s
they are able. It does not follow but that the larger portion of both
merchants and manufacturers exercise what the law will fully decide is
"due vigilance" in the care of the property so insured, but it is
evident that in most cases the thoughtfulness is much less complete--the
care wonderfully lacking in personal supervision--as compared with what
would be the case were each one his own insurer. Of course, this in no
way casts a doubt upon the general policy of business men being amply
insured, but in fact shows the greater necessity why they should be so,
that they may not suffer from the carelessness of a neighbor; it also
points to the necessity of continually increasing care and thoroughness
of inspection on the part of the insurance companies. These agencies, in
fact, must compel the insured to keep up to the mark in the introduction
of every improvement to ward off fires or diminish their
destructiveness. The progress made in this department during recent
years has been great. The almost universal use of steam has been
attended by the fitting up of factories with force pumps, hose, and all
the appliances of a modern fire brigade; dangerous rooms are metal
sheathed, and machinery likely to cause fire is surrounded by stationary
pipes from which jets of water may be turned on instantaneously from the
outside; stores and warehouses have standing pipes from which every
floor may be flooded with water under pressure, and the elevators, those
most dangerous flues for rapidly spreading a fire, are either bricked in
entirely or supposed to be closed at every floor. The latter point,
however, is sometimes forgotten, as sea captains forget to keep the
divisions of their vessels having watertight compartments separate from
one another; the open elevator enlarges a small fire as rapidly as the
open compartment allows the vessel to sink.

With the best of appliances, however, discipline and drill on the part
of the hands, in all factories, is of prime importance. It is always in
the first stages of a fire that thoroughly efficient action is
necessary, and here it is worth a thousand-fold more than can be any
efforts after a fire is once thoroughly started. Long immunity is apt to
beget a feeling of security, and the carelessness resulting from
overconfidence has been the means of destroying many valuable factories
which were amply provided with every facility for their own
preservation. The teachers in some of the public s