Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Tharp tell a very interesting story of their experience on that April morning. Their sleeping room was one fronting on the east side of Scott Street, between Sacramento and California Streets. When the shock came it rolled their bed from one side of the room to the other, quite across the room, and where the bed had stood was filled with the broken chimney, to the amount of more than three tons. Mrs. Tharp remembers having oiled the castors on the bedstead only a short time before, which she thinks saved their lives. Later in the day or the beginning of the next, while the fire was still miles away, some friendly but excited neighbors, came rushing into Mr. Tharp's chambers commanding him to flee as the house was in danger from the conflagration. He was at that instant engaged in changing his undergarments, and had his arms and head nearly through. They shouted for him to come quick and save himself. He begged for a little more time, when one of them petulantly exclaimed: "Oh! let him burn up if he is so slow!" The fire did not come within two miles of this place.
Shortly after the fire and as soon as people began to realize the extent of the calamity, I listened to many discussions and prophecies concerning the future in reference to business and rebuilding. It was the general opinion that the business of jewelry and other luxuries, would be ruined for many years to come; that Fillmore Street and Van Ness Avenue would be only used temporarily; that the down-town district would be restored in two years--many entertained opinions exactly the reverse, and predicted all sorts of gloomy outlooks. Many theories and predictions were made, none of which have been verified.
My daughter, Mrs. Oxnard, with her husband was on the way to New York. At about noon of the 18th they heard, at North Platte, that there had been a severe shock of earthquake in San Francisco, and that the lower part of the city south of Market Street was on fire. They thought the report exaggerated, and at first declined to give it much attention; but when they met friends at Grand Island at about 3 o'clock they got information of such a character that it began to give them fear. At every place until they reached Chicago additional news was obtained, which indicated a very alarming condition of things here. They went to the offices of the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe Railroad companies, but could get nothing that they considered reliable. So they started on their way to New York from Chicago in doubt as to whether they should continue or turn back. On arrival in New York on the 20th there was much excitement. Newspapers issued extras every hour, filled with fearful stories and of the progress of the fire. The limits of the burned districts were reported with great accuracy, but the stories were alarmingly exaggerated, and in many instances absurd. One telegram read that the dead were so numerous that it was impossible to give burial, and the Government at Washington was asked to furnish a ship that they might be carried out far into the ocean and thrown into the sea. Some were fortunate enough to get a telegram, which was eagerly read and discussed. The number of people killed was reported to be from one to thirty thousand.