•
•
•
|
April 18, 1906
FLAGS OF CITY ARE AT HALF MAST
|
Mayor McAleer early this morning asked the merchants and others of the city to place their flags at half mast as an evidence of the sorrow in which Los Angeles is plunged by the San Francisco horror.
|
The flag over the City Hall was draped, and Fire Chief Lips issued instructions that this be done at all the engine houses throughout the city.
The mayor’s suggestion is being followed. Here and there the Stars and Stripes
|
still fly at the summit of the pole, but through forgetfulness alone.
And those that were overlooked are falling one by one to pay their tribute of sorrow for the dead.
|
•
|
April 18, 1906
WILL SEND RELIEF TO BAY CITY
|
President Summerfield, president of the [City] Council, gave orders to the Southern Pacific Railroad at noon today to carry relief to San Francisco sufferers.
This action was taken when Mr. Summerfield learned from the Express that all telegraph wires are down and that no answer to the telegram [by Mayor McAleer] offering assistance can be received here for many hours.
Unless communication is opened up and information is received that assistance from Los Angeles is unnecessary, the relief train will leave here between 4 and 8 o’clock today and will carry more than 100 surgeons, nurses and medical supplies.
Police Surgeon [S.J.] Quint has been called upon to furnish medical assistance and has promised that
|
whenever the train is ready to start he will have his corps of nurses and doctors on hand. . . .
Dr. Quint will be in his office in the Potomac Building until 4 o’clock and asks that those doctors desiring to accompany the expedition will report to him there. His telephone number is 1894.
Hospitals of the city will be called upon to furnish nurses, who will be in charge of Miss McKnight, city district nurse. . . .
At 2:10 o’clock this afternoon it was decided by the Council that the special train . . . will not leave Los Angeles until authentic information has been received from San Francisco. . . .
The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce is acting in conjunction with the City Council in sending the relief train northward.
|
A meeting of the directors was held at 3 o’clock this afternoon, and Secretary Frank Wiggins was given power to go ahead with the work. . . .
The Los Angeles Horse Show . . . has been turned into a benefit for the sufferers of the earthquake, and Major J.J. Norton and John G. Mott [said] . . . that the net proceeds from the show would go to the relief of the city. . . .
Manager Morley of the Los Angeles baseball team has filed a telegram to President Bert of the Coast League asking that Sunday be set aside throughout the Pacific Coast League for the sufferers of the San Francisco earthquake.
Morley would have held the benefit this afternoon but did not think it could be sufficiently advertised.
|
•
•
| April 18, 1906 |
|
PATHETIC SCENES AT POSTAL TELEGRAPH
|
All Eager for News of Horror
The bulletin boards in front of the Express building today were the mecca for thousands of citizens interested in the fate of loved ones and friends at San Francisco.
The crowd gathered when the first dispatch regarding the disaster was posted at 7:30 o’clock this morning.
The throng increased until it covered the walks and extended into the streets, so anxious were citizens to secure all details possible regarding the horror.
Every bulletin was posted as soon as receivedand each was anxiously scanned by the anxious watchers.
Many were unable to . . . read the news, and persons in the front ranks read and passed the details along by word of mouth.
The Express receives scores of special dispatches from its special correspondents in cities and towns near San Francisco . . . .
|
No private messages are being sent over the one wire open to San Francisco on the Postal Telegraph lines.
Before the offices of the company an excited crowd of men and women surged back and forth this morning, all imploring the officials to send a message through for them to the stricken city, to bring back some word from dear ones in peril there.
Manager Lewis said that there was only one wire in operation and that he had received imperative orders that it is to be used only for company purposes, press dispatches and general news.
When he made this announcement to the clamoring crowd, it fell silent for a moment. Then a groan went up.
Pale-faced petitioners, who had thought to know in a little while what fate had come upon the child or wife or mother in the city of doom, saw before them a day and night of frightful suspense . . . .
|
Men who have large dealings with the company tried to use their influence, implored and threatened, but Manager Lewis shook his head.
Maddened men fought their way toward him with handfuls of money, offering it all jsut for the sending of one word and one in reply, just that they might know that one person in the world was still alive.
Manager Lewis compressed his twitching lips and waved the money away.
