FRANKLIN K. LANE

To John H. Wigmore

San Francisco, December 21, [1905]

My dear Wigmore,—­Your letter bore good fruit ...  As for confirmation it is not as likely as I could wish.  However, I am enjoying the situation hugely, and if the fight is kept up I may enlarge into a national issue.

The Press of California (notice the respectful capital) is practically a unit for me ...  My information is that the President will stand pat.  But the fight with the Senate is growing so large that no one can tell what will happen.  I have been urged to go to Washington and meet the Senators, but I have refused. ...  Am I not right?

Remember me very kindly to your wife, and to you both a Merry Christmas.  As always yours,

FRANKLIN K. LANE

To Benjamin Ide Wheeler President, University of California

San Francisco, December 22, [1905]

My dear Mr. Wheeler,—­It was mighty good of you to bring me that message of good cheer last night.  I have not told you, and cannot now tell you the very great pleasure and gratification you have given me by the many evidences of your personal friendship.  To me it is better to have that kind of friendship than any office.

I have just received a letter from the President [Roosevelt] that is so fine I want you to know of it at once—­but the original I keep for home use.  Here it is:—­

“...  I thank you for your frank and manly letter.  It is just the kind of a letter I should have expected from you.  You are absolutely right in refraining from coming here.  I shall make and am making as stiff a fight as I know how for you.  I think I shall carry you through; but of course nothing of this kind is ever certain. ...”

Please remember me most kindly to Mrs. Wheeler and believe me always, faithfully yours,

FRANKLIN K. LANE

The California earthquake, of April 18, 1906, occurred at about five o’clock in the morning.  Lane was living in North Berkeley, across the bay from San Francisco.  His house built of light wood and shingles, rocked, and his chimneys flung down bricks, in the successive shocks, but with no serious damage.  Meanwhile San Francisco sprang into flames from hundreds of broken gas mains.  Lane reached the city early in the morning, and was at once put, by the Mayor, upon the Committee of Fifty to look to the safety of the City.

Will Irwin wrote this picturesque story of the episode after having heard his friend describe this adventure:—­

“Lane has said since that, although he was brought up in the old West, his was a city life after all.  He had never tested himself against primitive physical force, tried himself out in an emergency, and he had always longed for such a test before he died.  When the test came it was a supreme one:  the San Francisco disaster. ...