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Show ft FIRE TRAP, . Tho Surveyor of the Insurance Union Een tiers Hia Verdiot on the Old Theater. Manager Burton Seeks to Defend the Fire Fiend, But Staggers in the First Bound, IN THE ANCIENT CAVERN. The Agent of the Western Assurance Company Cancels Hit Risks by Telegraphic Order. ROWE'S GHASTLY LAUGH. A Delegation oT Insurance Men Make a Trip Through the Dungeon of Heath Praise on all Sides lor "The Times." "Burton," exclaimed Captain Ionnell, surveyor sur-veyor of the Pacific Insurance union, as ho cut his way through the rank gases of the basement underlying the old theater at 2:30 this afternoon, "I'll bet there is not a theater thea-ter In tho United States o any respectability that shows the amount of disorder and debris that there, is down here." Manager Ihtrton who, in defiance of Thk TIMES' expose, had invited a delegation from the insurance companies to visit and to explore tho tire trap was stag-gared. stag-gared. Captain Dounell had uot minced his words, and W. H. Kowe, who informed tho reporters that "we" presided over this empire em-pire of Thespls, clutched a rotting post for support. Hr'cr Kowe, who, in unbridling hit pride It was 3 o'clock when the reporter forsook the sequesterings of the fire liend and yet the visitors had scarcely begun tho labors that with each footstep became more horrifying. Every now and then the horrors hor-rors of the situation below was Intensified by the rumble of patting feet above. There were play-harlequins above and Spectral Harlequins rising on the vapors below. There was tho harmelcss, red devil above, there was the red tire liend below. Around it were huge piles and masses of tinder. The avenues between be-tween them bad been swept up, but nothing noth-ing more. The oils were there, tho treacherous treach-erous gas jets were, stumps of cigarettes were there and a whole wilderness of dark Inflammable stuff was (here ready to lend itself it-self to havoc and desolation. Over in one corner stood and old, corroded relic of antiquity the boiler. It may not explode tonight, nor tomorrow, but it's a sinister, dynamitic-looking old machine. "How long's it been there?" was asked of Lester Wallack Kowe. "Ever since 'we' have had the theater." "How long's that?" interposed one of the insurance agents. '"Bout a year I suppose." It looked Dangerous and Threatening enough to have Iwen therefor a century. A spark from it! WhtshHl And heaven knows how many lives would perish in the panic. But Manager Burton don't propose, to permit this condition of things to continue. He told tho surveyor sur-veyor of insurance that in Novem bur last by letter, and then it would scarcely be humane to let it stay there ready to engulf tho thousand souls who have paid their money to witness a performance. per-formance. "Tell me what you want, gentlemen," cried Manager Burton, submissively, "I'll move anything you say." The manager should have played the part of the "obedient servant a year ago. All this while the patrons of the theater have been sitting over an unsung Knell of Death, It should have been wiped out. Tho mass of combustible stuff should have been fired into the streets add sent up in a bonfire. It is rotting below and in the language of the chief of tho fire department is of no use to anybody unless it is to tho fire liend. Having concluded the gloomy task, the insurance in-surance adjusters and surveyor came from the gloomy bowels of the basement. They had not yet laughad. On the contrary, each gave himself Bp to serious reflection, and the animals will again be stirred up on the morrow. mor-row. The management and owners of the old theater have been taught a severe lesson will they prolit by it? as tho eo-owncr in a theatrical enterprise of dazzling but dangerous magnitude, had unwittingly un-wittingly pleaded guilty to the indictment indict-ment that had fallen from Hie Hps of the surveyor of insurance, insur-ance, had a moment before iutima-to iutima-to The Times reporter that he was An Unscrupulous Fabricator. But the surveyor had not yet seen the basement base-ment of the theater in all tho ugly embellishments embel-lishments of its native tilth. He had not accompanied the reporter and Chief Stanton the tlay the imps of the furnace were aroused and tho awful mess turned loose upon the public. Ho had been there, true, thrice, but not at the moment mo-ment when tho reign or rot and decay was at its zenith. Since that time a force of men have been set at work. They have been trying to dress up the lurking dangers in frills and flounces. With one desperate sweep of the broom they have been trying to make modern out of mediaeval history, the "latest" out of the Sullen Shades of Antiquity. They had, in a measure a pint mcas. arc as it were succeeded. That is tho avenues that lead in all direc- tions from tho foot, of the devil's elide, by which the cavern is reached, had been swept up. B'rcr Rowe, who wanted to gooff like a pent-up Utiea, riceochetcd up and down the gloomy aisles aud laughed a ghoulish laugh. The insurance agents foiled to get the cue for a laugh, but took the thing seriously They were looking after the Fate of Hlg Klaks and everything thus far had convinced them that these big risks were lying in the very embrace of peril. The striking of a match in the mass meant the loss of thousands thous-ands to them so that Br'er Howe's laugh cut like a solitaire through ilie gloom. Wm. L. Chalmers, one of the patriarchal insurance adjusters of Han Francisco was in the procession. lint he didn'l laugh. C. B. Colby, special agent and adjuster for the Niagara Insurance company, was there. He didn't laugh. Major Stanton, chief of the flro department, depart-ment, who has been lighting the (lames for a life time, was thoro. He didn't laugh. Captain Donuell, who has seen many a lofty block reduced to a pyre, who has watched the search for roasted bodies of the dead through "iclr blackened sepulcher, was there. lie Didn't Laugh. W. A. Frazier, agent of the Western As-urance As-urance company of Toronto, had been through the slimy empire of death. He didn't laugh. tin the contrary, he rushed to the telegraph tele-graph ollleu and Ured in it message to his company ordering them to the cancel the risk, lie likes risks but don' I care about them being wrapped up in u sheet of liauiu, iH&"; " : - liiliKai .a .......... s |