veral hungry people in line who had no money to pay.
In several other places the soldiers used the same brand of horse sense.

A man with a loaf of bread in his hand ran up to a policeman on
Washington Street. "Here," he said, "this man is trying to charge me a
dollar for this loaf of bread. Is that fair?"

"Give it to me," said the policeman. He broke off one end of it and
stuck it in his mouth. "I am hungry myself," he said when he had his
mouth clear. "Take the rest of it. It's appropriated."

As an example of the prices charged for food and service by the
unscrupulous, we may quote the experience of a Los Angeles millionaire
named John Singleton, who had been staying a day or two at the Palace
Hotel. On Wednesday he had to pay $25 for an express wagon to carry
himself, his wife and her sister to the Casino, near Golden Gate Park,
and on Thursday was charged a dollar apiece for eggs and a dollar for a
loaf of bread. Others tell of having to pay $50 for a ride to the ferry.

One of the refugees on the shores of Lake Herced Thursday morning spied
a flock of ducks and swans which the city maintained there for the
decoration of the lake. He plunged into the lake, swam out to them and
captured a fat drake. Other men and boys saw the point and followed. The
municipal ducks were all cooking in five minutes.

The soldiers were prompt to take charge of the famine situation, acting
on their own responsibility in clearing out the supplies of the little
grocery stores left standing and distributing them among the people in
need. The principal food of those who remained in the city was composed
of canned goods and crackers. The refugees who succeeded in getting out
of San Francisco were met as soon as they entered the neighboring towns
by representatives of bakers who had made large supplies of bread, and
who immediately dealt them out to the hungry people.

THE FOOD QUESTION URGENT.

But the needs of the three hundred thousand homeless and hungry people
in the city could not be met in this way, and immediate supplies in
large quantities were necessary to prevent a reign of famine from
succeeding the ravages of the fire. Danger from thirst was still more
insistent than that from hunger. There was some food to be had, bakeries
were quickly built within the military reservation there, and General
Funston announced that rations would soon reach the city and the people
would be supplied from the Presidio. But there was scar