| Show wi E ED I 1 T rp 0 R I 1 A L S THE IE biton boston fire niro with recollections of its predecessor the chicago fire nire is arousing the people of many irge large cities throughout the cou coultry country itry to the consideration of ways and sod means to reduce the probability of such extensive ravages by the fire fiend all sorta borts of things and devices promising greater immunity from conflagrations are discussed wider streets beat best non fire con ducting building material materials non inglam mable timber improved fire quenching apparatus moro more perfect fire com company tany rany arrangements arr r range ige ments water supply ete etc the first thing thin is in regard to fireproof fire proof buildings and here the great lack Is some economical method of rendering wood uninflammable this is the grand desideratum ide ratum furnish a cheap and easy moans means of making wood fireproof or oven comparatively so BO and fears of great destruction by fire would be beat at a an n en end d Is a discovery of this extraordinarily dina rily important character beyond the compass of american ingenuity it is to bo be hoped not for so long as it is it will be difficult if not impossible t to 0 insure safety to buildings from devouring flames in this discussion disca nion one thing is very manifest the mansard root is ia catching it in every direction inside and outside and on all sides it has become some what popular of late years it has a striking architectural effect perhaps from its E emi gothic character but being universally if not necessarily constructed of wood it is so eo peculiarly inflammable that it is generally termed a literal fire boothe chief seat of danger from conflagration and the grand nursery of devastating fires municipalities and insurance companies are moving in strong opposition to the mansard and either the benun clation of that kind of roof or its essential modification in a fireproof fire proof direction is distinctly shadowed foreshadower fore but the fireproof fire proof modification should be thorough and not external merely for here is an eastern contemporary stating the case of the mansard with fireproof fire proof external shell which is condemned almost if not quite as strongly as if the shell were not there the paragraph occurs in comments upon the boston fire the fire began in the rear of a large granite building in the very heart of the city corner of sumner and kingston streets and rapidly ascend edby the course of the elevator until it communicated with the Mansard roof here was a mass of woodwork wood work dry as a cinder externally covered with metal or slate state and so impervious to water rendering fire engines useless the situation is comparable only to a fortification lionso BO constructed as to protect the assailing force and to render the assailed utterly powerless to return an attack in this case the externally fireproof fire proof mansard maneard is considered worse than if wholly inflammable what then is to be done the external fireproof fire proof shell is certainly useful in a degree in pr preserving e a building from catching tire fire from adjacent buildings if the mansard Is ia to be used the tho remedy must consist in rendering it fire resisting inside as well as out so 80 far as is reasonably bract practicable feabie leable this can be done to a consider considerable abia abid extent by using solid stick timber plaster concrete brick or stone with as little small sized or thin timber as possible and perhaps some iron although it does doea no appear to grow in favor for buildings in which or in the construction of which or near which things combustible are placed because great heat causes iron to give and warp and twist thus proving itself not so trustworthy as at first thought might appear the discussions and the action of other communities in regard to this highly important matter of safety from that dreadfully bad master unquenchable fire are of as great interest to our citizens as to the citizens of any other portions of the country we live in a district as arid as any in the union during a portion of the year many of our buildings are constructed in very large part of timber and are very combustible especially ally in the hot dry months of summer and fall and any sensible suggestions as aa to the best ways of insuring perpetual safety from the devouring element ought to ba welcome we have the advantages of wide streets a comparatively good supply of water and buildings in most instances widely detached I 1 although in the business portions of tho the city they adjoin each other but we have the disadvantage of the very extensive employment of lumber and sometimes it is almost the only material used such extensive use of so BO combustible a material whore the buildings are so BO closely placed ought certainly to be discouraged by the public and the municipal ity that is if it were any use making sensible municipal ordinances and that is again if municipal ordinances were judicially respected in our city instead ot dr being opposed on every flimsy technicality nica lity THE sacramento union says saya the rapid increase of financial corruption in official life Is ia such as to raise a serious doubt whether or not the people have any adequate means of self protection and recommends