s an Associated Press man was obliged to pay
twenty-five cents for a small glass of mineral water, the only kind of
drink that at first was to be had, while food went up at the same rate,
bakers frequently charging as much as a dollar for a loaf. As for the
expressmen and cabmen, their charges were often practically prohibitory,
as much as fifty dollars being asked for the conveyance of a passenger
to the ferry. Policemen were early stationed at some of the retail
shops, regulating the sale and the price of food, and permitting only
a small portion to be sold to each purchaser, so as to prevent a few
persons from exhausting the supply.

The fire, the swaying and tottering walls, the frequent dynamite
explosions, each followed by a crashing shower of stones and bricks,
rendered the streets very unsafe for pedestrians, and all day long
the flight of residents from the city went on, growing quickly to the
dimensions of a panic. The ferryboats were crowded with those who wished
to leave the city, and a constant stream of the homeless, carrying such
articles as they had rescued from their homes, was kept up all day
long, seeking the sand dunes, the parks and every place uninvaded by
the flames. Before night Golden Gate Park and the unbuilt districts
adjoining on the ocean side presented the appearance of a tented city,
shelter of many kinds being improvised from bedding and blankets, and
the people settling into such sparse comfort as these inadequate means
provided.

A strange feature of the disaster was a rush to the banks by people who
wished to get their money and flee from the seemingly doomed city. The
fire front was yet distant from these institutions, which were destined
to fall a prey to the flames, and all that morning lines of dishevelled
and half-frantic men stood before the banks on Montgomery and Sansome
Streets, braving in their thirst for money the smoke and falling embers
and beating in wild anxiety upon the doors. Their effort was vain; the
doors remained closed; finally the police drove these people away, and
the banks went on with the work of saving their valuables. As for the
people who wildly fled toward the ferries, in spite of the fact that
ten blocks of fire, as the day went on, stopped all egress in that
direction, it became necessary for them to be driven back by the police
and the troops, and they were finally forced to seek safety in the
sands. And thus, with incident manifold, went on that fata