Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-04-29

One year after the earthquake and
fire which wiped out all tie business
section of San Francisco and at least
half of the residence portion the trans
formation from acres of gaunt skele-
tons of ruined buildings and heaps of
brick to the beginnings of a well or
dered city Is little short of marvellous,
writes a San Francisco correspondent
of the New York Tribune. All the sky
scrapers are restored or i'll process of
restoration, so that they present few
traces of the whirlwind of flame
through which they have passed, and
scores of substantial buildings of brick
and stone have arisen on the main
business streets to mark the confidence
of property owners in the future of Il
greater San Francisco than the one
that was swept by fire.
In the residence sections of North
Beach and the Mission the reconstruc
ton has been nothing short of marvel
Gus. Here the fire ordinances permit
the erection of wooden buildings, and
whole blocks have been rebuilt in far
StN btLOlC lllt ulSlSlCI.
One feature of the rebuilding ut North
Beach has been the large amount of
work done by the owners with their
own hands.
This section is largely Italian and
Spanish, and these Latin races have
shown a fine disregard of the eXac
lions of the labor unions. With car
penters demanding So day and brick
layers SO day, these people have sud
denly discovered that building is not a
black art. They have laid their own
brick walls. and they have handled the
saw and plane as though they had ac
tually learned the ancient trade of the
carpenter. Many of these homes actu-
ally have been constructed at evening
and early morning in the owners
hours of leisure and on Sundays and
Saturday half holidays. Many Of
these men have not only built the
woodwork of their homes. but they
have shingled the roofs. plastered the
walls and painted their new homes.
Any Sunday the observer at North
Beach and the fringe of Telegraph
Hill may see hundreds of swarthy men
completing the homes which would
never have been theirs had they wait
ed to hire wOrlmen at the present eX-
cessive cost of labor
The work of reconstruction. especial
~ in the business district. meant the
repair of streets and sidewalks. the in
stallation of electric light. gas and
power the rehabilitation of the sky
scrapers which were merely Quilted
and the clearing away of bricks and
twisted steel and the rebuilding of
class Il and class G structures. The
extent of this task can he appreciated
only by one who has actually taken
part in such work. And it was made
more difficult in San Francisco by thu
distance from the east, which supplies
structural steel. terra Gotta and many
other kinds of building material. Or
ders for materials had to be in three
or four months before they could bj
filed and then there was another long
wait before the railroads could deliver
them.
1t is estimated that 10000 men have
been engaged in this work of rebuild
IFS san idiiNiSSO, hOiiC VI ilOlIl lt
ceived less than 81 a day for their la
Dor. Bricklayers received IS day
carpenters So to So, plumbers So. lath
ers Sc, painters So, and even the un
skilled men who have removed debris
and cleaned bricks have received 81 ;
day. A careful estimate gives 100000.
OCA spent for labor in eleven months
of rebuilding, for during the frs
months after the fire very little rea
work was done aside from buildin:
shacks for refugees and putting up on
story temporary stores in the burned
district. The same estimate gives $50,
OO0.e00 spent for materials during thi
period and $10,OOOOO0 spent by mer
chants in restoring their stocks o
goods
OF the thirty-five class A building
which were left Quilted after the fir
all have been repaired or are in proc
ess of repair Only one-the Kohl. o
old AlvinZa Hayward building, at TIL
northeast corner of Montgomery ant
California streets-was practically un
injured by the fire. This was due t
the metal window stills and the fac
that the building was surrounded b.
very low buildings. OF the others sey
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