The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-25
ooLUMB1A's wAroHMAN.
He is Both the City's Clock and Fire
Alarm System.

Alarm System.
few days ago the st. Louis Globe
Democrat published the following some
what fanciful but readable tale by one of
its hotel corridor reporters:
THE strongest voice | ever heard. ~
said Col Marshall, of Charleston, at the
Laclede, lis that sof the town crier of
Columbia, s. G. Columbia is the only
town in the United States that still keeps
up the custom of having a town crier,
and probably the largest in area that any
one mans voice was expected TO reach the
uttermOst boundaries of. The crier
stands upon a high tower ana
calls the hours, 10 o'clock and all is well =
II o'clock and all is well; : ~ o'clock,
tire-fire-tire' The voice of the man
now occupying that position can be heard
anywhere within the city, and il is re-
BILE how quickly he sees and reports
fire or general disturbance. / was there
once when at midnight he cried that a
child was lost, and within five minutes it
seemed as though half of the population
was on the streets, ready to join in the
search it was finally found under bed
where it had rolled and gone to sleep.
When the crier dies the Office will proba-
ply be abolished-they certainly can not
find another with such a voice"
Col. Marshall's little story is interest
ing, but it is not strictly correct. The
city of Columbia does, indeed. employ a
Waterman with extraordinary functions
and he is stationed in a high tower, upon
the opera house building. But he does not
cry the hours, nor does he cry anything.
He doesn't have to, He has a big bell
and big hammer in the tower with him,
and he fairly makes the bell howl when
anything is the matter. For the watch
man constitutes the fire alarm system Of
the town, as well as the animated clock
that rings the hours, The city has not a
paid fire department, and is without the
Gamewell fire alarm system. Nevertheless
it is divided into fire wards, which are
rung upon the big bell by the Waterman
in the tower The opera house is situated
on a hill, and from the tower the watch
man has bird s-eye view of the whole
city. Ii he sees an unaccustomed patch
Of red at night in any quarter of the city
his practiced eye tells him at once what
ward it is in, and he rings the number on
the big bell, Just as the electric current
does on the fire bells of larger cities And
when he has rung the ward and paused
moment he does wild alarm on that
bell that rattles the rocks on the hills in
the adjoining county
The city watchman, besides constitut-
ing the fire alarm system, is also the
striking apparatus ana all the little
wheels of most intelligent town clock
The city, as a matter of fact, has no
tower clock, though stranger would
never detect the fact, so regularly and
accurately are the hours tolled out from
the tower The watchman's watch gov
ems the time Of the city. When the
watch says a certain hour has arrived
the Waterman repeats the information to
the city with the aid OF his hammer and
the big bell.
The two systems, of ringing fire alarms
and the hours of the day, are probably
not precisely what Columbia would like
to have, and what she will have presently
But they have have been found quite Ell
cient 1t was the writer's privilege
to be in the tower with the
Waterman about o'clock one morning
when a fire broke out, and the way the
human alarm system walked the echoes
and the people was a caution to electric
systems. In three minutes the fire force
OF the town. consisting Of the male resi-
dents between the ages OF and 60, were
surging through the streets towards the
scene Of the fire in the various states Of
enthusiasm and semi-nudity known only
at early morning fires in volunteer de-
partment towns.