found my safe in the ruins and everything in it that was
inflammable burned to a coal; one of the twenty-dollar gold pieces
before mentioned was saved.

During the afternoon of the 18th and until 3 o'clock P. M. of the 19th
the scraping sound of dragging trunks on the sidewalks was continual.
All sorts of methods for conveying valuables were resorted to,--chairs
on casters, baby carriages, wheelbarrows,--but the trunk-dragging was
the most common. It was almost impossible to get a wagon of any kind.
The object of the people was to get to the vacant lots at North Beach
and to the Presidio grounds.

Shortly after the calamity the most absurd stories were in circulation.
It was stated that a man came out of the wreck of the Palace Hotel with
his pockets filled with human fingers and ears taken from the dead
inmates for the rings and earrings. As no one was injured in the hotel,
it was wholly imaginative. A man near the Park met another who related
the shocking occurrence of two men having been hanged on a tree in
sight, and not a long way off; the man hastened to the spot and found no
crowd, nor men hanging.

My son was engaged with his automobile all the forenoon in work
connected with the temporary hospital at the Mechanics' Pavilion. At
about 11 A. M. it was found necessary to remove the patients, which was
finished by noon. When the last one was taken out, he went in and made a
search, and found that all had been taken away. Still the report was
believed by many that a hundred or more perished there by the fire.

A few personal experiences have come to me, and as I can verify them, I
have here inserted them.

One of our men who roomed near the engine-house on California Street,
packed his trunk and dragged it downstairs, and started along the street
for a place of safety until he came to a pile of brick, when he stopped
and had just time to lay the brick all around it and run away. The next
day as soon as the heat would permit, he went for his trunk and found it
slightly roasted, but the contents uninjured.

A lady who does not wish her name mentioned relates a very interesting
and thrilling story of her earthquake experience. She says she had
permitted her servant to go away for the night, and at five o'clock she
remembered that the milkcan had not been placed out as usual, so at that
hour she concluded to get up and do it herself. She did so and before
she could return to her bed, the shock came and the chimne