Fifty Thousand Men, Women and Children Slain in an Instant--Molten Fire and Suffocating Gases Rob Multitudes of Life--Death Reigns in the Streets of the Stricken City--The Governor and Foreign Consuls Die at Their Posts of Duty--No Escape for the Hapless Residents in the Fated Town--Scenes of Suffering Described--Desolation Over All--Few Left to Tell the Tale of the Morning of Disaster 397 ILLUSTRATIONS The Awful Horror of an Earthquake Frontispiece A Panorama of the Ruins Frontispiece Business District of San Francisco Frontispiece Former Mayor James D. Phelan 11 Mayor Eugene E. Schmitz 11 Looking East on Market Street 12 View from Fifth and Market Streets 12 Market Street, Scene of Ruins 31 United States Guards in Charge of Dead 32 Street Torn Up by Earthquake 41 Stockton Street 42 Grant Avenue 42 Mission Street 43 O'Farrell Street 43 Looking North from Sixth and Market Streets 44 The Orpheum Theatre 44 San Francisco on Fire 53 Destroyed Wholesale Houses 54 Cracks in Earth 63 Ruins of Emporium Building 63 Map--Bird's-Eye View of San Francisco 64 Ruins of Hall of Justice 65 Looking Down Market Toward Call Building 66 From California Street Toward Call Building 66 Market Street Before the Disaster 75 The Devouring Flames 76 Mark Hopkins Institute, Nob Hill 85 United States Mint 86 New Postoffice Building 87 Jefferson Square 88 Chronicle Building 97 St. Francis Hotel (Before the Earthquake) 97 Ferry House 98 Free Water 115 Distributing Clothes 115 Wires Destroyed 116 Military Camp 116 Kitchens in the Street 133 Wing of City Hall, Crumbled 133 Cattle Killed 134 St. John's Church, Ruined 134