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Show Mrs, Corey's Story - 5 Again, Mrs, Corey ran her fingers over the keys of the piano, "Well...then...Ruby and I told Mama to guard our stuff and we'd try to get a horse and wagon. We raced two blocks down Powell to the livery stable, but there wasn't a horse in the place. All were gone to firefighters and policemen." Firemen on horses patroled the City, "We were stunned.What could we do now? The stable-owner said he'd lend us a two-wheeled salesman's carryall. And he said if possible to return it to him. So Ruby and I played like we were horses and started back up the steep slope of Powell, pulling the carryall. We struggled, but could go only a few feet at a time. It was too heavy for us. Then two nice, young men saw us and came to help, and in a few minutes we were at Mama's side. Oh, yes, we felt more tremors every few minutes, and we could see the heavy smoke a short distance away - much nearer than before," A disastrous fire was eating its way up the south side of Market Street, More Shocks during the day. " Frantically we loaded our boxes on the carryall, but there was too much. Some would fall off, so I dashed up to my bedroom and untied the rope from the leg of my bed. As Ruby and I tied the rope over our things, I thought,well, at least I won't have to slide down this rope, " Just then, Mama whispered,'Look!' We looked up, and through the smoke we now saw flames - just a block away." From Pine and Dupont Streets the fire can be seen raging in all the downtown district. " And on top of that, we began hearing the sound of great explosions. We didn't know until later that the firemen were blasting with dynamite trying to stop the fires." |