Los Angeles herald., 1906-04-19
STRICKEN SAN FRANCISCO

rocked and fell, only to rise again, and
again to fall. leaving ruin. desolation
and death in the wake of the temblor.
Tuesday a city bright. beautiful,
prosperous and happy. Wednesday a
heap of stones and twisted steel and
brick and mortar, with dead bodies in
the streets and vultures lowering in
the air.
But yesterday a city teeming with
joyous life and activity. Today mass
of ruins and open graves and yawning
chasms.
Not entirely destroyed-no; but her
beauty gone; her great blocks and mas
sive buildings lying prone and her gilt
tering minarets and towers collapsed
into nothingness,
First came the earthquake. A rum
bling sound, louder and louder as 1t ap-
preached. Then a roar like the coming
of a tornado out of the blackness of
night. In another moment the crust of
earth swayed like a pendulum, back
and forth, and skyscrapers fell like
card houses that had been built by
boys at play.
Instantly arose screams from the in
jured, the mangled and the dying. Fires
ensued, and IN the gray dawn the fierce
blaze and overpowering smoke fell back
upon the doomed city.
Bells we're rung and people ran hither
and thither not knowing where or why.
Death was at hand, in the atmosphere,
overhead and beneath. Which way to
escape? Where was safety?
Through the heavy fog and mist Of
the morning the noise of topping
houses and the cracking sound of burn
ing timbers hushed the shrill cries of
those pinioned under steel and stone.
Half an hour later another vibration,
another upheaval of earth and the scene
Of terror was renewed. Those tall
houses that had withstood the first or
second shocks went down at the third.
More dead and dying in the streets!
Now the city was panic stricken and
as the day went on and the vibrations
were renewed, men and women fought
desperately at the ferry house for pas
sage across the bay to Oakland. Fought
like madmen or wild beasts, until the
boats ceased running in order to stop
the loss of life at the ferry house.
Anon came the dull sounds OF ex-
ploding dynamite, where all the powers
OF the city government were engaged
in a desperate effort to stem the tide of
fire and save the city from utter de-
struction. Fiends began to loot the
bodies Of the dead. and were shot down
by police and the guards. Rescuers
exhausted themselves in frenzied ef-
forts to pull human bodies from under
the debris Of falling buildings and
were themselves buried in the black
ened ruins.
So the day passed-as the telegraph
reports-and the night approached. BY
this time the fires engendered by the
seismic upheavals were beyond all con-
troll and as the sun sank blood red in
the sea, a fierce gale arose that pushed
the flames farther and farther back
into the city.
Then darkness came. And with it
haunting fears and gruesome sights
and dangers unknown and beyond de-
scription.
All the city fed. Out into the hills
and highways and byways went a vast
army of men, women and children
more frightened, and with more reason,
than went a similar army out of Chi
cago thirty-four years ago. Into the
darkness of the night, pausing not once
to look behind at the great wall of fire
that threw frowning shadows in ad-
vance of them, passed this army of
human beings, all in a mad race for
safety-going they knew not where.
And these are our people, Califor-
mans; brethren to us of Los Angeles.
And in the presence of so great a
calamity the scriptural language will
recur to you: What is man that Thou
art mindful of HIM"
Brethren of California; Our duty is
plain. Send sympathy and money.
Give! Give! Give!
Give freely and give generously. Help
must be extended at once. Roll up a