Into the square from the other side came the Italian refugees.
The panic became a madness, knives were drawn in the insanity of the
moment, and two Chinamen were taken to the morgue, stabbed to death
for no other reason than pure madness. Here on one side dwelt 20,000
Chinese, and on the other thousands of Italians, Spaniards and Mexicans,
while close at hand lived the riff-raff of the "Barbary Coast."
Seemingly the whole of these rushed for that one square of open ground,
the two streams meeting in the centre of the square and heaping up on
its edges. There they squabbled and fought in the madness of panic and
despair, as so many mad wolves might have fought when caught in the
red whirl of a prairie fire, until the soldiers broke in and at the
bayonet's point brought some semblance of order out of the confusion of
panic terror.
This scene in Portsmouth Square but illustrated the madness of fear
everywhere prevailing. On every side thousands were fleeing from the
roaring furnace that minute by minute seemed to extend its boundaries.
THE FLIGHT FOR SAFETY.
In the awful scramble for safety the half-crazed survivors disregarded
everything but the thought of themselves and their property. In every
excavation and hole throughout the north beach householders buried
household effects, throwing them into ditches and covering the holes.
Attempts were made to mark the graves of the property so that it could
be recovered after the flames were appeased.
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