Amador ledger., 1906-04-27
Through the Fire Disaster.

A former JackSOnite, u. A. Walten-
spiel, gives the following account of
how he and his wife passed through
the ordeal of earthquake and fire,
in letter received by W. Ii. VeIa.
2032 Parker street, Berkeley,
April %, 1906.
Friend Vela--You no doubt have heard
from others that we got through the
comm otion safely, but we had very
strenuous time. When the shock
began l jumped up and told Mrs W.
to stay in bed. AS the shaking In
creased ran to the front window to
see the effect on the high buildings; !;
they stood. All / could see was
chimneys falling. l had to stand
bracing with legs apart to keep from
falling over. The shaking was in all
directlons-sideways, with up and
down motion as we'll. AS the house
was of frame 1 was not frightened.
After it quit shaking, 1 dressed and
went down stairs on the street to see
its effect. The streets we're full of
people and debris. 1 went back and
had good breakfast of ham and eggs
before the gas gave out. AS we were
up on the hill it lasted long enough
to cook, and that is all. After eating
1 lit my pipe and took a walk The
sight was awful, but as you got
good description in the papers l will
omit it. Came back to the house and
reported, then went to the store; 1t
was a wreck inside, and some of the
heavy sand stone cornice had dropped
through the side walk into the labora-
tory where we worked. We started to
work when another good tremble
came. Then l got cold feet and left.
Went home, and watched the fire
spreading over the city. We watched
block after block go down by fire and
giant powder. After lunch went
down town again as far as Kearney
and Post, up to Kearney to Bush, up
Bush to Dupont, to California and
home. The city was doomed by that
time. So we packed few clothes
and food, and waited, and hoped it
would stop at Kearney, but 1t kept
creeping up until finally between 8
and p. m., it got to Dupont, and
we went up the hill to the Flood
mansion. Made four or five trips until
we got all we. wanted, and more than
we saved. The hill was crowded. We
camped back of the Huntington house
on fine lawn and rested. We had
small basket with bread, two cans of
oysters, some crackers, some jackson
salami we got for Easter from Cade-
martori, half ham, fifteen eggs raw,
and quart deminjohn of water. We
tried to eat, but lost all appetite ex-
cept for drinking. but as no water
was to be had, we took only a small
swallow at time. We thought we
would be safe on account of the large
lawns on Mob Hill, but the fire wss
on three sides of US. We were order
ed out by the troops about 3 p. m.
Thursday. So we started to tramp to
Van Ness avenue. We carried our
things a block leaving one of the
ladies to watch (there were seven in
our party, five grown people, cur
neighbors in the fiat below, and the
men, three of US would go back fer
another load. We worked that way
until we got to Van Ness and Filbert
which I considered perfectly safe; no
houses near. 1t was then about a.
m. We were about tired out, tried
to eat little, and rested. was for
either staying there or going to Fort
Mason, either was safe as subsequent
ly proved. But as we didn't know
how long we would have to stay, we
finally decided to go to the Presidio.
L hailed a colored man who came
from that direction with a wagon,
and asked him how much to haul all
the stuff to the Presldio. He said
be had asked it. He got the job quick
before he changed his mind, we sent
the Oldest man along as he was about
gone in for the balance of the walk
to the Presidio. 1t was the longest
walk L have taken in years. 1 drank
some water on the way and filled my
when we got to the Presidio and got
our things under the trees l went to
look for water. l went to the hospital
kitchen, cook gave us all we wanted
to drink, and also five pound lard
can of coffee, we gave him a cigar and
thanks, came back to the camp had
breakfast, lunch and dinner all to-
gether about 10 a. M, then had a
smoke while one of the men filled up
the bucket with water again at the
hospital, guess that was the last
given out for the crowd came thicker
all the time so they locked the gates
to the kitchen. About p. m. they
gave out tents, so we went over and
got three tents and put them up. 1t
was hard work as the ground was
rocky; could not drive the pegs, but
we we're not allowed to put them up
where we pleased. We finally got
moved at about p. m. We had to
watch the tents and poles so no one
swiped them. The cinders as large as