Wood County Reporter from Grand Rapids, Wisconsin • 3

QUAKE AND FLAME DESTROY FRISCO Frightful Seismic Shock Shatters Half of the Town. Water Mains Broken and Fire Completes the Ruin. Other Cities on the Pacific Also Stricken by the Great Disaster. Appalling Loss of Life and Millions of Dollars Worth of Property Destroyed, Many New and Costly Skyscrapers and Big Stares Fall in Heaps of Debris. Torn and shattered by the earthquake, which was followed by devastating fire.

San Francisco Is a city of ruins. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives have been snuffed out and millions upon millions of dollars in property are lost. Where stood its stateliest buildings are piles of twisted steel and ruined stone. The homes of many families were wrenched into fragments and the lives they sheltered taken. The first shock was felt just at dawn Wednesday, and the disturbances continued for several minutes.

The earlier demonstrations were mild, but as they continued the trembling of the earth became so violent that the whole i um wwvjijiiiiiwHwiiwwtfitwxoytr? twtwwhwwsm wwwyv'wwM Ii I THE CITY HAM. tion of the city was disturbed and a large proportion turned into the streets. The communication with the outside world quickly was cut off. Swiftly seismic visitant came, and as swiftly did it go. Behind was a trail of dead and dying.

And after that flames! Nature, that rolled earth into waves and struck down great piles of stone and marble, furnished a dismal and dreadful aftermath in a 'empest of wind. The wind fanned the flames and the flames speedily completed the horrifying work of the earthquake. Thousands undoubtedly owe their lives to early hour at which the siesmie shocks brought their wlde- r-JL. 1 t.u ifcnvre- 1 oo dim oa aQaaOTtr-n op piltP -ssr UOnmnno AREAS OF DESTRUCTION IN SAN FRANCISCO. The black line incloses the district in which the earthquake did the greatest shaded portions of the map show the areas of the big fires in the skyscraper and wholesale districts.

spread ruin. The district most damaged is the business portion of the town. At the time of the a. structures practically were deserted, and their collapse caused comparatively little loss of life. A few hours later and they would have been veritable human beehives.

Then INSIUANCK maim: voio. Kot a Cent Collectable on Wrecked by Quake. Millions for lire but not one cent for earthquake. This is the insurance situation in Sau Francisco. The owners of prqperty destroyed by the earthquakes cannot collect a dollar under their fire insurance policies, even though the buildings that fell were later swept by flames.

But in case a structure shattered by the seismic disturbance should spread a blaze to an adjoining building the owner of that building can collect his insurance. As far as the heads of the big fire insurance ii i VIEW OF MARKET STREET, CENTRAL POINT OF DISASTER. The tall, building on the right is the Claus Spreckels building. In which the plant of the San Francisco Call was located- the next building beyond is the Examiner building and the last large building on the right is the Palace hotel. The tall building on the left is anew skyscraper, which housed the Chronicle.

the disaster would have been something almost beyond the power of the human mind to grasp. By the time the earthquake reached its destructive period the streets of the city were crowded with thousands of terror stricken persons, who rushed to and fro and endeavored to keep out of the way of falling buildings. Hundreds were supposed to have been caught in the falling debris and crushed to death or killed later by the tires which sprung up al! through the business portion of the city. In general it may be said that the district lying between Market and Howard streets, from the bay as far west as the city hall, has been badly wrecked. The Call and Examiner Buildings, as well as the Western Union Building, Lave been wrecked.

The large department stores in this neighborhood also were ruined. Farther east on Market street toward the Ferry Slips, is a section occupied by cheap lodginghouses and hotels and here the loss of life is reported td be great. ire the Shook. Fire followed the crumbling of buildings along Market street, and the firemen were powerless to prevent the spread of the flames. The earthquake had broken the mains on the big street and twisted off the side mains, and it was almost Impossible to steamers through the debris in the streets.

