The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-04-18
ANNIVERSARY
| Of The FRISCO
:, :; EARTHQUAKE.
Year Ago Today Occurred Great
est Calamity in the History
Of the United States
OVER $50 PEOPLE
LOST THEIR LIVES
San Franciscans Remember Debt
Of Gratitude They Owe to
People Of the Nation
OVER $50 PEOPLE
LOST THEIR LIVES
Associated Pres. to The Eve.i.s Times.

Associated Press to The EVENING Times.
San Francisco, Cal. April 1S.-Just
year ago today the newspapers
their startled readers, in big black
scareheads, that San Francisco was
utterly destroyed, wiped of the map,
hope of resurrection. Today San
as big nor as care-free as prior to the
Sive metropolis. Scars still remain
blackened heaps of ruins reminiscent
of one of the greatest catastrOphes in
all history-but the heroic people of
the brave city are doing their best to
hide them. The business section of the
city, year ago almost wholly devasta-
ted, has been largely rebuilt. To most
people the days of horror that followed
the quake have become dim-memory,
and to some light-hearted ones mere
direst of disasters, San Francisco Is
now going about It's business OF pleas
ure as unconcernedly as ever. Men
who were rendered penniless. year
ago, are today wondering ii their
+sure thing" will get under the wire
first in the fifth race at Emeryville.
Anyone who imagined that the Golden
Gate city would be rendered solemn
and melancholy and sedate by the
great holocaust has, in the language of
the street, another think coming.
Wednesday, April 1S, 1906. 1t is a
memorable date for San Francisco,
even though it has become ancient his
tory for most of them. At quarter
past five in the morning the earth
heaved violently. The walls OF many
buildings were shaken down, hut the
damage was slight as compared with
the devastation wrought by the fire
that followed. A few minutes after
the quake, which lasted only about
thirty seconds, flames broke out at
many places along Market street, IN
the ghetto and factory districts. The
brief upheaval of the earth's crus:
had broken the water mains and no
water was available to fight the
flames.
Dynamite was used by the fremen
and soldiers, the latter having been
sent to the stricken city by General
Funst n, in a vain effort to check the
flames. Some of the produest build
ings erected by men were by nen
destroyed. Wednesday night the
throbbing heart OF the city was mass
of flaming ruins. All of that night
thousands of homeless people fled be-
fore the advancing flames. There was
little excitement and no attempts at
looting, possibly due to the fact that
Mayor Schmidt had issued procla-
nation authorizing the federal troops
and police to kin anyone engaged in
the commission of any crime. On the
hills, beyond the reach OF the fire
demon, all San Francisco camped, rich
and poor together, watching the de-
struction of the city as calmly as Nero
at Rome.
Thursday the flames advanced on
the residence district, licking up the
palaces of the millionaires as sreed.iy
as they had devoured the tenenlents of
the ghetto. Through Thursday, Thurs
day night and Friday the fire ragged.
Through 1t all the firemen fought val
ianly, fopelessly. Friday night, after
the greater portion OF the city had
been destroyed, the firemen made their
last stand, and won.
All of this, to the people of San
Francisco, is but ancient history, and
well-night forgotten; but San Francis
co remembers the debt of gratitude it
owes to the people of the nation who
provided succor in its time of need,
and some day, If opportunity offers, the
debt will be paid in full.