uld not look in any direction in the city but what mass after mass
of flame stared you in the face. To get about one had to dodge from one
street to another, back and forth in zigzag fashion, and half an hour
after going through a street, it would be impassable. One after another
of the magnificent business blocks went down. The newer buildings seemed
to have withstood the shock better than any others, except well-built
frame buildings. The former lost some of the outside shell, but the
frame stood all right, and in some cases after fire had eaten them all
to pieces, the steel skeleton, although badly twisted and warped, still
stood.

"When I finally left the city, it was all in flames as far as Eighth
Street, which is about a mile and a quarter or half from the water
front. I had to walk at least two miles around in order to get to the
ferry building, and when I got there you could see no buildings standing
in any direction. Nearly all the docks caved in or sheds were knocked
down, and all the streets along the water front were a mass of seams,
upheavals and depressions, car tracks twisted in all shapes. Cars that
had stood on sidings were all in ashes and still burning."

Wednesday's conflagration continued unabated throughout Thursday, and it
was not until late on Friday that the fire-fighters got it safely
under control. They worked like heroes, struggling almost without rest,
keeping up the nearly hopeless conflict until they fairly fell in their
tracks from fatigue. Handicapped by the lack of water, they in one
case brought it from the bay through lines of hose well on to a mile
in length. Yet despite all they could do block after block of San
Francisco's greatest buildings succumbed to the flames and sank in red
ruin before their eyes.

THE LANDMARKS CONSUMED.

On all sides famous landmarks yielded to the fury of the flames.
For three miles along the water front the ground was swept clean
of buildings, the blackened beams and great skeletons of factories,
warehouses and business edifices standing silhouetted against a
background of flames, while the whole commercial and office quarter of
Market Street suffered a similar fate. We may briefly instance some of
these victims of the flames.

Among them were the Occidental Hotel, on Montgomery Street, for years
the headquarters for army officers; the old Lick House, built by James
Lick, the philanthropist; the California Hotel and Theatre, on Bush
Street; and