feet long. Originally it bore the praises of somebody's beer.
Covering this billboard, to a height of ten or twelve feet, were slips
of paper, business cards, letter heads and other notices, addressed
to "Those interested," "Friends and relatives," or to some individual,
telling of the whereabouts of refugees.

One notice read: "Mrs. Rogers will find her husband in Isidora Park,
Oakland. W. H. Rogers." Another style was this: "Sue, Harry and Will
Sollenberger all safe. Call at No. 250 Twenty-seventh Avenue."

There were thousands of these dramatic notices on this billboard, and
one larger than the others read: "Death notices can be left here; get as
many as possible."

Another method of finding friends and relatives was by printing notices
on vehicles. On the side curtains of a buggy being driven to Golden Gate
Park was the following sign: "I am looking for I. E. Hall."

That searchers for lost ones might have the least trouble, all the
tents, here known as camps, were tagged with the names or numbers. For
instance, one tent of bed quilts carried this sign: "No. 40 Bush Street
camp."

Most of the tents were merely named for the family name of the
occupants, the former streets number usually being given. But these tent
tags told a wonderful story of human nature. A small army tent bore the
name, "Camp Thankful," the one next to it was placarded "Camp Glory" and
a few feet farther on an Irishman had posted the sign "Camp Hell."

The cooking was all done on a dozen bricks for a stove, with such
utensils as may usually be picked up in the ordinary residential alley.
But in all of the camps the badge of the eternal feminine was to be
found in the form of small pieces of broken mirrors, or hand mirrors
fastened to trees or tent walls, in some cases the polished bottom of a
tomato can serving the purposes of the feminine toilet.

One woman, in whose improvised tent screeched a parrot, sat ministering
to the wounds of the other family pet, a badly singed cat. The number of
canaries, parrots, dogs and cats was one of the amusing features of the
disaster.

Among the interesting and thrilling incidents of the disaster is that
connected with the telegraph service. For many hours virtually all the
news from San Francisco came over the wires of the Postal Telegraph
Company. The Postal has about fifteen wires running into San Francisco.
They go under the bay in cables from Oakland, and thence run underground
for several block