The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-04-13

things that cost the least and are the
most necessary to our existence and are
the most dangerous when unrestrained
Last Sabbath evening my wife and
walked down to Jessie's house to COM
fort her in her sick bed, and play with
the little girls and help nurse the little
baby boy. Suddenly the fire bell gave
an alarm and my wife walked out on the
veranda to find out where the fire was
In moment she came hurrying back and
almost screamed: Its our house-its
our house; run quick. oh! mercy"
threw the baby down on the foor-no,
l didn't either-and departed those coats
with alacrity. Firemen and people were
hurrying that way / struck a fox trot
for awhile, but soon relaxed into fast
walk, and then a slow pull up the hill,
for l felt my paplpitation coming on.
Before l reached the mansion / met some
of the guard returning, who said the hre
was out. So l sat down on the front steps
to blow for minute. When l went
through the hall to the kitchen where
the commotion was, / found our daugh-
tiers and some good friends still drench-
ing the smoking walls and pouring wa
ter down the flue up in the garnet. The
accumulated SCOT of twenty years had
caught on fire and somehow got to the
lathing 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 arrived he
very quietly pointed to the kitchen and
said: Oars fire in dar." Then they
heard the cracking flames and saw
smoke pouring through a broken pane.
On opening the door they were astounded,
for the whole room seemed ablaze. One
ran to the front door and screamed
Fire, fire, fire. and the other went to
the telephone and then they flew to the
water faucet and good neighbors gather
ed in and filled the buckets and went to
work. They were just in time, for de-
lay of ten minutes would have caused
the loss of the house and all of our time
honored furniture and pictures and books
and my wifes fine clothes and golden
wedding presents. When l left Jessie S
house my wife hailed me on the run and
said save something, but l am not GER
tain whether it was her fine dresses in
the wardrobe or her silverware in the
dark closet or her Bible. 1 reckon it
vas the Bible that she has read a chap
ter lin every night for all these long
years. 1 had a good old aunt in Rome
and when her house caught on fire away
in the night and the fremen came run
ming she ran out in her night clothes and
begged them to save her Christian Index.
She had a stock of them and treasured
them more than anything else.
Our good old professor, Charles F. Nc
Coy, of Franklin College, used to lee
ture to us students, and his favorite sub
ject was THE Regularity of Irregular
Things and he satisfied me that the
longer my house escaped a fire the more
/ was liable to have one. The chances
against me increased as the years rolled
on, and so have been expecting a fire
The insurance companies understand this
and base all their calculations and rates
upon it. They will tell you what is the
average life of a dwelling, a store, a gin,
a planning mill or a church. The pro-
fessor illustrated with a dice box and
said if you cast the dice a 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 a thou
sand times, each number from one to six
would show up about an equal number of
times. That is according to the calcu-
lation of chances and proves the regu-
larity of irregular things. So it is with
the rainfall which, however uncertain
in its coming, amounts to about the same
every year. Since 1888 the losses by fire
in the United States have averaged
sos, 000, 900 a year, the lowest being ST.
O0O, 600, and the highest $110,00O,000, and
yet in 1871 the loss in Chicago alone was
$500, 000.0
But where did fire come from and who
gave it and when? There is no mention
of fire in the Mosaic account of the ere
alton nor for two thousand years after
it, Until after the food there was not
much need of fire, for the people were
not permitted to eat meat. Their food
was the fruits of the earth. But
reckon they did have fire and blacksmith
shops and made hammers and hoes and
nails, etc. Noah could not have built
the ark without tools and nails. The
presumption is that the Creator supplied
Adam with tools to dress the garden and
Abel with knives to sacrifice the first
lings of his flock, but there are Indian
tribes in our day and negroes in Africa
and Esquimaux in the Arctic regions who
have no knowledge of iron or it's uses.
A thousand years before Christ Homer
wrote that Jupiter only possessed the
element that we call fire and when man
was created he refused to give him
fire. But Prometheus stole some from
heaven and gave it to man and it made
Jupiter so mad that he chained him to
a rock and sent eagles to eat his liver
out and as they eat it by day the liver
grew again by night, but finally he was
unclaimed and the eagles driven away
1t seems that Prometheus was a friend
to mankind and by the command of Jupi-
ter actually created man out of the mud
that was left after the flood-not Noah's
flood. but the flood of Deucalion, away
back in the ages. He was god nearly
as powerful as Jupiter and was always
in quarrel with him. He taught man
kind architecture, astronomy, figures,
medicine navigation and all the arts
that adorn life. At Athens and other
ancient cities, temples were built to his
honor. They believed that the very fire
that he brought down from heaven was
still preserved and was always burning
on an altar in the temple of Vesta. 1t
is called the sacred fire-the Vestal fire
the fire of the hearthstOne and must
not be allowed to go out. If it does go
ont frop, aonidpnt oven fhe family who