San Francisco's great disaster; a full account of the recent terrible destruction of life and property by earthquake, fire and volcano in California and at Vesuvius .. online

British pamphlets and broadsides^ running from the early
seventeenth century to the late eighteenth, was said by
Moss to be the most complete outside of the British Mu-
seum. There were several thousand of these, and, bound
into book form, they occupied three great ranges of the
warehouse.

ANCIENT NEWSPAPER FILE.

Very full, too, was the collection of French and Eng-
lish newspaper files of the late eighteenth and early nine-
teenth centuries. It may be doubted if there was any-
thing in the country, or anywhere outside of France, to
equal this in original sources on the French Revolution.
The same may be said of the books bearing on European
history in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Bavarian books, mentioned before, were a great
treasury in themselves. Whether printed or in manuscript,
many of them were bound and backed with older manu-
scripts, and many of them showed by the dim traces of
writing beneath, that they were palimpsests. These books
had never come under the eyes of scholars, and there was
every chance of discoveries. Yet perhaps the greatest loss



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128 SAN FRANCISCO^S GREAT DISASTER.

to scholarship, if the library is really gone, lay in the Mexi-
can collection which would have furnished the means of
rewriting the early and romantic history of the Pacific
coast.

The library, as said before, was in two sections. In
Montgomery street Moss had gathered the books which
he had classified and begun to catalogue, and there were
the most valuable, such as the Shakespeare folios, the
copies of Ben Jonson, the Shakesperiana and the Eng-
lish pamphets. Fully 150,000 volumes were in the Bat-
tery street section, which is certainly gone. There were
the monkish manuscripts, the works bearing on mediaeval
history, and all the undiscovered country for scholars.

The final disposition of the Sutro library, had it not
been destroyed, was uncertain. The University of Cali-
fornia thought at one time of buying it by arrangement
with the heirs, but lacked the funds at the time. Stanford,
which has the money, is a scientific university, which cares
less for that kind of thing, and the authorities felt that
money spent in books might better be devoted to modern
works.

It was always understood that, in case the original
will held. Dr. Merrit, ever at a great loss to herself, would
respect the wishes of her brother and give the books either
to one of the universities or to the people of San Francisco.
In case of any other settlement it might have been taken
abroad and sold by auction.

STANFORD UNIVERSITY LOSSES.

Palo Alto and Stanford university suffered by the
earthquake. At Stanford many of the handsome buildings,
including the splendid Memorial church, ^vere demolished,



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SAN Francisco's great disaster. 129

and two people were killed. They were Junius Robert
Hanna of Bradford, Pa.^ and Otto Gurts, a fireman. Six
other students were injured.

Stanford University, the richest institution of learn-
ing on the Pacific Coast and one of the richest in the
country, has had a varied and interesting history since it
was opened for students in 1891. It has passed from ex-
treme poverty to extreme riches, and weathered more
than one storm among its faculty. The great building
scheme, which allows for an almost indefinite expansion
in the number of students was just on the verge of com-
pletion when the trouble came, and the university, which
had been spending the income on its endowment for build-
ings, was preparing for a great expansion in departments
and teachers.

Leland Stanford, Jr., only child of Senator Leland
Stanford and his wife Jane, died of Roman fever in Italy
in 1887, at the age of 16. All the hopes of his parents had
centred on him; and after his death his mother forsook
the gay life which she had led as the wife of one of the
richest and most pronrunent Californians and devoted her-
self to charity. In his later days the boy had dropped a
remark about what he wanted to do with his money; and
this, it is said, determined them to found in his memory a
great free university for the youth of California and of the
world. Senator and Mrs. Stanford travelled abroad study-
ing the great institutions of Europe. Senator Stanford
spent days with President Eliot of Harvard and other edu-
cators, learning their views on education and the best use
of money for educational purposes, and the result was a
university which in its ideals gives the greatest freedom to
the individual and makes its aim preparation for usefulness
in life.



