Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1907-12-04
EIGHT THOUSAND
FIRES ANNUALLY
IN NEW YORK
AMAZING FIGURES
OF PROPERTY LOSSES
Estimated That Half the New
Buildings Erected Every Year
Go TO Replace Others Burned
Down.
Especial Correspondent. Morni.r Journal,


New York. Nov. 25.-With the
United States leading all other nations
in fire losses every year.. New York,
as the largest city in the country, nat
urally takes first place in this respect
in the metropolitan list throughout
the world. Every day there are twen-
ty-four fires here, taking the aver
age, or a total of 500 each year.
Throughout the whole country, in
deed, nearly one-half the buildings
erected in the course of a year go to
replace others that have been DESTROY
ed by flames, according to statistics
which form the basis of a study of
the national loss by fire which is to
appear in the next number Of Apple
tons Magazine. The compiler of
these statistics asserts that while no
other nation builds so much as the
United states, no other burns even a
small fraction of the same amount of
valuable property. The figures show
that in the country at large $4,000
000, 600 worth of property has been
destroyed by fire in the past twenty
five years. while 1000, 900 buildings
a been wiped III Of existence in
ten years. The cost of fire-fighting is
given as $500. 100000 a year, and
1896, coo. 600 is paid over to the insur-
ance companies for protection. Con-
f~lagrationS consume on the average
every week six theaters and public
halls, twelve churches. ten schools,
eight public institutions, nine Depart
ment stores and apartment houses.
tw~enty-siX hotels. l40 flats ana 1000
individual homes. Thirty-six thou
SAND lives are reported to be endan-
gered every day by fire, while seven
thousand lives are sacrificed annual
~ to the same cause. Ii is said that
73 per cent of all the damage done by
fire to buildings, aside from those in
which II originates, is due to improp-
erly constructed windows.
MIX at $40 per gallon; pork at
$ltS per pound. chickens at S35 a
pair and cows at from $500 to $4,000
each; these are not panic prices in
New York, but h cost figures of the
city's most expensive farm which is
now to be discontinued. Surprising
as these figures may be, they are
those of the cost of various articles
produced by Mr.. Willetts. the wner
of this, the most costly farm in the
world, which was run on scientific
and clearly principles-so scientific
and ~cleanly, indeed, that a meal con-
sisting of a single slice of bacon and
a glass of milk from this farm would
cost more than the average family
spends on food in several days. The
cowsheds were all constructed of on
crete, with no corners, n every
morning after the lows were turned
out the whole structure was scrubbed
and scalded. At milking times a
corps of milkmen, clad in sterilized
white duck suits. appeared with ster-
Ilized milk stools and sterilizel milk
pals to extract pure milk from cows
after sterilizing them by bathing, an
extremely expensive proceeding, re-
sulting in milk costing $40 q gallon to
get and selling at sixty cent in an
exclusive market. The same process
applied to the care Of pigs resulted in
q cost price of pork of $11S per
pound, which is certainly a figure to
make the beef trust envious. With
chickens, the same tender care re-
suited in a cost value of $3.50 for
each, on which basis "a single drum
stick would be worth about SIS. To
these prices, ordinary business meth
DDS would add a percentage for profit,
and the resultant figures are so stag
gering that il Is no wonder hat scien-
tific methods. carried to the extreme.
have received a black eye in the dis
continuance OF the costliest farm in
the world.
While New York feels that the
s965,000 for harbor Improvements
which it is reported congress will be
asked to appropriate for carrying on
n years work Is entirely inadequate,
there is nevertheless some satisfaction
expressed that anything at all may be
done. The metropolis comes pretty
neal TO holding the long-distance rec
ord for DELAYS in necessary harbOr i'm
provements as instanced in the case of
the Harlem river, the busy little
stream connecting the East river with
the Hudson, whose m last
year amounted to nearly 100000, 600.
Twenty-nine years ago. that Is in 1873.
the improvement Of the Harlem on a
plan estimated 10 cost So, 10O,0 0O, was
undertaken. Up to date the work is
only about half completed, so that
with changed conditions a quarter of
a century has accomplished very little.
But more ambitious plans are under
way and as a result OF the city's awak-
ening to the needs Of her water front,
Gustav II. Schwartz Is to attend the
convention of the national rivers and
harbors congress In Washington the
first week Of December 10 voice the
feeling OF the metropolis in advocat-
ing the adoption bv congress of a sys-
tematic national plan Of river and
harbor improvements. for which the
waterway advocates are working
Reviving old memories of the real
Leopard hunt in New York more than
a quarter of a century ago, and the
press agents scare by which II was
reported at an equally remote period
to the terror Of the whole city mat
several circus lions confined In a sta
BILE had broken loose and were de-
vouring horses inc men. was the APP
pearance on the east side Of h city
this week Of a real eagle. The bird
was the kind described in school
books a. noble" with q measure
ment Of twelve feet from tip to tip.
capable Of carrying off n devour-
ing = good sized child Attention
was first drawn 10 the eagle by his
unsatisfactory attempt TO grab and
devour a wooden advertising sign in
the shape Of a woolly lamb. Immedi-
ately after this attempt mothers on
the crowded east side became particu-
larry busy in gathering up their chill
dren. Indeed, what almost amounted
10 a panic ensued. all because Of the
chiid-devOuring feathered monster.
Meanwhile the eagle. the first the city
has seen. except in captivity. for
nearly thirty q lighted on the
fagpole o-rnamentinE the roof Of a
building. Two policemen u-gea on by