COMPULSORY WVORK



discovered that a too thrifty shopkeeper was trading on
calamity the point of the bayonet brought him to a level of
honest prices. When the supplies from the generous outside
world arrived, a general distribution took place, and the
bread-line was seen twice a day at all the established depots.
No one went hungry, though hundreds suffered from the
unwonted exposure.
    On Saturday, three days after the first shock, men com-
ing into San Francisco were impressed to labor. "Pitch in
there and help unload those provisions," ordered a regular
to a loiterer at the water front. The man demurred. "I'll
give you three counts," said the soldier, raising the butt of
his rifle to his shoulder. The loiterer loitered no longer.
The sons of millionaires, prominent clubmen, and business
men of note all took a hand at policing the city. They were
sworn in and did not shirk their duty-no matter what its
nature. If a wagon was to be loaded, if a poor woman strug-
gling with her furniture and her children over the seemingly
perpendicular hills to a place of safety was to be given help,
the right man was there to do it. Mothers wheeled their
babies for miles, young girls packed bundles heavier than
themselves, boys worked until the sweat poured from their
skins, and with it all hardly a murmur was heard.
   In the words of the famous correspondent, Frederick
Palmer, "Society was thrown back to its beginnings. There
was chaos in the streets and in men's minds. The army or-
ganization was alone intact; it is the army of force and soci-
ety returned to primitive necessities. Fifteen hundred regu-
lar troops were on the streets inside of two hours after the
first shock of the earthquake. It was not a time for looking
up the law or consulting precious authorities on the subject.
You will be told that the Constitution of the United States
had been shot and dynamited full of holes before Wednesday
was over, and no man suggests that this was wrong.
                          1361



1906