At length the mint was pronounced out of danger and a handful of
exhausted but exultant employes stumbled out on the hot cobblestone to
learn the fate of some of their homes."

* * * * *

A number of men were killed while attempting to loot the United States
Mint, where $39,000,000 was kept, while thirty-four white men were
shot and killed by troops in a raid on the ruins of the burned United
States Treasury. Several millions of dollars are in the treasury
ruins.

* * * * *

Among the many pathetic incidents of the fire was that of a woman who
sat at the foot of Van Ness avenue on the hot sands on the hillside
overlooking the bay east of Fort Mason with four little children, the
youngest a girl of 3, the eldest a boy of 10.

They were destitute of water, food and money. The woman had fled with
her children from a home in flames in the Mission street district and
tramped to the bay in the hope of sighting the ship, which she said
was about due, of which her husband was the captain.

"He would know me anywhere," she said. And she would not move,
although a young fellow gallantly offered his tent back on a vacant
lot in which to shelter her children.

In a corner of the plaza a band of men and women were praying, and one
fanatic, driven crazy by horror, was crying out at the top of his
voice:

"The Lord sent it--the Lord!"

His hysterical crying got on the nerves of the soldiers and bade fair
to start a panic among the women and children. A sergeant went over
and stopped it by force. All night they huddled together in this hell,
with the fire making it bright as day on all sides, and in the
morning, the soldiers using their sense again, commandeered a supply
of bread from a bakery, sent out another water squad, and fed the
refugees with a semblance of breakfast.

A few Chinese made their way into the crowd. They were trembling,
pitifully scared, and willing to stop wherever the soldiers placed
them.

* * * * *

The soldiers and the police forced every available man in the downtown
district to work, no matter where they were found or under what
conditions. One party of four finely dressed men that came downtown in
an automobile were stopped by the soldiers and were ordered out of the
machine and compelled to assist in clearing the debris from Market
street. Then the automobile was loaded with provisions and sent out