About this time a soldier or policeman came along
and said, "I want these horses," and without ceremony unharnessed them,
and took them away. In a few minutes the fire had got so near, that it
was impossible to get other horses, or move the wagon by hand and the
wagon and contents were burned.
Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Tharp tell a very interesting story of their
experience on that April morning. Their sleeping room was one fronting
on the east side of Scott Street, between Sacramento and California
Streets. When the shock came it rolled their bed from one side of the
room to the other, quite across the room, and where the bed had stood
was filled with the broken chimney, to the amount of more than three
tons. Mrs. Tharp remembers having oiled the castors on the bedstead only
a short time before, which she thinks saved their lives. Later in the
day or the beginning of the next, while the fire was still miles away,
some friendly but excited neighbors, came rushing into Mr. Tharp's
chambers commanding him to flee as the house was in danger from the
conflagration. He was at that instant engaged in changing his
undergarments, and had his arms and head nearly through. They shouted
for him to come quick and save himself. He begged for a little more
time, when one of them petulantly exclaimed: "Oh! let him burn up if he
is so slow!" The fire did not come within two miles of this place.
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