The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-11-01

crat, picked up half brick that had fallen from
one of the chimneys and was looking for a chance
it, Seeing what he was up to,
Marion pipeman who had been
along the line of hose with 'spanner" tight
ening the joints, and had just come back, waited
his chance, and as Grosvenor raised his brlck the
fireman raised his spanner and dropped 1t
gently on the top of the painters head. He
stopped his throwing at once stood still refect-
lively for moment, and then turned to with
draw from the uncongenial, not to say uncom-
Portable, associations of the place, and fell he
was carried off by his friends who had olsen.
tangled themselves from the pile of wrath1nl
humanity the ground urged there, too. no
| doubt by the persuasion of the pipe. when lay
IN the very center of the heap squirting ar lnch
| and quarter stream with the force OF twenty
| men the brakes, and making puddle all
about the fight. His hurt was not serious, ana
| he had sense enough to say nothing about the
| fight or his share of it.
| One of the most comical incidents that ever oc-
Cured at fire that at the burning OF little
frame house In, not on Maryland street, just
west of Pennsylvania, in the winter of 1853 1t
had been the office OF the stage company. whose.
buildings occupied half square at the corner or
Pennsylvania and Maryland Streets and when
the company broke up business under the
pressure of our railway system, the stables
ard office were abandoned. The latter was
started off to new location, but stopped the
first night in the street, where some loafer set it
on lire. The engines were stationed at the big
well at McCarty's corner, FLETCHER d Shapes
now) and the Marion ran line of hose down
Pennsylvania street to the fire. With so short
line as single square the ''old tub made
vigorous squirt The weather boarding had ali
been burned of the house, and over
here and there. a little flame fickered to the
top of "studdng' that was left standing, when
the captain of the Marion left the engine and
went down the hose line to the fire. There was
little to do there, for the wooden shell was
nearly gone when the engine got to work The
| captain stood on the east side of the house, the
plpemen were, at that moment on the west side,
soaking the rubbish to prevent its reklndling.
Seeing mass of dangerous embers the captain
called to the pipemen to play upon it. They
turned the pipe in that direction. but in doing so
had to carry it across the direction in which the
captain was standing, with his mouth wide
open, explaining what he wanted. The night
was bitter cold, the stream strong the distance
not over twenty feet. and the rushing water
took the captain right in the mouth, and knocked
him backward into sitting posture In the sloppy
snow. He said he felt as if the top of his head
had beer busted" off while he was sitting in an
icecream freezer.
The first fire in the city was that of Major
Carriers tavern during the first session of the
Legislature, in January. 1926. 1twas large lew
Frame having been first occupied only In the pre-
ceding October. MIR. Merrill relates an incident
| of the affair, that shows how nearly true, some
times, is the standing sarcasm on folly at fires:
Throw the looking glass out of the window and
| sign painted large surface of jointed
plank, and set at the top of tall post, where 1t
seemed in danger of being caught by the con-
| migration. To prevent so serious a loss, some
of the kind-hearted neighbors got an and cut
the post down. the fall smashing the sign all to
pieces as anybody not at fire would have
known.
The most noted fire in the early history of the
city was that of washington Hail." the leading
hotel of the city, then kept by the late Edmund
BROWNING n
corporated with that of the New York Store.
The fire broke out in of the third story
rooms of the front building, about O'clock of
bitter cold afternoon of February. 1913, Just
about the time the big comet began to show up
| in the west. The "Old Seminary" had just got
! into working order, under Mr. Kemper, when
the ann was raised and the news came that the
hotel was on fire. One of Mr.. Browning's sons
was a pupsi. and Mr.. Kemper sent him home,
and in i've min1tes saw that there would be no
studying that afternoon. and dismissed
the school The wells could not
be reached by suction hose, and alt
the water for the two engines, tie MARION ana
Relief, had TO be pumped and passed IL ouckeCs
by lines of men to them. The "Old Sem. nary
boys" helped conspicuously to fill these lines
from the pumps at Jerry Collinss doggery. and
that in front of DR.. Mothershead's drug store a
little east of where the Bowen & Merrill book
store is The halls, the offices, the stairways
were all af1oat with water and mushy ice. The
hremen and the llnesmen were in to the knees;
some of them were covered all with ice.
Henry Ward Beecher held one of the pipes for
an hour probably, and came out of the smoke
and steam into the cold air, where he was cased
in ice to the last hair of his head in two minutes
Nearly everybody was at the fire, and nearly ev-
erybody there had to work at one time or anoth-
This rather than the loss, made the affair
memorable, for the loss was only about So, 900.