San Francisco 



BUGENB E. SCHMITZ, Mayor of San PrancUco 



SAN FRANCISCO has arisen from the ashes. Four months ago, over- 

 come by the most terrible fire in all the world's history, the city was 

 laid prostrate; four square miles of territory, including all the com- 

 mercial center and a large portion of what was best in the residential 

 section, was swept by the flames, the pathway of which was marked 

 by piles of ruins and scenes of desolation. The people were stunned 

 by the extent and enormity of the calamity; but it was only for a little 

 while that they so remained. Imbued with the spirit of the pioneers, these 

 worthy sons of illustrious sires girded up their loins and went forth to 

 overcome difficulties more stupendous than ever beset any great city 

 of modern times. The successful struggle made by them against over- 

 whelming odds is one of the bravest chapters in history. 



To be brave in the face of physical danger is an attribute we asso- 

 ciate with all men in whose veins pulsates good red blood. Such bravery, 

 it has been said, is largely a matter of physical condition; but to be brave 

 and fear not when homes are swept away, when fortunes are lost in a 

 maddening whirl of flames and smoke, when the accumulations of a life- 

 time are dissipated in a moment by the resistless sweep of man's most 

 fearful enemy, when three hundred thousand people are bereft without 

 warning of food and water and are compelled to rely upon the bounty 

 of a generous country for the bare necessities of life, — to be brave and 

 fear not when it would seem that Hell itself had opened wide its awful 

 gates and sent forth upon us its every agency of destruction, — that was 

 to show a bravery supreme in its exaltation of spirit, magnificence in 

 its greatness of soul, and profound in the faith that an Almighty Provi- 

 dence had not ordained that our hills should be monuments of ruins and 

 our name become but as a memory among the great cities of the earth. 

 Compared with the courage shown by our people during those four awful 

 days in April, when their very souls were tried, the audacity of soldiers 

 on the battlefield is but a little thing. 



I know the spirit of the people of San Francisco; I know their indom- 

 itable will, and it was because of that knowledge that on the morning 

 of that terrible first day, when I fully appreciated the extent of the 

 calamity that had befallen us, I cried with a heart full of thankfulness: 

 "Thank Cod, I am Mayor of a brave people." It was that knowledge 

 that buoyed me up and gave me my strength; it was that knowledge also 

 that gave to the many men I called to my assistance the strength of 

 ten. We knew that San Francisco was sorely stricken, — we knew her 

 limbs were paralyzed and that she lay prostrate; but also did we know 

 that the proud spirit of her people would not suffer her to so remain for 

 long. Whatever we intended to do, we did it with a will, but in all we 

 did we merely pointed the way, — the people themselves assumed the 

 burden, and with a cheerfulness under adverse conditions that remains 

 unparalleled, and a strength of purpose that heeded no obstacles, they 

 hastened to her aid. Without their ardent and intelligent co-operation we 

 could have done but little, but with their co-operation what was done 

 has commanded the admiration of the world. Again and again since the 

 eighteenth day of April last have I thanked God that I am the Mayor 

 of so brave a people. Such a people know not the meaning of the word 

 "defeat." They have builded their city upon a rock, and it shall not 

 perish from the earth. { 



During those days of terror all of our people displayed the spirit of i 

 the dauntless West, — that spirit which in years that are gone braved every ' 

 danger of flood and field, calmly and boldly overcoming every obstacle, ; 

 and felt its way through mountain fastness and dreary desert that cities 

 might grow where yesterday was nought but wildness and desolation; It 

 is the spirit that animates all California and makes her a great State, 

 second to none in all the proud Union. 



