New-York tribune., 1900-01-14
THE LESSON OF A TRAGEDY

The burning of Mr.. Joseph PulitZer's house in
this city last week was an incident worthy Of
passing notice and good deal more. 1t should
have aroused and we are sure it has aroused,
widespread and sincere sympathy with the man
and his family thus sorely stricken. There is
no loss of material and inanimate possessions
more grievous than that which is involved in
the destruction of ones home, whether humble
or opulent, with its cOnten,s, all with their indi
vidual and often tender associations, and many
quite irreplaceable. Not only every one who has
had a like experience of loss, but every one who
prizes his own domestic environment and would
guard it against such a catastrophe, must have
a fellow feeling for Mr.. Pulitzer in the disaster
which has befallen him. Above ALL sentiments
of profoundest pity must be aroused at the
knowledge that to disaster tragedy was added,
and that not only valued household treasures,
but incOmparably more precious human lives
were included in the loss.
The incident calls, however, for something
more than regret and sympathy 1t makes a
practical-and it should prove an effective-ap-
peal to prudence and to judgment. It's moral is
unmiStakable, and should through this cOnspic
uouS illustration be made convinclngly obvious
to those who hitherto may have disregarded it.
That is that it is a mistake to put up fire traps
for human dwelling places We use the term,
harsh as it seems, advisedly. For when a man
erects a house with wooden beams and flooring,
with partitions of wooden studs and laths with
wooden stairways, and with all that wood
dry as tinder, and fills it with combustible fur
niture and hangings and when, finally he car
ries into all parts of it a network of electric
wires, which may get crossed or be i'll insulated,
and maze of gas pipes, which may leak, and
elaborate heating apparatus, which may get
Overheated or have defective flues-Why, what
does he build but fire trap and death trap?
A man does not put up a modern business
building in such fashion. He gives to it floors
of steel beams and masonry arches, partitions of
solid masonry, staircases of stone or iron, and
roof of metal and slate or tile or masonry. The
result of such construction is well known. 1t
has been convincingly demonstrated again and
again in the Tribune Building. Many of the
rooms in this building are filled with highly
combustible articles such as furniture books,
papers, draperies and the like. Yet the safety
of the structure is not in the least imperilled by
them. We have had fires of exceptional inten-
sity in individual rooms which did not and could
not extend beyond those rooms. One in the
basement, amid oil and paper and cotton waste,
left the ground floor unconscious of its occur
renee One on the ninth floor, amid books and
papers, was so fierce that 1t melted metal work
and calcined stone, yet it simply burned itself
out in the room in which it occurred and left
men undisturbed at their desks in the adjoining
rooms ON the same floor. Those are facts of
record, and every intelligent observer knows
that a repetition Of them may be made possible
in any properly constructed building.
We shall learn one of these days to prize
homes and to safeguard them against fire just
as much as workshops. There are the
strongest reasons for doing so, and the doing so
is indisputably possible and practicable. To
many the slight increase of cost would be mat
ter of Indifference. To others it might be COW
cred by reducing the cost in other directions
for who would not prefer plain house that was
absolutely safe to an ornate one that was fire
trap? An enlightened self-interest should die
tate such construction wherever it is possible
But beyond that 1t may well be considered
whether municipal ordinances should not pre-
scribe a new kind Of fire limit At present the
erection of frame buildings externally frame
is prohibited within certain bounds. 1t would
be proper and we believe, desirable similarly to
prohibit the erection of houses of internal
wooden framework, and to require all buildings
to have not only outside walls but inside ToOrS
partitions, stairs and roof of fireproof material
This city will gain some compensation and Mr.
Pulitzer himself will derive some consolation
from the lamentable disaster and tragedy of
last week If the lesson of II shall be needed and
a general reform in building methods shall thus
be promoted