ic Union clubs next shone red with the fire that was
glutting them.

On three sides ringed with sheets of flame rose the Dewey memorial in
the midst of Union square. Victory tiptoeing on the apex of the column
glowed red with the flames. It was as if the goddess of battle had
suddenly become apostate and a fiend linked in sympathy with the
devils of the blaze.

On the first day of the catastrophe the St. Francis escaped. On the
second it fell. In the space of two hours the flames had blotted it
out, and by night only the charred skeleton remained.

As a prelude to the destruction of the St. Francis the fire swept the
homes of the Bohemian, Pacific, Union, and Family clubs, the best in
San Francisco.

With them were obliterated the huge retail stores along Post street;
St. Luke's Church, the biggest Episcopal church on the Pacific coast,
and the priceless Hopkins Art Institute.

From Union square to Chinatown it is only a pistol shot. By noon all
Chinatown was a blazing furnace, the rickety wooden hives, where the
largest Chinese colony in this country lived, was perfect fuel for the
fire.

Then Nob Hill, the charmed circle of the city, the residential
district of its millionaires and of those whose names have made it
famous, went with the rest of the city into oblivion. The Fairmount
Hotel, marble palace built by Mrs. Oelrichs, crowned this district.

Grouped around it were the residences of Mrs. Stanford, and a score of
millionaires' homes on Van Ness avenue. One by one they were buried in
the onrushing flames, and when the fire was passed they were gone.

Here the most desperate effort of the fight to save the city was made.
Nothing was spared. There was no discrimination, no sentiment. Rich
men aided willingly in the destruction of their own homes that some of
the city might be saved.

[Illustration: Copyright 1906, by American-Journal-Examiner. All
rights reserved. Any infractions of this copyright will be prosecuted
to the full extent of the law.

=VIEW FROM VALLEY STREET.=

This is a view from Valley Street looking down Kearney toward Market.]

[Illustration: Copyright 1906, by American-Journal-Examiner. All
rights reserved. Any infractions of this copyright will be prosecuted
to the full extent of the law.

=DESTROYED WHOLESALE HOUSES.=

This photograph shows the wreck and ruin wrought by the earthquake
and fire in the wholesale district.]

But the sacrifice and the labor went