Radish.
Chocolate Caramels and Tar Roofing.
Gas-Pitting and Undertaking in All Its Branches.
Hides, Tallow and Maple Syrup.
Fine Gold Jewelry, Silverware and Salt.
Glue, Codfish and Gent's Neckwear.
Undertaker and Confectioner.
}}"Diseases of Horses and Children a Specialty."
John White, Ptr.
The flames spread rapidly, until they threat ened the Palace rink of our
esteemed fellow-townsman, Mr. Pendergast, whose genial and urbane manner
has endeared him to all.
With a degree of forethought worthy of a better cause, Mr. Leroy
W. Butts suggested the propriety of calling out the hook and ladder
company, an organization of which every one seemed to be justly proud.
Some delay ensued in trying to find the janitor of Pioneer Hook and
Ladder Company No. 1's building, but at last he was secured, and after
he had gone home for the key, Mr. Butts ran swiftly down the street
to awake the foreman, but after he had dressed himself and inquired
anxiously about the fire, he said that he was not foreman of the company
since the 2d of April.
Meantime the fire-fiend continued to rise up ever and anon on his hind
feet and lick up salt barrel after salt barrel in close proximity to the
Palace rink, owned by our esteemed fellow-citizen, Mr. Pendergast. Twice
Mr. Pendergast was seen to shudder, after which he went home and filled
out a blank which he forwarded to the insurance company.
Just as the town seemed doomed the hook-and-ladder company came rushing
down the street with their navy-blue hook-and-ladder truck. It is indeed
a beauty, being one of the Excelsior noiseless hook-and-ladder factory's
best instruments, with tall red pails and rich blue ladders.
Some delay ensued, as several of the officers claimed that under a new
by-law passed in January they were permitted to ride on the truck to
fires. This having been objected to by a gentleman who had lived in
Chicago for several years, a copy of the by-laws was sent for and the
dispute summarily settled. The company now donned its rubber overcoats
with great coolness and proceeded at once to deftly twist the tail of
the fire-fiend.
It was a thrilling sight as James McDonald, a brother of Terrance
McDonald, Trombone, Ind., rapidly ascended one of the ladders in the
full glare of the devouring element and fell off again.
Then a wild cheer rose to a height of about nine feet, and all again
became confused.
It was now past 11 o'clock, and several of the members of the
hook-and-ladder company who had to get up early the next day in order to
catch a train excused themselves and went home to seek much-needed rest.
Suddenly it was discovered that the brick livery stables of Mr.
McMichaels, a nephew of our worthy assessor, was getting hot. Leaving
the Palace rink to its fate, the hook-and-ladder company directed
its attention to the brick barn, and after numerous attempts at last
succeeded in getting its large iron prong fastened on the second story
window-sill, which was pulled out. The hook was again inserted but not
so effectively, bringing down this time an armful of hay and part of an
old horse blanket. Another courageous jab was made with the iron hook,
which succeeded in pulling out about five cents' worth of brick. This
was greeted by a wild burst of applause from the bystanders, during
which the hook-and-ladder company fell over each other and added to the
horror of the scene by a mad burst of pale-blue profanity.
It was not long before the stable was licked up by the fire-fiend,
and the hook-and-ladder company directed its attention toward the
undertaking, embalming, and ice-cream parlors of our highly-esteemed
fellow-townsman, Mr. A. Burlingame. The company succeeded in pulling two
stone window-sills out of this building before it burned. Both times
they were encored by the large and aristocratic audience.
Mr. Burlingame at once recognized the efforts of the heroic firemen by
tapping a keg of beer, which he distributed among them at twenty-five
cents per glass.
This morning a space forty-seven feet wide, where but yesterday all was
joy and prosperity and beauty, is covered over with blackened ruins. Mr.
Pendergast is overcome by grief at the loss of his rink, but assures us
that if he is successful in getting the full amount of his insurance he
will take the money and build two rinks, either one of which will be far
more imposing than the one destroyed last evening.
A movement is on foot to give a literary and musical entertainment at
Burley's Hall to raise funds for the purchase of new uniforms for the
"fire laddies," at which Mrs. Butts has consented to sing "When the
Robins Nest Again," and Miss Mertie Stout will recite "'Ostler Joe,"
a selection which never fails to offend the best people everywhere.
Twenty-five cents for each offence. Let there be a full house.