Volunteers brought supplies of dynamite and began to blow up the blazing debris in a vain effort to confine the conflagration to the ruined area. All power in the street car and private electric lighting plants was cut off. Wires in tangled masses had been hurled info the streets. Near 4th and Stevenson streets the old red wood buildings made good tinder for the flames. Fire swept through the debris of the poorer buildings and soon got beyond control of the fire fighters.

Across tlie street the fire swept, licking up the debris in front of the Winchester rooming house. Fire spread to the buildings along the west side of street. Desperate efforts were made with powder, dynamite and other explosives to stop the flames. One block away the Pa 1 ace Hotel was threatened by the sweep of the flames. With no water to extinguish the fire, the big hostelry seemed doomed.

Calls were sent to the Presidio for soldiers to help save the business district from being entirely swept by the conflagration. Powuer. dynamite and other explosives were tried on the blazing piles of debris. On Market street merchants stood in their doors calling loudly for wagons and offering big sums to the drivers who would load up with their goods. Carried by a strong breeze, the companies know, no policy has ever been written to cover disasters by earthquakes, it was announced, however, that the eighty-odd fire insurance companies interested had decided to pay dollar for dollar to every one insured with them.

The companies, it was said, would not discriminate between fire earthquake and every one insured, it'was reported, would be paid to the extent of the loss. The flames burned over ten square miles of the heart of San Francisco and destroyed more than 150 city blocks, besides the small fires that raged in different parts of the town. brands from the Market street fires landed on the water front and threatened the lumber, oil and steamship docks. On Fremont street one of the worst fires of the early morning threatened to destroy a block in the wholesale district. Small fires appeared in the debris on California and Pine streets.

Soon the flames, unchecked by water or explosives, gained such headway that all the wooden buildings as far as Sansome street were attacked. A strong westerly wind became JCVT A pAf A a A A 4V 1 7 i a (- t- A TERKLTOBY IN EARTHQUAKE AREA. stronger as the morning wore away. It fanned the several blazes in the heart of the business district and threatened to spread the fire throughout a section filled with valuable merchandise. As the noon hour drew near the flames were spreading in every direction, and the destruction by fire bid fair to eclipse the damage wrought by the earthquake.

The loss of life seems to have been confined to the poorer districts and manufacturing territory. On lower Market street, the main thoroughfare of the city, block after block of substantial buildings was destroyed. The Valencia Hotel, between Seventeenth and Eighteenth streets, on Valencia street, a five-story frame building. toppled over into the street, burying seventy-five people in the At Eighteenth and Valencia there is a crevice in the street six feet wide and entire sidewalks are torn up. The street cart racks are badly twisted all through the southern section of the city.

Davis street. Font street. Battery street, Sansom, Montgomery, Kearney, Spear, Main. Beale and Fremont streets were in the area of the greatest fury. Early reports indicated that the quaking earth shook all buildings along these thoroughfares from their foundations and piled the debris high.

The cheap tenement house districts suffered terribly. Old buildings, constructed in the days of redwood, and dilapidated and tottering, collapsed with a succession of roars. Fires appeared in the ruins, but the fire fighters were almost powerless to extinguish the flames. Tin ildi Kali. The offices of the Postal Telegraph Company, in the Hobart Building, were wrecked.

The Associated Press Building at 1502 Montgomery street also was destroyed. The $7,000,000 City Hall rocked and creaked in the earthquake. jKirtions of it collapsing, bringing added terror to the people who had rushed into the streets near by. Scarcely had the people realized the extent of the great calamity when reports began to come in from surrounding places indicating that the shock had been disastrous throughout a wide area. Some experts on seismic disturbances estimated that a portion of California 100 miles in diameter had come within the zone of greatest activity.

Night added to the horror, and as darkness fell the sky was illuminated by the brilliant conflagration. There was no light in the city except the light that meant the destruction of homes and the loss of life. The final dying out of the fires leave only a barren sand dune dotted with the blackened ruins of what was a great city Ten Square Itnrneil. Ten square miles of the heart of the city were burned over, the water sup- TH All, OF HORRoI. Unle ami Death Reported from Other ('oast Town si.

