bureau in Oakland scores of women, young and old,
worked gratis. One applied for work to relieve her mind. She said she
had seen her husband and eldest son killed and had fled with her baby.
During the rush of people she lost her baby.
One of her first duties was to copy names of the lost and found. In
one of the lists she believed she recognized the description of her
baby. An investigation was made and the child proved to be hers.
[Illustration: Copyright 1906 by Tom M. Phillips.
=COOKING IN THE STREET.=
A familiar scene in San Francisco after the disaster.]
[Illustration: Copyright 1906 by Tom M. Phillips.
=WING OF CITY HALL.=
Two policemen were buried under walls.]
[Illustration: Copyright 1906 by Tom M. Phillips.
=CATTLE KILLED.=
A view showing a drove of cattle killed by falling walls.]
[Illustration: Copyright 1906 by Tom M. Phillips.
=ST. JOHN'S CHURCH.=
Mission Street looking west.]
A grief-stricken mother came in crying for her child, which she had
not seen since the day of the disaster. A member of the relief
committee was detailed on the case and he found the baby. The same
day, while walking on the street, he saw a woman carrying a baby in
a pillow slip thrown over her shoulder. Two hours later he again met
the woman. The pillow slip had ripped and the baby had fallen out
unknown to the mother. When her attention was called to this fact the
mother fainted.
Again the young man set to work and found the baby two blocks away,
but upon returning could not find the mother.
One man escaped with his two babes as he saw his wife killed in a
falling building. He seized two suit cases and placed a baby in each
and started for the ferry. When he reached Oakland he found both
smothered. He became violently insane and was put in a strait-jacket.
Hermann Oelrichs of New York, ten times a millionaire and husband of
the eldest daughter of the late Senator Fair of California, arrived in
Chicago on a scrap of paper on which was written a pass over all
railroad lines. The scrap of paper was roughly torn, was two inches
square, but upon it in lead pencil were written these magic words:
"Pass Hermann Oelrichs and servant to Chicago upon all lines. This
paper to serve in lieu of tickets.--E. H. Harriman."
Mr. Oelrichs described some of his experiences after he was driven
from his quarters in the St. Francis Hotel by the earthquake. He said:
"It was heaven and
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