Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1868-11-20
A CongtantinopIe Fire.

A fire in Constantinople is really q |
curious scene. Watchmen from the
fire towers signalize its commence ment, |
and big guns on the top of Fire Hill,
on the Bosphorus, announce its exist
ence to the dwellers in the suburbs
Meantime, from the watch-tower issue
forth messengers, stripped for the race,
and carrying a short pike of authority.
These run at full speed through the
crowded streets, yelling to clear the
way, carrying to the police stations and
the engine houses the name Of the
quarter. At each station fresh men
take up the race, and in half an hour
the most distant police station in the
city can tell you Just where the fire is.
The fire companies come forth and car
ry their engines-lIttle boxes two feet
sQuare-on their shoulders, the hose on
their backs. With these equipments
they rush through the streets, yelling
like demons. Arrived at the IRE they
deposit the engine on the ground. Wa
ter-carrterS bring the water IN great
leather bottles, and the pumps work
lively and throw very respectable
stream. All the householders within a
radius of half mile lug their goods
and chattles into the fire. proof maga-
zines under the houses, and all within
a mile more stand to be ready. When
the fire gets so near the engines as to be
uncomfortable they haul of a little
farther, and so steadily retreat before
it fighting every inch of ground. High
officers of the army and of the Govern
ment arrive and take command OF the
forces. Often at a very great fire you
may see the Grand Vizier himself and
other Cabinet officers on the ground -
And still the fire works on, driving
scores of fire companies before 1t, lap
ping around great wooden palaces of
the nobility, and curling through the
rich halls of the harem, almost before
the frightened beauties can be mar
shalled by the eunuchs TO escape. The
flames leap all streets without heslGa-
tion, now Whirl aloft from the taper
minaret of some doomed mosque now
stoop to lick up some dingY hovel-R
poor mans all. And still the engines
fall back before it helpless. At length
the wind dies out, the raging element
stumbles at some high wall, and, with
all its efforts, cannot leap. Elsewhere,
one of the great gardens, so numerous
in Constantiople, has checked it; and
now the hook and ladder companies APP
pear, tear down a house or two, more or
less remote from the scene, and the fire
is done. And yet fire insurance conf
panies do a thriving business in such
place. AS is natural, people think
they do all they can to put out fires
they do in fact, just what our foretath-
ers did 100 years ago. If steam hre
engine were presented to the Turkish
Government of this city to-day, they
would let it rust out rather than use it.
The Bronze Doors for the Capitol
The Springfield (Mass.) Republicans
says that "fOur years labor at the Ames
Works, Chicopee, has at last brought to
and they are soon to be packed for
transportation to Washington. The
cost of the casting and finishing is sta
ted at from $4O,O 900 to $50 900. The pm
els have frequently been described in
detail during the progress of the work,
and it Is sufficient now to observe that,
viewing them by the side of Crawford s
models it is not easy to see wherein the
artists idea is not fully realized-and
that. too. in spite of his well known
confidence in the American bronze
founders, and the damaged condition in
which the models were sent tOthe latter
from Munich, by order of Government,
When put in position in the Senate
wing Of the Capitol at Washington,
these doors will unquestionably add to
the grandeur of the surroundings. The
several portions of the work outside OF
the artists models are worthy of all
praise, although praise of the nice me-
chanism of the Ames Company may
seem superfIuOus. OF these may be no
ticed the bronze castings, the neat and
cbaste designs of Mr.. Silas MOsman, the
superintendent of the Statuary depart
ment, which form a very appropriate
outer frame to the elaborate sculptures
of the panels; and the sofdt, or open
work ceiling over which the doors
swing, ornamented with 74S rosettes of
bronze, and seeming to let down an au-
rated light on the shining backs of the
doors when closed; and the perfect hang
ing appliances which enable the pom
derous weights to be swung with COM
paratively little exertion of strength;
and, lastly, the air-tight joint With
which the narrower door Joins a fixed
facing and completes itself to CORES
pond with the wider when both are en-
tirely swung open,"