Reports from the interior are most alarming. Santa Rosa, one of the prettiest cities the State, in the prosperous county of Sonona. is a total wreck There are 10.000 homeless. The loss of life cannot be estimated. As the last great seismic tremor spent its force in the earth the whole business portion tumbled into ruins.

The main street is piled many feet deep with the fallen buildings. Not one business buildiug is left intact. This destruction m- EPITOME OF THE CATASTROPHE. The dead in San Francisco (estimated) 1,000 The dead, inmates of insane asylum at Agnew 27." Tbe dead in Saa Jose Tbe dead in Santa Rosa 300 The dead at other points 150 The injured (estimated I 3.000 Estimated property 1055... $200,000,000 Number of square miles devastated 10 Number of city blocks destroyed 1.000 Number of buildings in ruins.

.30,000 Number of persons made homeloss 150,000 Number of hotels destroyed 8 Newspajers offices in ruins 3 Telegraph and telephone offices wiped out 3 City placed under martial law. Ollier Places Stricken. Santa practically destroyed 300 persons killed and 10.000 made homeless. San of buildings shattered and 05 persons killed. Palo buildings but one of Leland Stanford University thrown down and two persons killed.

Santa of buildings demolished and many persons reported killed. damage done to property and some fatalities. property loss. insane asylum demolished: 275 persons killed and patients running at large. Hollister property loss.

ply was cut off because of the twisted and broken mains, and the frantic residents, aided by Federal troops, fought the flames with dynamite in au effort to save the remainder of the city from destruction. The property loss is estimated at $200,000,000. General Funston. in command of the United States troops at the Presidio, declared the citv under martial law as soon as the extent of the horror became apparent, and the troops and police worked together to save life, protect property and recover the dead. The earthquake shock destroyed so many of the fire engine houses that the department would have been virtually powerless even had the water supply not been destroyed.

The saturnalia of crime and looting which began when the soldiers sacked the saloons broke out afresh with the darkness, aud unnumbered, untold crimes were committed on every side. No historian will ever describe the tortures which the homeless suffered; none dare attempt to recount the agonies of those who sought the ruins of their homes and missing members of their household; none may think of the woe anil doom of those buried beneath the wreckage or consumed by the remorseless flames. Number of Dead Never Known. It will be many days before the complete story of the ruin wrought by the double calamity of earthquake aud fire that visited San Francisco will be written and then there will still remain untold countless tales of pitiful tragedy. The exact loss of life will never be known, as hundreds of unfortunates have been incinerated iu the flames which made the rescue of those buried under toppling steeples and falling walls impossible.

Famine in its most terrible form expanded through the devastated city and stricken inhabitants Thursday. Hunger. growiug into the first stages of starvation, faced the spent thousands who slept Wednesday night iu the public squares, or on the bare pavements of the streets. Thirst, the most terrorizing of the torments to follow the earthquake, drove men and women mad. Vandals caught in the act of robbing dead bodies were shot without explanation and their bodies consigned to the flames of some burning buildings, without any further formality.

The soldiers patrolling the streets were ordered to kill, forthwith, any person seen robbing the dead or burglarizing unprotected places of business. Fully a score of men were killed under this order. The appalling calamity in San Franisco places that city in a list of Lisbon, Caracas. Naples, and other cities devastated by earthquakes. The horrors of the situation in California are the POSTAL TELEGRAPH BUILDING.

greater because San Francisco is a populous and commercial city. The earthquake destroyed at once hundreds of business blocks aud the means of saving others from tire. It paralyzed commerce. destroyed railways aud bridges, cut off communication with other cities, and desolated tire country to the south But. as in the case of Galveston, there will be quick recovery from what seems overwhelming disaster.

Naples is a great city in of the eruptions of Vesuvius and in spite of earthquakes. Tokio. desolated by earthquakes several times, is the greatest city of Japan. Chicago is greater of the tire of 1871. is none the worse for the earthquake of 1880.

