The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-02-11
cEfNEsE FIGHTING FIRE.
During Combat with the
Flames in n Celestial city.

CFrom :he North China HeraldA
The third watch of the night had just
| been announced from headquarters 10y the
| firing OF three large squibs and the watch
men, who are not so sleepy in these times
as they used TO be- had started once more
on their rounds with the cry: Take care
/ Of fires and candles, Use no foreign oill'
/ when. hard by the city wall-a sudden roar
and a glare: the pale moonlight warmed
( into orange everywhere. and a great pillar
Of smoke expanding over a hundred houses.
| Shouts Of Fire" Screams of waking
+, mothers: Selling and rousing of sleeping
| children. Every one slipping into their
clothes Every one at the door with Hal
ya," or Hal yo." or Hal ye.' according
| to the distance from the volume Of flame
| the first sound uttered in a tone of philo-
sophical surprise; the second as q long
| drawn sigh of sympathetic wonder; the
, third staceato OF agonized alarm.
Close at hand, and soon to be upon usi'
is the next cry-variously wOrded. from
the latter speakers, interlarded with swear
words by most or the men. and with
"O-mi-t'u-fo," or Ancestors protect!' or
''pu'sah protect" in the c7se OF the wo-
men. Then a general gathering up Of be-
iongings. children Knocked over. sworn at.
picked up, dragged to the street; then
boxes. bundles, everything portable dragged
there. too.
Triple gong beats sounding in all direc-
tons. from the various dspots of the little
water dragons" 4 babel of voices every
where. Fire more distant than was tmsg-
ined, or "Hai ye, as near as can be.
Lantern bearers rushing along the streets,
asking Or answering hurried questions as
to the precise spot Bearers OF burdens
hurryirg about. colliding. a spill here. a
broken rope there, lantern bearer upset.
a child trampled on yonder. Boxes miss
ing from doorways. Thieves by the score
on the alert-snall fortunes to be made
tonight,
Clear the way, Here comes the wa
ter dragon" with it's uneouth band OF fire
men in grey. Clear the way, 4 manda-
rim in bis chair. Crowds jammed against
shop shutters into houses anywhere.
Room for the water carriers, Soldiers with
halberds enforce that cry. as the scene of
the fire is neared.
The river is too far of The long closed
perfect peace tank is officially opened
A torch is lit within. 1t is barely half full.
No other water at hand, Who has we'll?
The foreigner. perhaps. And so a rush is
made to his gate. His men have already
been carrying buckets to the front in case
the fire leaps over the few houses between
or the sparks fall there A touch of ma
ture such as this common danger. and
there is no foreigner. Water is carried
out; babies. bundles boxes, are carried
in The man with a compound is every
body's brother now.
Happy though. Carry the engines on
to the City Hall, They cannot get near
otherwise. Aud SO they are carried up
from the inside gate. The men behind are
drenched. but payer mind. Only swear
little that so much water has been split
The wall is a mass of lanterns. And now
the little jets spirit forth. To what pur-
pose. upon flames fifty feet high? Only
brick walls can stop the flames in this |
crowded mass OF wooden structures, |
dried by drought.
The wind is fairly high but the house |
has side walls OF thin tile. and there is a
a brick wall to the west. And engines |
have forced their way below as well as |
above the fire. 4 bit nearer. and the hose |
will play into the house itself. But, hor- |
rorsi The water cracks the tile walt 1t |
comes down with crash. and four men |
under it-bruised, burnt and one of them |
never to recover.
The bodies are dragged out. the hose |
turned on TO them They are carried |
away; three regain consciousness. And |
through the gap the engines now have an
opportunity.
Half an hour passes and the flames be-
Whose house," is the question next |
day. and the answer is. "An empty house,
where no one has lived for months" And
the whole turns out TO be piece of
thieves business. one unknown setting |
the empty house ON fire while the watch |
man had turned the corner and scores of |
others ready with their carrying poles to |
turn away with anything they could lay
their hands on All this in n quiet place.
and only one house burned.
Accounts have been published of the Sc
ries of fires in Hankow. beginning with
that of the night of the LIST of October
with its destruction of 10000 houses and
he loss OF hundreds of lives. At least we
all them accounts. They are graphic and
detailed. We say. But 1 question whether
human mind can grasp more than an iota
II the unwritten account read as even the
heather" Chinese would say, by all-see-
ng heaven.