fatigue, appeared at
the headquarters of the general committee. He had walked two miles
from his camping place in the park to make an appeal for his suffering
wife and little ones. As he told of their distress the tears welled up
in his eyes and coursed down his cheeks.

They were, he said, without covering other than a sheeting overhead
and were lying on the naked ground and their bodies protected only by
a quilt and blanket, which of his household bedding were all he had
managed to save. These had quickly been soaked, and while unwilling to
complain on his own account he had been unable to listen to the wails
of his little ones and had tramped all the way from his camping place
to the committee headquarters in the forlorn hope that there he might
find some means of getting his family under shelter.

The condition of the 5,000 people or more camped in Jefferson Square
Park was something terrible. Not more than 5 per cent had even an army
tent and the makeshifts were constructed of carpets, bed sheets and
every imaginable substance. They were totally inadequate to keep out
the heavy rain.

The 400 soldiers of the Fifth and Sixth California National Guard were
requisitioning.

Glenn A. Durston of the Spanish War Veteran's relief committee, had
charge of the relief work.

The spirit and courage shown by the sufferers in the face of their
misfortunes was wonderful. An aged, crippled woman lying on the dirt
floor of patchwork, bed sheets, carpets and tin roofing made a remark
which was a sample.

"I am the widow of a union soldier," she said. "The sufferings
related by my husband at Vicksburg were as nothing compared to mine. I
am very comfortable, thank you."

Many temporary emergency hospitals were established in and near the
refugee camps. The St. Paul Lutheran church near Jefferson square was
one, but the big hospital at the Presidio, the military headquarters
of the government, provided for the greater number of cases.

A temporary detention hospital was also established in the basement of
the Sacred Heart school, conducted by the Dominican Sisters at the
corner of Fillmore and Hayes streets, and the first commitment since
the earthquake was made on the Sunday following the fire. The sisters
of the Sacred Heart kindly turned over a part of the already crowded
quarters to the insanity commissioners, and a number of patients made
insane by the fire were cared for there.

At the general hospital the wards wer