The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1885-11-07
Our srenrn Eaire Eznrlne.

I
4
Extract from Commercial, Oct. II.
***We cannot too highly praise
the prompt action of the Mayor and
Council in this connection, and the
people of Lake Charles will long re-
member how efficiently they have
taken care of their interest in pro-
viGing them with some security
against the deyonring element which
Of late has played such sad havoc
among them. We have been told that
! the new engine will be turned over to
the Lake Charles Fire Go. No. /, on
condition that the company shall turn
over its old hand-engine to the town,
and shall provide a suitable engine
house for the new engine. The col
ored folks viii now be called upon to
organize Fire Company, and they are
offered the old engine for that pur-
pose. In their hands it will prove an
efficient assistance in case of our town
being again visited by confagration.
The price paid for The engine, with
the required length of hose and other
appurtenances, is very moderate and
the terms offered very liberal, while
the town can easily pay without one
additional cent of tax on our citizens.
In premiums of insurance alune to be
paid by our property holders more
than three times this sum will have
been economical before the last pay
ment shall have been made for the
engine. Insurance in Lake Charles
has, heretofore, been very high, on
account of our poor Fire Department.
The acquisition of this engine will
have the effect of reducing consider
ably the premiums on all future poll
cies, and its good results in general
will be inestimable.
Extract from Lake Charles ECHO,
Oct. "a.
Under the above heading our con-
frere of the Commercial, in his last
issue, makes use of the following Ian
guage, which to say the least of it, is
uncalled for He says: "The people
of Lake Charles will long remember
how efficiently they 1.-THE Council) have
taken care of their interest in pro-
viding them with some security against
the deVouring element which has
played such sad havoc among them Of
late" Now, the only word We object
to in that expression is the word some.
Onr friend would have the people I'M
derstand that they have had no pro-
lection in the past, and that not on
account of the inefficiency of the en-
CINE so much as the fault of those who
have manipulated it. For in the same
connection he says that the old engine
is to be turned over to the cOlored
folks, and in their hands it will prove
an efficient assistance in case of fire,
etc. This, to our mind, is clearly an
effort to create an impression which
cannot be substantiated by facts, for
we have had some protection in the
past, as every citizen will testify, who
owns property nearest to the fires we
have had. While we believe that the
engine in the hands of our colored
people will do US good work, still to
say that in the past, in the hands of
some of our best citizens, it has offered
no protection, but in the hands of the
colored people it will be effective,
ETC., is to take up tune that has been
whistled by the chronic grumblers of
Lake Charles until 1t is unfit to be
used as warp for weaving, even where
the filling is mud. and should not be
used by editors who claim to repre-
sent the interests of the very men thus
slured.
Our confrere of the Commercial
having taken exceptions at our com
ments on the above extract taken from
his paper of Oct. 18th, we reproduce
that portion of the Commercials article
on the "Steam Fire Engine" which
we objected to and considered as a
slur at the members of Lake Charles
Fire Company No. l., together with
our reference to the matter. The allu-
sion, however, made in the last num-
Der Of the Commercial as to our un,
criticism (hypercriticaD is |
purely gratuitous, as the extract
which we quote from the Commercial
plainly shows, and we leave it to the
public to judge which of the two pa
pers INDUCED in the hypercritism
complained of by the Commercial.
However, we are glad to learn that our
neighbor did not intend to say that
the hand engine or the members of
our fire company had not rendered
services in the past in the
way of extingnishing fires.
KOnng Mems CHRISTIAN Assoc
citation.