The San Francisco call., 1906-05-28
RAIN DRENCHES
TIRED CAMPERS
Downpour Ruins Sunday
Dinners Planned by
Refugees.

Even when the storm comes they laugh,
the pioneers of the new San Francisco.
Out in the tents in the parks they made
the best of it, women that did not know
before the fire what hardship meant little
children and babies-no one complained
The blood of the old pioneer who knew
Yerba Buena when it was a collection of
san dunes told.
Out in the park near the conservatory
there was a colony of refugees in the little
hollow that surrounds the building. Their
tents held, but the water rose UP on them
last They climbed on top of their trunks
and began to plan out canned dinner.
The water rose still higher and they be-
gan to look up that chapter about Noah
and the first lifeboat man. But the floods
subsided and they cooked dinner instead
Nobody knows how the storm started.
nobody knows why-not even Forecas ster
Meade. 1t is one of those things that
cannot be explained. BY all precedent
showers should have been over last
month. But this one just "butted in
when it wasn't needed.
One of those who can always find the
means to be joyful, though the breweries
have been wiped out and the corner oases
are not sought the temporary quarters of
Prof. McAdie yesterday
What's matter?' he asked
"Barometer's falling. l can't say when
it will stop" replied Foreca ster McAdie.
BAROMETER I'M CELLAR.
why don't you tie barometer up?
Hoist barometer up to the top of the
mast. If you're going to let barometer
fall why didn't you let barometer fall
when fire was going? This ish no time
to let barometer fall when man wants to
cook steak"
When the inebriated one left the vicin-
ity OF McAdie's home the rain began to
fal in torrents. "Musht dropped barom-
eter down the cellar" he observed.
1t was hard on those who had sent out
dinner invitations for Sunday. Many a
householder who went to bed with one of
those improYised brick pile stoves at his
doorstep woke up and found that the last
brick had been washed off haf-hour be-
fore he had been awakened. There were
some who launched fiatboats and Drowned
the festive steak upon them but these
were few and far between. Most of the
population that was not on speaking terms
with the restaurant man lifted the long
departed equine from his tin sepulcher.
DOGS GUARD FLOODED TENT.
At the corner of Stanyan and II streets
foundation is being dug for a building
In one corner of this some refugees had
erected a tent. The water from Ashbury
Heights came with rush, and they had
scarcely time to get out when il was over
the floor of the canvas home. The family
owned two handsome dogs, and these re-
fused to leave the tent until the water
was so deep that they had to swim. They
were seen mournfully guarding the food
ed tent by hundreds who passed on the
Beach cars.
One of the annoying and amusing
features of the great rainfall at II
o'clock yesterday was the flooding of Fill
more street from Post to Geary. So
great was the onrush of water that the
top of the manhole at Post street flew
off and a stream as wide as the aperture
a once flooded the district shooting into
the air and submerging the sidewalks
Within half an hour more than hum
dred people had been waterbound near
Geary street. and there they amused
themselves by taunting those whose mis-
fortunes added to the throng. There was
no egress from the island like spot where
the refugees from the flood stood, but
many perplexed men and women, on first
seeing themselves hemmed in ran wildly
one way and another in the hope Of es-
Gaping.
Next boat leaves in five minutes" one
would cry. and another would yell to
some foundering pedestrian with a grip,
Bathing suits for rent on the next cor
ner.'
The drugstore at Geary and Fillmore
streets was flooded and many cellars
were inundated.