Waterbury Democrat., 1902-02-08
AS YOU LIKE IT
Some Stray Leaves from Reporters
 Note Book


 have made a snug little sum of money which appears to them as fortune. We'll do they deserve all that they earned. The majority of the boys are hustlers and are faithful. One little Italian boy who lives in the Brookiyn district and is known as "DeWey made S9.S2 clear profit on Monday and Tuesday. On speaking of his profits the boy proudly said, T made more in two days than my father makes ln a week"
 The As You Like It man overheard a conversation between an insurance agent and business man about three days before the fire. The business man thought insurance was a useless thing anyway, and especially as 1t costs so much. ssI think I will reduce mine several thousand Can't afford to carry so much.'' Monday morning that man had changed his mind and at the first opportunity he is going to add on a few thousand instead or cutting it down.
 It will take some time for the Dem ocrat containing an account of the fire
  it is addressed. Tuesday noon four copies were bought by a man who wanted to send them to Queensland and Melbourne. a distance of some thing like 12,000 miles. so that it will be at least a month before they are delivered. Copies of the paper have been sent all oyer the globe, but the number that went to other places was small compared with that mailed to Ireland, England, Scotland and Can ada.
 The anxiety of people who formerly lived in Waterbury, or those who have friends here, when they learned of the fire, can better be imagined than de scribed. Telegrams came from all parts of the Union asking if their friends had lost all. or if they were in danger. The As You Like It Man heard of one case where some persons, not a hundred miles from Waterbury, rushed to the first train Monday morning and attempted to board it, and come to Waterbury and see for themselves just what the damage was and whether it was as bad as they had heard. When they arrived at the station the train was loaded to the bot tom steps and they had to return home and spend another anxious day. La- ter the papers began to come in telling about Waterbury people flying to the hills and again the wires were kept hot and the anxiety increased. It was a trying day for Waterbury people at home and their friends in many towns.
 Viewed from the high hills the fire of last Sunday night looked as if hell had opened it's gates and turned loose its imprisoned beings, all of whom joined in a mad dance and yied with each other to see which could do the greatest amount of destruction ill the shortest time possible. The flames as- sumed all kinds of shapes and at times one would think that myriads of demons yielding flaming brands were tossing about on the wings of the wind, striking at every building within reach and setting everything they touched ablaze. The firemen and others who hopped about on the roofs of buildings looked as if engaged in a hopeless struggle to save the city from utter de- struction. What wonder that people regarded it as a visitation from Provi-
 
 that Waterbury was doomed to suffer the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. The shower of burning pieces that darted in all directions made grand sight, even though it did almost scare the wits out of some people.
 Charles H. Jersey. agent for the fire engine trust, was in town Tuesday evening to appear before the board of safety. and while awaiting the somnolent action of that body told a story or two. It is we'll known that the members of the Larchmont, N. J., fire company are all millionaires. Tn the winter time their property is pro- tected by their captain, who is said to be the one workingman in the whole company. It bothered this captain to give proper protection to his care in the winter season. He knew he could not do it with an old time hand en- zine. So he consulted with Mir Jersey, who advised him to call an inspection of the company. The captain won dered how that would effect a cure, but the fire steamer agent told him to go ahead and he would see The in- spection was called and the hosemen 0CAL up lue duu uOWu tUe ldu- ders all right. The gold-mounted speaking trumpets blew like the wind in storm and everything worked all right until the millionaires at the hand engine gave out. They were not accustomed to such laborious work Dancing and dining constituted their manual labor and before the inspection was over fine steamer fit for million aires was voted to be purchased and the money planked down. This pleased the captain.
 Mir Jersey told another and very in teresting story. It was about Ameri- can fire engines in Europe. There are none. They can't be sold Mr Jersey represented his company at the Paris exposition. The Austrian direc- tor of the exposition was surprised to see such a machine as the Yankee fire engine. He laughed at it; said it was 3, toy and fit for looking at only. Such a nice looking thing, all silver, nickel and brass, could never put out a fire; was, in fact, never built for such work. He laughed at MT Jersey when the lat ter offered to sell it to him. To make a long and very interesting story ac- commodate cramped space, the day of