some object or locality or happening that calls for comment. Hark!
there is the fire alarm. The engines and hose-carts and fire ladders,
with other apparatus, pass you as in the twinkling of an eye; and so
skillful are the fire-laddies, and so well equipped is the department,
that the devouring flames rarely ever make headway. They are quickly
mastered. But it was not always so. There was a period about fifty
years ago when great and destructive fires succeeded one another like
a deluge and wiped out large portions of the growing city. There was
then a woful lack of water, which is now most abundant, and the fire
engines were very primitive in character and inadequate to the needs
of the place. To-day every precaution is taken to guard against fire,
and the great business blocks and the miles and miles of handsome
homes are well protected.

I visited the central department, and it was most interesting to note
the appliances of other days. It almost excited a smile to see the
simple hand engines and old fire-extinguishers. On the walls of the
"Curiosity-Shop" where these mementoes of other days were exhibited,
not far from the Chinese quarter, were photographs of the members of
the department, of past years; and among the faces were some of the
most distinguished citizens of San Francisco. All honour to the men
who protect our homes thus, who respond quickly to the fire bell which
startles the ear in midnight hours, who risk their lives for the sake
of others, who evince such hardihood and perform acts which are truly
heroic! Some old inhabitant, if you question him, will go back to the
past and tell you in graphic language about the disastrous fires which
have swept over the city laying large portions of it again and again
in ashes. The first, which was of consequence occurred in December
1849. Then the loss was estimated to be a million of dollars. On May
4th 1850 there was another fire which was a heavy blow to the business
interests of the town. A third fire broke out in June 14th, 1850, and
still another on September 17th, 1850, causing great loss. But, as the
climax, came on May 3rd, 1851, what is known as "the great fire."
At the time the chief engineer and many of the firemen were in
Sacramento, and this greatly crippled the service. The fire-fiend
held carnival for twenty-four hours, and property, valued at twenty
millions of dollars, was consumed, while many of the people perished
in the flames.

On Sunday,