The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-19
TOLD IN MESSAGES.
TELEGRAPH OPERATORS STUCK
UNTIL DRIVEN OUT

DUTlS vi Jaw NV nv Oh tlCu
Who Had to Dodge Fire and Dynamite.
yor many hours yesterday practically
all Of the news to reach this city from San
Francisco came over the wires of the Postal
Telegraph Company, whose building had
10 be abandoned finally. 1t was a dramatic
story which the ticks Of the wire told.
At the San Francisco end Of the line
was a band of devoted telegraph operators,
their building in ruins over their heads
and flames racing down upon them from
many directions, while az this end OF the
Bradley and other officials of the company,
encoura ging them to hold on until their
lives we're in danger.
Az the ticks told Of the progress Of the
flames the excitement in the private Office
of the officials Of the company became
verv great. We have got to run soon"
said the san Fran cisco men finally, and then
at ? o'clock here there we're some ticks
which meant "Good-by."
There val a click shortly afterward,
however. 1t came from an electrician
who. at the risk Of his life, had got back
into the building and was driven out then
bv dynamite.
The Postal has about fifteen wires run
ming into San Francisco They go under
the bay in cables from Oakland and thence
run for several blocks under Market street
ia the Postal building. About forty oper-
srors are EMPLOYED TO handle the business
but evidently Hnere was only about one
m duty when the earthquake began. What
became Of him nobody knows. But he
seems to have sent the first word Of the
disaster. 1t came over the Postal wires
about a o'clock Eastern time, or q o'clock
Pacific time, just when the days business
had started here,
FIRST WORD OF DISASTER,
II will long be preserved in the records
Of the company. This was the despatch:
There was an earthquake hit us at SIS
o'clock this morning, wreohng several
buildings and wreoking our Offices. They
are carting dead from the fallen buildings.
Fire all over town. There is no water
and We lost our power.
I'm going TO get out Of Office. as we
have had a little shake every few minutes,
and it's me for the simple life.
"R., San Fran, $50 A. NJ
Mr. r. evidently got out, for there was
nothing doing for a brief interval after
that. The operator at this end pounded
and pounded at his key, but San Francisco
was silent. The Postal people we're wonder
ing IL it was all the dream Of some crazy
operator or a calamity when the wire woke
up again. It. was Supt. Storer Of the San
Francisco force this time.
We're on the job and are going to try
and stick" was the way the first message
came from him This was what came
over the wire a little later.
Terrific earthquake occurred here at s1a
this morning. A number of people were
KILLED in the city. None Of the Postal
people killed.
They are nov carting the dead from
the fallen buildings. There are many
fires. with no one t. fight them. Postal
building roof wrecked, but not entire build
ing
Apparently at this time those at the San
F Francisco end Of the wire we're not sure
that the fire would reach the Hobart build
ing, in which the Offices we're. For a time
then the Frisco wires were kept busy with
all sorts of messages.
OF UNpELIvERED EssAoEs
As soon as the news of the earthquake
got out the Postal offices we're besieged
by persons who wanted to send messages.
1t was the same way in other big cities.
The operators in the wrecked building
stuck to their posts receiving these mes
sages, and an effort was made to deliver
some Soon word came from the super
intendent that it was impossible to deliver
messages and that the militia and police
rapnanl tn lat the hAva 0n fhrOn1h tho
streets. There we're then, he s2id, 1000
messages in the Office waiting to be de-
livered.
A lot Of these messages we're for persons
In the Palace Hotel, almost across the street.
The superintendent said that even these
could not be delivered. The business that
the wires got for an hour or so made them
hum.
A few dispatches from newspaper CORE
spondents came along and then business
slackened. About noon the superin-
tendent at San Francisco sen word over
the wires that the fire was raging feroely
but that from where he was it seemed to
be confined to two parts Of the city in the
neighborhood of California and Battery
streets, He said that he could also see a
big fire back of the Palace Hotel. The
Croker building, one of the largest Office
buildings, he reported, seemed to be only
slightly damaged. The Rialto and Crosby
buildings seemed to be wrecked.
A little later the news came from the
operators that the Cal building and the
Examiner building had gon
Vice.President Bradley stood over the
wire most Of the time as these messages
we're being received. One of the first orders
gwen was that the cable operators should
remove their Instrument and get over to
the place where the cable lands. The
Pacific cable comes ashore near the Cliff
House. This is eight miles from the bust
ness district, There is a hut where the
cable comes in, and the cable operators we're
told 10 make for this.
Whether they got there nobody had
learned yesterday afternoon. They might
have sent a message around the world
telling Of their arrival there, but they didn't.
hat was the only way Of getting news over
the cable then, because communication
With the and wires was destroyed.
LAST STAND OF THE OPERATORS,
As the fire got nearer and nearer to the
Postal Building there was the greatest
excitement at the Offices there. The ticks
OF the instrument telling of the last stand Of