s there been
such a practical illustration of brotherly love. A perfect shower of
gold and food was poured out to the sufferers to give them immediate
assistance and to help them to a new start in life. All relief records
were broken within two days of the disaster, but still the purses of the
rich and poor alike continued to add to the huge contributions. Though
the relief records were broken, every succeeding dispatch from the West
told too plainly the terrible fact that all records of necessity were
also broken.

Over the entire globe Americans wherever they were hastened to cable or
telegraph their bankers to add their share to the great work. A large
fund was at once started in London, and with contributions of from
$2,000 to $12,000 the sum was soon raised to hundreds of thousands of
dollars.

Individual contributions of $100,000 were common. In addition to John
D. Rockefeller's gift of this sum, his company, the Standard Oil, gave
another $100,000. The Steel Corporation and Andrew Carnegie each
gave $100,000. From London William Waldorf Astor cabled his American
representative, Charles A. Peabody, to place $100,000 at once at
the disposal of Mayor Schmitz, of San Francisco, which was done. The
Dominion Government of Canada made a special appropriation of $100,000
and the Canadian Bank of Commerce, at Toronto, gave $10,000. And two of
the great steamship companies owned in Germany sent $25,000 each.

RIGHT OF WAY FOR FOOD TRAINS.

On nearly a dozen roads, two days before the fire was over, great trains
of freight cars loaded with foodstuffs were hastening at express
speed to San Francisco. They had the right of way on every line. E. H.
Harriman, in addition to giving $200,000 for the Union Pacific, Southern
Pacific and other Harriman roads, issued orders that all relief trains
bound for the desolated city should have Precedence over all other
business of the roads.

Advices from many points indicated that at least 150 freight cars loaded
with the necessaries so eagerly awaited in San Francisco were speeding
there as fast as steam could drive them. In addition, several steamers
from other Pacific coast points, all food-laden, were rushing toward the
stricken city.

The rapidity with which the various relief funds in every city grew was
almost magical.

From corporations, firms, labor unions, religious societies,
individuals, rich and poor, money flowed. Even the children in the
schools gave their penn