The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-04-19

The nre is still raging throughout san
Francisco and there is no possibility of
stopping it until it exhausts itself for
want of material. The city is doomed.
The authorities are still dynamiting
buildings in the vain hope of checking
the progress of the flames. but new
misfortune has befallen the place.
The explosives for blowing up build
ings are becoming exhausted; even the
powder of the government arsenal is all
gone. Every business building and half
of the residence portion OF the city is
destroyed
San Francisco April 19.-Day dawn
ed on a scene of death and destruction.
During the night the flames had con-
sumed many of the city,s finest strue-
lures and skipped in a dozen directions
to the residence portions. They had
made their way over into the north
beach section and springing anew to
the south they reached out along the
shipping section down the bay shore.
over the hills and across toward Third
and Townsend streets. Warehouses,
wholesale houses and manufacturing
concerns fell in their path. This COM
pFeted the destruction Of the entire dis
trict known as the south Of Market
street. How far they are reaching to
the south across the channel can not
be told as this part of the city is shut
of
After darkness thousands Of the
homeless were making their way with
their blankets and scant provisions to
Golden Gate park and the beach to find
shelter. Those in the homes on the
hills just north of the Hayes valley
wrecked section piled their belongings
in the streets and express wagons and
automobiles were hauling the things
away to the sparsely settled regions.
Down town everything is ruin Not
a business house stands Theaters are
erumbled into heaps. Factories and
commission houses lie smouldering on
their former sites. All of the newspa-
per plants have been rendered useless.
It is estimated that the loss in San
Francisco will reach from $3.50. 600. 600 to
s200000,000. These figures are in the
rough and nothins can be told until
( partial accounting is taken On every
side there was death and suffering
Hundreds were injured, either burned
crushed or struck by falling pieces from
/ the buildings and one of them died
while on the operating table at Me-
| cnanies' Pavilion, improvised as a hos
/ pltal for the comfort and care of three
1 hundred of the injured. The number IF
dead IS not known. but it is estimated
/ at least 500 met their death in the hor-
/ ror
Three Thieves Shot.
At o'clock under special message
/ from President Roosevelt, the city was
! placed under martial law Hundreds of
troops patrolled the streets and drove
! the crowds back, while hundreds more
were set at work assisting the fire and
1 police departments. The strictest or
ders We're issued and in true military
spirits the soldiers obeyed During the
AFTERNOON three thieves met their death
by rife bullets while at work in the
ruins The curious we're driven back
at the breasts OF the horses that the
cavairymen rode and all the crowds
were forced from the level district to
| the hilly section beyond to the north.
The water supply was entirely shut
or, and maybe it was just as well.
for the line of the fire department
would have been absolutely useless at
any stage. Assistant Chief Dough-
/