The morning times., 1896-11-15
as the entire cost Of its flour supply for all

as the entire cost OF its flour supply for all
| purposes.
Fires range from theeasily extinguishabIe
blaze in q ch amber up TO the great confla-
migration In which millions are lost.
l Even tho dwellings burned vary greatly
In size and cost; in New York, especially y,
| they are apt to be tenements holding
| forty or fifty tenants each. But assum-
ing, for convenience, that all the property
burned in twenty-one years was In the
! shape of neat blockhouses Of the most
| modern city type; their destruction would
| make. If they were all burned at once, q
fire eight miles long and four miles wide,
| allow wing the usual spaces for streets. Or
| II stretched out in one continuous line OF
Dlockhouses. twenty feet wide. with space
| for streets. they would make trail OF
| fire stretching from New York to Denver;
| and from their ashes nearly three million
people-say the population OF New YORK
and Brooklyn combined-would wander
| forth homeless.
II the houses were neat frame cottages
of the better type common in country vii
lagos. our fire loss for twenty-one years
would be equivalent to the destruction OF
the homes Of six million people. In i
single year, at the present rate. we burn
up enough property to buy eight hundred
thousand people pleasant village resi-
deiices; and OF such residences placed on
lots ore hundred feet wide. a single years
loss would make a fire fifteen hundreG
miles long; or both sides Of blazing aveIihe
OF destruction seven hundred and fifty
miles in length That's only OEe year!
A bonfire OF dollar bills would look like
pretty costly amusement. Since 1878
we have burned up enough valae to car
pet twelve square miles with dollar bills
or tC pave with them a bicycle path ten
feet wide from New York to San Fran.
cisco. and return path nearly all the
way back. Four bicyclists might ride
abreast of that tract and do continuous
century runs every day for two months
In Shorthand the tale might be made
much hnger-the fire loss of the United
States is an enormous and too little ap-
preciated drag upon the prosperity of
the country. 1t Is absolute waste, every
dollar of 1t. With the exception OF those
caused by lightning, there are no unpre-
ventible fires Even those which occur in
buildings which have been torn down by
cyclones fires are prcventible. The houses
might have been OF stronger build. q
tits something OF a surprise-a good deal
of a shock-to learn that much tie largest
single cause OF reported fircsis ineendiar-
ism. Even without those set by traInps,
burglars, drunken men, lunatics, and mis-
chievous children, incendiarism accounts
for z SO per cent OF all fires Defective
flues and smOkestacks only cause 6 6.O4 per
cent There must be many incendiary fires
never reported or suspected; but those re-
ported since 1 $40 are some 90, 600 in num-
ber. II the firebugs of twenty-one years
were marshalled into an army, their dread
torched at Garry arms" they would make
a force nearly jas large rs Napoleon's ef-
fectivc force at Waterloo, leaving Grouchy
out of the reckoning. Their torches cost
the country some $4,000, 900 last year
They work In city and country alike In
the latter case they seem to favor barn