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130 SAN Francisco's great disaster. \

Stanford was not a university man, and he recognized
his limitations. It was his plan to go to the best of those
who should know and take their advice on details. In
the character of the university he had l>een guided largely
by Eliot. In planning for the external features he went to
Richardson, the architect of Trinity Church in Boston.
Richardson laid it out on the plan of the old California
missions, an adaptation by the architects among the padres
of Moorish architecture to the peculiar weather conditions
of California. His imitation was not slavish, however; he
departed widely from the model and escaped the formless-
ness which has marked most modern buildings in the so-
called California mission style. The main features of the
plan were an inner quadrangle surrounding an inner court
and a series of outer quadrangles of two and three story
buildings. In that inner quadrangle were twelve one story
buildings^ low and massive, but roomy and aflFording ex-
cellent recitation room&. The main feature of the plan,
however^ was the arcades, which ran ever)rwhere about the
buildings and which provided against the rainy season
since th^y made it possible to go from any part of the main
structure to any other without getting wet. The whole
mass, in the plan of Richardson was capped by a low, mas-
sive arch which formed the centre of the front facade and
backed by the pile of a great church in Italian Renaissance
style. Flanking the main buildings on either side were
Encina Dormitory for men and Roble for women.

The inner quadrangle, three isolated engineering
buildings and the two dormitories were completed when
the university opened for instruction in 1891. They were
all built according to the plan. Upon Encina Hall in par-
ticular Senator Stanford lavished great care. He insisted
upon sinking the foundations twice as deep as ^VQS ncccs-



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SAN FRANCISCO S GREAT DISASTER. I3I

sary, and all work was done by the day and not by con-
tract. It was his idea to have it stand for centuries —
"Even against earthquakes/' he said.

When the university threw its doors open the authori-
ties hardly expected an immediate response from students.
As a master of fact, in two years they had nine hundred
men and women in attendance. At the end of those two
years Senator Stanford died^ and two things happened
which nearly swamped the institution. The hard times
struck the country, greatly depressing the securities upon
which the university depended for its life, and the govern-
ment entered suit for the restoration of the value
of the bonds upon which the Union Pacific fortune
rested. There is no space to dwell on the details of this
case. Had the Government won the university would
have gone out of existence. While the estate was tied up
in the courts about $100^000 a year was awarded to Mrs.
Stanford as a living allowance. That was all the university
had to run on. She reduced her own personal expenses
to $100 a month and handed all the rest over. The next
two or three years brought a heroic struggle to keep the
university alive through the clipping of salaries to the
lowest point, the sale of every chattel not tied up in the
courts, and even of Mrs. Stanford's personal jewels. Sev-
eral times, only the courage of Jane Stanford and her loy-
alty to the ideal of her husband prevented the closing of
the university. The case ran through all the courts, with
a final decision in favor of the university. Finally it was
out of the courts, the hard times were over and she went
ahead to finish the building scheme while she had her
strength. ,

Mrs. Stanford, unlike her husband, interfered with
the plans of the architect. The result was several features



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132 SAN FRANCISCO S GREAT DISASTER.

which folks of an artistic bent regarded as blots. The
arch was raised thirty feet from the original plan, and it
stuck up out of the mess of buildings high beyond all pro-
portion. Further, it was desecrated by a horrible frieze.
The chapel, too, was plastered outside and inside with
Venetian mosaics, considered out of place in such architec-
ture. These, however, were only minor blurs. In the
main, the noble plan of Richardson was carried out. The
university as it stood had first the main mass of buildings,
about two dozen in all. Apart from this stood the dormi-
tories, a chemical laboratory, the most successful single
building in the whole place, a museum and a set of engi-
neering buildings. Work was under way on a great library
to supplement the one already in use, and ground had been
broken for a gymnasium and athletic field.

