Show HAS NO PARALLEL FRISCO DISASTER UNEQUALED IN MODERN TIMES Greater in Extent and Fatalities Than That Which Overwhelmed Chicago Chi-cago in 1871 Some Comparisons Com-parisons San Franciscos disaster will probably prob-ably prove to bo without modern parallel par-allel In history Heretofore the grout Chicago fire has been generally regarded re-garded In that light but a comparison of the facts available so far tend to show this recent catastrophe ns tho most awful visitation of recent times says tho Washington Star When Chicago was burned In 1870 It had a population of about 300000 San Francisco at this time must have 460000 people In Its gates not countIng count-Ing the thousands affected In other towns near by In the Chicago Ire I 70001 people were made homeless In the California city If the estimate are reliable the number will reach 300000 In addition to this the location and environment of the two cities were such that Chicagos problem of what to do with her homeless was simple In comparison with that facing the far western city Chicago was almost surrounded by open country to which the people turned for refuge San Francisco is practically surrounded by waterthe ocean on one side and the bay on two other sides Railroads Rail-roads for tho most part send their passengers Into the city by ferries and many of the docks were long ago mado helpless by earthquake and fire So for the most part tho thousands of people without shelter had to stay in the confines between sea and bay and were confronted with awful possibilities pos-sibilities The fire rushing along unchecked un-checked was pursuing them relentlessly relentless-ly Fortunately San Francisco is a city of hills and on top of some of these many refugees found shelter The beach too offered a spot of comparative com-parative safety In area covered by tho disaster and In probable loss of life and property the San Francisco catastrophe Is greater great-er than that of Chicago The loss ot the latter was about 190000000 and considering that In San Francisco larger and more costly buildings were ruined tho probable loss will exceed even that enormous figure So fat any estimate of the loss would be mere guess work A half dozen hotels and buildings alone would make up several millions and the wide sweep of the fire makes It altogether probable prob-able that all records for financial loss will bo broken The loss of lIfo during dur-ing the Chicago fie was 200 That of Sa Francisco Is estimated at from 30C to 1000 Truly it is a disaster without parallel par-allel in modern history |