Splendid Misinformation
By Editor
Splendid Misinformation.—It has been almost impossible to draw an exact map of the burned district of San Francisco, and the best we have seen and published are only approximate. But the following to a fire insurance company in New York by its chief adjuster in San Francisco, according to the usually very accurate Christian Advocate is a "precise statement of the boundaries of the district burned over in the conflagration of April 18-20: "Beginning at the intersection of Lombard and Bay Streets, south to Mission." We need not quote all of this "precise statement" when we tell our readers that Lombard and Bay Streets do not intersect. They are parallel streets in the northeast part of the city, three blocks apart. Neither one of them runs to the next street named, Mission; the nearest is twelve blocks away on the south side of Market. "East to Van Ness, north to Sutter" the "precise statement" runs, when Sutter crosses Van Ness at right angles and is both north and south of that avenue. It is to be hoped that this precise man will do better work in adjusting insurance losses. The above is on a par with some of the books gotten out on San Francisco in the East. One advertises as the "standard and authoritative record of the San Francisco and all other calamities," the "authentic history." Another is advertized as "the only authentic book." Still another of the same sort represents the "Call" building as falling. It need not be said that these books will bear the brand of "precise" and "authentic" inaccuracy.