Several years ago Dr. David Starr Jordan, president
of the university since its foundation, got it considerably
into the papers through the so-called Ross controversy.
This grew primarily out of a schism in the faculty. Prof.
Edwin Ross, head of the department of sociology, was dis-
charged ostensibly because he critised certain financial in-
terests in which Mrs. Stanford was interested. The issue
was considerably clouded, and to this day it is not certain
whether Mrs. Stanford wanted him sent away or whether
Jordan acted upon his own initiative. At the same time
several professors in sympathy with Ross resigned. Later
there was a controversy of the same sort in which Prof.
Pease, one of the strongest men at the university, lost his
place, and this was followed by the affair of Prof. Julius
Goebel. head of the German department.

Mrs. Stanford died in Honolulu in 1905. Several
years before her death she had turned over the whole Stan-
ford fortune to the trustees of the university. The en4Q\v.



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SAN Francisco's great disaster. T33

ment and property were estimated in 1905 at $33,000,000,
and was then growing fast in value. With the completion of
the building scheme, set for this year, the university would
have had about $800,000 a year to spend in maintenance.
The plans for the future included, first, the purchase of one
of the greatest American libraries, and second, the addition,
of many departments and professors.

However great the loss by the earthquake, it is en-
tirely probable that the trustees of Stanford will determine
to rebuild at once, although perhaps not on a scale so
elaborate.

Stanford has about 1,600 students, of which number
a little less than 500 are women. The attendance of wo-
men for the present is limited to 500. Instruction in all
departments is absolutely free, and at least one-third of
the students come from east of the Rockies. The softn^ess
of the climate, the beauty of the surroundings and the out
of doors character of the place have always made student
life at Stanford University especially delightful.



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FIGHTING FLAMES WITHOUT WATER.

There came a moment of sickening despair to the
members of the San Francisco Fire Department within
five minutes of the great earthquake shock when it was
discovered that there was no water. The shock had twisted
and torn the great buried mains. Scattered throughout
the city was ample apparatus to combat any conflagration
that, under ordinary circumstances, might be expected to
threaten the city. Manning the equipment there were more
than a thousand men, a force skilled in the work of fire-
fighting, commanded by men of long experience and proved
ability. In a hundred critical moments they had stood, a
gallant band, battling against the destroyer while a city
looked on, confident that they would prove victor, proud of
every man of them. And these same men, despite the fact
that no ordinary crisis faced them, rallied from the terror
that followed the earthquake, and prepared swiftly to face
the task before them. Flames were already at work, the
apparatus was on the scene, and then came the revelation
that filled not only the firemen, but all of San Francisco,
with despair. The panic that came from the earthquake
did not exceed that which came in the hearts of this brave
band. If ever a man-of-war faced the enemy's ship, and
ran in the guns to join in the battle, only to find that neither
shot nor powder was on board, those who manned her
knew something of the despair that filled the hearts of San
Francisco's fire-fighters. They were called upon to fight
fire without water. Not a single fire, growing from spark
to tiny flame and gradually into a great conflagration, but
a score of fires, springing to tremendous extent in an in-



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^3^ SAN Francisco's great disaster.

stant, feeding on the shattered structures, which stood,
tottering everywhere, as kindling, awaiting the first flash
of fire to burst into mountains of flame. There remained
only to strive to deprive the flames of fuel. On the prairie
this can be accomplished by burrxing over a wide territory
in the path of the fire. Hundreds have saved their lives
by this means. In the forests something of the same thing
can be accomplished by felling standing timber and burning
out the underbrush. These primitive plans are in use all
over the country every year to lessen the havoc of fires that
devastate millions of acres of woodland and sweep over
the plains of the West. Their application in cities is only
different in degree. The effort must be to remove fuel
from a tract too wide for the flames to leap it and count
on permanently stopping the advance by fighting the blaze
that finds a foothold in the cleared tract. Here, as in
many instances in cities, giant powder and dynamite were
used.

