The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-11-19

Spirit of the Occasion.
| Some few years ago the residents of
"the hill' petitioned for the location of
a fire company somewhere in the neigh
borhood of it's summit. claiming that
| the downtown companies could not
reach them in reasonable time on ac-
| count of the series of long. steep climbs.
and that the Petersburg company was
| too far away to be relied upon in every
| emergency. .
The petition, which Is still pending,
| received a black eye yesterday. from
which 1t scarcely could be cured by the
| application of a whole steer and a
| couple or tubs OF oysters. The petition
| ers. .unwittingly perhaps. Enthusiastically
nevertheless. gave conclusive proof that
| they don't need a fire company. They
| showed that in the matter of fire fight
ing they are just a few themselves.
AT 443 Clay avenue. next door but one
to Vine street. a house owned by w. ".
Hackett and occupied by George III.
Dimpfel. chemist of the cOllery En-
gineer company. was recently supplied
with gas. In laying the pipe the work.
men evidently failed to properly prop
1t. and when the earth began to settle
there was breakage. Yesterday after
noon the gas commenced to escape
| through the ground and make life bare
! ly endurable in all the region round.
Some one. who thought 'he knew y
| conceived the idea of abating the nasty.
| noXious. noisome nuisance by setting
| fire to the gas. He did. and it did.
Twas a grand success. The nuisance
was completely eradicated and. thanks
to the amateur tiremen. the cost or re-
pairing the house was kept down to
little more than the actual damage
done by the explosion.
I KEPT DAMAGE DOWN.
What damage would have been done
by the fire. that followed the explosion,
during the interim between Next Door
| Neighbor Sam II. Stevens telephone
call for the Phoenix company, and the
! arrival of the same, some minutes
later. can not be fixed with any degree
of accuracy, but it is fair to estimate
that it was not much more than one
half what the fire-fghting in the afore-
mentioned interregnum cost of the fire.
fighters, substantially and in lost vital
ity.
Old Alderman Roesler isn't at hand
to tell us whether or not Congressman
Connell, Colonel Boies, Sam H. Stevens,
Colonel Ripple, w. T. Hackett. George
| Backus, Stephen Fenner N. r. Rice.
Luther Keller, J. A. Lansing. Herbert
| Coston, Charles II. Schlager. A. r.
Gould. and the other boys of that
| neighborhood iran with the old ma
chine" in the days of the Lady Wash
| ingtons, but the way some of them
went at that fire yesterday indicated
| that they We're surely not novices at
| the business. They seemed wholly re-
| gardess of personal sacrifices, as long
as there was fire to be fought.
1t wouldn't have been so bad If the
recent excavations in the Dimpfel yard
hadn't been aided and abetted by the
more recent rains in making the yard
anything but favorable place for eco
uomical fire-ighting in 'broadcloth.
Prince Alberts, white vests and patent
leather shoes.
Colonel Ripple wouldn't have cared
| for splash in the back from a gar
den hose because it was clean water.
and Colonel Boies couldn't be expected
to be more than 80 44-1O0 per cent. cool,
calm and collected at a time like this.
But to get splash of mud all the way
up the front to the neck and own but
one pair of trousers that are fit to
wear to church is no fun.
WANTED HIS ADVICE.
Congressman Connell was succeeding
admirably in keeping himself we'll to
the rear and out of harms way until
some one appealed to him to give the
| benefit of his experience gained in the
mines at lighting burning gas and then
| he. too. was in it. The maid who an
,swered his ring when he returned from
fhe fire covered with glory and other
things didn't say it. but free trans
lation of the look she gave the master
of the house would surely have been
nothing short Of "People in that con-
| dition ought to go around to the back,
l think"
The fragments of an imported jar
diniere. that must have cost not much
less than three figures. lying In the
mud near where was an imprint in
| dicating that some portly man had sat
down squat and forcibly, told another
story of valor. sacrifice and so forth.
"Why any man with his senses should
pass by all kinds of buckets and select
Il jardiniere with which to fight fire.
etc, ETC." was what the selfish, un-
neghborly owner OF the broken jar
diniere had to say about It, She forgot
that there was a house af1re and the
hose company not yet in sight
| 1t was positively rude the way the
Phoenix boys and Chief Zizelmann
l(acted, Usually they are very cool hut
| on this occasion. all unminlful NJ
harsh contrasts, they We're eXasperat-
ingly cool. Jim George actually
whistled as he mixed up the "tiz." in