Women cried and sobbed, imploring him to send some word for them. One old gray-haired woman crouched voiceless at his feet, her lips moving in silent appeal.
Manager Lewis gritted his teeth and shook his head.
There is but one wire open, and individual anguish must wait for its relief. Private messages are being received, but probably none will be sent before tomorrow.
|
•
•
|
April 18, 1906
SUPREME JUSTICES TO SAN FRANCISCO IN SPECIAL TRAIN
|
Judicial dignity was forgotten in the excitement which caused the justices of the State Supreme Court to suddenly terminate the sitting here which began Monday and was to have continued to April 26.
The justices promptly and without exception decided it was their duty to go to San Francisco as quickly as possible and, the last regular train having left, they set about to charter a special.
At the Van Nuys Hotel, where most of the justices have been staying, the news of the intention of the judges became known and . . . applications from citizens, tourists and everybody who had relatives or friends in San Francisco . . . poured in on the members of the court.
|
Then the news came that the Southern Pacific had positively refused to run any special train, and the judges were in confusion and at a loss what to do until the good news came from Gen. M.H. Sherman that he had secured an engine for his private car and would take the justices along with him.
|
A scramble for street cars and cabs followed, and the last of the judges reached the Arcade Depot just as the train was about to pull out.
. . . there was a continuous stream of callers at General Sherman’s apartments . . . [at the Westminster Hotel], nearly all of whom were refused admission. . . .
|
|
Sherman Special Speeding Northward
SAUGUS, Cal. — . . . It is certain that damage along the coast is enormous, for the special, instead of going along the coast line, has been switched to the valley route by way of Saugus to Livermore to San Jose.
. . . although the Southern Pacific offficials could set no time for its arrival in San Francisco, instructions to train crews are to make the best time possible over clear tracks, for everything will be sidetracked to give the train the right of way.
|
•
•
|
Sales of the Express Break All Records
Never before yesterday in Los Angeles was there so great a demand for newspapers. The Express, first upon the streets with anything like a story of the San Francisco earthquake, published extra editions throughout the day . . . .
These editions were eagerly sought and read by the public that thirsted for the latest tidings from the stricken city and were published until 10 o’clock last night.
With the sale of the Eleventh Edition, which came out at 11 o’clock, the number of papers published during the day by the Express reached a total of 85,000, beating all records of newspaper sales in this city.
The Eleventh Edition consisted of eight pages of news of the earthquake, [and] the latest story by the Associated Press, confirming the disconnected reports received from various sources earlier in the day.
Considering the difficulty of obtaining news from a city cut off from the world by destruction of telegraph and telephone lines, the achievement of the Express yesterday is something of which to be proud.
Throughout the day the Express aimed to be conservative in reports of the amount of loss, but late reports show the earlier dispatches did not exaggerate. It would have been a pleasure to show that the damage was not so great.
Until the whole of the sad story is told, the Express will continue the extra editions and give to readers all the available and most reliable news.
|
•
•
April 20, 1906
RELIEF NOTES (1)
|
|
[Citizens’ committees were appointed to solicit relief funds from various business establishments.]
Architects: A.M. Edelman, John Parkinson.
Automobiles: W.K. Cowan.
Bakeries: William Meek, Barnes.
Barbers: J.E. Cooksey.
Brokers: Ferd K. Rule, J.B. Bushnell, J.H. Adams.
Butchers: M.W. Everhardy, Simon Maier.
Carriages: George Arnott, Newell Mathews.
Cigars: Fred Barman, George W. Walker, Benjamin Kingsbaker.
Confectionery: L.J. Christopher.
Contractors: Carl Leonardt, F.O. Engstrom, Paul Haupt.
|
Dentists: L.E. Ford, W.H. Spinks, Shelley Tolhurst.
Druggists: Dr. Owens, J.J. Freeman, Frank N. Boswell, D.W. Kirkland.
Dye works: J. Jenkins.
Electrical supplies: H.B. Woodill.
Florists: F. Edward Gray, J.W. Wolfskill.
Iron foundries: Fred W. Baker, Rees Llewellyn.
Grocers: H. Jevne, Howard Rivers.
Hay and Grain: Joe Desmond.
Hotels and lodging houses: John Mitchell.
