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I
, January 29 , )04 1 TIL FALLS CITY E' , 3
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The Question of Adequate
Protection Against Fire
I .
y The - questiun of at1 , adeluate
t
protection against fire has again
. . .JW.
< T asserted itself. The town has
been visited by a disastrous blaze
and' the deplorable lack of protec-
tion has again been demonstrated.
I 'l'he history of Falls City as far
as fire : ; arc concerned , is a record
of good fortune , and this fact
,
more than anything else probably
j bas made us a little negligent in
" ' preparing for the emergency that
I .
may come at any tunc. Falls
. City , a town of over three thous-
; and inhabitants , and covering
tern- i
tory must depend for its protec-
. tion against fire on two hose carts
and probably a thousand feet of
! old hose that was proven at the
German hall fire Sunday to be in
very bad shape. These hose carts
I '
\vhich are heavy and unwieldy ,
must be drawn to the scene of the
; f\ , : , . fire by the few men who respond
_ ' . promptly to the ringing of the
fire bell. In winter when the
streets are in bad condition it is
impossible to drag these carts any
considerable distance in time to
do any good if a fire has gained
I much headway. And then there
, is i the matter of the organization
-1 . of the department. The firemen
'
5'7 " ' ' . : ' desen'e a great deal of credit for
what they have done when the
circumstances are taken into con-
sideration. They have never d
anything like the proper encvur-
i ' lgement from the citizens and
t the wonder is that we have a vol-
,
, unteer fire department at all.
And so the situation \ is ; a town
- of three thousand ; with a fire pro-
tection that would > ardly be a
"
, . credit to a . town . of three hundred ;
' lire fighting apparatus that would
J he worse than useless in case of a
serious blaze ; a volunteer depart-
' . . . ; ' meat lacking in i organization and
. systematic efficiency all from the
. , , ' . . want of encouragement from
; " those whose property they seek
: . \ . to protect.
) . . ' , Let us suppose that fire should
:5 be discovered at night in our fine
5
, , 820,000 high school building. The
! , . : . : : = . alarm would be sounded and a
few men and boys would respond.
I . _ Suppose that a winter storm had
! made the streets rough and slip-
"
pery. These few men and boys
would drag these two heavy hose
carts the eight blocks orover half
a mile. The chances are.that no-
-i . body would know the location of
( ( a hydrant , but after hunting for
two or three blocks in all direc-
I tions one would be located and a
, hose attached , All this time the
fire has been gaining in headway.
I A'l'l last the water is turned on
and.tthe rotten hose bursts , the
water ceases to flow . from the
.
nozzle and the building , is doomcd.
If you think there is no danger of
fire being discovered at the high
school , you can substitute the Ur-
suline convent , or the fine resi-
dences ill Evergreen Heights or
the Crook & .rowle addition , or
the elevators or . . the new mill and
the picture of what would surely
happen , would be just as vivid.
If the fire broke out in one of the
two or three story buildings in
the business section of town , the
only thing to do would be to stand
still and watch thousands of dol-
lars worth of property go up in
smoke.
But how can this condition be
remedied ? It is evident that we
have not reached the point where
we can maintain a metropolitan
fire department , with steam en-
gincs and aerial ladders and trained -
ed horses. It is just as evident
that wc have outgrown our pres-
ent inadequate equipment. There
must be a happy medium some
where and to find and take advantage -
vantage , thereof , should be thc
object of those who are the offi-
cial custodians of the city's wel-
fare. Here is a golden opportun-
ity for the present city admins-
tration to distinguish itself.
It occurs to us that the simplest
way to solve the problem would
be to get more hose carts and distribute -
trIbute them over the city. Small
frame buildings sheathed in metal
large enough to house a cart could
be erected at a nominal cost. The
present carts might be left where
they are for the protection of the
business district ; one might be
placed on Stone street north of
Steele , for the protection of the
northern residence portion of the
city ; one might be placed in the
neighborhood of Third and Ful-
ton streets where it could be used
in case of fire 1 at the convent or in
Evergreen Heights' the neigh-
boring residence properties ; an-
other might be placed near
Twelfth and Harlan for the 1 > ro-
tection of the south side and an-
other at Seventh and Chase would
be well located. In case of fire
the nearest cart could be quickly
brought in service and do good
work while others were being
brought from the more distant
stations. It might be possible to
.arrange a system of signals to be
sounded by the bell or the water
works whistle , whereby the num-
ber.of the cart nearest the fire
could be designated. It would
save a whole lot of delay in hunt-
ing for a fire that is not big
enough to be seen aU over town.
The fire chief should be required
to look after the equiptments and
to report regularly to the council
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as to its condition and he should
be compensated for so ,10ing" No
hose should be allowed to become
so rotten that it will not with-
stand the ordinary fire pressure
The objection will be raised
that all this will cost money Of
course it will , but if it would re-
sult in the saving of it bock ! of
business houses , or thc high
school , that we an paid taxes to
help build , or any other of our
line public and private buildings
it would be money well spent.
We have heard people complain
because insurance rates arc high ,
but is it any wonder , when the
town is practically without fire
.
protection ?
