The San Francisco Calamity by Earthquake and Fire | Page 4

on somewhere within the earth almost continuously, and it no more involves the theory of malignant Nature than that of an angry God.
If we contemplate it, possibly we may be helped to a profitable estimate of our own relative insignificance. We think, with some notion of our importance, of the thousand million men who live upon the earth; but they are a mere handful of animate atoms in comparison with the surface, to say nothing of the solid contents, of the globe itself.
We are fond of boasting in this latter day of man's marvelous success in subduing the forces of Nature; and, while we are in the midst of exultation over our victories, Nature tumbles the rocks about somewhere within the bowels of the earth, and we have to learn the old lesson that our triumphs have not penetrated farther than to the very outermost rim of the realms of Nature.
A few weak, almost helpless, creatures, we millions of men stand upon the deck of a great ship, which goes rolling through space that is itself incomprehensible, and usually we are so busy with our paltry ambitions, our transgressions, our righteous labors, our prides and hopes and entanglements that we forget where we are and what is our destiny. A direct interposition from a Superior Power, even if it be hurtful to the body, might be required to persuade us to stop and consider and take anew our bearings, so that we may comprehend in some larger degree our precise relations to things. The wisest men have been the most ready to recognize the beneficence of the discipline of affliction. If there were no sorrow, we should be likely to find the school of life unprofitable.
For one thing, the school wherein sorrow is a part of the discipline is that in which is developed human sympathy, one of the finest and most ennobling manifestations of the Love which is, in its essence, divine. In human life there is much that is ignoble, and the race has almost contemptible weakness and insignificance in comparison with the physical forces of the universe.
But man is superior to all these forces in his possession of the power of affection; and in almost the lowest and basest of the race this power, if latent and half lost, may be found and evoked by the spectacle of the suffering of a fellow-creature.
The human family looks on with pity while the homeless and hungry and impoverished Californians endure pangs. Wherever the news went, by the swift processes of electricity, there men and women, some of them, perhaps, hardly knowing where California is, were sorry and willing and eager to help. There are quarrels within the family sometimes, when nation wars with nation, and all love seems to have vanished; but the world is, in truth, akin. "God hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth," and the blood "tells" when suffering comes.
THE PUBLISHERS.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
SAN FRANCISCO AND ITS TERRIFIC EARTHQUAKE
CHAPTER II.
THE DEMON OF FIRE INVADES THE STRICKEN CITY
CHAPTER III.
FIGHTING FLAMES WITH DYNAMITE
CHAPTER IV.
THE REIGN OF DESTRUCTION AND DEVASTATION
CHAPTER V.
THE PANIC FLIGHT OF A HOMELESS HOST
CHAPTER VI.
FACING FAMINE AND PRAYING FOR RELIEF
CHAPTER VII.
THE FRIGHTFUL LOSS OF LIFE AND WEALTH
CHAPTER VIII.
WONDERFUL RECORD OF THRILLING ESCAPES
CHAPTER IX.
DISASTER SPREADS OVER THE GOLDEN STATE
CHAPTER X.
ALL AMERICA AND CANADA TO THE RESCUE
CHAPTER XI.
THE SAN FRANCISCO OF THE PAST
CHAPTER XII.
LIFE IN THE METROPOLIS OF THE PACIFIC
CHAPTER XIII.
PLANS TO REBUILD SAN FRANCISCO
CHAPTER XIV.
THE EARTHQUAKE WAVE FELT AROUND THE WORLD
CHAPTER XV.
VESUVIUS DEVASTATES THE REGION OF NAPLES
CHAPTER XVI.
THE GREAT LISBON AND CALABRIAN EARTHQUAKES
CHAPTER XVII.
THE CHARLESTON AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES OF THE UNITED STATES
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE VOLCANO AND THE EARTHQUAKE, EARTH'S DEMONS OF DESTRUCTION
CHAPTER XIX.
THE THEORIES OF VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACTION
CHAPTER XX.
THE ACTIVE VOLCANOES OF THE EARTH
CHAPTER XXI.
THE FAMOUS VESUVIUS AND THE DESTRUCTION OF POMPEII
CHAPTER XXII.
ERUPTIONS OF VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROMBOLI
CHAPTER XXIII.
SKAPTER JOKULL AND HECLA, THE GREAT ICELANDIC VOLCANOES
CHAPTER XXIV.
VOLCANOES OF THE PHILIPPINES AND OTHER PACIFIC ISLANDS
CHAPTER XXV.
THE WONDERFUL HAWAIIAN CRATERS AND KILAUEA'S LAKE OF FIRE
CHAPTER XXVI.
POPOCATEPETL AND OTHER VOLCANOES OF MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE TERRIBLE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA
CHAPTER XXVIII.
MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH IN 1902
CHAPTER XXIX.
ST. VINCENT ISLAND AND MONT SOUFRIERE IN 1812
CHAPTER XXX.
SUBMARINE VOLCANOES AND THEIR WORK OF ISLAND-BUILDING
CHAPTER XXXI.
MUD VOLCANOES, GEYSERS AND HOT SPRINGS

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALAMITY BY EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE
CHAPTER I.
San Francisco and Its Terrific Earthquake.
On the splendid Bay of San Francisco, one of the noblest harbors on the whole vast range of the Pacific Ocean, long has stood, like a Queen of the West on its seven hills, the beautiful city of San Francisco, the youngest and in its own way one of the most beautiful and attractive of the large cities of the United States. Born less than sixty years ago, it has grown with the healthy rapidity of a young giant, outvieing many cities of much