Ice companies: J. McKinney, Bullfinch.
Insurance: John T. Griffith, Louis Vetter, Edward Silent.
Jewelers: Luckenbach.
|
Livery stables: Lusk Cab Co.
Lumber: James Cuzner, Eugene Ganahl, Charles G. Lynch.
Painters: Scriver & Quinn, Hugo Shroeder.
Pianos: John J. Birkel, Frank Hart.
Planing mills: Thomas Hughes, J.H. Waddingham, A. Beyrie.
Produce: Frank Simpson, Mathews Bros., Chester Thompson.
Restaurants: John Brink, William Schneider.
Stationers: Oliver & Haynes, Wheedon, Gardiner.
Tailors: A.K. Brauer, O.C. Sens, B. Gordon.
Transfer companies: California Truck Co., C.H. Fuller Barmore.
|
•
•
April 20, 1906
RELIEF NOTES (2)
|
|
Employes of manufacturing houses and other working men will be asked to give a day’s wages to the fund.
All towns in Southern California have been invited to donate clothing, bedding fruits and vegetables. They are asked to pack all supplies in cases, load them on [railroad or street] cars and notify the Los Angeles citizens’ relief committee of the number and contents of the cars.
Clothing in the stores of Los Angeles is being held in readiness, subject to the order of the relief committee.
George Lum, acting for the Chinese, has given $1,000 to the fund. . . .
The Salvation Army has been authorized to place subscription boxes at street corners. . . .
|
Bishop Conaty and Rabbi Hecht have been added to the executive committee. . . .
The people of every town in Southern California were asked by telephone to bake bread and collect such supplies as possible for use of the general committee. . . .
Los Angeles Maccabees will give a benefit minstrel show Tuesday night, May 1, for the relief fund. Tent No. 2 will give $500, and the Supreme Tent is expected to appropriate $25,000. . . .
Battling Nelson, the prize fighter, and his manager, Billy Nolan, raised $188.04 yesterday for the fund by selling newspapers on the streets. . . .
Proceeds from the tours of the California Auto Dispatch Co.’s sight-seeing autos tomorrow will be given to the relief
|
fund. The employes will also give their services. The autos will leave the Hotel Angelus at 10 a.m. and will call at the Nadeau, Hollenbeck, Natick, Westminster and Rosslyn hotels. . . .
Mayor McAleer has been asked to order the arrest of all those collecting funds without authorization. . . .
Will Van Louen, a ten-year-old pupil of the 28th Street School, gave 66 cents to the fund, all the money he had. . . .
The gross receipts of the Angels Flight for Saturday will be given to the fund.
Every householder who has a vacant room is asked to volunteer its use for the refugees coming to Los Angeles. . . .
|
•
•
April 21, 1906
Opera Stars Fleeing Across Continent
|
|
There was much sadness and also much merriment on the Metropolitan Opera Company’s train as it pulled into the Arcade Depot this afternoon.
The most woebegone passengers were the members of the orchestra, who had lost instruments aggregating in value $25,000.
Yet one of the jolliest on the train was conductor [Arturo] Vigna, who had lost not only all his valuables but part of his clothing also.
Having had to run out of the hotel undressed, he had not been able to procure socks, and his feet were protected by [cloth] napkins loaned him by a Pullman porter.
“I did not lose my wife, though,” said the smiling fat little conductor, as he introduced Mrs. Vigna.
Taurino Parvis, the baritone, wearing a pair of felt slippers three sizes too large and a derby two sizes too small, looked melancholy.
His feet are covered with blisters, as he wondered over some of the burning embers after escaping from the Oak Hotel when the ceiling fell on his as he slept. . . .
[Antonio] Scotti, [Robert]
|
Blass, [Alois] Burgstaller, Van Roy and [Albert] Reiss and Mmes. [Marie] Rappold, Poehlman, [Marie] Mattfeld, Mulford and Froehlich, the premiere danseuse, and Dufrich, the harpist, proved to be as jolly as if they had never experienced one of the most terrifying adventures that it is the lot of mankind to go through.
Blass said, smilingly:
“I lost nothing but my voice — for the time being. When the shock came, I was tumbled out of bed, the piano fell over, and I scrambled out of the Palace as fast as I could.”
