of the Hotel St. Francis and thought they
would be safe. The hotel caught fire, and my trunks were all burned up.
To think I took so much trouble to save them!"

In spite of the news of all the woe and suffering which we hear, it is
cheering to learn also of the many thousands of heroic deeds by brave
men during the terrible scenes enacted through the four days passing
since the eventful morning when the earth began to demolish splendid
buildings of business and residence and fire sprang up to complete the
city's destruction. The Mayor and his forces of police, the troops
under command of General Funston, volunteer aids to all these, and the
husbands of terrified wives, and the sons, brothers and other relatives
who toiled for many consecutive hours through smoke and falling walls
and an inferno of flames and explosions and traps of danger of all
kinds, often without food or water--toiling as men never toiled before
to save life and relieve distress of all kinds--all these were examples
of heroism and devotion to duty seldom witnessed in any scenes of terror
in all time. There are brave, unselfish men and heroic women yet in the
world, and all of the best of human nature has been exhibited in large
dimensions in the terrible disaster at San Francisco.

CHAPTER IX.

Disaster Spreads Over the Golden State

The first news that the world received of the earthquake came direct
from San Francisco and was confined largely to descriptions of
the disaster which had overwhelmed that city. It was so sudden, so
appalling, so tragic in its nature, that for the time being it
quite overshadowed the havoc and misery wrought in a number of other
California towns of lesser note.

As the truth, however, became gradually sifted out of the tangle of
rumors, the horror, instead of being diminished, was vastly increased.
It became evident that instead of this being a local catastrophe, the
full force of the seismic waves had travelled from Ukiah in the north
to Monterey in the south, a distance of about 180 miles, and had made
itself felt for a considerable distance from the Pacific westward,
wrecking the larger buildings of every town in its path, rending and
ruining as it went, and doing millions of dollars worth of damage.

THE DESTRUCTION OF SANTA ROSA.

In Santa Rosa, sixty miles to the north of San Francisco, and one of
the most beautiful towns of California, practically every building
was destroyed or badly damaged. T