store on Sutter Street, between Grant Avenue and Kearny. I attempted to
go in to speak to the salesman, with whom I was acquainted, but was
harshly driven away, by an officious policeman, as if I was endeavoring
to steal something. I came back to my house at 9:30 and found in the
library Mr. Wilcox and his mother, Mrs. Longstreet, Dr. and Mrs.
Whitney, Mrs. Hicks and her daughter, Sallie, Ruth, and Marie Louise.
They were all very much alarmed, as the information which they obtained
from the excited throng on the street was of the wildest kind. The two
automobiles and the Wilcox carriage stayed in front of the house all
night, at an expense of twenty-five dollars per hour for the carriage. I
felt tired, and went to bed at 11 P. M. and slept until 2:30 A. M. got
up and went down-town again to see what the situation was. I went to
California Street, then to Hyde, then to Pine. From Pine and Leavenworth
I could see that the fire was at that hour burning along O'Farrell from
Jones to Mason and on the east side of Mason Street. The St. Francis
Hotel was on fire. I went from Pine and Mason to the Fairmont Hotel at
California and Mason. The hill is very steep between these streets, and
many people, having exhausted themselves, were sleeping in the street on
the paving-stones and on mattresses. I did not think the fire would pass
beyond the Fairmont Hotel, as there was hundreds of feet of space
between the front or eastern side of the hotel, and any other building.
But the fire passed up beyond the hotel on Sacramento Street until it
reached a point where the hotel was at the leeward of the flames. The
hotel was not finished and in the northeast corner were kept the
varnishes and oils, which very much aided in the destruction of the
building. From California and Mason Streets I could see that old St.
Mary's Church, on the corner of California and Dupont Streets and Grace
Cathedral, on the corner of California and Stockton, were on fire. To
the north, Chinatown was in a whirlpool of fire. I returned home on
California Street and Van Ness Avenue. Both streets were thronged with