19063 The Great Fire 



In San Francisco all saloons were closed, the lawless 

 and criminal class got away as soon as possible, and 

 a general era of helpfulness and good feeling ensued. 1 

 During the crisis the community owed much to the 

 wise management of Generals Adolphus W. Greely Greely and 

 and Frederick A. Funston of the Presidio Post. Funston 



Those who witnessed the on-sweep of flame tell 

 numberless tales of that experience, and many 

 dramatic accounts were soon afterward published. 

 Two incidents which passed from mouth to mouth, 

 and so became in a sense public property, recur to my 

 mind. The last telegram to leave the city read about 

 as follows: "Terrible earthquake; city on fire; flames 

 approaching: goodby me for the simple life!" And 

 a family parrot borne up the street kept shrieking: 

 " Ain't this the limit, ain't this the limit!" 



From a booklet 2 of my own, finished at that time 

 (the Great War being then undreamed of), I may 

 quote the following: 



. . . on no other city since the world began has fate, unmali- 

 cious, mechanical, and elemental, wrought such a terrible 

 havoc. . . . Never since man began to plan and to create has 

 there been such a destruction of the results of human effort. 

 Never has a great calamity been met with so little repining. 

 Never before has the common man shown himself so hopeful, so 

 courageous, so sure of himself and his future. For it is the man, 

 after all, that survives and it is the will of man that shapes the 

 fates. 



It is the lesson of earthquake and fire that man cannot be 

 shaken and cannot be burned. The houses he builds are houses 

 of cards, but he stands outside of them and can build again. It 

 is a wonderful thing to build a great city. More wonderful still 

 is it to be a city, for a city is composed of men, and forever 



1 Not until July 4, when the dramshops were reopened, did the former 

 percentage of drunkenness and crime prevail. 

 * " Life's Enthusiasms," Beacon Press, 1906. 



