Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1906-05-02
FROM AN EYE WITNESS.
Interesting Letter From One Who Saw
The Awful San Francisco Calamity.

Mamie Anderson of San Rafael,
California, to her brother, County
Attorney Griffin, and wife, will be
of interest to our readers as coming
from one who passed through the
terrible ordeal. San Rafael is only
fifteen miles from San Francisco
and was pretty well shaken up by
the earthquake itself:
San Rafael, Cal, April 20, 1906.
My Dear Brother and Sister:
How can | describe to you the
terrible destruction through which
we have been and are now passing!
On the morning of the 18th
we were awakened at 5:13 by
such terrible shaking of the house
as we never thought could take
place. To be awakened out of
sound 81 eep, to be hurled against
the side of the room and doorways,
to have pictures flying off the walls,
hear my dishes smashing and all
amidst the horrible crashing of the
timbers and roar of the earthquake
perhaps you can imagine little of
what it was, but to imagine and
to experience it are vastly different;
but thank God we are still living.
We keep having little shakes about
every hour and every time we have
one we can't tell whether it is 60
ing to keep on or stop so we all
run. | am writing on the front
porch; when the house shakes | hy
down the steps. Oh | am so ner-
vous | can neither sleep nor rest!
We are now ca 4aif rations for we
have thousands Of people from the
city pouring in here to be fed and
clothed and we cannot buy anoth-
er bit of meat and we don't care
for we don't want to eat.
Can you imagine that beautiful
city one black, charred mass of
ruins? That immense Ferry Build
ing is twisted and wrecked and one
doesn't know where to find Market
Street. Every house, Opera house,
hotel, the Grand Emporium, Hales,
Hopkins Institute, everything in
Chinatown and as far out Market
as you can look is burned to the
ground. The worst of the situation
is that the earthquake broke the
water mains and they have had no
water to fight with but today they
have water and they say the. fire
will be under control soon. 1t is a
terrible sight to see little children
with their tongues hanging out for
water and hear the groans of the
people caught in the wrecked
houses. There are hundreds of
them killed and horses dead and oh
how can | write! 1t seems as
though cannot stand the shock of
it all. The poor people have hud.
died together in the parks and now
food is arriving from Los Angeles
and they are housed in tents in the
parks OF the city with only what
they saved on their backs or could
catch up in their fight. The new
postoffice just dropped into the
earth one story right straight down
and all of the houses up Market as
! far as Kearneyyyou remember
where the big fountain was-were
all wrecked by the quake, for that
is all filled in land there and the
street car rails are like twist
waves.
The wealthy people have suffer
ed with the poor and everybody is
poor alike today. The authorities
of San Rafael have provided for
1.-TWO or three thousand and out by
the San Rafael hotel they are camp
ed and people whose houses have
been wrecked in San Rafael are
living in the yards and out in the
streets. Our chimney crashed to
the ground and the plastering is
cracked the range, is out in the
4 room q hort fxxyr, foa4 A.. .~r~> -.