Earle Talbot letter re: 1906 Earthquake, 1906-04-25

asked for a pass into the city -- he looked me over rather carefully and asked a few questions, then gave me a pass to San Jose endorsed to the police of S.Fr. besides -- Just as I was walking over the way, along came Harry Haehl in a buggy with one of the Burrell girls of San Jose. I was heaps glad to see him, and got a lot of information about the extent and damage of the earthquake, and the probable extent of the fire, which he had seen at about eleven o'clock that day --He said the shock was heavy enough to give him a good start out of bed, and to bump him from and between the walls while the furniture chased him about, but that the loss of life outside the chinese quarter would not exceed 700, also that he had seen the Mark Hopkins and Nob Hill going in the morning but that there was water along Van Ness Ave. and the stand would be made there. All of this started hope anew, and I wanted to go at once

to get into it - No more [train? - ... ] around to see how the town looked and who was in it - All brick buildings badly wrecked, one burn[ing?] Vendome Annex (the swell rooms) flat as boards, and the rest of the hotel deserted - Went out to see how the Arqués family had fared - Franny is the same dear girl, and was glad to report no very serious mishaps - a brother in town worried some of course. - Well I got a buggy and drove on to Stanford, and all the way there was that great sullen red glare under the black hood of smoke, showing plainly {above the line in the northern sky.

We met a score and more of Autos - all under full swing - one stopped to ask the road, and we in turn asked where it was going - it said "Heavens only knows - until the gasoline gives out - anything {above the line to get away from that place." They all had that air at any rate. Got in to the House at about eleven - all the brothers were reclining on mattresses in the front hall which was exhibiting more fortitude than most, who were on the lawns - for the shakes were coming every hour or two - little ones.

Couldn't sleep much, but rested until five thirty, when it was time to take the walk to the depot - to catch the first unsuspecting train - (to be continued)

The early morning was bright and fair, after a warm night which helped the situation everywhere for the homeless ones. A few of the men who were on duty stood about on Lasuen St. The lawn in front of the Kappa house was reminiscent of "Iole"- about a dozen fair maids in a row on couches - tucked in snugly and each with an umbrella perched on the foot of the couch - facing the street. My heels clicked loudly on the pavement, arousing echos between the quiet houses, but still the rosy slumber held them all, and the kindly sun peeped over the hill, bade them good morning, and threw a beam of light true and fair on the Church - and oh the pity of it! No tapering red spire, but a truncated tower shorn of its encircling buttresses, and whose flanking transcepts shrank back in horror from what they saw within - A cruel rent in the roof of the nave marked the course of the chimes we used to listen for. The Sermon on the Mount a shattered mass on the Quad pavement revealing the Organ standing intact in its loft.

Within the church they say [?] safe, and most of the mosaic - the delicate carved arches of the nave are intact - The twelve apostles (and for this all are thankful) are shattered - they never fitted. The inner and outer Quads are standing - a few stones out here and there and most all the plastering cracked down. The Arch is shorn off across the shoulders of the figures on the frieze, and one corner is out, - it is split longitudinally also and will come down to give way to one more in keeping with the architecture. The Library and new Gym remind me of the Battle of Caracalla at Rome. Marx says they were defective in design and very faulty in construction, and that on the whole the rebuilding will be of benefit. The main museum is intact, the wings damaged badly - for which no one cares. Encina and Roble, save for their chimneys and the plastering, are safe, and a great loss of life was averted there - of course the chimney is a wreck - and also the entrance.

Well I caught a train early, and in due time we came rolling down across the bridges to Valencia and 26th sts. All houses along the R.R. were badly shaken - especially the court house & library at Redwood. The city at this end is intact. Most all household chattels piled up for flight, and the visible hills were

thickly peopled, humanity camping out in all sorts of ways, and then very uncomfortable and frightened. Two huge columns of smoke, one toward the Union Iron Works, and the other in the Western Addition told of fires still raging, and the boom of dynamite came at short intervals. Unchallenged I started out up Guerrero St. (parallel and one block above Valencia) about four blocks and I came over a hill and at the edge of the burnt area. Never could forget the impression that sight made - nor can I describe the desolation of blocks of foundations full of little bonfires - gaunt chimneys rising like tombstones at the head of each pile of ashes - broken charred wire poles - a maze of wires on the streets - trucks of trolley cars standing askew on warped and buckled rails. Sidewalks littered with shells of trunks, sewing machine iron, and perambulator wheels - iron bed steads and heaps of springs - all black.

So near in this shortened perspective that it seemed but a few rods distant rose the tower of the City Hall all its encircling columns gone, and most of the main buildings a ruin.