Show FIREPROOF MAIDEN LANE tho 3 precious metal district almost exempt from III big 9 C conflagrations maiden lane has been singularly free from destructive fires for many years and there is a superstition among the tha je jewelry and diamond merchants of that street that the lane will never succumb to flames or streams of water and that the old rickety buildings lining it on both sides are pretty nearly fireproof the records of the fire patrol which go back to 1874 prove that in the last eighteen years fires have taken place in that neighborhood all of which were were of little account those fires which affected jewelry establishments were the most insignificant of the lot and their stock was never da damaged magged by any fire this seems strange for the reason that in the majority of houses occupied by bf jewelers numberless smell small and aad rickety rooms are used as smelting smelling sm elting furnaces and workshops with plenty of opportunities port unities for creating heat and flames I 1 talked with a number of merchant merchants located in the precious metal meta I 1 district I 1 between broadway and william street and all of them said they had bad never lost a cent by fire one of the reasons for this happy state of affairs is thell their ex cautiousness m they have watch men constantly on the premises to guard against thieves and these men are bound to look out for conflagrations conflagration s likewise whenever there is the slightest cause for danger the thick doors of the safes are locked in a jiffy and all hands in the building combine to remove that cause As ons ona of the maiden laners expressed himself hini self there is ia no inducement for fires either all the wealth the jewelers ele s stock represents is kept in safes the doors of which may be barred in an instant even if there was a firebug among that respectable class of merchants he would not dare set fire to his building in order to claim insurance on his stock steel for such a thing would give him away in hu an instant if f a ri really destructive tive fire should occur in one of the large jewelry emporiums in the lane the tha safes would tumble down into the cellars and the precious stocks rould be recovered r e as soon as they had cooled off and even if the safes were injured on their come down their contents would not necessarily be lost we all kemem ber the great fire in bond street which destroyed a number of wholesale jewelry establishments when the tors of those precious safes looked far them they were nowhere only twisted and distorted fragments being found but when they dug up the soil under the destroyed building they turned up large chunks of precious ore that had once been watch chains breastpins breast pins or wed ding rings the police were notified and formed a une line all around the seat of the fire then a mining camp was established A long gutter was run nui around two sides of the spot madeva made vacant by the fire a stream of water was led through these gutters tho the earth was carefully washed ivashek and a fortune rec ov ered the proceeds of which were divided among the former occupants of the building according to the extent of their business I 1 maiden lane is not the only down town str street beet that of late years has been free from conflagrations though no other has mch erch a record to show as the lane pearl williams beckman and fulton streets were once onca notorious no for big fires that was in the times when the big paper warehouses and similar establishments mado made their headquarters there tabi e the part of maiden lane adjacent to the river still gives the fire department part ment work from time to time oil and paint stores are mostly responsible for conflagrations in that vicinity new york herald |