sal and so
generous that forever it will appeal to the admiration of mankind. It
was a response that did not wait to be asked but in the moment when
the need became known voluntarily turned the tide of the abundance of
the unstricken to the help of the unfortunate before they had even
breath to voice their need.

All over our own land, from every state and city and hamlet, from the
president and the assembled congress, dropping all else to turn the
nation's resources generously to the rescue, through all grades of the
people the response broke forth spontaneously, generously, warmly,
without stint and with such practical promptness that relief for
unexampled distress was already on the way before the close of the
first fateful day.

From all the seeming sordidness of daily life one turns to this as
proof incontestable that humanity is at heart infinitely kinder and
better and less selfish than it esteems itself. Even other lands and
other peoples when the horror of the calamity became known to them,
added to the stream of gold, which had its beginning in the
sympathetic hearts of the American people and its ending in the
stricken and despairing city. Once more were the lines of the
geographer and politician obliterated and there was in the lurid light
of the awful hours no north, no south, no east, no west. Once more did
those in charge of the coffers of the municipalities raise high the
lid and contribute to relieve the woe.

And Chicago, as became the Queen City of the Lakes, and which once in
an almost equally dire calamity was, herself, the recipient of
generous aid, was among the very first which recognized the need of
prompt and generous aid. Almost as soon as the news of the direful
plight of the city by the Golden Gate had been flashed over the wires,
the Merchants' Association of Chicago telegraphed to the authorities
of San Francisco that it would be responsible for a relief fund of
$1,000,000, and that any portion of that sum could be drawn upon at
once. Then Mayor Dunne issued a call for a special relief meeting at
which a big committee of the leading men of the city was formed and
immediately went to work. Fraternal organizations, the newspapers and
the clubs became also active solicitors for aid.

For several days the streets of the city presented a peculiar
appearance. Upon the street corners stood boxes showing that funds
deposited within would reach the homeless of the Pacific coast.
Smaller boxes