White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1913-03-23
j N MY BIRTHS
HARDEST FIGHT
DURING SAN FRANCISCO FIRE
PUGILIsT KNOCKS OUT TEAM
STER AND CAPTURES WAGON
FOR SICK SISTER.

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cause and reason for the hardest
battle of one Sir Edward Britt, the
well-known actor, scholar and gen
tleman. 1t was the cause of thou
sands of other hardest battles, too
battles for life, some of which We're
successful and others not so much. If
that awful smoking, tangled mass OF
wreckage, the fruit of earthquake
and fire, could have only spoken,
what wonderful, yet horrible, tales
would it unfold. If it were only
possible to pierce that grewsome
mass on that eventful morn of the
18th with an X-ray eye, what pic
lures of hardest battles!"
At the time of the earthquake
Jimmy Britt was not in San Fran
cisco. He was visiting in Mendoeino
county, about one hundred miles to
the north. The first rumble Jimmy
got of the earthquake caused him to
laugh. but when the true state of
things became known he started for
Frisco at once. The Britt family vas
living in San Franciscan is jim
my's home.
"Mv sister was seriously i'll at the
toime.' spoke the immaculated Ed
ward as he shed his Goa preparatory
to DOMINIC the makeup. James is
now one of our best lii actors and
looks as though he always had been.
Any one guessing Britt as a former
prize fighter deserves a medal. He
is truly a man out of the ordinary.
His face is smooth and unmarked
his nose still holds to its original
eourse-his ear still possesses the ar
tistic form of the shell-like mold in
which it was cast (good stuff and
in four hardest battles" his esteem
ed contemporary, Battling Nelson,
was unable to disturb the look of re-
finement that characterizes Britt's
features.
MY sister-she was my best
friend-she is dead now. Maybe
didn't hurry to Frisco though
E'gad, l felt like numbering the
engineer every time he stopped at a
station. The old town was under
martial law, remember?
l did-and always will. There's a
bump on my head, caused by a tumbl-
ing brick, that will always remind
me.
Il stalled me way through the
line, and a tough job it was. Those
soldiers were shooting them down at
the slightest pretext. They made me
go to work once. Wouldn't V e let
me take off me overeoat. | dug in
the ruins, with a tough soldier
prompting me in the ribs with a
bayonet, for two hard hours before
| could escape and continue on my
way to Third and Bryant streets
our home.
"They We're waiting for me
mother and all. You see. they sort
of depended on me and you should
have seer the change from an ex-
preston of anxiety and bewilder-
ment to one of joy when they saw
me trudging through the ruin-flled
street toward the house. Well they
might be worried, too-bloody
well they might" Jimmy emphasiz-
ed with a flavor of English" to his
speech. Jimmy didn't live those
four years in Hengland for nothing.
1.-THE fire was comingi"
Those of Frisco only realize the
full significance of that cry. 1.-THE
fire is coming," What a multitude
of scenes are recalled.
1.-The fire was coming And my
sister too sick to stand. Bloody well
they worried-and began to worry,
too. The only thing to do vas to get
a wagon-a cart-any sort of con-
had a hard task. During those
terrible days a man who owned a
wagon was a king. They were about
as numerous as feathers on fish. In
an hours time | saw only two-and
they ignored my shouts and frantic
signaling.
THE situation was getting desper-
ate and made up me mind that the
next one / saw would never get away
from me If | had to shoot it. There
came along a coal wagon-a little
one, driven by a big, r%aw-boned Irish
man. He refused to stop. but after
a hard run l caught on behind and
scrambled up to whisper in his ear.
"My sister is sick-and the fire is
c%oming!" l shouted. I'll give you
anything in Gods world for the use
of your wagon for a half hour" /
pleaded. only a half hour" |
| but he paid not the slightest atten-