, 1909-09-18

were buried ID the debris which the river
carried down upon them. Some may have
been borne miles Town stream. In any event,
they must have been battered to o quick
death.
Hundreds Cling to Supports.
All of Friday night after midnight, all day
Saturday and Saturday night and until the
forenoon of Sunday hundreds Of trapped
ones chung to thcir posts, the rain still en-
phaslzlng their misery. Meantime block
after block was being beaten out Of the city.
Houses fell with crashes all night long. Some
structures would have melted away under
the rain alone, as did finally the San Francis
co Cathedral Old and soaked as 1t never
had been before, the great tower fell in ruins
carrying two fine old bells with it down into
the wreck. Ordinarily the destruction OF
this historic sanctuary, (which antedates the
day OF Independence proclaimed a century
ago, would have been looked upon as a cal
amity, but in the tragedy Of human life all
about it excited little comment.
All day Saturday families were moving
out of houses on which the widening river
encroaohed. Men carried beds, mothers their
half naked babies, and children what they
could of household effects.
After the children the first care was for
the pigs. dashed by the legs, the frighten-
cd animals were driven through the streets,
squealing u protest against the sheeta of rain
One father, whose house was menaced, hur-
riedly seized a quantity Of bedding and car
rled 1t to the home Of a friend. When he
returned there was no sign Of his own house.It
had been carried off, and with it his wife
aud babies. Gone also were the savings of
his lifetime. He accepted his loss as his
share of the toll of death, and went bis way
numbed with grief but uncompl4ining.
A woman of the middle class whose wealth
was far beyond that Of her ~neigbbors offered
fifty dollars to any one who would save a
trunk in her house. No man accepted her
offer. TIL house and it's contents went the
way of hundreds Of others. Presumably the
trunk held treasures that would spell for
tune in this land.
Incidents like these might be cited a
thousand times, each relation throwing it's
tragic and pathetic light on the story Of the
flood. Like the earthquakes Of San Fran
cisco and Messina, the tale is not to be told
as it was. There were heroes and there
were sacrifices, both destined forever to be
unsung.
Through the glasses one man was seen
riding a horse into the river to the rescue
Of four women. Just as he had reached
one of them and was on the point of helping
her upon the horse, the house where the
unfortunates were isolated went down. Wo-
men and would be rescuer met the same
fate.
Raoul D. Marty and his family were ma
rooned III their home. When the water rose
to the second story and the house was trem-
bling with the impact Of the waves, father,
mother and three children crawled into the
branches of q tree. For six hours they
roasted there like bedraggled chickens, and
were finally saved by means of q buoy.
Marty declared that he and his family dis
cussed the ACCESSIBILITY Of leapiug into the
water to end their mental and physical dis
tress.
One man standing alone on the roof of
"a house seemed to be haranguing the river.
He was as mad as men ever become, made
SO presumably by the loss Of his wife and
children. Just what befell him finally is not
known, but it is supposed he committed
suicide.
The darkness of Saturday night fell and
not a rift anywhere in the clouds that hug
ged the mountains. The streets were like
the streets of Venice. Shoes and stockings
were useless. The city lights bloomed forth
and blinked out as the service succeeded or
IL NA---l $500 l. 1 II