traffic showed who was now ruler in the land.
All the officials and the whole city administration were bound by a
marvelously clever and effective system.

In the proclamations issued by the Japanese military governor the city
was threatened, should the slightest sign of resistance occur, with acts
of vengeance that positively took one's breath away. Three Japanese
cruisers, with their guns constantly loaded and manned and aimed
directly at the two cities, lay between Oakland and San Francisco. They
had orders to show no mercy and to commence a bombardment at the first
sign of trouble. It did not seem to have occurred to any one that
although the bombardment of a town like San Francisco by a few dozen
guns might indeed have a bad moral effect, it would nevertheless be
impossible to do much harm. But the Japanese had other trump cards up
their sleeves. The military governor declared that the moment they were
compelled to use the guns, he would cut off all the available supply of
water and light, by which means all resistance would be broken down
within twenty-four hours. For this reason all the gas-works and
electric plants were transformed into little forts and protected by
cannon and machine-guns. Tens of thousands might try, in vain, to take
them by storm; the city would remain wrapped in darkness, except, as the
Japanese general remarked with a polite smile to the Mayor of San
Francisco, for the bright light of bursting shells.

In the same way the municipal waterworks in San Francisco and all the
other towns occupied by the Japanese were insured against attack. Not
one drop of water would the town receive, and what that meant could be
best explained to the Mayor by his wife. And thus, in spite of their
often ridiculously small numbers, the Japanese troops were safe from
surprise, for the awful punishment meted out to the town of Stockton,
where a bold and quickly organized band of citizens destroyed the
Japanese garrison, consisting only of a single company, was not likely
to be disregarded. The entire population of the Pacific Coast was forced
to submit quietly, though boiling with rage, while at the same time all
listened eagerly for the report of cannon from the American army in the
east. But was there such a thing as an American army? Was there any
sense in hoping when months must pass before an American army could take
the field?

* * * * *

The deception of the _Evening Stand