The firemen became sappers and miners. They were
aided by troops from the government reservation, men of
the artillery familiar with high explosives. The tireless
work they did must remain among the notable occurrences
of the series of tragedies which visited San Francisco.
The work of dynamiting began when the fire was in the
heart of the business district. Costly buildings were lev-
elled in great numbers. In each instance, however, the on-
rush of the flames gave too little time. The high wind
swept the blaze upward, a hundred feet and more and gave
it a forward sweep of more than a thousand feet. To offer
successful resistance would have required the clearing of a
path fifteen hundred feet long, along the entire front of the
fire.^ This was impossible and the heroic work of the dyn-



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SAN FRANCISCO S GREAT DISASTER. 1 39

amiters went for nothing. Twenty such efforts in as many
separate sections were made during the first three days of
the fire. Some success was achieved after the' main fire
had been separated into a score of smaller lines which
spread like rays from a sun, into the city. Some of these
were temporarily checked but changes in the direction of
the wind played pranks with the flames and often a section,
apparently saved from the approach in one direction, was
reduced to ashes by flames, unguarded against, coming
from a new and unexpected quarter. For three days,
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, this went on. Con-
tinued failure seemed to confirm the idea that the entire
city would be destroyed.

SUCCESS ACHIEVED AT LAST.

It was not until the line of Van Ness avenue was
reached on Friday night that success was achieved. Here
everything favored the fire-fighters. They got there twen-
ty-four hours in advance of the flames. The avenue is
wide. It is lined with splendid homes, most of which have
around them considerable open spaces devoted to lawns.
Strategically the position could not have been improved
upon and the artillerymen went relentlessly to work. All
day the thunders of explosions resounded through the city,
^suggesting fresh disturbances underground to the excited,
nerve-racked populace. Palaces shared the general de-
struction of whatever might provide fuel to the fire. Not
only were great charges of dynamite exploded but shot
from big guns from the fort were rained against walls and
foundations. Block by block the dynamiters left havoc
behind them until at midnight they had cleared a tract,
five hundred feet wide and nearly a mile long.



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I40 SAN FRANCISCO S GREAT DISASTER.

THE LAST STAND.

Here the last stand was made on the West. Every
available man was summoned. A few of the broken mains
had been repaired in the meantime and the firemen were
equipped to fight with hope of success. Like a mig-hty
tidal wave^ on and on came the sea of flame. It looked
to the men in readiness to give battle that the odds were
too great despite the cleared tract, and the water at their
command. In the early hours of the morning sparks be-
gan falling into the cleared zone and soon after the fire
itself reached the east side of Van Ness avenue. The criti-
cal hour had come. The army of soldiers and firemen
forgot the fatigue of three days of toil with scarce an in-
terval for sleep or rest and began a battle royal. A hun-
dred times flames si>ang up in the clearing and scores of
small blazes got started, even beyond them. But the
tremendous energy and courage of the fighters never flag-
ged as they sped from one to another of these outbreak-
ings. One after another was crushed out under the
avalanches of water. And so, hour after hour, ceaselessly
the struggle went on. Now it seemed that the fire had
been vanquished. Then a change in the direction of the
wind and the struggle was on again, as desperately as
ever, in some new locality. It was human will and en-
durance against a tireless destroyer. Ten hours of the
struggle and man had won. The news went abroad over
the city that the western spread of the flames had been
permanently stopped at Van Ness avenue. Little by little
the force of the wave of flame had become exhausted for
lack of fuel; little by little the danger zone retreated in
to the district already burned; moment by moment it be-
came more certain that victory was sure. Something of
San Francisco would be saved.



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SAN FRANCISCO S GREAT DISASTER. I41

CREDIT FOR WORK ACCOMPLISHED.

To three men in particular belong tlit credit for the
work accomplished by dynamite.

These men were Rear Admirals Bowman and McCal-
la's dynamite squad from Mare Island. It was their achieve-
ment that finally routed the flames on the line of Van Ness
avenue and checked their further advance.

When the burning city seemed doomed to complete
destruction and the flames lighted the sky further and fur-
ther to the west, Admiral McCalla sent a trio of his most
trusted men from Mare Island with orders to check the
conflagration at any cost of life or property. With them
they brought a ton and a half of gun cotton. The terrific
power of the explosive was equal to the stubborn deter-
mination of the fire.

