St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-06-07
FIRE AT ARP'S HOUSE
The Alarm Made Bill Get a Move
on Him.
Chimney SCOT Caught Ffre-Water
Poured On Soon Put Out Blaze in
kitchen-Arp Gives Some
Fire STATUTES.

copyrighted by the Atlanta Constitution,
and reprinted by permission.]
Fire and water and air. The three
things that cost the least and are the
most necessary to our existence are
the most dangerous when unre-
strained. Last Sabbath evening my
wife and I walked down to Jessie's
house to comfort her in her sick bed,
and play with the little girls and help
nurse the little baby boy. Suddenly
the tire bell gave an alarm and my
wife walked out on the veranda to
find out where the fire was. In mo-
ment she came hurrying back and
almost screamed: Its our house
it's our house; run quick. Oh, mercy"
1 threw the baby down ON the floor
NO, 1 didn't either-and departed those
coasts with alacrity. Firemen and peo-
pie were hurrying that way. I
struck fox trot for awhile, but soon
relaxed into fast walk, and then a
slow pull up the hill, for I felt my
palpitation coming on. Before !
reached the mansion I met some of
the advance guard returning, who said
the fire was out. So l sat down on
the front steps to blow for min
ute. When 1 went through the hall
to the kitchen where the connection
was, found our daughters and some
good friends still drenching the
smoking walls and pouring water down
the fiue up in the garnet. The accu-
mulated SCOT of 20 years had caught
on fire, and somehow got to the lath-
ing and then to the ceiling and dropped
down to the floor. Nobody was at
home. The cook was in her cabin
asleep. Her little boy was sitting on
the back steps, and when our girls ar
rived, he very quietly pointed to the
kitchen and said: 'Dar's a fire in
dar." Then they heard the cracking
flames and saw smoke pouring through
a broken pane. On opening the door
they were astonished, for the whole
room seemed ablaze. One ran to the
front door and screamed: Fire, fire,
fire." and the other went to the tele-
phone, and then they few to the water
faucet and good neighbors gathered
in and filled the buckets and went to
work. They were just in time, for
delay of ten minutes would have caused
the loss of the house and all of our
time-honored furniture and pictures
and books and my wife's fine clothes
and golden wedding presents. When
left Jessie's house my wife hailed me
on the run and said "Save something"
but 1 am not certain whether it was
her fine dresses in the wardrobe or her
silverware in thedark closet or her BIZ
BILE. 1 reckon it was the Bible that she
has read chapter in every night for all
these long years. had good old
Baptist aunt in Rome and when her
house caught ON fire away in the night
and the firemen came running she ran
out in her night clothes and begged
them to save her Christian Index.
She had a stock Of them and treas
ured them more than anything else.
One good old professor, Charles f.
Mccoy, of Franklin college, used to
lecture to us students, and his favorite
subject was ''The Regularity of Irreg-
ular Things" and he satisfied me that
the longer my house escaped a fire the
more 1 was liable to have one. The
chances against me increased as the
years rolled on, and I have been ex-
pecting fire. The insurance COM
panies understand this and base all
their calculations and rates upon it.
They will tell you what is the averagle
life of dwelling, store, tin or
planning mill or church. The profess
sor illustrated with dice box and
said if you cast the dice dozen times
the six spot might come up three or
four times in succession and the ace
several times, but if you cast the dice
q thousand times, each number from
one to six would show up about an
equal number of times. That is &C
cording to the calculation of chances
and proves the regularity of irregu-
lar things. So it is with the rainfall,
which, however uncertain in its COM
ing, amounts to about the same every
year. Since 1888 the losses by fire
in the United States have averaged
s1O5, 100000 a year, the lowest being