FIVE O'CLOCK
EDITION
ir j 11
UBLItHItirULt AttOOIATKO PRIM RIPORT
UOVBRS THE MORNINQ FIELD ON THS LOWER COLUMBIA!
VOLUMEOLXI NO. 122
ASTORIA. OUPGON, SA'J UHDAY, A PHIL 21 1900
PKICE FIVE CENTS
I P5! IL jl j n
Devastating Conflagration Defie
Efforts to Check It s Prosres
Ferry Buildings Doomed to Destruction-Hurricane
Drives Insatiable Flames Ever Onward-Buildings'
Blown Down, Streets Blocked With DebrisL i
SAN FRANCISCO, April 20 (10 a. in.) -A wind
of high velocity is blowing from the northwest over
the fire-Ntrieken district tonight ami the water front
in threatened, General Ciwter has ordered out a
squadron of int'it to endeavor .to keep the tinmen
lmck, which threaten the Union Ferry Depot, the
only liienrw of egrew from the city. The water
front emergency hospital in endangt.-id by the wind,
which is of such velocity that the brick and granite
walls weakened by the earthquake, and subsequent
fire, are falling into the streets. Market street, the
principal avenue of escape from the city to the
ferry may be blocked 'up thus shutting off practi
cally the only means of escape.
Postal Abandons Its Office
SAN FRANCISCO, April 20 (10 p. m.) -Portal
Telegraph Company bits abandoned its temporary
office in the Ferry building. The wind is blowing a
gale and has shifted to the northwest and the flames
now threaten the Ferry buildings.
Names of, Killed
SAN JOSE, April 20.-Among those killed in
San Jose were Mr, and Mrs. Bert Haley of Oakland;
' Mr. and Mrs. Kerrigan of Oakland; Thomas
O 'Toole of Gilroy; Mrs. Charles Costa, Mrs. Claude
Everett, and Mrs. Warden and Fireman Farrar.
Oriental Mail Via Seattle
OAKLAND, April 20.-A11 mail for Manila and
the Orient should be marked via Seattle hereafter.
Convicts Frightened
SAN QUENTIN, April 3(J.'-nn Quentin prison
is intact, The walls are cracked and a few chimneys
upset, but there is no further, damage. During the
first big Bhoek the convict set; up wails which could
be heard a mile. They acted like wild animals and
tore at the bars like maniacs- Warden Edgar called
, all the guards and lined thevalls and released the
prisonevs into, the yard. "
! Germans Organize Relief
BREMSN, April 20. -The Weser Zeitung today
called upou the citizens of Bremen to show their
genuine sympathy with the people of San Francisco
by organizing a relief fund from Germany. The
paper adds that Germany is so closely connected
with America by blood, intellectual and business re
lationships that naturally she is anxious to do
something practical toward alleviating by ever so
little the, distress of the survivors of the "disaster.
, ',i 25,060 People Leave City
' SAN FRANCISCO, April 20. -Twenty-five ; thou
sand persons left devastated San Francisco today, as
many as could be carried by ferries, and probably
twice the number which left today, are seeking to
, depart tonight. All those who seek to cross the bay
j are given to understand that they may go to any
point in the State free of charge, but that they may
not return. This condition is imposed to relieve the
food situation, and is cheerfully complied with by
the fleeing people. They are going to every point
around the bay even to Los Angeles, San Diego and
other far off cities in the south. It is anywhere to
get away, and anything but the sight of the skele
ton walls and smoking ruins of the city.
Rush to the Ferry Station
From dawn two great lines have been streaming
down Market street and along the shore from the
Presidio, both toward the ferry station. All classes
trudge along together carrying valuables of every
description. Weary women dragging their tired
and scared children, men staggering under their
loads. Drivers of vehicles pushed their horses
through the crowd. People were thrown down but
paid no attention with only the one thought in their
minds, to get to the ferries and get out of the city.
At C o'clock it was' believed the fire had been
cheeked at Van Ness avenue and Filbert streets.
The buildings on the high slope between Van Ness
aud Polk, Union and Filbert streets are blazing
fiercely, fanned by the high wind, but the blocks
were so sparsely settled that the fire appeared to
have but a slender chance of crossing Van Ness
avenue at this point. Mayor Sehmitz, who' directed
the operations at this point conferred with the mili
tary authorities and decided it was not necessary to
dynamite the buildings on the west side of Van
Ness. This would seem to assure the safety of what
remains of the Western Addition. It is the only
point of exposure to which this section of the city
was subjected.
Hundreds Dead in San Jose
LOS ANGELES, April 20.-"San Jose js the
worst looking wreck I. ever saw." says 'Will A.
White, sheriff of this county. "When I left there
yesterday morning nineteen bodies had been recov
ered. I helped carry sixty corpses from the Agnews
Asylum. It was believed then that fully one hun
dred more bodies were still in the ruins. There is
not a brick or stone building over two stories in San
Jose that is not levelled to the ground or must be
torn down. The city is under martial law. The
dead are all residents of the city."
