er did not know that its life had left it thirty hours before.

* * * * *

When law and order were strained a crew of hell rats crept out of
their holes and in the flamelight plundered and reveled in
bacchanalian orgies like the infamous inmates of Javert in "Les
Miserables." These denizens of the sewer traps and purlieus of "The
Barbary Coast" exulted in unhindered joy of doing evil.

Sitting crouched among the ruins or sprawling on the still warm
pavement they could be seen brutally drunk. A demijohn of wine placed
on a convenient corner of some ruin was a shrine at which they
worshiped. They toasted chunks of sausage over the dying coals of the
cooling ruin even as they drank, and their songs of revelry were
echoed from wall to wall down in the burnt Mission district.

Some of the bedizened women of the half world erected tents and
champagne could be had for the asking, although water had its price.
One of these women, dressed in pink silk with high heeled satin
slippers on her feet, walked down the length of what had been Natoma
street with a bucket of water and a dipper, and she gave the precious
fluid freely to those stricken ones huddled there by their household
goods and who had not tasted water in twenty-four hours.

"Let them drink and be happy," said she, "water tastes better than
beer to them now."

* * * * *

Soon after the earthquake San Francisco was practically placed under
martial law with Gen. Fred Funston commanding and later Gen. Greely.
The regiment has proven effective in subduing anarchy and preventing
the depredations of looters. A detail of troops helped the police to
guard the streets and remove people to places of safety.

The martial law dispensed was of the sternest. They have no records
existing of the number of executions which had been meted out to
offenders. It is known that more than one sneaking vandal suffered for
disobedience of the injunction given against entering deserted houses.

There was a sharp, businesslike precision about the American soldier
that stood San Francisco in good stead. The San Francisco water rat
thug and "Barbary Coast" pirate might flout a policeman, but he
discovered that he could not disobey a man who wears Uncle Sam's
uniform without imminent risk of being counted in that abstract
mortuary list usually designated as "unknown dead."

For instance: When Nob Hill was the crest of a huge w