And San Francisco will rise superior to the great disaster of chides all of tke county buildings. Tbe four-story court house, with its dome rising high into the heavens, is merely a pile of broken masonry. Nothing is left. Identification of the buildings is impossible. What was not destroyed by the earthquake has been swept by fire.

Reports also tell of the destruction of Healdsburg, Geyserville. Cloverdale, Hopland and I kiah. This report takes in the country as far north as Mendocino and Lake counties and as far west as the Pacific ocean. It will probably never be known how many perished in the awful calamity. TURKS TO FUTURE Hope Rises in San Francisco When Fire Is Out Survivors Take Courage, Though Loss Is $400,000,000.

Heartstrings of Continent Touched by the City Desolation. Tide of Gold Flows Westward to Relieve Suffering of Stricken. San Francisco's four days' battle with the flames came to au end Saturday. The homeless people found as it parks and across the bay. and all remaining in the city were fed.

San Francisco's heroic fire fighters at last triumphed, and the flames which devastated three-fourths of the city were finally under complete control. The long and heroic struggle to subdue the flames reached its successful conclusion Saturday morning near the ferry-house, where thousands were trapped on the wharves, to which they had been driven by tbe relentless advance of the fire. Here the Anal stand was made by firemen, sailors and citizens. aided by fire tugs and a few engines. Victory rewarded their efforts, and the entrapped people were saved.

Sunday, for first time in nearly 200 years, the church bells did not call the people to worship. Most of the churches had been converted into rubbish heaps by earthquake and fire. The few still standing were tilled with homeless, sick, and injured. But there were religious in the parks and open spaces where the homeless were camping in tents and under of thankfulness that so many were saved where so many were in peril and of gratitude for the generosity of a nation which responded so nobly aud so promptly to avert a famine. 50,000 Homeless Chant Hymn.

In the midst of San ruin and desolation Sunday 50,000 homeless people in Golden Gate Park united their voices in this hymn Other refuge I have none; bangs ray helpless soul on Thee. Leave, oh leave me not alone: still support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is stayed, all my help from Thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with the of thy wing. City a Vast Ash Heap.

No better description can be given to the once beautiful city than that of a vast ash heap. Desolation and ruin greet the eye from every direction, viewing the scene from the center of the business district. Golden Gate Park and the Presidio are great camps in which over 200,000 men, women aud children are patiently waiting until they can say they have homes of their own. They are living under martial rule with an uncomplaining resignation. enduring hardships which they never dreamed of.

yet without a murmur. All day the sight is presented of thousands standing in line before the food supply depots, waiting for their daily allotment of rations. The mau who counted his wealth by thousands is not above standing elbow to elbow with the man who was in the humblest circumstances four days before tbe disaster. The woman who rode in an automobile and commanded au army of servants receives her bread after the floor washerwoman has been supplied, and shows no sign of pridi Hope Anew. When the reign of terror was over in the stricken city, reason returned to its throne.

Public confidence in the future of San belief that tbe worst had happened and that the day had passed for made manifest Saturday by a return flow of refugees who fled from the city whil it was rocking on its foundations and withering beneath the flames. The return movement of the refugees is one of many signs telling of the new order of things that had been established. Martial law was tbe stern force that crushed lawless element and afforded protection to the law-abiding citizens who wsre helpless in their extremity. The combined of the federal troops, the State militia, the police, and the students from the University of California achieved the first step toward the restoration of order. In the reckoning up of the extent of the disaster conservative minds hesitated.

The nearest approach to the aggregate destruction of life and property is estimated as follows: Number of lives lost. 2.500: property destroyed. $400,000,000. The boundaries of the fire-swept district include at least threefourths of the area. Downtown wholesale aud retail districts are complete ruins, few buildings in these districts standing.

The greater part of the residence section also is ruined and the fire swept through sections where homes of wealthier class resided. Temporary business houses have been opened at Oakland, across the bay. and every preparation possible is being made for reopening business houses in San Francisco itself. As fast as ruins can lie cleared away temporary structures will replace destroyed business houses. Will Rebuild at Once.

