The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-07-17
LoNDoNs FIRE BRIGADE.
How 1t Impressed a Norwich Jubilee
 Visitor and EX-Steamer Man.

Visitor and Ex-Steamer Man, The Norwich Bulletin says: A we'll known Thames street man has just re- ceived @ letter from his brother who is In England on 8 business trip and who was in London in time for the jubilee celebration with his friend, paying $45 for seats to view the parade. The gen. tleman was at one time a popular mem- Der of the Wauregan Steamer company, and after describing his trip across the ocean and his journey from Southamp- ton to London on road equipped with the most comical rolling stock ever seen," he writes thus contemptuously of the London fire department: T must describe the fire brigade as | first saw it's members on duty. There are no ladder companies, but on the corners of certain streets the ladders are kept They are built up on a two wheeled hand cart and stand up straight in the air, not housed, but standing on the corner like monu- ment. They are a kind of extension ladder, and by turning a crank they run up the extension and claim to be able to reach the top of any of the houses; but I doubt if the fire brigade has any control of them.
 Well, MT. B. and myself were down to Euston square for a ramble and on our way home we saw a policeman running one way and the people the other; so we went to see what was the matter. .
 When we got to the corner half way down the block we saw smoke boiling out of three two-story high windows. B. said, Now you can see the brigade work!' We went and stood on the steps of building opposite, and In about five minutes the policeman whom we had seen running came down the street with one of the ladders. Helping him along were six or eight small boys They stopped in the middle of the street. Three men with brass hats on them appeared, with two-wheeled cart with long black box on it. They stopped | In front of the house and set down on 1 the handle of the cart. The cop with the ladder turned the handle and rais- ed the ladder as high as possible, but it was not long enough to reach over the cornice; so they let it down again. | Some one had to hold the handle to keep 1t from turning over, so they sat on it,
 Nobody had offered to go into the house as yet.
 Shortly after we saw two horses coming down the street quite lively, three brass hat men sitting on top of the vehicle they were drawing and smoke following it. They came up and saw what they call a steamer The boiler was about as large as the water 1 tank on stove.
 One of the men with the brass hats walked up to the door and knocked Gall doors have the old-fashioned iron knocker). After time he was admit ted; the doors was closed and we saw no more of him.
 "The men were still sitting round and the engineer put cover on the top of the e'ack of the steamer to keep the fire | down.
 Then about fifteen policemen came, and asked the crowd to stand back, please, which they did when they got ready, (The police do not carry clubs in London, and they get dumped as quickly as any one.)
 Well, they made a circle around the machine and the men with the brass - iieteo oil pllll efit VII tiiC pph. ] lllpuG Ill that they were waiting for the man who had gone inside; but I guess that he Is in there yet, as he did not show up again.
 "The ladder men carried the ladder Loffs the three men with the hand cart with the box on it went off with it, and the crewd dispersed,
 T went over and interviewed the en- gineer. Of all steamers that one took the cake! He told me that it was twen- ty years old, but I think It was nearer a thousand, A boiler about eighteen inches in diameter and about three feet high, a bundle of pine wood in the fur mace, a small shovelful of soft coal In
 the square bod and an ordinary hori- zontal steam pump! The engineer said he could play two streams to the top of a three-story building. He is engineer, fireman and driver
 We went home disgusted with the l 1oyie 1a