Los Angeles herald., 1892-11-04
"FIREPRooF" MAIDEN LANE.

Tho Precious Metal District Almost Ex-
empt from Big Confagrations.
Maiden lane has been singularly free
from destructive fires for many years,
and there is a superstition among the
jewelry and diamond merchants of that
street that the lane will never succumb
to flames or streams of water, and that
the old rickety buildings lining it on
both sides are pretty nearly "fireproof."
The records of the fire patrol, which
60 back to 1874, prove that in the last
eighteen years 113 fires have taken place
in that neighborhood, all of which were
of little account. Those fires which af-
fected jewelry establishments were the
most insignificant of the lot, and their
stock was never damaged by any fire.
This seems strange, for the reason
that in the majority of houses occupied
by jewellers numberless small and
rickety rooms are used as smelling fur
naces and workshops, with plenty of op.
portunities for creating heat and flames.
talked with number of merchants
located in the precious metal district,
between Broadway and William street,
and all of them said they had never lost
q cent by fire. One of the reasons for
this happy state of affairs is their ex-
treme cautiousness They have watch
men constantly on the premises to guard
against thieves, and these men are bound
to look out for confagrations likewise.
Whenever there is the slightest cause
for danger the thick doors of the safes
are locked in jiffy, and all hands in the
building combine to remove that cause.
AS one of the "Maiden laners" ex-
pressed himself, there is no inducement
for fires either. All the wealth the Jew
eler's stock represents is kept in safes,
the doors of which may be barred in an
instant. Even if there was firebug
among that respectable class of mer-
chants he would not dare set fire to his
building in order to claim insurance on
his stock, for such thing would give
him away in An instant. If really de-
structive fire should occur in one of the
large jewelry emporiums in the lane the
safes would tumble down into the eel
lars, and the precious stock would be re-
covered as soon as they had cooled off.
And even if the safes We're injured on
their come down their contents would
not necessarily be lost. We all remem
ber the great fire in Bond street which
destroyed number of wholesale Jew
elry establishments. When the proprie-
tors OF those precious safes looked for
them they were nowhere, only twisted
and distorted fragments being found.
but when they dug up the soil under the
destroyed building, they turned up large
chunks of precious ore that had once
been watch chains, breastpins or we'd
ding rings. The police were notified
and formed line all around the seat of
the fire. Then mining camp was es-
tablished. A long gutter was run
around two sides of the spot made va
cant by the fire, a stream of water was
led through these cutters, the earth was
carefully washed and fortune recov
cred, the proceeds of which We're divided
among the former occupants of the
building according to the extent of their
business.
Maiden lane is not the only down town
street that Of late years has been free
from confagrations, though no other has
srch d record to show as the lane.
Pearl, Williams, Beekman and Full
ton streets were once notorious for
big fires. That was in the times when
the big paper warehouses and similar
establishments made their headquarters
there. The part of Maiden lane ada
cent to the river still gives the fire de-
partment work from time to time. Oil
and paint stores are mostly responsible
for confagrations in that vicinity.-New
York Herald.