It was announced Saturday that immediate steps for rebuilding the city were being taken, and with the fire under control order was restored and tbe work of cleaning up the ruins commenced. Estimates of the loss of property range from to 000,000. either of which may be correct when it is considered that assessed values in the city exceed $400,000,000. and that three-fourths of the city is in ruins. Estimates of the loss by earthquake shocks are less than 10 per cent.

Old papers for sale at this office. ALL HUMANITY HEEDS APPEAL. Mood of Material Aid to Mricken ity lla No Parallel In History. spontaneity and liberality out a parallel in history the whole civilized world answered the unvoiced appeal of mined San Not only from every city, town and hamlet in this country, but from over every sea came news that all humanity in its profound sympathy was showering material aid upon the stricken city and its beggared people. No more amazing instance of world wide generosity ever has been recorded.

la the list of generous contributors. New York City ranked next to the government itself and bade fair to far exceed the federal contribution. Saturday night the New ork fund amounted to approximately s2.iw s.i with contribut ous coming in fast. The Stare of Massachusetts undertook to raise fund, spontaneously subscribed, promised to go beyond Philadelphia sent $.100,000. These are but a few of the larger sums.

A score or more of cities contributed sloo.oUo and more, while hundreds of municipalities sent all their means would allow. From London. Paris. Berlin and where, er Americans are congregated a generous inflow of gold came. holly foreign contributions, while deeply appreciated, were not accepted, according to the precedent established by the President in declining a gift of 000 from a German steamship line.

America. though touched by the evidence of foreign generosity, felt able to care for its own. Nor was the wort: cf raising relief funds confined to the large cities. From every section, every State, came the news of contributions made by small towns. Not large in themselves, but their aggregate has been enormous.

Uncounted thousands sent their contributions and the grand total of the relief fund will probably never be known. WILLING TO GIVE, BIT CAST Announcement Stops from Karope. The eyes of Europe have been turned to America in such absorbing interest that the public affairs of the old world have been ignored temporarily. The cable told of the almost unprecedented response of human sympathy which the news ot California's calamity brought from every land and people under the sun. This universal leveling of all the national boundaries which ordinarily divide mankind was commented on.

Europe longed to give practical expression of its sincerity. It would have pour ed a willing stream of gold into the coffers of the Ued Cross. The only thing which held back a flood of gifts was the report in Washington that no foreign con tributions were needed or desired. Offers of foreign contributions have come from many quarters, but all were declined with the warmest expression of the appreciation of the thoughtful generosity which prompted the offers. Become Insane.

Hundreds were driven into a state proaching madness by the scenes of destruction, death and devastation in Sar never before approached in America. Scores of others actually have become insane. The population, after a wild night of terror, passed on th bare pavements of the streets or in the little public squares. Thursday faced the torments of hunger and thirst. The crazed mob was hemmed in by thousands o) regular soldiers from the Presidio.

The indescribable hideousness of the wild, raving orgies of the denizens of the underworld of San scum ol the whole earth women anti children who wandered in the streets in scant attire, exhausted, thirsty, hungry. Some died from exposure. Awful Fate of Chineue. There is another nnconsidered factor which adds to the list of probable dead. Chinatown w'as built three stories above the street and three below it, and all was destroyed.

The Chinese had run their runnels, chambers and secret passages fifty feet below ground. These were always populated, especially' at night. As they were not timbered, these tunnels must have caved in, for the shock was strong enough at the point to overthrow some of the old rookeries. The things which must have happened down there in the bowels of the earth Bury Dead In Trenches. San Francisco buried its dead in trenches all over the city, and in some instances more than fifteen bodies have been placed in a single d'tch.

There was no rime for transportation to cemeteries, and to leave the dead uncovered meant pestilence. So in public squares, in vacant lots, in jagged holes made by the shock, all that was left of rich and poor was placed, most of them to remain there unidentified. Mint Reported Safe. The United States mint at San Francisco escaped serious damage from the earthquake and the resulting conflagration and its stock of gold and silver coin and bullion, amounting to about 000. is reported safe.

