The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-06-02
'R1rrEN FOR THE SUNDAY REPUBLIC.

WRITTEN FOR HI SUNDAY REPUBLIC
On Wednesday. June 6. there is to be .
sale Of wall paper in 81. LOWS.
Sales Of wall paper or Of anything else.
even on such q large scale rs this is TO be.
are common enough In st Louis. but the cir
cumstances attending ti.is weeks engage
ment are notable In that Morton Wollman
is to have charge.
Wollman Is the man who runs TO fires. II
was because he ran from Kansas City 20 a
81. Louis fire that he Is to sell the wall
paper next week. He is one Of three men
in the United States who always run 10
hres. The gamin on the corner may run
half . mile following the trail of a steam
er. or the clatter Of a hook and ladder. and
IL at night and the glow Is bright, older
people than gamins may run as far.
But Morton Wollman thinks nothing of
. mile. nor ten miles. nor a hundred miles.
nor . thousand miles: he runs TO every sort
Of . IRE between St. Louis and Denver. and
between the north line Of Iowa and the
Gulf Of Mexico.
He Eas to. He In what insurance COM
panies style the salvage man. He IL the
man the underwriters turn ruins over to
and trust to his ingenuity to realize some
thing out Of the loss.
1t In pretty much Of a Job TO run to fires.
NSAht W ~ "a oI -
Galveston pulled me down a bit" ne ex-
planned q day or two ago. but I think 1t
was the heat. That was an awful job"
But they had no fire there. had they.
Mr.. Wollman?' was suggested.
"Saivase. my dear sir. Is what the under
TOT 70 them whether IL comes out Of a frr
or . Hood Salvage Is the cry. II il a race
between me and the man with the dump
wagon and the difference between a bill
for carriage and goodness knows how much
money"
6ix or twelve months ago there was a
Tremendous FIRE In st. Louis. S~eventy-five
thousand dollars was bid for the w~reckage.
but the salvage man of the underwriters
was on hand. and he was ordered to put
his crews to work. The books showed that
he paid over to the St. Louisans S435.00.
And while he was doing that he ran TO two
fires in Des Moines. one In Wichita. Kas..
. seedhouse fire in Denver. and a printing
house fire In Dallas.
II have six men on the run" said Mr..
Wollman. "and sometimes have all of them
out. They are o n hand by the time the en-
bers begin steaming. We get into the
burn-up season and then the trains do not
70 faSt enough. We handle everything.
from q needle to an anchor. and from a
baby's shoe to a jack boot I turned down
. cargo of cohins In St. Paul a month ago
OSC00oC = Az tHt odiNcctOi
flood frightened me. In the salvage there
! picked up 30 pounds of snuff slowed
in . CONN., I suppose II had been
smuggled ashore. Since then I have looked
askance At cofins."
What do you handle. them" was asked.
with the emphasis on the second word
Anything fire tackles. We have to-" was
the reply. Il have sent a man this morn
ing to q sewiLg-machine fire and another to
watch the burning Of a hide house. / have
my doubts about the hide house. Still. II
may not be as bad as pianos. They are
the very deuce. We hate pianos. They get
US in bad repute with The underwriters.
Dry goods are what We crave for"
1t II marvellous what the salvage men
do with salvage from a dry goods fire. In
one Of the Wollman warehouses are from
twenty to 20 hands constantly employed.
Their us:ne IL to remove all traces OF
fire. or IS much a possible. but most
Of all the smell Of smoke" said Mr.. Wolf
nan THE bargain hunter IL willing to
take . bolt Of silk that has the edge singed
or waterSoaked. but she will not stand for
It II It smells like . fire. So We nav to