San Francisco [antikvár]

1.It began as an earthen concussion on theseabed, under forty fathoms of water, whoseshock waves buckled the keel plates of shipsand tumbled crewmen violently out of theirbunks. By the time they dashed to theirportholes, the calm sea was littered with thecarcasses of fish killed by the shock, driftingslowly to the surface.From a point one hundred miles west ofthe shoreline, and ninety miles north of theBay Area, it roared out of the ocean at aspeed of seven thousand miles an hour,shattering and rocking the Point Arena light-house; then it veered south in a crazed zig-zag path that jumped in and out of the sea,derailing trains, shifting trees far from theirroots and toppling others ana killing live-stock. An entire sawmill fell into a yawningsplit that opened up beneath it. A redwoodtree was then deposited over it as a tomb-stone. Water and gas pipes split- and burstdeep underground. By the time it slammedunder the city, San Francisco's reserve watersupply was gone.At 5:13 on the morning of April 18th1 906, while most of the city residents stirredunder their sheets against the soft dawnlight, the greatest recorded natural catastro-phe to hit the North American continentstruck the city of San Francisco. From every-where rose the clanging of church bells ring-ing of their own accord, accompanied by thethunderous cracks of splitting masonry andcollapsing buildings.A police sergeant on morning duty saw itcome down Washington Street "as if thewaves of the ocean were coming towardsme, billowing as they came". From his studiohigh atop Russian Hill the painter BaileyMillard gaped as the entire city rocked backand forth as if being pushed into the bay.South of Market Street the three-footwaves of earth suddenly stopped rolling.Ten seconds of terrifying silence followed;then the second and third shocks burst overthe shattered, toppling city and the firesbegan from thousands of leaking gas mains.Enrico Caruso's manager ran into thesinger's Palace Hotel suite to find the tenorsitting bolt upright in bed, eyes bulging interror, his forty pairs of boots and loads ofclothing scattered from fallen dressers acrossthe floor. The manager ordered the frighten-ed singer to try his voice out the window andcalm the panic-stricken crowds below. Afterseveral false starts Caruso managed to sing,his clear, pure tones softening the disastrousbedlam below. It is said to have been thegreatest performance of his life.Brigadier General Frederick Funston, WarHero, Medal of Honor winner, Commanderof the Presidio Garrison, which was one of