Brief News Items. One of the first wagon to arrive at the Pavilion brought a whole mother and three dead except the baby. Bankers who examined vaults in soma of the burned banks found them intact and currency probably safe. As Californians use little paper money the actual loss of currency will be comparatively small. A man buried under the Temple of Justice was fearfully wounded and could not escape.

lie begged a policeman to kill him. The latter fired a shot, but missed him. Then a pedestrian cut the arteries of his wrists and he died. At Salinas the town practically was destroyed, and the damage to property is estimated at upward of $1,000,000. with ten reported dead.

Sacramento, Stockton. Watsonville and other towns report huge damage. Redwood City, Menlo Park, and Burlingame also suffered. Across the bay from San Francisco the destruction was great. At Berkeley, the seat of the University of California, many buildings were thrown down, and the university buildings themselves were cracked.

damaged, and shaken to their foundations. The dead in Oakland. Alameda and Berkeley are numerous, but no detailed accounts or records have been received. Three hundred inmates of the insane asyiuic at Agnew. were killed by tbe collapse of th.

building. One hundred escaped and roamed at large. Shylocks. greedy beyond belief, were among the many brands of vermin and leeches to seize the famishing and thirstcrazed multitude. Bread was sold at $1 a Ipaf.

water 50 cents a glass, canned goods $1.50 a can and meat $3 a pound. This is absolutely the greatest disaster that ever overcame an American city, and one of the great fires of history. Beside ir the Chicago. Boston and Baltimore fires are almost unimportant. No American city ever was 'so completely destroyed as this.

The formation of a fire brick combination to include 90 per cent of the independent concerns of western Pennsylvania. Ohio. Maryland. West Virginia, New Y'ork and Kentucky, with a daily output of 1,600.000 bricks, is being arranged in Pittsburg. Eighty-nine Indians on the Umatilla reservation, near Pendleton.

have petitioned Washington to remove Major O. C. Edwards, the superintendent. Mrs. Sarah Ann Legg of Clay county.

who is under sentence to for the murder of her husband, was granted a new trial by the Supreme Court. STORY Of 1 DISftSIER 1019 IN PiiUK Here is told in paragraphic form the story of the destruction of San Francisco. It is hard to realize the frightful calamity that has befallen the Golden Gate City until the full import of the subjoined summary has been impressed upon the mind and brain by reading and re-reading the awful record. Thousands of residents fled from the city. An embargo was placed on all food supplies.

The $2,000,000 new postoffice building is a wreck. Three hundred thousand persons were made homeless. No newspapers were published Thursday or Friday. Cavalry and infantry patrolled Cue downtown streets. Many dropped dead in the streets from heat and suffocation.

The flame-swept area is nearly fifteen square miles in extent. The Moreland Academy at Watsonville was wrecked and burned. Firemen were suffocated in the street by gas from broken mains. The tunnel on the Santa Fe road, several miles out of town, caved in. Scores of mansions are in ruins.

Wasted toy dynamite and leveled by fire. Fearing a tidal wave, steamship companies held in port vessels due to sail. Most of the docks and warehouses on the water front were saved by fire tugs. The Lei and Stanford, University at Palo Aito was almost completely destroyed. The Spreckels sugar factory, three miles from Salinas, was destroyed with loss of The government's estimate of the loss sustained in United States army and navy stores is $3..000.000.

San financiers and merchants. gathered at Oakland to plan rebuilding of the city. Details of troops guarded the water front to prevent rhe frantic people from destroying themselves. Thousands of dollars in money and gems were secretly buried in the earth by the frenzied populace. The gas works was blown up with dynamite to prevent leaks in the downtown district which caused fires.

