Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1919-01-25

used for campaign purposes by the
Republicans, the Rev. Doctor and
his associates can not consistently
refuse to make that tour now under
the Reform" administration to see
II there is any Improvement.
Now as to the other prediction.
1t was said In these columns that
the disorganized ~ fire department
had run into an awful streak of
luck and when real fire came
along the thick" fire department
would be shown up. Well, 1t was
alright. The Illinois Glass COM
pany fire Saturday and the grain
elevator fire Monday convinced
everyone that the Board or Fire
Underwriters did Louisville no in
justice when they classed our fire
department as a third rater, and
some seem to think they let us OF
light at that. How the under
writers must chuckle when they
think of these disastrous and badly
handled fires following near Mayor
Smiths squawk about the raising of
fire rates being an injustice. At
the Glass Company it develops that
the firemen were unable to locate
Alic ulcs anu We dIc dbhcu W pdIQOI
their mistake in getting ready to
leave the scene and not find little
thing like a $4,000 fire. "Yank"
Coons, a phone lineman and one of
the few men present who knew
anything about fires, was arrested
by keystone policeman for butting
In with his knowledge and fined S.
In the Police Court. Some say he
wanted to show the chick" firemen
where the $4,000 fire was. That's
what he gets for being so smart.
incidentally one of the coal wagon
drivers never did find the fire, and
after getting to Sixteenth and
Rowan (fire at Second and River)
became tired of his fruitless search,
unhitched the horse and rode back
home. The coal wagon was still
standing Sunday morning, but that
didn't worry the new fireman as he
didn't have to come back after it.
The public hardly got over dis
cussing the failure of the fire de-
partment when the grain elevator
fire at Eleventh and Maple came
along two days later. The near
Mayor attended this fire in person,
probably to see what was the trou-
BILE with his reform" firemen.
Well, he saw alright. Just as in
the other big fire the ground was
saved after a struggle, but the fire
even was allowed to cross Maple
street and burn thousands of dol
lars worth OF property on the
other side. One of the engines at
Eleventh and Broadway was idle.
the engineer tinkering and twisting
nuts and washers to get it working
while the fire burned merrily on.
Another of the reform" firemen on
one of the trucks was dressed in
black clothes and patent leather
shoes, the Only mark of a fireman
being a cap, and to top 1t off wore
wrist watch Oh. horrorsl After
the fire the near Mayor said he was
satisfled, but said nothing about
whether the property owners were
or not. He also raised his ante of
81, 100000 last week for new fire
apparatus to $2.000,000 of the tax
payers money, but gave no promise
of getting some firemen.
To keep the public from getting
even a smattering of the growing
list of burglaries the four newspa-
pers have been barred from the
daily police records and the Sixth
District Police Station attempted to
keep secret the negro assault on
white woman on Monday, the third
In two weeks. The poor old Key
stoners wander y about aimlessly
while the burglars are using moving
vans to raid houses. They say one
of the Keystoners obligingly helped
the burglars to load heavy trunk
on a van from one of our big resi-
dences that was looted last week.
One of the traffic Keystoners de-
serted his post last week to chase
a little "flivver" driver who got by
him, and mounted a street car to
run down his prey. After yelling
Col darn you, stop" several times
he gave up and ended the fun OF
the passengers, who were laughing
fit to kill. A lady passenger on
the car summed it up when she
said: Nov know why they call
them boobs Keystoners." Another
street car scene: A navy ensign
boarded a street car and dropped in
his fare. He was startled when a
Keystone policeman and the con-
ductor, a future policeman, both
burst into laughter and slapped
him on the pack several times. In
curing their merriment, they said;
Brother, you mustn't be in the
department very long, as you don't
have. to pay fare" They thought
he Nas a fireman.