re were
120,000 rations at the Presidio, that thousands of refugees were being
sheltered there and that the army was feeding them. One million rations
already had been started to San Francisco by the department. But in
view of the fact that there were 300,000 fugitives to be fed the supply
available was likely to be soon exhausted.

FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY.

Such was the state of affairs at the end of the second day of the great
disaster. But meanwhile the entire country had been aroused by the
tidings of the awful calamity, the sympathetic instinct of Americans
everywhere was awakened, and it was quickly made evident that the people
of the stricken city would not be allowed to suffer for the necessaries
of life. On all sides money was contributed in large sums, the United
States Government setting the example by an immediate appropriation of
$1,000,000, and in the briefest possible interval relief trains were
speeding toward the stricken city from all quarters, carrying supplies
of food, shelter tents and other necessaries of a kind that could not
await deliberate action.

Shelter was needed almost as badly as food, for a host of the refugees
had nothing but their thin clothing to cover them, and, though the
weather at first was fine and mild, a storm might come at any time.
In fact, a rain did come, a severe one, early in the week after the
disaster, pouring nearly all night long on the shivering campers in
the parks, wetting them to the skin and soaking through the rudely
improvised shelters which many of the refugees had put up. A few days
afterward came a second shower, rendering still more evident the need of
haste in providing suitable shelter.

All this was foreseen by those in charge, and the most strenuous efforts
were made to provide the absolute necessities of life. Huge quantities
of supplies were poured into the city. From all parts of California
trainloads of food were rushed there in all haste. A steamer from the
Orient laden with food reached the city in its hour of need; another was
dispatched in all haste from Tacoma bearing $25,000 worth of food and
medical supplies, ordered by Mayor Weaver, of Philadelphia, as a first
installment of that city's contribution. Money was telegraphed from
all quarters to the Governor of California, to be expended for food and
other supplies, and so prompt was the response to the insistent demand
that by Saturday all danger of famine was at an end; the people were
b