From Golden Gate Park came news of the total destruction of the large
building covering a portion of the children's playground. The walls
were shattered beyond repair, the roof fell in, and the destruction was
complete. The pillars of the new stone gates at the park entrance were
twisted and torn from their foundations, some of them, weighing nearly
four tons, being shifted as though they were made of cork. It is a
little singular that the monuments and statues in the city escaped
without damage except in the case of the imposing Dewey Monument, in
Union Square Park, which suffered what appears to be a minor injury.

In this connection an incident of extraordinary character is narrated.
Among the statues on the buildings of the Leland Stanford, Jr.,
University, all of which were overthrown, was a marble statue of Carrara
in a niche on the building devoted to zoology and physiology. This in
falling broke through a hard cement pavement and buried itself in the
ground below, from which it was dug. The singular fact is that when
recovered it proved to be without a crack or scratch. This university
seemed to be a central point in the disturbance, the destruction of
its buildings being almost total, though they had been built with the
especial design of resisting earthquake shocks.

Such was the general character of the earthquake at San Francisco and in
its vicinity. It may be said farther that all, or very nearly all, the
deaths and injuries were due to it directly or indirectly, even those
who perished by fire owing their deaths to the fact of their being
pinned in buildings ruined by the earthquake shock, while others were
killed by falling walls weakened by the same cause.

On the night of April 23d the earth tremor returned with a slight shock,