The soldiers who rendered such heroic aid took the cue from General Funston. He had not slept. He was the real ruler of San Francisco. All the military tents available were set up in the Presidio and the troops were turned out of the barracks to bivouac on the ground.
In the shelter tents they placed first the sick, second the more delicate of the women, and third, the nursing mothers, and in the afternoon he ordered all the dead buried at once in a temporary cemetery in the Presidio grounds. The recovered bodies were carted about the city ahead of the flames.
Many lay in the city morgue until the fire reached that; then it was Portsmouth square until it grew too hot; afterwards they were taken to the Presidio. There was another stream of bodies which had lain in Mechanics" pavilion at first, and had then been laid out in Columbia square, in the heart of a district devastated first by the earthquake and then by fire.
The condition of the bodies was becoming a great danger. Yet the troops had no men to spare to dig graves, and the young and able bodied men were mainly fighting on the fire line or utterly exhausted.
It was Funston who ordered that the old men and the weaklings should take this work in hand. They did it willingly enough, but had they refused the troops on guard would have forced them. It was ruled that every man physically capable of handling a spade or a pick should dig for an hour. When the first shallow graves were ready the men, under the direction of the troops, lowered the bodies several in a grave, and a strange burial began.
The women gathered about crying; many of them knelt while a Catholic priest read the burial service and p.r.o.nounced absolution. All the afternoon this went on.
Representatives of the city authorities took the names of as many of the dead as could be identified and the descriptions of the others.
Many, of course, will never be identified.
So confident were the authorities that they had the situation in control at the end of the third day that Mayor Schmitz issued the following proclamation:
"To the Citizens of San Francisco: The fire is now under control and all danger is pa.s.sed. The only fear is that other fires may start should the people build fires in their stoves and I therefore warn all citizens not to build fires in their homes until the chimneys have been inspected and repaired properly. All citizens are urged to discountenance the building of fires. I congratulate the citizens of San Francisco upon the fort.i.tude they have displayed and I urge upon them the necessity of aiding the authorities in the work of relieving the dest.i.tute and suffering. For the relief of those persons who are encamped in the various sections of the city everything possible is being done. In Golden Gate park, where there are approximately 200,000 homeless persons, relief stations have been established. The Spring Valley Water Company has informed me that the Mission district will be supplied with water this afternoon, between 10,000 and 12,000 gallons daily being available. Lake Merced will be taken by the federal troops and that supply protected.
"Eugene E. Schmitz, Mayor."
Although the third day of San Francisco"s desolation dawned with hope, it ended in despair.
In the early hours of the day the flames, which had raged for thirty-six hours, seemed to be checked.
Then late in the afternoon a fierce gale of wind from the northwest set in and by 7 o"clock the conflagration, with its energy restored, was sweeping over fifty acres of the water front.
The darkness and the wind, which at times amounted to a gale, added fresh terrors to the situation. The authorities considered conditions so grave that it was decided to swear in immediately 1,000 special policemen armed with rifles furnished by the federal government.
In addition to this force, companies of the national guard arrived from many interior points.
In the forenoon, when it was believed the fire had been checked, the full extent of the dest.i.tution and suffering of the people was seen for the first time in near perspective. While the whole city was burning there was no thought of food or shelter, death, injury, privation, or loss. The dead were left unburied and the living were left to find food and a place to sleep where they could.
On the morning of the third day, however, the indescribable dest.i.tution and suffering were borne in upon the authorities with crushing force. Dawn found a line of men, women, and children, numbering thousands, awaiting morsels of food at the street bakeries.
The police and military were present in force, and each person was allowed only one loaf.
A big bakery was started early in the morning in the outskirts of the city, with the announcement that it would turn out 50,000 loaves of bread before night. The news spread and thousands of hungry persons crowded before its doors before the first deliveries were hot from the oven. Here again police and soldiers kept order and permitted each person to take only one loaf. The loaves were given out without cost.
These precautions were necessary, for earlier in the day bread had sold as high as $1 a loaf and two loaves and a can of sardines brought in one instance $3.50.
Mayor Schmitz took prompt and drastic steps to stop this extortion. By his order all grocery and provision stores in the outlying districts which had escaped the flames were entered by the police and their goods confiscated.
Next to the need for food there was a cry for water, which until Friday morning the authorities could not answer.
In spite of all efforts to relieve distress there was indescribable suffering.
Women and children who had comfortable, happy homes a few days before slept that night--if sleep came at all--on hay on the wharves, on the sand lots near North beach, some of them under the little tents made of sheeting, which poorly protected them from the chilling ocean winds. The people in the parks were better provided in the matter of shelter, for they left their homes better prepared.
Thousands of members of families were separated, ignorant of one another"s whereabouts and without means of ascertaining. The police on Friday opened up a bureau of registration to bring relatives together.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright 1906 by Tom M. Phillips.
=CRACKS CAUSED BY EARTHQUAKE.=
Front new Postoffice.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright 1906 by Tom M. Phillips.
=EMPORIUM BUILDING.=
Largest department store west of Chicago.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: =BIRD"S-EYE VIEW OF SAN FRANCISCO.=
A general view of city looking west toward the Pacific Ocean, also showing locations such as n.o.b Hill, business district, Market Street, Golden Gate and the famous Cliff House.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright 1906, by American-Journal-Examiner. All rights reserved. Any infractions of this copyright will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
=HALL OF JUSTICE.=
As photographs are true to life, they also convey to the eye correct views of this vast destruction.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright 1906 by Tom M. Phillips.
=LOOKING DOWN MARKET STREET.=
Call Building in the distance.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright 1906 by Tom M. Phillips.
=VIEW FROM CALIFORNIA STREET.=
The Call Building also shown in background.]
The work of burying the dead was begun Friday for the first time. Out at the Presidio soldiers pressed into service all men who came near and forced them to labor at burying the dead. So thick were the corpses piled up that they were becoming a menace, and early in the day the order was issued to bury them at any cost. The soldiers were needed for other work, so, at the point of rifles, the citizens were compelled to take the work of burying. Some objected at first, but the troops stood no trifling, and every man who came in reach was forced to work at least one hour. Rich men who had never done such work labored by the side of the workingmen digging trenches in the sand for the sepulcher of those who fell in the awful calamity. At the present writing many still remain unburied and the soldiers are still pressing men into service.
The Folsom street dock was turned into a temporary hospital, the harbor hospital being unable to accommodate all the injured who were brought there.
About 100 patients were stretched on the dock at one time. In the evening tugs conveyed them to Goat Island, where they were lodged in the hospital. The docks from Howard street to Folsom street had been saved, and the fire at this point was not permitted to creep farther east than Main street.
The work of clearing up the wrecked city has already begun at the water front in the business section of the town. A force of 100 men were employed under the direction of the street department clearing up the debris and putting the streets in proper condition.
It was impossible to secure a vehicle except at extortionate prices.