the flight of residents from the city went on, growing quickly to the
dimensions of a panic. The ferryboats were crowded with those who wished
to leave the city, and a constant stream of the homeless, carrying such
articles as they had rescued from their homes, was kept up all day
long, seeking the sand dunes, the parks and every place uninvaded by
the flames. Before night Golden Gate Park and the unbuilt districts
adjoining on the ocean side presented the appearance of a tented city,
shelter of many kinds being improvised from bedding and blankets, and
the people settling into such sparse comfort as these inadequate means
provided.

A strange feature of the disaster was a rush to the banks by people who
wished to get their money and flee from the seemingly doomed city. The
fire front was yet distant from these institutions, which were destined
to fall a prey to the flames, and all that morning lines of dishevelled
and half-frantic men stood before the banks on Montgomery and Sansome
Streets, braving in their thirst for money the smoke and falling embers
and beating in wild anxiety upon the doors. Their effort was vain; the
doors remained closed; finally the police drove these people away, and
the banks went on with the work of saving their valuables. As for the
people who wildly fled toward the ferries, in spite of the fact that
ten blocks of fire, as the day went on, stopped all egress in that
direction, it became necessary for them to be driven back by the police
and the troops, and they were finally forced to seek safety in the
sands. And thus, with incident manifold, went on that fatal Wednesday,
the first day of the dread disaster.


OFFICIAL RECORD OF THE EARTHQUAKE.