Buried Alive Three Days t
SAN FRANCISCO, April 20.-Eleven postal
clerks were taken from the debris of the post office
today. All were thought dead, but it was found that
although they were buried in stone every one was
alive. They have been for throe days without food
or water. All the mail was saved.
FIRE REVEALED
TERRIBLE SECRETS
Collapsed Buildings Kill Hundreds
SAN FRANCISCO, April 20.-A three
story lodging house on Fifth and Minna
streets has collapsed and over seventy-five
bodies have lteen taken out. , At least fifty
other bodies are' "exposed. ' At least one
hundred people were lost in the Cosmopolitan
on Fourth street.
Many are dropping dead from heat and
suffocation: Over 150 people are reported
lost in the Brunswick Hotel at Seventh and
Mission streets.
i
Fire Heading Toward Immense Ferry
Building Threatens to Close the
Only Egress of Escape.
LIQUOR EMPTIED IN THE GUTTERS
Twenty Five Thousand People Left
the City Yesterday.
LOS ANGELES, April 20.-" Strange is the
scene where San Francisco's Chinatown stood,"
says W. W. Everton, who reached Los Angeles to
day among the refugees. "The place is pitted with
deep holes and seared with dark passageways from
whose depths come smoke wreaths. White men
never knew the depth of Chinatown's underground
cityf They often talked of subterranean runways.
Many had. gone beneath the street levels, two and
three stories.
Chinatown Is Unmasked
But now Chinatown is unmasked, for the destroy
ed buildings were only a mask, and men have looked
where the inner secrets lay. In places they can
see passages one hundred feet deep. The fire swept
the Mongolian section clean. ' It left no shred of
painted woodejvrie. It ate it down to the ground
and the interi- 'ies bare. Joss houses and mission
schools, grocft. stores, opium dens, gambling hells,
and theatres U went.
"From this place, I following the fire, saw hun
dreds of fright crazed yellow men flee. In their
arms they bore opium pipes, money bags, silks, aud
children. Besides them ran baggy trousered women,
and some hobbled painfully. ; t ; ;
Caught Like Rats in Trap
"But these were the men and women of the sur
face. Far beneath the street level in those cellars
and passageways were other lives. Women, who
never saw the day from their darkened prisons and
their blinking jailers were caught like rats in a
huge trap. Their very bones were eaten by the
flames. And how there remain only holes. They pit
SAN FRANCISCO, April 20.-Plunged into ab
solute darkness tonight at 10 o'clock San Francisco
has not seen the conclusion of the devastating work
of the conflagration.
The fire that started at Nob Hill and worked its
way to North Beach section, sweeping that section
clean of buildings, was later veered around by a
fierce wind that made its way southerly to the im
mense seawall sheds and grain warehouses. The
flames are heading directly for the immense ferry '
building, the terminal point of all the central over
land local trains of the Southern Pacific. The dark
ness, and a wind which at times amounted to a gale
has .added fresh terrors.
Will Swear In 1000 Policemen
It is decided to swear in immediately 1000 police
men armed with rifles, furnished by the federal ,
government. It is reported tonight that three white
men have been shot and killed in attemping to work
their way into the ruins of the United States sub
treasury. Two Chinese were shot and killed on
Market street for refusing' to obey the orders of the
soldiers.
-Reports of babes being born in refugee
camps .were frequently received. Five women
became mothers in Golden Gate Park. , Tonight the ..
main remaining fire is confined to the east of Van
Ness avenue to the north of Union street, but was
burning its way to the shore.
Late thy afternoofc-'the police broke Open1 every;,
saloon arid corner 'grocery in the saved districts and .'
poured all the malt and spirituous liquors into the 1
gutters. I : ,
Fire Raging Over 50 Acres
At 7 p. m. the fire is raging. over fifty acres of
water front between Bay street and the end of
Messrs' and Fisherman's wharf. To the eastward
the hillside like a multitude of ground swallow nests., . the flames extended to the seawall, but had not
They show depths, which the police never knew. The
secrets of those burrows will 'never be known for
into them the hungry fire first sifted red coals then
licked eagerly, in tongues of creeping flame, finally
obliterating everything except the earth itself."
v Was Just a Fake
SAN FRANCISCO, April 21.-There is no truth
in the story that a riot occurred at the mint, in
which many were killed.
reached the piers which lie a quarter of a mile east.
The buildings of the Central California Canneries
Company together with thousands of cases of can
ned fruit were totally destroyed and also th.e Simp
son and other lumber companies' yards. 7 s
had reached the tanks of the San Fra:
Company, which had been pumped out, b
ends of five grain sheds. Flame and smok
view the vessels off the shore, vainly atte
check the fire. - - '
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