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Show Hi ' " iff f The Atlas Fire The Incompetent De-H De-H If partmentThe Mardi Grew. jH If, ; To the citizens having the best interests of H ; If J Salt Lake City at heart, could there bo anything 1 'If more harrowing, than to watch the Atlas block M 1 1 1 disaster on "Wednesday morning? In the heart of H f , the city a great building, was burning, flames M ) that threatened to consume everything near were M 1 1 roaring skyward, walls were crashing, explosion H ' a I J followed explosion, and helpless firemen, with ?j helpless apparatus, and a helpless chief looked 1 1 'II ; i on, the picture of incompetency. 1 f 1 $ ' It was the same old story in more distressing Hi j j I . shape.the same old repetition of fire disaster that H ?,. R i has made this city famous for its utter lack of B ' 1 1 fire fighting ability, and has made it a shining H jS j i mark for the Insurance man who wants to raise H $3 I the rates B !8; ) It is one more great conflagration fought by H ! l ; j ward politics instead of brains and water, and the B '?m ruins stand as a monumental disgrace to the in- M I i' competency of a man who draws his monthly sti- H ltl't . pend from the city treasury, while butting around ! f j in. cheap politics looking for a better job. f I j That juvenile nightly rag, the Salt Lake Tele- 1 jl i i ; gram had a kid editorial which ended with the H i' j sentence: "The lesson was a costly one, but it B fffif ( I" has been well learned." B J j If it has been well learned, then the fire was H 1 a blessing, but was nothing learned from the H llll Scott-Auerbach fires, was there no lesson in the H 111 i fire of the Progress building? B ' P , There Is a great lesson to be learned, though. B t It is this: Depose this fire chief, revolutionize B 'j 1 ; the systems in the department, if there are such H I wr ' things, smooth the ruts that have deepened every Hi i rII '. year, find out what the men can do, and where , HX b there is incompetency weed it out, but above all, nl 1 1 I place a chief in charge of the men who is inter- Ull 1 1- I ested more in the welfare of the physical condi- fljll ; if f tiou of this city than in its ward primaries, and Uli' 1 I then take more interest in the primaries your- Bll) I selves, so that the root of the evil, the city coun- HII 1 cil, will be a set of men whom you can trust, who H V; I you would be willing to trust your own business B ,!! I v with, and the good Lord knows how far you B m f would trust your own business to the men who B If i pettifog weekly in our council chamber. B m m 1 4 4 B fi' I f l1- There is an old story of a man who was show- B K i V $ ing his gang how to load cotton, and when he Hil-ill ' finished he saw them grouped around a game of BBIf m I craps. That Is Devine. Instead of keeping his Biff if head, and directing his men, he must make a BB t r ij; great show of fighting the fire, and tha BiK fljj k crews without a leader and with no one BE d I with a spark of executive ability, to follow, fight BB 111 i the flames as best they can. This was so Wed- BR lm I nesday, it has always been so, and every bit of BB ' jm work that counted when the danger was greatest, BH tm L was that performed by courageous citizens. BB K 1 1 Mad it not been for Claud (Fish) Raybould, the BBftjplj agent of the D. P. Walker building, and Mr. BUfili j Strevell, of the firm of Scott-Strevell, thirty cents HHEn ! (Hi CkI would have been a big price to pay for the properties prop-erties clear to and including the Walker bank corner. Theirs was a work requiring courage, judgment, a cool head and a cool stream, and all these things they had. tv v 5 The apparatus of the department is of the good old antiquated type, unfit for use In any great emergency, and especially with a defective water system such as this city is netted with. But why wasn't there water enough? What is tho excuse for a condition of things that is such, that after a single hose is carried into the air a few feet it emits a stream that wouldn't be a comfortable shower for a sparrow? There is something awfully awful-ly rotten somewhere, and the investigation, if such a thing follows, should be made by a committee com-mittee of men who have a regard for the welfare of Salt Lake, and the protection of their own property, prop-erty, and not by. a city council incapable of investigating in-vestigating the moral condition of a toy Noah's Ark. $& tv v But the Atlas block itself was a fire trap. With a well from top to bottom, an elevator shaft, and stairs to the top on either side of it, what show was there for saving the structure even If the firemen had known their business. It went the same way before, and there are a score of other buildings which would go up in a puff if a lighted match fell in the right place. The management of every business block of any proportion in the city where men have their offices and where people sleep, should be compelled com-pelled to have a watchman, and be thoroughly lighted all night long. But there are plenty of blocks where no one watches, and where the lights are turned out when the offices are closed. The D. P. Walker building is darker than night in the upper stories, and if you want to get in or out of the Commercial Club building, after midnight, mid-night, you must grope your way. And then men protest when the insurance rates are raised. They ought to be raised again, for it has been demonstrated demon-strated to the dissatisfaction of all that Salt Lake City has no fire protection. && 0 &i And now another side of this fire business. Two gangs of the numerous sneak thieves who ransacked offices were led by vag prize fighters who came into town last winter. Drive the canaille out of town. With their alleged profession profes-sion put out of practice, they must live, and the most of them are doing it, in an illegitimate way. No self-respecting man would give them anything to do. They wouldn't work if they had the chance, and if they can pick up a piece of uneasy money now and then by a petty larceny turn, they're going go-ing to do it That is another lesson of the fire. 4p fcV 5 Another fact brought to light by the conflagration, conflagra-tion, is this, that when this city nerves it- self to it, a successful Mardi Gras can be given. No fears need ever be entertained on that score. Never in the most scarlet night of a political campaign or a carnival, has there been & street scene of such startling dishabille as that shortly after the alarm was sent In, and the crowds began gathering around the doomed building. Edwin Arnold once said that to describe the fetes at Moscow, one would have to write in colors. col-ors. But even they would be Inadequate to give a correct impression of the kelidescopic scene at the fire. As the flames moved skyward, and one startling start-ling crash after another came from the building, the lights began poping up along the line where the tonsil varnish is kept. Then the Main Street saloons followed, and the gathering crowd filled the resorts to overflowing. Engines were clanging, men were yelling, hacks were dashing to and from the residence districts, and women In ball room slippers and raglans, and half-exposed nighties, and white skirts and sealskins, jostled in the dense crowd. "Got! Got! yelled one man, "I'm afraid my place won't burn," and then the Slaves of the Silver Serpent drank to Destruction. "Come in boys, it's going anyway," said another, and In again they went and drank to drink, ld staid business men with tears in their eyes for prop, erty saved or property lost, were standing in paralytic joy, crooking elbows automatically, and yelling, "Here's to me." It was a sight of a lifetime, an excuse of a decade, and If there wasn't enough water for the fire outside, there was enough fire water Inside In-side to make the reputation of Bacchus as a drinking man disappear faster than a snowball in the Atlas block. T. G. |