ere the fourteen-story
Merchants' Exchange, and the great Mills Building, occupying almost an
entire block.

One section of the city that went without pity, as it had long stood
with reprobation, was that group of disreputable buildings known as
Chinatown, the place of residence of many thousands of Celestials.
The flames made their way unchecked in this direction, and by noon on
Thursday the whole section was a raging furnace, the denizens escaping
with what they could carry of their simple possessions. On the farther
western side the flames cut a wide swath to Van Ness Avenue, a wide
thoroughfare, at which it was hoped the march of the fire in this
direction might be checked, especially as the water mains here furnished
a weak supply.

In the Missouri district, to the south of Market Street, the zone of
ruin extended westward toward the extreme southern portion, but was
checked at Fourteenth and Missouri Streets by the wholesale use of
dynamite. At this point were located the Southern Pacific Hospital,
the St. Francis Hospital and the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
In order to save these institutions, buildings were blown up all around
them, and by noon the danger was averted. It later became necessary to
destroy the Southern Pacific Hospital with dynamite, the patients having
been removed to places of safety.

THE PALACES ON NOB'S HILL.

In the centre of San Francisco rises the aristocratic elevation known
as Nob's Hill, on which the early millionaires built their homes, and on
which stood the city's most palatial residences. It ascends so abruptly
from Kearney Street that it is inaccessible to any kind of vehicle, the
slope being at any angle little short of forty-five degrees. It is as
steep on the south side, and the only approach by carriage is from the
north. To this hill is due the pioneer cable railway, built in the early
'70's.

Here the "big four" of the railroad magnates--Stanford, Hopkins,
Huntington and Crocker--had put millions in their mansions, the Mark
Hopkins residence being said to have cost $2,500,000. These men are all
dead, and the last named edifice has been converted into the Hopkins Art
Institute, and at the time of the fire was well filled with costly art
treasures. The Stanford Museum, which also contains valuable objects of
art, is now the property of the Leland Stanford University. The
Flood mansion, which cost more than $1,000,000, was one of the showy
residences on this h