danger, were thrown open; one very
oddly. The proprietor nailed up one window with slats about four
inches wide. He made the refugees line up, and each was privileged to
take all he could reach through the window slats.

Some grocers and tradesmen were not so charitable. In other places I
saw them demanding from people in danger of starving, 75 cents a loaf
for bread.

Bread was the scarcest article except water.

The last of the tragedy that I witnessed was not only the most
dramatic but the most tremendous.

It should be called the "Exodus," for it was a Biblical scene. It was
the headlong flight of those who were most terror-stricken to get out
of the doomed city.

All day long a procession of almost countless thousands was to be seen
hurrying with all the possessions they could carry. There were people
with bundles, packs, laden express wagons, hacks bulging with plunder,
brewery wagons pressed into service, automobiles, push carts, even
fire hose wagons.

I happened along at a crucial moment. One of the lieutenants whose
peculiar and melancholy function seemed to be to pronounce the doom of
one section after another, had just sent warning to Nob Hill, the
center of fashion in San Francisco.

For hours I had been working my way toward the Oakland ferries. As a
last hope, some one told me I might get there by going over these
hills and following the line of the water front.

I got there after the warning had been given. It was San Francisco's
wealthiest and most exclusive society who had to pack and sling their
bundles over their shoulders.

And they did it with just as good grace and courage as the others. All
were making a frantic attempt to hire expressmen with any kind of
vehicle that would move, and most of them were failing.

During the first of the fire, some young society women with very poor
taste, went autoing around the stricken districts as though it were a
circus. They were stopped by a sentry and were made to get out of
their car and hand it over to a posse of special officers being
hurried to some district in new peril.

As I gained the top of Nob Hill and turned to look back, it was clear
why the warning had been given. In one direction, hospitals were
burning south of Market street.

In the center distance the big car barns were on fire and roaring with
flames. Ordinarily this would have been a sensation of a week. Now it
wasn't even considered worth while to send fire engines and nob