“Yes,” chirped Miss Matfeldt, “and when I woke up, I was looking at the sky through a hole in the roof.”
“I have just one shirt left,” said Reiss, “and that is on my back.”
“Well, you are doing well,” replied Gority. “I haven’t got a cent left.” . . .
In one manner they were unanimous. That was the unaccountable manner in which they had been deserted by [concertmaster] Nahan Franko, and his action was severely denounced, especially by the corps de ballet, the chorus and the orchestra, who
|
had depended on him for their transportation.
Many of the stars of the first water, among them Caruso and Sembrick, had left Oakland for New York, via Ogden, yesterday.
Those who passed through Los Angeles this afternoon had only escaped from San Francisco at 9 o’clock yesterday morning.
“You can never realize what we went through, ” said Miss Matfeldt. “After we had saved our baggage at the Palace, we went to the St. Francis with it.
“When this hotel took fire, we . . . were glad to get away with our lives. It was simply horrible.”
Many of the artists and musicians made a hurried trip uptown to procure necessary articles of clothing, as their train was booked to leave at 3 o’clock.
Mr. and Mrs. Vigora and Parvis . . . visited the Broadway Department Store.
Others hunted restaurants, preferably Italian or French, to get the first square meal they had tasted since Wednesday morning.
The party was in charge of Eugene Castel Bert.
|
|
|
•
April 21, 1906
BIG BENEFIT PERFORMANCE
|
|
The theaters of the city have combined for a big theatrical performance from noon to 6 p.m. on May 5 at the Mason Opera House.
|
All the actors of the city have volunteered their services.
The boxes will be auctioned off by Joseph Scott April 25 in the lobby of the theater.
|
The performance will be arranged in a few days and probably will consist of a continuous vaudeville performance.
|
•
April 21, 1906
RELIEF NOTES (3)
|
|
Barry & Duncan have given all the vacant houses on their renting list for use of refugees for 90 days. . . .
The Los Angeles Gas and Electric works at Center and Aliso streets has been turned into a great bakery. One hundred men are busy preparing bread, hams, bacon and beans. . . .
The Dobinson School of Expression has been
|
transformed into a temporary garment factory. . . .
Hard-boiled eggs, packed in cases, are solicited as food ready for instant use. . . .
When the purchasing committee bought $1,200 worth of blankets from the Boston Store, it was informed that Mrs. Barnum, owner of the store, had donated the supplies. The employes gave $545.75 in addition . . . .
|
“Please furnish us as many cots as possible immediately, notifying me of the time and manner of shipment” is the message sent by the mayor of San Francisco last night. As the market supply of cots is exhausted, the citizens are asked to supply the need. . . .
The Boston Globe has established a registration bureau at Arcade Depot, where all New England residents will be cared for and their friends in the East notified. . . .
The Japanese of Los Angeles have collected $1,184.25 and turned the money over to the Chamber of Commerce. . . .
One cot every minute is being turned out by the Hughes Manufacturing Co. upon the orders of the Relief Committee. Three shifts of workmen a day are being worked. San Francisco needs 50,000 cots, and it is believed that by Monday Los Angeles can supply 15,000. . . .
|
Mrs. Martindale Hears Husband Is Safe
|
|
Mrs. J.H. Martindale of 636 Lucas Street has received a letter from her husband . . . assuring her of his safety.
The meeting of the Monday Musical Club, which was to have been held at her home,
|
has been indefinitely postponed.
Richard W. Pridham of Lincoln Park is anxiously awaiting news of his sister,
Mrs. H.C. Coghill of San Francisco.
|
Unions to Send Three Carloads Tonight
|
|
The local labor unions are doing much to relieve the suffering of the earthquake victims. Three carloads of provisions and supplies are being loaded for shipment north.
|
Union labor solicitors are going from house to house and securing all the food and clothing possible to assist in the relief work.
They have also solicited a large sum of money.
|
•
•
•
April 23, 1906
Angeles Camp Is In Shape
|
|
Angeles Camp at Agricultural Park will be ready for occupancy this evening. As soon a possible today, it will be turned over to the Associated Charities.
. . . a strong force of laborers worked hard all day to get the camp in shape for the housing of from 1,500 to 2,000 refugees. . . .
