ying the dead, a temporary cemetery being opened
there. So thick were the corpses piled up that they were becoming a
menace, and early in the day the order was issued to bury them at any
cost. The soldiers were needed for other work, so, at the point of
rifles, the citizens were compelled to take to the work of burying. Some
objected at first, but the troops stood no trifling, and every man
who came within reach was forced to work. Rich men, unused to physical
exertion, labored by the side of the workingmen digging trenches in
which to bury the dead. The able-bodied being engaged in fighting the
flames, General Funston ordered that the old men and the weaklings
should take the work in hand. They did it willingly enough, but had they
refused the troops on guard would have forced them. It was ruled that
every man physically capable of handling a spade or a pick should dig
for an hour. When the first shallow graves were ready the men, under the
direction of the troops, lowered the bodies, several in a grave, and
a strange burial began. The women gathered about crying. Many of them
knelt while a Catholic priest read the burial service and pronounced
absolution. All Thursday afternoon this went on.

In this connection the following stories are told:

Dr. George V. Schramm, a young medical graduate, said:

"As I was passing down Market Street with a new-found friend, an
automobile came rushing along with two soldiers in it. My doctor's badge
protected me, but the soldiers invited my companion, a husky six-footer,
to get into the automobile. He said:

"'I don't want to ride, and have plenty of business to attend to.'

"Once more they invited him, and he refused. One of the soldiers pointed
a gun at him and said:

"'We need such men as you to save women and children and to help fight
the fire.'

"The man was on his way to find his sister, but he yielded to the
inevitable. He worked all day with the soldiers, and when released to
get lunch he felt that he could conscientiously desert to go and find
his own loved ones."

"Half a block down the street the soldiers were stopping all pedestrians
without the official pass which showed that they were on relief
business, and putting them to work heaving bricks off the pavement. Two
dapper men with canes, the only clean people I saw, were caught at the
corner by a sergeant, who showed great joy as he said:

"'I give you time to git off those kid gloves, and then hustle, damn