke, a Titanic detonation-
 then silence and the batter of roch and twisted masses of iron all about
 Where the great monument of stone and steel and cement had stood mo ! ment before, a guant cavity yawned This is but little of what the auto
 mobile did for stricken San Francisco Automobiles were the sole convey
 ances, save a few horses. for days
 and still are. They transport soldiers doctors, officers. They carry tons O , mail for Oakland and San Francisco postoffices. Everywhere, in every de l partment of the momentous relic work, they are laboring day and nigh
 here to prove their efficiency to man kind.
 During the rebuilding period be , liieve San Francisco will be a wide open town. It will be another Klon l dike."
 This was the prognostication made today by Dr. Joseph Poheim. presi
 dent of the board of police scommis sioners His words, carrying visioni of wide open gambling and other vices
 have caused considerable stir and art