The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-05-19

men. To each engine are attached
some thirty or forty tulumbadgis,
with their chief, and runner or crier,
who. armed with short lance, precedes
them and makes way for them. If the
engines are very small they are very
numerous, and it is not uncommon to
see, in the space of an hour, some forty
or nifty with their escort of firemen pass
through the narrow high street of Pera.
AS to the tulumbadgis, they are all volun-
teers, d taken from the lowest dregs
OF the Turkish population-overgrown
shoe-b. -cks, bankrupt lucifer matches
sellers, livery stable boys, and conduct
ors of donkeys forming the great major
lty of these active and promising gem
tlemen, who receive no pay except a
suit of clothes at the Bairam, and are
supposed to live upon the backsich or
gratuities which they receive from the
people whose property they have saved,
and who in reality live on plumber. In
consequence of this system they are
most Jealous in their attendance and in
their desire to be the first on the spot;
and it is a strange sight to see these
rutfians, half naked, rushing through the
streets, changing the bearers of the
engine from time to time without
slackening their speed, and yelling all
the time, to make the people, the dogs
and donkeys get out of their way. If
tive companions of these barbarians
meet by any chance, such is their desire
to be first ON the scene of the promised
plumber that sharp race ensues be-
tween them, and if the victory is doubt
full they come to blows. The engines
are generally followed by companies of
soldiers in fatigue dress, carrying long,
hooked poles, which are used for pull
ing down the houses; and this is, in
truth, the most effective and easy way of
mastering fire, for the houses, being
mostly built of thin planks, are easily
pulled down, and thus waste space
is made around the already burning prop
erty. ... G.1 -
At the scene of the fire the sight is
much the same as in all countries on
those occasions, except that the noise
and confusion are increased by the fact
that the furniture of the houses of
whole street is being removed at
the same time, the inhabitants never
waiting for the con1agration to get near
them, as it runs along among the
wooden houses with fearful rapidity.
These people and their furniture, or at
least the part of it which is not robbed
in the confusion by the tiremen or the
carriers, are conducted to some open
space where, under the guard Of the
police, they sit down on their property
ana wait with true Turkish calm and
patience to see what fate will do. At
last the fire is mastered or dies out of
itself, according to the zeal displayed by
the firemen, who, if largely paid by the
prOprietors of the threatened houses,
will sometimes do wonders with their
diminutive engines, or will refuse alto
gether, and then new body of plum
derers appears in the shape of numerous
fellows armed with spades and long
sticks with iron hooks, who, notwith-
standing the efforts of the police, rush
among the still-smoldering cinders in
search of coins, of jewels, or of iron
and brass fittings, ETC. Gradually the
cinders cool down and then the cats APP
pear in search of their homes, and after
ward the street dogs, who drive them
away and hasten to secure a nice warm
hole in the cinders where to lie down,
and these remain at last masters of the
ruins, as they were before the masters
of the living streets. .F.. ,