News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-05-25
Letter from Constantinople.
CONSTANTINOPLE,
Apr. "a, 1882.
Editors Ne,vs &c Citizen

uIS. uib ulSuG d SlC't0 nv DAOAN
out in our neighborhood, as if to ac-
commodate the travellers curiosity.
Now there are many things ito be
learned at fire in Constantinople.
Perhaps even your Morrisville Fire
) Department could learn a thing or
, two about fires from the sight of one
here. In the first place, no one ever
thinks of trying to put fire out when
it first appears. Every body bowls,
and smashes the windows of the house
and jumps about like a decapitated
rooster. But nobody dares to APP
proach near enough to the dreaded
element to put it out when single
bucket Of water would do it.
In the second place, when a fire
once begins, every house in circuit
of quarter or half a mile is instantly
in danger, and must be emptied of its
furniture at once. And in the third
place, the fire engines reach the spot,
and then for the first time does it oc-
cur to the department that water will
be necessary. Every body shouts
''Water Water p in stentorian tones,
but no water comes. Then the fire
company begin to cast about for some
way of getting the precious but reluc
tant fluid. First they find buckets in
neighboring houses, a pail here, wa
tering pc: there, a tub elsewhere.
Next they smash in doors and search
houses until they come to a well or
cistern from which water can be drawn
with bucket and rope. In that bour
of trial both firemen and citizens Bit
terly regret their neglect to supply
themselves beforehand with engines
which will draw water for themselves.
But like many other good aspirations,
the aspiration for improvement in the
| fire department perishes with the ter
mination of the emergency which call
ed it forth. Fire-engines, like the men
who work them, are, and must long
continue to be, constructed on models |
of past centuries.
In this particular fire l sailed forth |
to see if any of our friends were in
danger. The streets were full Of peo-
pie hurrying, some toward the fire on
the same GRAND with myself; others,
dishevelled women (and an Eastern
woman in deShdbH}e is q spectacle),
panic-stricken men, crying children,
porters with great loads of bedding on
their backs, were hurrying away from
the fire. Every now and then Choir
us of wild yells would burst upon the
ear, and a fire company would dart by,
half naked, painting, shouting for the
road as only fremen can shout. They :
carry their engine on poles on their
shoulders, and rush through the streets
with an energy and, in fact, breath
less eagerness which promises marvel
Gus results when it shall be turned up
on the fire. After the firemen come,
squads of soldiers with guns at a right
shoulder shift, or with immense poles
and hooks OH their shoulders. Ev-
jostles everybody else, and
the unwary passer is mercilessly knock
ed about if he gets in the way of these
official representatives of the bureau
of extinguishers.
Arriving at the fire, / found it had
already set to work on three different
lines, radiating from the centre where
il began. 1t started in a grog-shop, in
christian" district, of course, for |
no grog-shop ever exists in a Moham-
medan part of the city. All the build
ings next adjoining the place where it
began were grog-shops, and the spir
it's for sale there, were at least pure
nnnnrrh fn Inn fhaf tho fro Cnrn,l |
like wild-fre. DR.. Riggs, of the Mis-
sion of the Board, and DR.. l. @. Bliss,
agent of the American Bible Society,
found their houses in immediate dan
ger, and packed up their goods at
midnight, without, however, having to
move them. Happily, the night was
very calm, so that the fire did not
reach to either house. But all the
houses in the district had a force OF
men on their roofs, with water-buck-
cts, to put out the falling cinders as
they lodged among the tiles. At the
fire the most prominent feature, was
the amount of money-making enter
prises which where developed by the
danger. And here is a point which
has been neglected, l am afraid, by
our American genius. When fire
engine arrives in the vicinity of the
raging mass of flame, it slackens its
wild rush, and finally halts in the mid
die of the street. 1t is open to bust
ness transactions of perfectly legit-
innate character. One man offers S25,
another $50, another $50. Finally
some secures 4Ae services of the fire
company for from $50 to 500. Very |
frequently the man who has captured |
the company lives at some distance
from the fire, and the engine is lugged |
away from the immediate need, to be |
ready for emergencies at the house OF
so prudent and panic-smitten a house
owner. Some tire-engines, however,
are at work. That is, a man brings |
up bucket of water and pours it in
to the engine the fire company give
shout and make three or four strokes |
of their engine. That exhausts the
water, and they all hands sit down |
and await the arrival of another buck |
ct of water. AT this rate the progress
OF the fire Is not seriously checked. |
Then another class of industrial en-
terprises have time to flourish. There |
are numbers of men standing about |
who announce themselves as porters.
They set high value on their SER
vices, and many high bargain is
struck where demoralized householders
pay large percentage of the value OF
their miserable furniture to these men |
who will carry it to some open COM
mon or vacant lot, at a distance from
the zone of danger. Even after max
ing such a bargain, and paying ex-
orbitant rates in advance, the owner OF
the goods is often obliged to halter his
porter like mule. and to hold on to
him as he goes. Porters at such times
nave been known to disappear with
their loads, from wicked craving af-
ter the goods themselves. At such
times men seem to feel that the prop
erty saved from the flames is outlaw
ed. A few minutes more would des-
troy it. Hence it is that the temp
tation to steal what is saved is pre-
sented in the form of right of sal
wage to the mind of the man who has