The spirit of California is a wonderful thing, It is the up-and-on-again spirit of the true American the spirit that can't be downed, that rubs. the dust of defeat out of its eyes, blows the smoke of disaster away and rushes back into the thick of the ruins and starts all over again.

In all the trying days close following the terrible earthquake and fire that wiped America's fairest city almost off the map, no wail of discouragement rent the air; from the first it was planning, working, trying, cheering each other, and beginning anew to fight the fierce battle for existence. California spirit and enthusiasm have been the admiration of the world for half a century; and now California pluck and endurance are finding even greater admiration.

The outpouring of the world's bounty for the succor of the disaster-shorn people of the Golden Gate furnishes beautiful evidence of the innate goodness and generosity of the world's people.

Many of our readers have written us that they lost everything they owned in the great fire, but no word of complaint or spirit of defeat has appeared in a single letter.

Mr. Nigel Keep writes from Oakland, Calif. : "Just a few lines to say I am alive, but how I escaped, I do not know. I have one suit to my back. The shock was a very severe twisting motion, turning houses around in some instances ten inches. The burning city, from Oakland, made one think of the history of the burning of Rome. The authorities deserve great praise for the splendid order maintained-no panic, no roughs, no drunks."

Mr. G. A. Brown writes from Oregon City, Ore.: "Of course I lost my position, but I am thankful to have escaped alive. I will not attempt to tell you of the ruin of our beautiful city -we all feel sure that San Francisco will rise from her ashes to take her place again among the principal cities of the world."

Mr. J. E. Whitely writes from San Francisco: "I am thanking my lucky stars that I got off as well as I did. Though it is a great calamity for the city, there is a splendid chance for a young man to grow up with the new town. We will have a better city than ever in a few years, and I do not intend to leave."

These letters show the cheery optimism of the coast people.

The most heartless piece of "grafting" of modern times is the discovery that the Leland Stanford Jr. University buildings were not of solid stone, as they were supposed to be, but of concrete, which crumbled away with the first throes of the earthquake. The university was founded

by a bereaved mother as a memorial to her dearlyloved son who died. It was intended as a monument that would last throughout the ages, even as the old mission buildings have withstood the wear and tear of time and of earthquakes. But the mission buildings were honestly built by the devoted priests, the best material went into their work-for it was given in the spirit of love.

Mrs. Stanford could only give her millions tc hirelings and trust them to render her honest service and they could not be trusted.

AN INTERESTING LETTER FROM "THE COAST”

"The awful catastrophe just enacted at San Francisco, cannot help but forcibly present to the other are the people of this great nation. Within most casual observer, how closely related to each

a few short hours of the first intimation of the terrible disaster, the great heart of humanity was throbbing with a tremendous impulse to help and succor the victims of the frightful calamity. Partisan and sectional feeling was cast to the winds as all creeds and classes joined in a bond of sympathy to aid the helpless when the knowledge of the horrible holocaust was sent out in the various dispatches to the outside world.

All have read how trainload after trainload of food and stores were dispatched, how money and supplies in abundance were poured into the afflicted section from all parts of the country, giving sustenance to those in need, and assurance to the world that the beautiful city of San Francisco will rise, phoenix like, from the ashes of its dead self to a stronger, bigger and more beautiful city than it ever had hoped to be before the terrible disaster.

Such calamities show to the outside world something of the great strength of character and purpose lying dormant in the hearts of all Americans; a national trait that is the admiration of monarchies. Let the nation be assailed from without or visited by some great natural misfortune, then the internal bickerings cease, all sectional differences are effaced, and the great cosmopolitan family of the American nation is welded into an homogenious unity-the greatest phenomenon of this wondrous age.

H. S. Sims, Los Angeles, Cai.

AT THE LELAND

STANFORD

JUNIOR UNIVERSITY

BY A STUDENT

We were awakened Wednesday, April 18th, at a few minutes after five, by the swaying and groaning of the house. It seemed as if the building could not hold together; then the crash of a chimney, the cracking and falling of plaster, the falling of pictures and heavy pieces of furniture, and, after a few seconds' lull, the motion became even more severe and lasted for twenty-five seconds. After a few more tremors all was still.

We were examining the havoc done to the house and our belongings when a student rushed in, telling us the University was a wreck. We jumped on our wheels and hastened to the Campus. In going through the business streets of Palo Alto we saw ruin on every side; the brick stores were either down or tottering; the whole side of one building was torn down, and Palo Alto Hotel was flat on the ground. Up the avenue we could see the beautiful arches of the entrance of the University lying on the ground. As we entered the University grounds, we saw that Memorial Arch and the Church tower were gone; and as we advanced up the avenue the Museum and Chemistry building appeared badly cracked and partly broken down. But, on the other side, where were the beautiful new Gymnasium and Library? The stone structures lay a mass of ruins; nothing remained but the glass dome of the Library, held in place by the steel framework. The beautiful Memorial church is shattered beyond any hope of repair, and Mrs. Stanford's residence is a ruin.

The men's dormitory is badly cracked, but can be put into good shape again. One of the men living in the Hall was killed by a falling chimney, and several men were slightly wounded. The watchman, a student of the Engineering building, was also killed by a falling chimney. Our hearts are indeed sad at the thought of these two young lives lost, but we thanked God that this calamity did not take place at a time when the Campus was full of students.

A few of the residences on the Campus suffered severely by the shock, but the majority. only had cracked plastering and broken chim

neys.

We had scarcely got over the shock of the sight of our beautiful University lying, as it seemed to us, in ruins, when the terrible news of the fire in San Francisco reached us. Every other loss seemed as nothing compared with the suffering and horror in that city of fire.

17

As Dr. Jordan's official report was published in the college paper, I shall give part of it: "All will be in readiness for fall work; no serious damage has been done to books, apparatus and collections. Repairs to the outer quad, the men's and the women's dormitories and the Chemical building will amount to $200,000.

"The University has sixteen million dollars in registered government bonds and several millions more in the stocks of eastern banks.

"The University has lost nothing of its capital and practically none of its working buildings. The fine architectural features, the cloisters of the inner quad and the Spanish towers, are all intact."

The scientists report that the cause of the disturbance was a fault or break of the inner crust of the earth throws by which this peninsula has been formed and folded. It is not likely that it will be repeated for many years.

INPROVEMENTS IN THE BALTI MORE & OHIO RAILROAD CO. The Transportation Companies Are Great Distributors of Wealth, in the Making of Improvements Along the Line as Well as the Distribution of Freight and Population. So great have been the improvements made to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad during the past eight or nine years that it is now really a new road, and unquestionably one of the very best in the country. Of the track over which the trains were drawn prior to 1896, there is very little left that is in use. In this huge work of reconstruction from one end of the system to the other, over $10,000,000 have already been spent. In addition there is much work now being done, and still to be done, in carrying out the plans of the management.

Between Chicago and the Alleghenies the railroad with the lowest possible grade and minimum curvature will command the flow of the two currents of traffic-coal and ironfrom the regions of Pennsylvania and West Virginia; and grain, provisions and cattle seeking the eastern markets. This was the object of Mr. Murray, now the president of the road, with Mr. Cowen, in the rehabilitation of the property, with the result of now having grades and curves that firmly establish the B. & O. as the most natural route-"the avenue of least resistence"-for the movement of traffic of all classes between the Atlantic Seaboard and the gateway of the west-Chicago.