We talk a great deal about city
parks and paving and sewers , all
of which arc very much desired ]
and will doubtless come in time ,
but what we need right now is
proper protection for what we already -
ready have. . . Lct's don' wait un-
til the morning after the big fire
and then suddenly remcm1er that
we should have had better protec- . .
tion.
Lea.sed Crystal Lakes
George Hinton has leased the
Crystal Lakes from G. W. and
. Dave Abbott and will control the
ice crop taken thercfrom for the
period of five years. This with
the out put of the ice factory will
give Mr. : Hinton abundant 'ice to
meet all demands of his trade.
Dave Abbott went to Omaha
Tuesday night to arrange for removing -
moving to that city.
LOCAL AND PERSONAL
Coupe & Thornton cure all
their own meat .
The Tribune wants to print all
the news. If you know anything
good call up phone 22 6 and if
necessary a reporter win call on
you for partic llars.
Septuagesima Sunday , January
31st , at St. Thomas church : holy
communion 7:30 : a. m. ; holy com-
munion and sermon , 11 a. m. and
evening prayer and sermon 7:30 :
p. m. Strangers arc cordially
invited to attend an services.-
Henry B. Sm'th , Rector.
Services as usual at the Methodist -
oelist church ext Sunday. The
pastor , Wharton B. Alexander
will preach both morning and
evening. Morning subject "Our
Reasonable Service. " Evening
subject "Following ' Clnist. " An
arc invited to these services.
The l\'IcNamara Bros. Tom and
Pete , who play the two leading
parts in their production of "Mr.
Plaster of Paris" at the Gehling
theatre , Saturday , Feb. 6th , are
brothers of John L. l\1cNamara ,
who it will be remembered mar-
ried Miss Clara l\1cKiever of this
ci ty. The McNamaras will be
guests of 1\'lrs. 'l hos. l\IcKicver
while in , Falls Ci ty.
, -
MOUNTAIN OF SALT. '
At Cardona , Sp1in-Slowly Being Disintegrated -
integrated by Tiny Streams. '
The mountain t possesses one
formidable foe , who slowly , batre ) ( .
lentlmHilJ , gnuwal it from the in.
side , says the Philadelphiit Led .
gel' . Scattered bout in the muoun-
taiu arc tiny olwniugs-"mnl\l'
holes " ' . ' st 'led.-
, they are locally styled.-
and from out of each of these Y
conies a rivulet , so tiny that it
semis powc1'lHH ( 10 do harm. liiI t :
little by little these subterranean
' drill their tlirou
springs way thl'ouS i
thc entire t hiC'lmPHH of the mou' .
thin , digging out long tuuue ) '
into which the visitor may eat (
if he be so itH'litwd. The ) guide It ' .
l'oll1punrillJ. ( ; him will begin ) l "
Warning hi1l1 that it is prudent f (
him to make his will ere doing fH
since , owing 10 11w 1 work of the ( J. . . .
structh'e 811'11U1I1H ( , { 'ontinual salt
slides our ( ( in the t nUl'l'OW chan
nels. Great blocks of salt arc Liable .
able at an.\ time to erush down '
neon the explorer , crashing him ]
like a fly-t ; he sound of oup'w
voice , the wligh1 ( of onp'H bodJ 011 ,
the soil being Htll1i'ien1 ( to detach
them front the roe f. Let the visitor .
Hot' , how..er , l)1'(1 } ) ] a rpw steps
further ; from the ( fling depend
stalactites of salt 01 immaeulute
whiteness , to all appparunce
chandeliers ; the 1 streamlet seems
to flow along a ( crystal bed , and the
drop of water hanging from tltt'
; ; ; hal'PlOint ) of pa'h stalactite scintillates -
tillates like a diamond by . 'andlC'-
light. . Suddenly the guide palls
you lUlcl , I'a tlliimgyoiii ' attention tea
a feeble Hound akin to 1 thin t emitted .
ed t boY a tHl'wezpd ' pong(1 ; it is j
hardly : perceptible to the ear , and
yet it sounds a warning of Ull int
minent salt slide , and it becomes ;
to retrace one's
, imperative steps
without having been able to gene- +
rate t further into the fairylike } interior -
criol' t of the moun tain.
Tile mountain of Cardona being
private property three 01' four gorgeously -
geousl : uniformed keepers are in- +
trusted wish the duty of seeing
that the inhabitants of the surrounding .
rounding country do not 'ome anti )
help themselves to salt ; it is , however .
ever , un easy matter to take away
a crystalline fragment bJ' way of a
memento. So limpid ia the 8ub.
stance that spectacle glasses can
be made out of thc more tl'anspal"
ent pieces. The men employed ll\ \ t
the salt works turn out crosses ,
rosaries , goblets and bottles ,
which they sell to tourists . for a
few Dcsetay.
Appreciation.
People seldom appreciate any
thing they can afford.
Wm. Nitzsche , and lliss My rtle
Moore were united in marriage at
the home of the bride's pasents ,
George M. : Moore near Arago on
Thursday evening , Rev. Elmer
Ward Cole officiating.
Beginning with the next issue
The Tribune win have an educa-
tional department conducted by
County Superintendent Crocker.
Telephone 74 when you want a
nice juice stea1 .
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