war of the elements that raged in
San Francisco.

At day dawn Thursday morning, April 19, the Shaw apartments, on Pope
street, San Francisco, were burned. Mrs. Shaw fled with the refugees
to the hills.

Judge Lucien Shaw went north on that first special on Wednesday that
cleared for the Oakland mole.

[Illustration: Copyright 1906 by Tom M. Phillips.

=FREE WATER.=

The most welcome visitor to the Mission district.]

[Illustration: Copyright 1906 by Tom M. Phillips.

=DISTRIBUTING CLOTHES.=

Handing out clothes to all who need them.]

[Illustration: Copyright 1906 by Tom M. Phillips.

=WIRES DOWN.=

The earthquake shook down wires and poles.]

[Illustration: Copyright 1906 by Tom M. Phillips.

=MILITARY CAMP.=

View in Golden Gate Park. Too much praise cannot be given our
soldiers.]

Thursday morning at daybreak he reached his apartments on Pope
street. Flames were burning fiercely. A friend told him that his wife
had fled less than fifteen minutes before. She carried only a few
articles in a hand satchel.

For two days and nights Judge Shaw wandered over hills and through the
parks about San Francisco seeking among the 200,000 refugees for his
wife.

During that heart-breaking quest, according to his own words, he had
"no sleep, little food and less water." At noon Saturday he gave up
the search and hurried back to Los Angeles, hoping to find that she
had arrived before him. He hastened to his home on West Fourth street.

"Where's mother?" was the first greeting from his son, Hartley Shaw.

Judge Shaw sank fainting on his own doorstep. The search for the
missing woman was continued but proved fruitless.

One of the beautiful little features on the human side of the disaster
was the devotion of the Chinese servants to the children of the
families which they served. And this was not the only thing, for often
a Chinaman acted as the only man in families of homeless women and
children. Except for the inevitable panic of the first morning, when
the Chinese tore into Portsmouth square and fought with the Italians
for a place of safety, the Chinese were orderly, easy to manage, and
philosophical. They staggered around under loads of household goods
which would have broken the back of a horse, and they took hard the
order of the troops which commanded all passengers to leave their
bundles at the ferry.

A letter to a friend in Fond du Lac, Wis., from Mrs. Bragg, wife of