Captain MacBride was in charge of the squad. Chief
Gunner Adamson placed the charges and the third gunner
set them of?. The thunderous detonations to which the
city listened all that dreadful Friday night meant the sal-
vation of many lives and of that fourth of the city that re-
mains intact.

MILLION IN PROPERTY BLOWN TO DUST.

One million dollars' worth of property, noble resi-
dences and worthless shacks alike was blown to drifting
dust, but that destruction broke the fire and sent the
flames over their own charred i>ath.

The whole east side of Van Ness avenue, from Gol-
den Gate to Greenwich, was dynamited a block deep,
though most of the structures stood as yet untouched by
spark or cinder. Not one charge failed. Not one building
stood upon its foundations.

Van Ness avenue was laid flat as the earth on the



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142 SAN FRANCISCO S GREAT DISASTER.

east side. Every pound of guncotton did its work, and
though the ruins burned they burned feebly. From Gol-
den Gate avenue north the fire crossed the wide street m
only one place. That was at the Claus Spreckels mansion,
near California street. There the flames were writhing up
the walls before the dynamite squad could reach it. Yet
they made their way to the foundations, carrying their ex-
plosives, despite the furnace-like heat. The charge had to
be placed so swiftly and the fuse lit in such a hurry that
the explosion was not quite successful from the trained
view-point of the gunners. But though the walls still stood,
it was only an empty victory for the fire, as bare brick and
smoking ruins are poor food for flames.

Captain MacBride's dynamite squad realized that a
stand was hopeless except in Van Ness avenue. They
could have forced their explosives further in the burning
section, but not a pound of guncotton could be wasted.
The ruined block that met the wide thoroughfare formed
a trench through the clustered structures that the confla-
gration, wild as it was, could not leap. Engfines pumpiny;
brine through Fort Madison from the bay completed the
little work that the guncotton had left to do, but for three
days haggard-eyed firemen guarded the flickering ruins.

That desolate waste, straight through the heart of
the city, is a mute witness to the most heroic and effective
work of the whole calamity. Three men did this, and when
their task was over and what stood of the city rested
quietly for the first time, they departed as modestly as they
had come. They were ordered to save the remnant of
San Francisco. They obeyed orders, and Captain Mac-
Bride and his two cfunners made history on that dreadful
night.



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SAN FRANCISCO S GREAT DISASTER. I43

DYNAMITES ONE VICTORY.

This is probably the one great victory over fire ever
won by dynamite. It has been used in many great crises.
Chicago sought to check the conflagration that swept the
city by the use of explosives in the path of the fire: Boston
tried it, and Baltimore, more than either, shattered scores
of buildings, using, as in San Francisco, both dynamite
and giant powder. The fire fighters in all of these cities
as the result of their experiences, declared against the
practice. In the other instances the dynamite was used in
conjunction with every other method, including ample
supplies of water. In San Francisco, dynamite was the
only available weapon of defense. In the latter instance,
with nothing else remaining to be done, there could be no
question. But a grave question exists whether, under
ordinary circumstances, anything is to be gained by the
use of dynamite. Most of the great fire chiefs will agree
that where a day's notice of the section to be attacked
can be had there is wisdom in trying this method. But
unless a tract, 500 to 1000 feet wide, is cleared across
the whole front of the fire, experience has taught that
nothing is to be accomplished. Buildings that are wrecked
by explosives, and are overtaken before a large enough
tract can be cleared to effectively impede the fire, only
serve to add to the impulse of the flames. Instead of
offering unbroken walls there is a gnarled heap of debris.
Instantly this is aflame. The opportunity of the fire fighter
comes in the first rebuff that the external walls of a build-
ing give to the advancing fire. The great structure throws
back the flame on fuel already partly consumed and if the
resistance given by the firemen can be applied at this
nioment with all available force, there is the chance that



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144 SAN Francisco's great disaster.

before further headway can be made the flamc^ lacking
fuel, will be reduced to a degree of intensity within the
power of the available water to permanently subdue. The
great wall is the friend of the fireman, and it is far better
that it be standing when the flames reach it, unless beyond
it there can be cleared a tract wider than the flames can