An appeal is made to housewives for dishes, crockery, bedding, cooking utensils, towels and kindred articles.
The assistance of volunteer women to aid in the preparation of meals . . . will also be greatly appreciated. . . .
No better place could have been selected for a temporary camp than Agricultural Park, where the purity of the air, the constant light sea breezes and the amplitude of the grounds will afford the refugees an excellent chance to recuperate from their fright and subsequent fatigue . . . .
|
In order that no undesirable people should come here to profit by the San Francisco calamity in becoming parasites upon the people’s charity, the railroads have invited the appointment . . . of this city of committees to proceed to Oakland to aid in the
|
inspection of those who apply for free transportation to Southern California.
A committee of physicians . . . boards trains at Saugus for the purpose of inspecting incoming refugees . . . [for] contagious diseases. . . .
|
|
PLAN TO EXCLUDE RIFF-RAFF
|
|
The undesirable riff-raff of San Francisco is not wanted in Los Angeles.
Able-bodied men who come here will be put to work at once; if they refuse, they will be sent to the rock pile. Every woman and child is welcome.
Such is the dictum that has gone forth from the Relief Committee’s headquarters.
Capt. Paul Flammer, chief of detectives, told the committee today that about one-forth of the people who came into the city Sunday appear to be undesirable . . . .
The establishment of a detention camp up the [San Fernando] valley is proposed.
|
Every person coming from San Francisco would be inspected there first and given credentials later to enter the city.
Men who can work will be given employment in Elysian Park of some other place. . . .
Criminals will be arrested; the suspicious persons will be marked for surveillance. . . .
Upon the urgent suggestion of Bishop Conaty, it was determined to place policemen throughout the residence portion of the city. He said . . . if the criminal class came to Los Angeles the first place for them to work would be the residential section. . . .
|
•
April 23, 1906
Dr. Charles F. Taggart Killed in San Francisco
|
|
. . . Dr. Charles F. Taggart of 3316 S. Grand Ave. . . . was accidentally killed by the discharge of his own pistol while in charge of the work of relief in the Hearst Hospital, 1111 Page St., San Francisco, yesterday morning.
Dr. Taggart . . . went north on the first relief train, without word or thought for his own extensive practice here.
|
He had charge of a large corps of Los Angeles nurses [at] . . . the relief hospital in the Crocker Grammar School . . . he had worked night and day without sleep, almost without taking time to eat.
With him in the hospital yesterday morning were his brother, Dr. Thomas Taggart, and Dr. G.A. Scroggs, both of Los Angeles.
The three were descending a
|
stairway when an automatic revolver carried by Dr. Charles Taggart — because it had been considered unsafe to go unarmed in the city — fell from his pocket, was discharged, and its owner reeled backward, exclaiming:
“My god, Scroggs, I’m killed!”
Dr. Scroggs caught him in his arms. . . in five minutes he was dead. . . .
|
•
April 23, 1906
All Schools Reopened; Studies Are Resumed
|
|
Studies were resumed in all the public schools of Los Angeles city and county today.
The pupils were dismissed the latter part of last week in order to assist in the relief work and
|
allow the school rooms to be used in packing supplies of food and clothing for the San Francisco sufferers.
The schools contributed 11 carloads of provisions and clothing.
|
•
April 23, 1906
NO MORE RELIEF TO BE SENT NORTH
|
|
The Citizens’ Relief Committee will send no further supplies or funds to San Francisco, at least for the present.
A halt was called at today’s meeting.
It was declared that the food, clothing and money contributed to the work . . . would be needed in Los Angeles . . . to properly take care of the thousands of refugees pouring in.
|
The committee also voted to send word to surrounding towns and villages asking that supplies, instead of being shipped north, be forwarded to this city.
Tents, bed clothing, cots, funds and staple provisions are needed greatly.
The establishment of detention headquarters in one or more places upon the outskirts will call for
|
thousands of tents, much lumber, bed clothing and provisions.
The committee also warns citizens against throwing open their homes to refugees unless they are fully aware of the character of the persons given shelter.
