scarcely be pictured in words, and can
be given in any approach to exact realization only in the narratives of
those who passed through its horrors and experienced the sensations to
which it gave rise. Some of the more vivid of these personal accounts
will be presented later, but at present we must confine ourselves to a
general statement of the succession of events.

The earthquake proved but the beginning and much the least destructive
part of the disaster. In many of the buildings there were fires, banked
for the night, but ready to kindle the inflammable material hurled down
upon them by the shock. In others were live electric wires which the
shock brought in contact with woodwork. The terror-stricken fugitives
saw, here and there, in all directions around them, the alarming vision
of red flames curling upward and outward, in gleaming contrast to the
white light of dawn just showing in the eastern sky. Those lurid gleams
climbed upward in devouring haste, and before the sun had fairly risen
a dozen or more conflagrations were visible in all sections of the
business part of the city, and in places great buildings broke with
startling suddenness into flame, which shot hotly high into the air.

While the mass of the people were stunned by the awful suddenness of the
disaster and stood rooted to the ground or wandered helplessly about in
blank dismay, there were many alert and self-possessed among them who
roused themselves quickly from their dismay and put their energies
to useful work. Some of these gave themselves to the work of rescue,
seeking to save the injured from their perilous situation and draw
the bodies of the dead from the ruins under which they lay. Those base
wretches to whom plunder is always the first thought were as quickly
engaged in seeking for spoil in edifices laid open to their plundering
hands by the shock. Meanwhile the glare of the flames brought the
fire-fighters out in hot haste with their engines, and up from the
military station at the Presidio, on the Golden Gate side of the city,
came at double quick a force of soldiers, under the efficient command of
General Funston, of Cuban and Philippine fame. These trained troops were
at once put on guard over the city, with directions to keep the best
order possible, and with strict command to shoot all looters at sight.
Funston recognized at the start the necessity of keeping the lawless
element under control in such an exigency as that which he h