New-York tribune., 1873-03-01


burning building are the front and perhaps the
roof but this latter can only be reached by carrying
the hose through the neighboring houses, and
housekeeper may guees what this impliea. The
yards are SO filed up that the engines could not be
worked in them, even If there were way OF
getting them there, ~ there is no room even Tor
fremen with the hose Then the proJectin9
buildings make bridges for the hght-looteu
flames to step across. People who hve IN
the houses behind what was once the Fifth Avenue
Theater were in great danger Of beng burned
out. The windows at the back Of the houses could
not be approached for the intense heat all portahe
valuahles being packed mp, and TO the pe iSh1
throng of NewYear callers added the clVll Dnt
pereuptory policemen who rushed in. and tore down
the window curtains Just in time Yet thiss the much
Dragged nineteenth century, and we are IN the rrst
city of America. Now the remedy for these dliii-
entities is to oblige every building of even tile ordl
nary depth 10 have at least cross-wal OF orlck
running from the ground TO the top of the Duidng'
This would make for every structure hye walls at
east the two side walls, the 'front.' the rear and the
partition, and then every building would be IN con-
dition at least 10 stand alone until the flames burned
up the insides, or extinguished Now, great
danger is from the falling in Of the walls. See what
happens Hundreds of buildings, stores filled with
long rows of them separated from another by too
thin walls all the four or five upper stories sup
ported by thin iron columns and the whole covered
by light roof. When the tire gets fairly hold Of
such tinder-box the end is that the slight supports
give way, and the whole tumbles in making an I'M
bonfire SO The first thing TO do is to
have few simple regulations relating to the safe
construction Of buildings carried ont. There should
be- as we have said, least strong cgOss-wal OF
brick somewhere near the middle of the building.
The end walls should not be permitted to rest on
iron columns, but good stone or brick piers with
arches should be made obligatory, and the beams
should not be allowed TO enter the side walls-by
which plan our already too thin partition walls are
much weakened, any may prove by calcula-
ting the dimensions Of the holes illed by the beam
ends, aud deductng these from the wall mass-but
the beams should rest on brick or stone corbellng.
Lastly the roof should be made uninfammabe by the
use of good slate and plaster. As for conices OF
wood or zinc, with wooden on zinc dorners the use
of them should be peremptorily forbidden. Surely
the legislation that would forbid these things could
not be called despohci
OPENINGS WANTED TS BLOCKS.
Bat there is another kind of legislation called for.
The system Of building in close blocks with no
means of access to the interior should be given up.
deal of light is thrown upon the present difficulty
by an expression in the report of a recent fre-the
one, namely, that broke out Mr. Mailards choco-
late factory in Broadway near HOuston-st. The
factory backed upon the old graveyard OF II.
TbOmas's Church The report said. "Much TO the
firemen's delight the graveyard with ITS open side
on HOustOnst. them free access 10 the rear or
the burning building ] quote from memory but
the naive expression OF the hremen sdelght struek
me- Now what is wanted is, that each block Of
buildings to be built hereafter should consist OF
houses erected about open cOurtslarger or smaller
as the may bethCse courts 10 be accessible by
ample carriage doOr-waYs lp0Te' cOctes Ibis Is the
almost universal plan OF building in use IN Europe
and as everybody who has lived there knows, IL ~
thoroughly healthy, conFenlent, seRsiDle way OF
building. There are no dark rooms need be none;
there plenty of light and air. and great increase
of convenience. together with chances for some
variety and pcturesqueness IN architecture But the
point for us 10 consider to-day is that the risk Of
wholesale burnings, suppOsing the building to be
good. is reduced 10 q minimum when a burning
building can be attacked at once from 'front.' and
rear. The stream of water that now has 70 play
nearly the whole hundred feet of the lot wOnd then
have TO play only fifty or the half Of whatever dis
tanCe the pipe from the other side playing the
other half. Now let no one say. This Is utOpian
and beside the city Is nearly built; cannot build
it again. For, that il IS perfectly practicable,
every great city of Europe nay hundreds of small
towns all over Europe bear witness, and anybody
who viii look at the map of the city viii see that
more than half the island has yet 10 be built upon,
and that. reasoning by the experience OF the last
the building between say Ihirtleth-st. and Fifty
ninth-st will be rebuilt. Boys now entering college
will see the fashionable part of the city III Harlem
and along the lower edge OF Nestchester
County, the two quarters being connected
by elegant and cOmmodlOus bridges cross
ing the Harlem River Laws made now 70 regu-
late building, and To assist right building, Will
come IN ample time.
BUILDING ASSOCIATIONS SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED.
"To assist good building There is the word,
for, curiously enough, according to my au-
thority, it is the law that prevents associa-
tions for building. Capitalists could be found in
plenty to put up the tenement
houses, flats, called by whatever name that have
long been the abodes of our working CLASSES, and
that are now going mp all over the city IN answer
to a growing demand from the rich and the well-to-
do built, not as they should be, by companies OF men
with capital and brains, but by individual builders
with little capital and no brains at all At present,
if any number of men should unite in n company 20
put M a large apartment building, and one of them
should die leaving minor children, the affairs OF the
company could not be wound up until these children
should come of age. The vexatiOus delays and con
fusiOns resulting from such restrictions have finally
worked TO prevent capitalists from combining to put
up these much-needed buildings. A welldrawn
Enabling act that should permit stock 70 be taken IN
such enterprises. in the way stock is taken
in building railroads and steamships and In mining,
is greatly needed. Ii would come Just IN time, and
would lead TO important results II the matter were
taken up by trusty men, and well presented 20 the
pubhc IL NAV be remarked in passing that all the
great blocks of apartments in Paris Vienna, Mnneh
that house the rich and well-tO-dO 40 comfortably,
and that give to the poor of those cities an ad
vantage over the we-tO-do here in New York. are
all built by companies of men indeed, they could
not be built otherwise. Aud il is because they are
built so sody and sensibly that these great cities
enjoy an almost perfect immunity from fire, while
the plan upon which they built brings every por-
ton of them under easy control in the rare accident
of fire. These citesare enabled, moreover. 90 dis
pense with costly fire Departments. Even the PARIS
Fire Department is hardly more imposing than the
Florentine " keg of water and squirt"
GOOD AND CHEAP GAS WANTED.
There is one other consideration that ought not to
be forgotten The invention of gas Kidding us of
the small nuisance of portable lamps has rid us with