Ample provisions are being made by the citizens’ committees for the care of the applicants.
|
•
•
April 18, 1906
EARTHQUAKE NOT EXPECTED IN THE SOUTH
|
|
“Los Angeles people need not fear for their own safety,” said W.D. Fuller, assistant weather forecaster, at noon today.
“There is nothing in the atmospheric conditions to warrant belief that the
|
southern part of the state will be affected.”
“There has been absolutely no deviation from normal as found by readings of our instruments, and, although the first shock in San Francisco
|
occurred just as I finished taking observations at this bureau this morning and I felt the earthquake, an immediate examination of instruments showed nothing unusual here.” |
April 19, 1906
No Earthquake Ever Did Damage to Los Angeles
|
|
The history of a hundred years shows that Los Angeles has not in that time had a serious earthquake.
Tremors have been felt at intervals, it is true, but beyond alarming the very timid they have done no damage.
. . . the geological conditions here warrant the assurance of science that no serious temblor can trouble Los Angeles.
Unlike San Francisco, which is built on a tongue of land bordered on one side by the sea and the other by the bay, Los Angeles rests upon a hard-pan foundation that has existed for thousands of years.
Los Angeles is 14 miles from
|
the ocean. The very conditions that make the city exempt from cyclones protect the city from seismic disturbances. There is absolutely no similarity with the situation of San Francisco. . . .
The worst earthquake of the century in Southern California broke a few walls in San Jacinto, down in Riverside County, a few years ago. . . .
[In the San Francisco quake the worst damage] . . . was experienced on artificially made ground, where it was impossible to get a stable foundation for the heavy buildings.
There is no made or reclaimed ground in Los
|
Angeles. All heavy buildings rest upon a solid stratum of natural soil, packed in the centuries since the world began.
There is no geologic evidence that the earth’s structure here was ever changed by volcanic influence, and as for thousands of years this has been above he sea. . . .
Los Angeles is peculiarly fortunate in the geological formation of its foundation. It is also safe from tidal waves. . . .
The wisdom of the old padres in choosing for their pueblo Nossa Senora de Los Angeles [sic], a spot immune from serious earthquake, is every year apparent.
|
April 28, 1906
Los Angeles Is Out of Earthquake Belt
|
|
. . . The principal cause of dangerous earthquakes is the generation and expansion of combustible gases, which are of two kinds.
• The least harmful of the two is water-gas. This is produced when highly heated steam comes in contact with any equally hot carbonaceous substance, of which vast amounts are deposited in the earth.
• There is also contained in the earth chlorides and other chemical substances, from which at the proper heats oxygen is produced.
Both of these gases may be long distances apart, and as long as they remain so, no harm is done.
But if the two gases mix . . . and then come in contact with heat sufficient to ignite them, an explosion takes place. . . .
This would produce just such an “earthquake” as San Francisco experienced last week.
[Another highly explosive gas is acetylene, which is produced from calcium carbide.]
|
As the earth cools off, this carbide becomes solidified and forms a species of rock and will remain in this form any number of millions of years, until water is brought into contact with it. . . .
There are conditions where atmospheric oxygen gets into caverns and crevices of the earth where it might mix with these gases . . . and when ignited . . . will explode and cause disturbances of the earth’s crust. . . .
Both of the above-described combustible gases are continually generated in the bowels of the earth and are thrown off and utilized in many places under the name of natural gas. . . .
San Francisco may never again experience a serious earthquake.
It is more likely, after the present disturbance has adjusted itself, that ages may pass without any disturbance in that locality, which is not more likely to occur there than anywhere on the Atlantic Coast, where the writer has
|
experienced more earthquakes and of greater severity than during his 18 years’ residence on the Pacific Coast. . . .
[In] . . . Southern California, it is an utter impossibility to have a severe earthquake. The formation is entirely against that theory.
The Sierra Madres [sic] are among our oldest geological formation — the washes from which has [sic] made all our valleys, and ocean soundings show that there are no thin places . . . to admit water sufficient to create a disturbance.
In the San Jacinto Mountains are slight disturbances which cause mere tremors for 100 miles around, perhaps, but no danger need be apprehended from that source.
. . . there is no possibility of any great amount of water being admitted in those higher localities, and before any disturbance could take place . . . the pressure would be relieved by a harmless volcano. . . .
|
•
Los Angeles history
|
