ewness of life. California will not
cease to be the land of fruits and flowers, of beauty and bounty, of
sunshine and splendor from this temporary disturbance. It will
continue to maintain its just reputation for all that is admirable in
the American character, of pluck and perseverance, of vigor and
versatility, and above all of the royal hospitality of its homes and
of the welcome it always extends to every new and inspiring thought.

Samuel Fallows

[Illustration: =MARKET STREET SCENE OF RUINS.=

Looking west on Market Street from 5th Street. The man in gutter was
probably shot by the soldiers.]

[Illustration: Copyright by R. L. Forrest 1906.

=U. S. GUARDS IN CHARGE OF DEAD.=

A scene in Jefferson Square where the U. S. Guards are caring for
the dead. Note the caskets, dead person laid out on mattress, also
guard tents, embalming fluids in demijohns, etc. Name or description
of the dead being recorded.]

CHAPTER I.

THE DOOMED CITY.

=Earthquake Begins the Wreck of San Francisco and a
Conflagration without Parallel Completes the Awful Work
of Destruction--Tremendous Loss of life in Quake and
Fire--Property Loss $200,000,000.=

After four days and three nights that have no parallel outside of
Dante's Inferno, the city of San Francisco, the American metropolis by
the Golden Gate, was a mass of glowing embers fast resolving into
heaps and winrows of grey ashes emblematic of devastation and death.

Where on the morning of April 18, 1906, stood a city of magnificent
splendor, wealthier and more prosperous than Tyre and Sidon of
antiquity, enriched by the mines of Ophir, there lay but a scene of
desolation. The proud and beautiful city had been shorn of its
manifold glories, its palaces and vast commercial emporiums levelled
to the earth and its wide area of homes, where dwelt a happy and a
prosperous people, lay prostrate in thin ashes. Here and there in the
charred ruins and the streets lately blackened by waves of flame, lay
crushed or charred corpses, unheeded by the survivors, some of whom
were fighting desperately for their lives and property, while others
were panic stricken and paralyzed by fear. Thousands of lives had been
sacrificed and millions upon millions of dollars in property utterly
destroyed.

The beginning of the unparalleled catastrophe was on the morning of
April 18, 1906. In the grey dawn, when but few had arisen for the day,
a shock