rome town helps WISE BUILDING LAW As a result the metropolis of bohemia shows a remarkable fire record in a report on the fire department of prague joseph 1 I consul says that there has not been a life lout lost in consequence of a fire I 1 in A the last 15 years in that bohemian city of over halt half million population and that tho the loss of property from fires in the last three years has been less than annually tile tho buildings are rarely over five stories high anti and the height cannot ex aeed twice the width of tho the street on which a building fronts nearly every building Is constructed of largo large bricks laid lit in cement th the bricks be ing manufactured just out outside s ide the city limits the outside walls are covered with a coating of cement and the ornamentation 12 na Is frequently made of the same material although many of the houses are ornamented with cut stone atone the joists foists and the space between them are usually covered with terra cotta and concrete with no exposed woodwork except the window and door frames the hallways hall waya are nearly all made of concrete and the stairs of granite built self supporting with practically no exposed woodwork the attics usually have exposed wooden floors and rafters but no one Is per emitted to sleep in an attic the kitchen floors floora are also built of concrete with tiled wainscoting no exposed woodwork Is permitted in chimneys or close to furnaces all the old houses and hotels are heated by tile stoves but many of the new ones including the hotels have central heating plants installed like those in american buildings while the ordinary laborer receives small wages yet there Is probably not another city in europe where there are so few poorly constructed houses as in prague