The smoke that arose from the business district took the shape of a funnel and could be seen far out at sea. Scores of injured in the Mechanics Pavilion, which was used as an extempore hospital, were burned to death. In the collapse of the Kingsley hotel, a cheap hostelry on Seventh street, seventy persons were crushed to death. Lives by the score and property by the tens of millions of dollars have been lost through a dozen California cities. The sheds over the Union wharf on San Francisco bay collapsed, sending hundreds of tons of coal into the sea.

Living victims of Hie disaster were dug ont of the ruins of buildings collapsed by the earthquake, but which escaped the fire. Crowds of frantic citizens strove to beat their way into the banks. The troops beat them off. No bank in the city was open. Nothing worthy of the name of a building in the business district and not more than half of the residence district escaped.

The old adobe mission Dolores, built more than 100 years ago. and the nucleus of the old town of Yerba Buena, was destroyed. The greatest death rale was in the poorer districts. The ruins of one cheap hotel on Eddy street was found filled with bodies. The fire that overwhelmed the city spared only some of the homes of the rich.

The poor lost everything save what they carried away. The reports indicate that the property loss outside of San Francisco will he enormous, running into the scores of millions of dollars. Skeleton walls that totter with each breath of air threaten to crush the soldiers guarding the ruins of banks and other property. The pastor of St. church, on the slope of Telegraph Hill, gathered his flock about him on the sidewalk and held a prayer meeting.

Chinatown is a ruin. Hundreds of celestials were crushed to death when their vookeries fell. The flames finished the work of destruction. While the center of thp earthquake destruction seems to have been in San Francisco, reports from other cities show appalling loss of life. For days there was no street ear service in San Francisco, and every vehicle was pressed into service to haul away the dead and the dying.

Dynamite, gun cotton and cannon were used to blow up buildings, whole blocks being destroyed at a time in efforts to stop the spread of the fire. The Cliff House, one of the finest pleasure resorts in rile country, was shaken from its place on a rocky cape and plunged out of sight into the sea. The property loss at Salinas will reach San Jose. $1.000,000: Napa, Alto. Valejo, Agnews.

$300,000. The famous Huntington art collection, bequeathed to Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York, lias destroyed in the Huntington mansion on Nob Hill. The State Insurance Commissioner announced that eighty fire insurance companies have decided to pay dollar for dollar of their policies, not distinguishing fire from earthquake losses. The Metropolitan Grand Opera company, playing at the Grand theater, which was burned, lost all its scenery. The members of the cast, including Caruso, Fames and Frqmsfad.

tost their costumes. The work of the regular soldiers in suppressing disorder, preventing looting, is reported worthy of the greatest praise. Everywhere they showed the highest degree of courage. Several innocent men were shot for vandals by soldiers. One man was killed for washing his hands in precious drinking water.

A bank clerk, searching in the ruins of his bank, met the same fate. The fire, which was believed under control iate Friday afternoon, after burning Russian hill and Telegraph hill, broke out afresh in the evening and threatened the water front from Bay street to Meig's wharf, where thousands of refugees were gathered. Orders were issued to all guarding -forces to shoot, without investigation, persons seen robbing wrecked buildings or bodies. In rhe smoldering ruins it was estimated that half a hundred of the vandals were executed Thursday night. The criminals and characters hidden in the city before tiie earthquake came, came forth from th-ir lairs.

emboldened by hunger, thirst and privation. o' furiii-r fact tint rh spreading if great was sng the atteiii of the gunning solo. -ts. an-1 made limy In or wo instances half and men. ii the of coaimiriug robbery or v.n-.l nx-cured one from a pi.

1 of soldiers. lipS? The manner in which the deli Orations were carried on ought to convince the world that Algeciras would make a lovely name for a shaping Star. The spring gardening season makes the suburban citizen wonder whether, after all. the man with tin muck rake is not entitled to some Washington Star. Count Bout has found out he want any American tainted money It is a pity that he didn't make this discovery a number of years York Evening Sun.

