cue from General
Funston. He had not slept. He was the real ruler of San Francisco. All
the military tents available were set up in the Presidio and the
troops were turned out of the barracks to bivouac on the ground.

In the shelter tents they placed first the sick, second the more
delicate of the women, and third, the nursing mothers, and in the
afternoon he ordered all the dead buried at once in a temporary
cemetery in the Presidio grounds. The recovered bodies were carted
about the city ahead of the flames.

Many lay in the city morgue until the fire reached that; then it was
Portsmouth square until it grew too hot; afterwards they were taken to
the Presidio. There was another stream of bodies which had lain in
Mechanics' pavilion at first, and had then been laid out in Columbia
square, in the heart of a district devastated first by the earthquake
and then by fire.

The condition of the bodies was becoming a great danger. Yet the
troops had no men to spare to dig graves, and the young and able
bodied men were mainly fighting on the fire line or utterly exhausted.

It was Funston who ordered that the old men and the weaklings should
take this work in hand. They did it willingly enough, but had they
refused the troops on guard would have forced them. It was ruled that
every man physically capable of handling a spade or a pick should dig
for an hour. When the first shallow graves were ready the men, under
the direction of the troops, lowered the bodies several in a grave,
and a strange burial began.

The women gathered about crying; many of them knelt while a Catholic
priest read the burial service and pronounced absolution. All the
afternoon this went on.

Representatives of the city authorities took the names of as many of
the dead as could be identified and the descriptions of the others.
Many, of course, will never be identified.

So confident were the authorities that they had the situation in
control at the end of the third day that Mayor Schmitz issued the
following proclamation:

"To the Citizens of San Francisco: The fire is now under
control and all danger is passed. The only fear is that
other fires may start should the people build fires in
their stoves and I therefore warn all citizens not to
build fires in their homes until the chimneys have been
inspected and repaired properly. All citizens are urged
to discountenance the building of fires. I congratulate
the