The Days of a Man D 9 o6 



several other geologists, structural engineers, and 

 eye-witnesses. 1 



As a remote consequence of the earthquake, San 

 Francisco inadvertently precipitated an international 

 complication. Chinatown having been wiped out by 

 fire, in the course of a year a new schoolhouse was 

 hastily provided for the district; but rebuilding was 

 slow, residents had not returned, and the teacher had 

 virtually no pupils. She therefore appealed to her 

 patron, Abraham Ruef, then unquestioned "boss" 

 of San Francisco, and according to the best informa- 

 tion I can secure the subservient school board promised 

 to provide a class. She accordingly asked that the 

 Japanese children of the Post Street region be sent 

 to her for instruction. 



In granting this request, the board announced the 

 establishment of an "Oriental school" for both 

 Chinese and Japanese children. Apparently they had 

 no thought of the storm to be provoked by this move, 

 taken, I am sure, without the least idea of discrediting 

 anybody. But the Japanese are very sensitive at 

 being in any way identified with the Chinese; the 

 local colony appealed to the newspapers at home, 

 some of which, after the fashion of yellow journals 

 everywhere, were eager for a new sensation, and the 

 affair thus assumed an international aspect. Never- 

 theless, it was the work of a purely local school board 

 over which neither state nor nation had any juris- 

 diction unless its action should be contrary to some 

 general law or treaty. The Japanese, however, 

 claimed that it did violate the "most favored nation" 



1 Published by A. M. Robertson, San Francisco. The list of contributors 

 includes John Caspar Branner, Charles Derleth, Jr., Grove Karl Gilbert, 

 Stephen Taber, F. Omori, Harold W. Fairbanks, and Mary Austin. 



C 1 86 n 