Professor tinnier annoum os that he has now completely mastered the monkey language. lie exjKVts hereafter to tie able to move freely in fashionable York Mail. With a little more help from the industrial concerns that are destroying Niagara, any decent oculist in the State will be able to remove what is left of the York Evening Mail. Congressmen who insist on ning the Government seed distribution, to be consistent, should also that their constituents are furnished free hoes and garden rakes. Toledo (Ohio) Blade.

Secretary of Agriculture Wilson says there will be no more crop failures. Evidently, the Secretary of Agriculture and the head of the Weather Bureau have been putting up a Press. President Roosevelt says that we are in urgent need of a better coast defense. and everyone who has been up against the summer rates at the seashore will agree with Telegraph. Let the Immigrants come, he they Irish or German, or Swedes or Slavs.

Italians, just as long as they stay out of the big cities and tne sweatshops and settle upon the public land to reclaim Ee New Mexican. Hyde and Alexander, late of the Equitable, have been dropped from the directorate of one of the branches of the Coal Trust. Here's a case where two Jonahs go overboard before the storm Philadelphia North American. Fifty millions of coast defenses looks as if the role of the world's peacemaker were a little dangerous. But.

then, that is only the way of the world. The fidlow who tries to settle the other fellow's quarrel usually gets into a mess himself. Gazette. The Government is about to withdraw the existing stock of postage stamps and issue fresh ones that will stick. It is about time for Uncle Sam to take away the reproach of that gum which got many a citizen into trouble with tin Recording York Evening Sun.

What did more than anything else to make Johann Most a person of no importance in this community was the refusal of the authorities to take him with any great seriousness. He found it Itard to get into jail, so hard that it took the fight out of him. York Evening Sun. President graphic picture of the weekly decline of enthusiasm for work among the laborers on the Panama canal suggests that Lamb's schedule of employment from 11 to 1. with an hour out for luncheon, would be popular on the York Evening Post.

Many of the millionaires of the day rose from poor, uneducated hoys, who naturally adopted phonetic mode of spelling. It is possible the hoard to reform the present mode will adopt the phonetic system to help the great moneyed men out of their erickshurg (Va.i Star. Some of the life insurance companies prided themselves so much on teaching a policy holder habits of economy that they held on to his dividends for fear lie might spend them. The directors who were thus tempted into habits extravagance arc, presumably, to lie regarded as Star. A colored woman of Baltimore.

10. years old. has a distinct recollection of Lafaye, tour of this country. This event seems to have been stored up in the memory of all old people. It is observable of late, however, that tiie coachmen of George Washington are getting very Union.

The most successful man is usually the most careworn, and. therefore, the most unhappy. A tramp has no cares at all, and in the opinion of some philosophers the tramp approaches very near happiness. Every healthy man once In a while feels like going to Japan to bask in the smiles of the geisha duties and throwing dull care to the lotus winds. Oregonian.

A large percentage of the jiopnlafion of the Isle of Guam are reported to afflicted with gangrosa. a tropical disease more repulsive than leprosy, which destroys the fa'-c by slow ul'-eratioa and is highly contagions or The American of Guam recommends hospitals for the isolation of the disease, which recommendation has been approved by the Surgeon-General of the Navy. This is a part of hite man's Atlanta Constitution. Mark Twain hopes there may he no czars or grand dukes in heaven. Evidently Mark expects to go there himself some Record-Herald.

The Democratic chy executive committee of Kansas City. renominated Mayor W. W. in defiance of the order of the State Supreme Court, which ruled ihat Rose could not again serve until after the present term expires in lIHI7. Two contracts for sections of rhe Grand Trunk Pacific railway, for miles eastward from Winnqjeg.

at and for l-oO miles westward from Quebec, at were let at Ottawa. Ont. District Attorney Stewart of Pittsburg threatens to qse the entire detective force to stop society people playing poker and bridge whist, having discovered an old law which he says will send haif the society people of that city to the penitentiary if enforced. Olive Logan, authoress and stage beatify of thirty years ago, caused the arrest of her young husband in New York for neglect and drunkenness. She is iu great need.

Health Commissioner Darlington has begun a campaign against violators of the New York wnoke ordinance..