t iron pipes which in those days carried water to all
the city-dwellers. We feared that the fires in the city would burst the
pipes and empty the reservoirs. So we tore up the cement floor of the
central court of the Chemistry Building and dug a well. There were many
young men, undergraduates, with us, and we worked night and day on the
well. And our fears were confirmed. Three hours before we reached water,
the pipes went dry.

"A second twenty-four hours passed, and still the plague did not
appear among us. We thought we were saved. But we did not know what I
afterwards decided to be true, namely, that the period of the incubation
of the plague germs in a human's body was a matter of a number of days.
It slew so swiftly when once it manifested itself, that we were led to
believe that the period of incubation was equally swift. So, when two
days had left us unscathed, we were elated with the idea that we were
free of the contagion.

"But the third day disillusioned us. I can never forget the night
preceding it. I had charge of the night guards from eight to twelve,
and from the roof of the building I watched the passing of all man's
glorious works. So terrible were the local conflagrations that all the
sky was lighted up. One could read the finest print in the red glare.
All the world seemed wrapped in flames. San Francisco spouted smoke and
fire from a score of vast conflagrations that were like so many active
volcanoes. Oakland, San Leandro, Haywards--all were burning; and to the
northward, clear to Point Richmond, other fires were at work. It was an
awe-inspiring spectacle. Civilization, my grandsons, civilization was
passing in a sheet of flame and a breath of death. At ten o'clock that
night, the great powder magazines at Point Pinole exploded in rapid
succession. So terrific were the concussions that the strong building
rocked as in an earthquake, while every pane of glass was broken. It was
then that I left the roof and went down the long corridors, from room to
room, quieting the alarmed women and telling them what had happened.

"An hour later, at a window on the ground floor, I heard pandemonium
break out in the camps of the prowlers. There were cries and screams,
and shots from many pistols. As we afterward conjectured, this fight had
been precipitated by an attempt on the part of those that were well
to drive out those that were sick. At any rate, a number of the
plague-stricken prowlers escaped across th