Arizona republican., 1908-02-12

than should properly happen in several
 years. Expert report characterizes the
 whole system as being so thoroughly bad as to be beyond repair or any further patching. Naturally under these conditions which the public ap- | preciateS as little as it does the dan ger of fire bigger than any in history. fire insurance companies are decreas- ing their liabilities. One high official is quoted as describing the condition as one in which not only might all low CT New York be wiped out by flames
 but as a result all the insurance com panies suffer financial ruin. Of course New York likes to do things in a big way, but in this case especially after
 the recent loss of several lives in fires
 because of defective and rotten ap-
 paratus it appears as if Father Knick-
 erbOcker was not anxious for a record
 of this sort. Meantime the investiga-
 tion to place the responsibility for this
 rotten hose goes merrily on with all
 sorts of charges, of graft" Eventu-
 ally however the city will have an
 adequate fire alarm system-that is if
 it doesn't burn up first.
 
 New York's police dogs, copied from
 those in use in many European cities,
 are really a fact at last. and it is be-
 lieved that this is the first case in this
 country in which canines have been
 regularly enrolled as members of a
 force and assigned to beats The dogs
 five in number at present, are not bloodhounds, nor are they particularly
 large. Neither are they scent dogs.
 In fact they are just dogs, standing about IS inches high and weighing about 50 pounds. In coat and color they somewhat resemble a large wire haired Scotch terrier. The dogs were imported from Belgium and cost just ten dollars each instead Of the fabulous sums which have been mentioned. No guardian of the peace ever cost the city so little, and when it became known that the entire bill of the in- spector who went abroad to select them amounted to only $346 including a months stay abroad and all travelling expenses, Comptroller Metz who had to pass upon the bill nearly fell out of his chair. Why there are plenty of men in the employ of the city who couldn't take a trip to Sandy Hook on that sum-" MT. Metz is reported to have exclaimed when he recovered. But | cheap though as they were the dogs i are here. and after considerable train l ing are now on duty. They are always | muzzled and accompany a policeman on a leash. It is not their duty to bite l a burglar but simply at the word of command to pursue and knock him i down either by tripping him or by landing all their fifty pounds with a flying leap in the pit of his stomach ! in a knockout and goat like bunt. That ] they are easily capable of this feat has ! already been thoroughly demonstrated ! and light footed thieves who in the 1, past have laughed at the efforts of | numbering cops to overtake them will ] now find that they have a very differ | ent soru of a foe to contend with in i the canine cop" If this experiment l. proves as successful as is expected the 1 number of police dogs will be largely | increased in spite of the remarks of . Big Bill Devery, former police com- 4 missioner, to the effect that the force ] has gone to the dogs"