the election of a few honest men as a corrective that would be a very good thing but why not elect all honest men and let the dishonest pay taxes instead of live and fatten on them 2 THEY have found out a way at new NOW orleans to utilize so that out a great evil some good may come the way with the rua ruf ruffians flaus to is to let them quarrel among themselves and fight it out on that line two thorough ruf ruffians rians tried that policy recently in that city with admirable results here they are described by the missouri be ise publican john henry atud and perry lyons were 1 years ago friends and partners they carried on the general ruffian business on a large scale and were a terror to all respectable peaceable citizens they were always armed to the tee teeth t and seldom got through the twenty four hours or of day and night without a fight and shooting and cutting somebody in the course of time they committed several manslaughters man slaughters and murders and were always successful in making a safe retreat or getting off on the plea of seif belf defense they were unconquerable and it seemed probable that they would be permitted to die natural deaths having subjugated new orleans and there appearing to be nothing left in their line to do they removed their base of operations to the plains and finally to california they ran the jaunt gauntlet let iet of vigilance committees and in time returned to new now orleans 0 apparently to enjoy the memory of their conquest in peace A few days ago they sat down at a table in a lager beer saloon to all appearance good friends talking over old and more prosperous times it had been long sinco bince they had been able to get up a cutting or shooting match with anybody and life was a burden at length one of them handling a matchbox match box pressed the lid down it s napped snapped the other said dont snap your pistol at me the noise seemed to fire them both with an eager desire to be at work and at it they went they sprang to their feet simultaneously and one operated with a pistol while the other plied a long bowle bowie knife it was their most successful job they wery very ery cry handsomely laid each other out ont to the great joy of all their acquaintances and the whole community by their deaths these things showed what they were madeford ma made defor for and demonstrated that they were of some use in the world nothing became them better than their taking oin off it rid the world of two ta perfect nuisances did it by those best beat fitted for such an unpleasant wellness business at the least expense to the public and no living person not even the justified officer of the law was under necessity of shedding their villainous blood they became the ministers of swift and unerring justice to themselves and it was a suitable ending to utter wickedness of life it was a scriptural way of doing the business too for does not that talk of the wicked slaying the wicked they are the most fit and proper persons to do it set a rogue to catch a rogue and let the villain slay the villian are nuala auala gous and equally correct doctrines thus can even the vicious accomplish some purpose of utility to society and it being dono done at their own expense is all the better there are a few parsons hereabout who evidently could not do more ser vice to the community than by promptly following the example of their new orleans compeers com peers in crime let them go ahead and sud bless the world by speedily leaving it in ia the way of taking each cach other off that would help on tho jho millennium THE papers are still contending upon the subject of mansard roofs most moat of them being set seb in determined opposition to that kind of covering to buildings lid ild and a few having the temerity to defend the mansard as if properly constructed ted being no more dangerous than roofs generally general Lv the chicago limes furnishes a very good specimen of the red hot opposition to the dangerous niro firo fire traps THE COST OF olf BAD TASTE if a chicago man who is building a costly business block in the burnt region should see preparations making to erect a row of wooden tenen tener tenements on the ground adjoining he be would undoubtedly make a fuss fues about it he would hasten to the tho mayors office probably and enter complaint that some dangerous citizen was building a firetrap fire trap at the side of his new stone front not only endangering that structure but preparing the conditions for a new conflagration of chicago he would most it likely kely domand demand that the reckless firetrap fire trap builder be stopped in his incendiary proceedings ce that his wooden row be torn lorn down and if the police authorities should refuse to comply with hidde hib his demand for the execution of a law essential to the common safety probably he would adopt a more suin buin summary mary course to remove and restrain such threatened danger to his property ss the building of a wooden row alongside of it would create and probably the average public opinion would say this mans maws demand was just wooden tenements in the ibe heart of a dense denso city are dangerous and should be removed or pulled down and their erection should be prevented 11 and yet this same enemy of firetrap and conflagrations is himself building a