New-York tribune., 1873-03-01
FIRE-PROOF BUILDING.


sPREApTNG CoNFLAGRATIoNs-A FEW PRAC-
TICAL SUGGESTIONS.
"a fAe Edftor OF The Trt6aRe.
SIR: suppose that no apology is needed for keep
ing up the discussion, How put mp buildings that
cannot be set on fret" There Is no city, town, OF
smallest village in our Northern States to which
fhis Is not an important question: for in our climate
FIRE makes one of every family, and though, as the
old proverb says, He is good servant" yet 1t is
found that he bears watching, is a huge feeder,
bankers after strange food and is vexaEOusly sly IN
gettiug possession of it. Besides he is very wbmsl-
cal: it never can be known Just how he Will act.
The people who built the Office of The Express news
paper innocently ran the floor tlmbers into the
smoke-fue and it might have been supposed that
the fire would have fallen upon these tootnsoIne E
bits Of beam-ends at once but 1t TOOK several years
for them to get cured enough to tempt the usually
greedy element Mt DAILY, on the other hand, takes
~ Moons ~ take AL the pains in the world to be
secure against re is confident he Is secure that
he wiz not get himself insured; yet his theater
takes FIRE no one knows where or how, and burns mp
in AN hour or two as if it had belonged to the most
careless man alive.
Thus we have a servant in our houses too useful to
be discharged; without whom, indeed, we could not
live and vet he is a dangerous fellow-sly, greedy
fnD of whiInsies, working well in harness, but
always trying TO get out of harness and when he
Il
One of our most important social problems to-day,
of the material Sort is how to keep this servant N
his place, 80 that he never can play the master
FnsE MORE EXTENSIVELY USED OF LATE YEARS.
We onght to think that this problem has put On
new face in our DAY, and niOUr country. 1t is rot
the same problem in fact that worried our grand
fathers and il does not worry other peoples as II
worries us II does rs little good TO ask the Italians
Germans French, how they build, so as not TO be
afraid OF FIRE. For, in those countries, they use
hardly any fire at all none we may almost saw ex-
sept what is used in cooking and IN any one OF
these countries an American h0usekeeper is aston
ished 10 see with how little fire good dinner may
be cooked yTis only we and the English waste Goals
They are beginning to introduce furnaces in Paris
INT they are used almost exclusively! for warming
4he staircases of large buildings and the French
people themselves do not care for them. Like many
other luxuries they are adopted in consequence OF
the nacgng Of Americans, and are to be found
in quarters affected by our countrymen; you Will
not meet with them in the French quarters. Nor do
the Italians like fires any better than the French
Some one has wittly, but truly, said that Italy
would be a delightful place tOsllye IN II the lnhaO-
fants could rid themselves of the notion that theirs
IA a warm climate In truth, the Winters there are
often very severe with heavy, persistent cold rains,
and winds that pierce 10 the marrow, but for all,
there are no means Of warming the houses churches,
palaces: a furnace is a thing unknown and it is
common experience TO find whole snits Of apartments
in Florence and Venice-nOt TO speak Of Rome and
Eaples-without so much as a fireplace 1t is true
that fre-Dlaces used TO be common enough, and
small ones are still to be found, but the greater num-
Der of those that were in the royal palaces and in
the palaces of the mobiles have been walled up for
years That they used TO exist, is plain enough from
old pictures notably from Del SartOs fresco IN the
Court Of the AnnInZiata. where every one VIII re-
member the fiue cbimney-pece, and the child stand
ing inside the great fireplace warming himself.
doubt if such fireplace can be found. in use to-day,
In all ITALY Nor have they merely substituted one
way of heating their rooms for another They do
not heat their rooms at all. Many Italians
will not. if they can help it, so much
as 90 into a room arti6cially heated.
foreigner in Italy, therefore, who should keep his
rooms comfortable with fires, would have TO fOrego
the making Of Italian acquaintance, unless he were
willing that all the visiting should be on one side.
Mr. Marsh told me that he asked an Italian gentle
man how he managed to keep warm. Said the
gentleman. IF l am very cold. L put my cloak"
"But,D said Mr.. Marsh, If your cloak is not
enough :" "Then. Sir 60 to bed.7
SECURITY OF EUROPEAN BUILDINGS AGAINST FIRE.
Therewas a time when the Italians free from
another source of fires; the means employed for
lighting, namely: They used olive oil in small
brass lamps, giving little light and much smoke,
and not tempting to late sittings up. The theaters
were lighted by candles. Now petroleum is all the
rage the Italians delighted with il, but though
they may burn themselves up with it, they cannot
burn their houses, for they are too solidly built.
Nevertheless one does not hear with entire equanim
itythatthe Government keeps petroleum stored in the
lowest story of the palace of the Ufzi. Mr. Wander
biit is said TO have said that he would have been per-
fectly willing 10 sit and smoke on the boiler Of the
Westfed so far as safety was concerned but though
wemight have been well contented to abide the issue
It would not have been wise in him to try the exper
iment and it is hardly wise to put the most precious
works Of art nation has in the top story of build
ing whose lower story is filed with petroleum. But
1t only shows how much the Italians are strangers TO
the dread Of fire.
In neither OF the two apartments that rented
while IN Florence was there bit of wood used in
the construction excepting the doors, the window
sashes, and the floor beams. There were no posts,
lntels sils nor shutters The doors turned on iron
hooks let into the stone and the locks and bolts shot
into holes in the stone The foor-beams them
selves were filed in with plaster, and covered
thick with plaster, and the floor itself was Of
tiles. The walls were Of rubble brought to a
surface with plaster, and, instead of being
hung with paper freseoed all over. The stairs
were Of stone. aud the balusters and hand-ral-
ing of iron. We might have played at nne-pins with
our kerosene lamps and been IN no danger. Iremem-
ber coming home one cold wet evening, and finding
that the ianitor. to keep himself warm, had made
large FIRE Of fagots on the han floor, against the
stairs. As it burned he walked up and down, his
wife sat and knit, and the children Iplayed tag. /
do not know what became of the smoke, but the FIRE
hurt nothing The state of things in most European
cities is not very different from this, The fires In