orities made haste to guard against
this and certain other dangers, Mayor Schmitz issuing on Wednesday the
following proclamation:

"The Federal troops, the members of the regular police force and special
police officers have been authorized to kill any and all persons engaged
in looting or in the commission of any other crime.

"I have directed all the gas and electric lighting companies not to turn
on gas or electricity until I order them to do so. You may, therefore,
expect the city to remain in darkness for an indefinite time.

"I request all citizens to remain at home from darkness until daylight
every night until order is restored.

"I warn all citizens of the danger of fire from damaged or destroyed
chimneys, broken or leaking gas pipes or fixtures or any like causes."

He also ordered that no lights should be used in the houses and no fires
built in the houses until the chimneys had been inspected and repaired.

There was need of vigilance in this direction, for the vandals were
quickly at work. Routed out from their dens along the wharves, the
rats of the waterfront, the drifters on the back eddy of civilization,
crawled out intent on plunder. Early in the day a policeman caught one
of these men creeping through the window of a small bank on Montgomery
Street and shot him dead. But the police were kept too busy at other
necessary duties to devote much time to these wretches, and for a time
many of them plundered at will, though some of them met with quick and
sure retribution.

STORIES BY SIGHTSEERS.

One onlooker says: "Were it not for the fact that the soldiers in charge
of the city do not hesitate in shooting down the ghouls the lawless
element would predominate. Not alone do the soldiers execute the law. On
Wednesday afternoon, in front of the Palace Hotel, a crowd of workers in
the mines discovered a miscreant in the act of robbing a corpse of its
jewels. Without delay he was seized, a rope obtained, and he was strung
up to a beam that was left standing in the ruined entrance of the hotel.
No sooner had he been hoisted up and a hitch taken in the rope than
one of his fellow-criminals was captured. Stopping only to obtain a few
yards of hemp, a knot was quickly tied, and the wretch was soon adorning
the hotel entrance by the side of the other dastard.

"These are the only two instances I saw, but I heard of many that were
seen by others. The soldiers do all they can, and while the unspeakable