structure str of wood that threatens conflagration to his costly business block and to all the surrounding blocks tenfold ten fold more than the wooden row which hla hib neighbor proposed to build would have done he I 1 is not building a wooden row at the side of his bis stone arout but in a ten fold more dangerous place namely on the top lop of it he is surmounting his hib edl edi flee of brick and stone with that cursed abomination of architectural barbarism the mansard roof built of wood in that most unsightly and purposeless purposely a architectural device which a corrupt taste ever commended to the favor of a corrupt people he is putting twice the amount of kindling wood that hii his neighbor would have used in the erection of his wooden row on terra firma and he is piling that vast lumber yard on the top of walls four or five stories high he is putting the kindling wood for a conflagration in the very spot where the alamea of some fire in the vicinity will be most sure bure to seize it and where it will be most difficult for any effort of man to stay their course this to is what people are now witnessing in chicago the destruction of the city by fire induced the enactment of a very imperfect and inadequate law prohibiting the erection of wooden tenements on the ground in this way some shortsighted short sighted mortals imagined that the conditions of a new conflagration of chicago would be prevented so thought some builders owners and architects who forthwith went to work building wooden caravansaries caravan sarles saries noton not on lh the gro ground und but on the tops of four and fi nive five v story estory buildings not surrounding a city of stone with a city of wood but covering it with one the architects who are mainly to blame for this display of barbarous taste and more than barbarous folly will of course turn up the points of their nobes noses at this criticism it is the way of a class of men who know a great deal more than all the rest of mankind together and who are never averse to the advertising of what hey know upon peoples housetops but the statistics of losses by conflagration tell a story which will not be answered by the of architectural picture makers they give testimony that is unimpeachable to the fact thab that the barbarian uan man MaU mansard SUd roof makers maker sane sare are ane the worst of incendiaries the mansard roofs have cost coat boston 11 is the statement from the new england metropolis fully one quarter of the total loss by the tho conflagration fla in that city is thus directly charged to the account of that worst evidence of that corrupt taste in architecture which has been developed since a people first discovered die dib covered the way ta advertise their vices in flamboyant tracery chicago ambitious to excel other cities in their vices as well as in some bome of their virtues probably has not its equal on thu tho continent in the folly of building hanging gardens all in woot woo aku ud 1 sheet iron on the tops topa of bric kand stone atone houses upon our office buildings we astonish the world with scenes beenes from the court of jupiter all the gods goda of olympus cavort themselves on pedestals of buttered water melon meion upon our lofty house tops oar new hotels are crowned with wooden hen coops suggestive of what future guests may expect for dinner clock dials in lofty niches which no mortal could look up to without danger of dislocating his neck tell the time of day to angelic inhabitants Inhabit tints of the sky and to tho rame bame spiritual existences though not commonly thought to be large consumers of marketable commodities our grocers druggists leather men clothiers clo thiers and so on advertise advertis 6 their wares on painted sign boards perched among the clouds all this would be an innocent folly if it were not a dangerous one these lofty and ridiculous top contrivances of wood are the inevitable fire lire traps of a new conflagration more dangerous in proportion por t ion lon as they are more inaccessible than any wooden row of nire fire traps on the ground so bo much for the opposition now the tho cleveland herald berald bisone isone is one of those WI who io fly to the rescue of the furiously assailed mansard and this is bow that paper goes about the business of do bense THE mansa mansard RD GOAT wo we are tremendous on goats in this country A calamity happens and immediately the scapegoat goat is trotted out and bib hib back loaded with the curses of the people and the animal started for the wilder wilderness nebs neEs the calamity is repeated and we bee see then chen how in our indignation against the evil popularly supposed mohave to have been the cause of the first calamity we have overlooked a score of other evils each one of which in due proportion was responsible for the disaster just now the architectural goat is the mansard roof and we notice that it is recommended no roots roofs be allowed to be erected the mansard roof in the abstract is not in fault for the terrible disasters by fire in chicago and boston any wooden roofs under heaven put upon buildings five six and seven stories in height would be just as dangerous as the mansard roon root what none nonsense ense to hold this particular style of roof responsible the mansard roof is abused by being put on |
