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What Comes up must go down is written about the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. This was a massive point of destruction, with about five acres destroyed. Rozario’s states that people thought this was a “blessing in disguise.” (Rozario, pg 73) He points out that townspeople thought this disaster was tied in with faith. Rozario then questions why people view disasters as a blessing, or act of God. (Rozario, pg 73)  He states the reason people tied faith with disasters is because they thought it was a sign from God to recall his chosen people. (Rozario, pg 75) The Chicago fire was also thought to be product of God. In an earlier post Chriscobar tells us that the people of Chicago believed God was punishing them for being sinful.  Was it really a blessing or curse from God? In this point of time faith, was present in every day life. When something tragic occurs in someone’s life it may be common to turn to God fore explaining for the unknown. This could be said about the Chicago fire and the San Francisco earthquake.

Another thing Rozario mentions ties in with Cronin is nature. Despite the destruction prospective investors continued to invest in San Francisco because it is a “natural metropolis.” This ties in directly with the Cronin reading, first and second nature. A similar scenario occurred, as Gravity21 mentions, investors wanted to rebuild because they knew the surrounding land, first nature, has advantages. Why is it that we see these two similarities? The time era might have something to do with it. I think the logical reason is that townspeople from San Francisco must have drawn comparisons themselves  with the Chicago fire. The Chicago fire happened twenty years earlier, they could have looked to how they rebuilt and their mindset.

Smoke and mirrors by Ted Steinberg talks more about the fire after the San Francisco earthquake. Steinberg argues about the class structure and how it was maintained in the rebuilding of the city. The business class was behind trying to make people forget the disaster and rebuild. (Steinberg, pg 109) Newspapers were also noted for maintaining social order, they did this by down playing the disaster. This is the opposite of what happened in the Johnstown flood. As  reminds us, this was a weird amusement for disaster tourism.  So why the differences in how the news portrayed the disaster? The San Francisco flood wanted to rebuild the city while maintaining old class structures. Down playing this event meant less outside investors and  influence.