My own favorite story about this is one of the few buildings in downtown San Francisco to survive the Earthquake and Fire of 1906 was Hoataling's Whiskey Distillery , which was of thick wall construction because that was early climate control,important in a distillery. When people said the quake and fire were God's judgement on San Francisco for being so wicked, this rhyme became popular:
"If God spanked the town for being over frisky,
Why did He burn the Churches, down, but spared Hoatling's Whiskey?".