The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-10-20
AT THE SHORE.
HOW San Francisco Strlkas a Salt
Laker,
Model Printing Ofies-GeneraIi-
ties.

ties.
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 1881
Editors Herald:
In this big city after person has
been living for a number of years
IN an inland portion of the nation.
much is to be seen that could be
written of and make interesting
reading matter; but all that an OBJ
serving citizen noted in one day
would make too lengthy a CORES
pondence for you to publish often.
one gets partly bewildered for the
flrst few days after arriving here,
With the traffic, moving humanity.
and numberless conveyances, but
becomes accustomed to them in a
short time, and by degrees stakes
IN the sights of the buildings,
which are numerous and costly.
ExtraYagance, it seems to me, has
oeen the rule In the erection of
buildings of all kinds in the heart
Oh the city = extravaganza in
architecture, material, fitting
up and furnishing. Prob
ably this may only be my idea,
being accustomed to seeing the
plain, substantial, unpretentious
buildings of Salt Lake for so long.
The city is an awkward one to per
son who has been accustomed to liv-
ing where the streets run directly
north and south and east and west.
and he becomes puzzled, so irregu-
larly are the streets laid off, to To-
cate the points of the compass. For
my own part, think that if | reside
here until next conference will not
be able to navigate without a COM
pass. AT many points the streets
from five or six extremely remote
parts of the city come to the same
point and form a nucleus. The
streets Ill the most frequented parts
of the city are paved with large
cobble-StOnes, and the din, racket
and rattle of the vehicles rolling
over them, at all hours of the day
and night, are annoying to a
stranger. But the sounds to me are
becoming familiar and | don't notice
them.
THE FIRE DEPARTMENT.
One thing that has attracted my
attention more than anything else
since coming here is the fire depart
ment. The reason of this is that the
dread alarm has been sounded
so often during the past
week that L could not help
noticing it, and in brief
way will tell of it. l work near the
Central station and have had an OPP
portunity of witnessing the prompt
ness with which the alarms are re-
sponded to. No sooner has the last
tap Of the bell been struck than the
engine is out in the street, drawn by
a span of plump, sleek, fiery little
horses, driven by an experienced
man. Everybody and thing clears
the track as it rattleS along the ami
mails seem to understand their duty
and gallOp to the scene of the fire.
Arrived there, the stretching of the
hose from the hydrant nearest the
burning building is the work of but
minute, and the stream is playing
upon the devouring element IN
shorter time than it takes me to
write it. On Thursday l had an
of witnessing the eff
cheney of the S. F. F. d. at a disas
trOus confagratiOn in the vicinit
of Spear and Howard Streets, and
was Impressed with the idea that
would be hard to find a more com
plete working organization than the
one which Chief Scannell superin
tends. The blaze occurred in the
heart of a lumber-miil section
where food for the flames, in the
shape of dry pine, FIR, redwood. ct :.
was plentiful. 1t got a good start,
and in an hour after being first dis
covered had spread over half
a block occupied by lun-
Der Shanties, workshops and mills.
Three general alarms were sounded
and the full force was on the ground
in short time, and began battling
with the fire fiend at once; but it
had toe good start and the ener-
gieS of the hOsemen and bucketmeD
were directed to saving buildings
and property Immediately surround
ing the burning block. All Thurs
day night the sky was redeemed by
the blazes from the burning lumber
piles; Friday morning the worst of
the fire was subdued and all that
day the tired-out firemen played on
the smouldering embers and ruins,
and it was not till nearly II o'clock
Friday night that it was officially
declared the fire was out. visited
the scene twice and remained long
enough to observe the order and
unity in the working of the fire de-
partment. There was no yelling
and shouting; the orders were given
to subordInates in an ordinary way
and by them transmitted to those
under them, and all movements
were made quickly, quietly and eff
fectively. If Beecher hadn't said
there was no such place, [ wouldn't
feel timid about it if I thought
Chief Scannell and his force could
be induced to go along and play on
q cn1oot GARNER for q Whi1o