THE STORY OF AN EYEWITNESS

by Jack London

Never before in history has a city been so completely destroyed. San Francisco is gone. Nothing is left of it but memories and some houses far from the centre of the city. Its businesses are gone. The factories, hotels and palaces are all gone too. Within an hour after the earthquake, the smoke of San Francisco's fires could be seen 160 kilometres away. The sun was red in the dark sky. There was no stopping the fires. There was no way to organize or communicate. The steel railway tracks were now useless. And the great pipes for carrying water under the streets had burst. All of the ways man had made to keep the city safe were gone in the thirty seconds the earth moved.

Out at sea it was calm. No wind came up. Yet from every direction - east, west, north, and south, strong winds blew upon the unlucky city. Man himself had to make ruins of some of the city's best buildings so that they would not be a danger to those in the streets. A list of buildings undestroyed was now only a few addresses. A list of the brave men and women would fill a library. A list of all those killed will never be made.

Amazing as it may seem, Wednesday night was a quiet night. There were no crowds. The policemen said nothing; even their horses were quiet. There were no shouts or people doing crazy things. In all those terrible hours I saw not one woman who cried, not one man who was excited. Before the fires, through the night, thousands and thousands of people who had lost their homes left for safety. Some were covered in blankets . Sometimes whole families put everything they owned and could save into wagons . They helped one another climb the high hills around the city. Never in all San Francisco's history were her people so kind as on that terrible night.