eing fed.

WATER FOR THE THIRSTY.

The broken waterpipes were also repaired with all possible haste, the
Spring Valley Water Company putting about one thousand men at work upon
their shattered mains, and in a very brief time water began to flow
freely in many parts of the residence section and the great difficulty
of obtaining food and water was practically at an end. Never in
the history of the country has there been a more rapid and complete
demonstration of the resourcefulness of Americans than in the way this
frightful disaster was met.

Food, water and shelter were not the only urgent needs. At first there
was absolutely no sanitary provision, and the danger of an epidemic
was great. This was a peril which the Board of Health addressed itself
vigorously to meet, and steps for improving the sanitary conditions were
hastily taken. Quick provision for sheltering the unfortunates was also
made. Eight temporary structures, 150 feet in length by 28 feet wide
and 13 feet high, were erected in Golden Gate Park, and in these
sheds thousands found reasonably comfortable quarters. This was but a
beginning. More of these buildings were rapidly erected, and by their
aid the question of shelter was in part solved. The buildings were
divided into compartments large enough to house a family, each
compartment having an entrance from the outside. This work was done
under the control of the engineering department of the United States
army, which had taken steps to obtain a full supply of lumber and had
put 135 carpenters to work. Those of the refugees who were without tents
were the first to be provided for in these temporary buildings.

THE CAMPS IN THE PARKS.

To those who made an inspection of the situation a few days after
the earthquake, the hills and beaches of San Francisco looked like an
immense tented city. For miles through the park and along the beaches
from Ingleside to the sea wall at North Beach the homeless were camped
in tents--makeshifts rigged up from a few sticks of wood and a blanket
or sheet. Some few of the more fortunate secured vehicles on which they
loaded regulation tents and were, therefore, more comfortably housed
than the great majority. Golden Gate Park and the Panhandle looked like
one vast campaign ground. It is said that fully 100,000 persons, rich
and poor alike, sought refuge in Golden Gate Park alone, and 200,000
more homeless ones located at the other places of refuge.

At the Presi