2

please forgive the jottings - as they seem.

We had our share of the shake here at
515 a.m. -- an unusually steady shake lasting
30 seconds at least, just hard enough to
wake us up -- thought nothing of it of course.

About eight o'clock I had to go to the
saw mill in Angels -- and the Sup't then told
that the telephone manager had been talking
to Martinez -- who reported a fearful shock -- and
the starting of fire in many places in the city
and Oakland -- and no water. He started to tell
about the loss of life when the line gave out, and
that was the last direct word that came to us.

It was absolutely impossible to get word by
any kind of wire or wireless from any point west
of Stockton, which frightened us more than the
reports, for it surely indicated a bad state of
affairs. Indirect word came in; yellow it
was too, of 30,000 dead and wounded -- and it
was confirmed later. Fire reports grew. And so
it was all that day. The hardest thing in the
world to run the crew and the work all the
long hours until supper. No better news at