When night came on the evening of the 19th, the parks and the Presidio were filled with frightened people, old and young. Thousands left their homes in the (which afterwards proved to be) unburned district, and sought shelter, as stated, in the parks and streets in the open air. Mr. and Mrs. Dr. J. W. Keeney and family left their home at 2222 Clay Street, and remained on Lafayette Square in the open air for two days and nights, with hundreds of others, who feared another earthquake and the conflagration.
The afternoon after the fire had exhausted itself, the atmosphere was hot, the great beds of coals gave out heat and glowed brightly at night. The more I saw of this desolation, the worse it looked. I barricaded my windows the best I could with mattresses and rugs, as the wind was a little chilly. They stayed that way for about two weeks. The front of my house was blistered and blackened by the intense heat. The paint melted in a peculiar way, and over two of the windows it hung like drapery. This morning (Saturday, the 21st) a man with a policeman came to the door and demanded blankets, cover-lids, pillows, and mattresses. I gave all I could spare, and some draperies besides. They insisted on taking the rugs from the floor, and I had much difficulty in making them see that rugs were not what they needed. The telegraph and telephone wires made a network on every street, and for more than two weeks I carried in my pocket a pair of wire cutters, which I had often occasion to use. During the week following the fire, I found many water-pipes leaking, and I went around with a hammer and wooden plugs and stopped them, in hope to raise the water sufficient to have a supply in my house. I think I succeeded. This morning (Saturday) I was hungry, with nothing in my house to eat. I found a fireman on the street who gave me one of two boxes of sardines which he had, and a stranger gave me soda crackers, so I had a pretty fair breakfast under the circumstances.
Bread we were able to buy after a few days. On May 3d we were able to buy the staple articles of food. Up to that time we obtained what we needed from the Relief Committee, such as canned meats, potatoes, coffee, crackers, etc.
The city being under military rule, on May 4th I obtained the following orders:
San Francisco, May 4, 1906.
To All Civic and Military Authorities:
Permit the bearer, Mr. J. B. Stetson, to visit the premises, 123
California, and get safe.
J. F. Dinan,
Chief of Police.
May 4, 1906.
Permit Mr. Stetson, No. 123 California Street, to open safe and remove
contents.
J. M. Stafford,
Major 20th Infantry, U. S. A.
So, with this permit, authority or protection, or whatever it may be called, I found my safe in the ruins and everything in it that was inflammable burned to a coal; one of the twenty-dollar gold pieces before mentioned was saved.
During the afternoon of the 18th and until 3 o'clock P. M. of the 19th the scraping sound of dragging trunks on the sidewalks was continual. All sorts of methods for conveying valuables were resorted to,—chairs on casters, baby carriages, wheelbarrows,—but the trunk-dragging was the most common. It was almost impossible to get a wagon of any kind. The object of the people was to get to the vacant lots at North Beach and to the Presidio grounds.
Shortly after the calamity the most absurd stories were in circulation. It was stated that a man came out of the wreck of the Palace Hotel with his pockets filled with human fingers and ears taken from the dead inmates for the rings and earrings. As no one was injured in the hotel, it was wholly imaginative. A man near the Park met another who related the shocking occurrence of two men having been hanged on a tree in sight, and not a long way off; the man hastened to the spot and found no crowd, nor men hanging.
My son was engaged with his automobile all the forenoon in work connected with the temporary hospital at the Mechanics' Pavilion. At about 11 A. M. it was found necessary to remove the patients, which was finished by noon. When the last one was taken out, he went in and made a search, and found that all had been taken away. Still the report was believed by many that a hundred or more perished there by the fire.
A few personal experiences have come to me, and as I can verify them, I have here inserted them.