Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1896 — A SLICHT INTER RUTION. [ARTICLE]

A SLICHT INTER RUTION.

Incident of a Reporter’s Visit to a Fire Engine House. A reporter who had sought at a fire engine house information on a point concerning which the driver could best inform him, stood talking with the driver by the stall of one of the horses. The horse was secured by a tie strap commonly used in tne department. One end of the tie strap is made fast by a staple driven into the side of the stall, while the other end is passed through the throatlatcli of the lmrse’s bridle, and held on a pin that rises in a little recess in the side of the stall. By means of a simple mechanical contrivance the pin is pulled down at the first stroke of the gong when an alarm is sounded, the tie strap is released and the horse is set free. As the driver and reporter talked, the horse, m a friendly way, bent his head (lowd toward the driver. Suddenly an alarm was sounded and the horse was transformed and likewise the driver. The horse’s head went up and he "was alert in every fibre. At the first stroke tiie pin had dropped and the horse was free. With a single bound he cleared the stall and made for his place by the engine, with the driver beside him. The two other horses of the team—this was a threehorse team—were clattering forward at the same moment. At the front of the house men were sliding down [Miles like lightning. There were a few sharp, quick, snapping sounds, as the men already then# snapped the together around the horses’ necks, and over it all the booming of the gong. In all the newer tire houses of the city the stalls of the horses are placed as nearly as possible abreast of the engine. so that tiie horses shall have the shortest possible distance to go. In some of the older houses in which there is less room the stalls are at the rear. That is where they were in this house. Surprised a little, the reporter had lost a second or two in getting to the front. A\ hen lie got mere he saw the driver in his sear, holding the lines over the team ready to drive out, and waiting only for the last stroke on the gong. All fire teams are hooked up on every alarm; on first alarm they go out only to fires within their own district. This alarm was for a fire outside the district. Unhooked, tiie horses trotted back to their stalls; descending from his seat the driver took un tiie interrupted conversation just ns if nothing had happened.—New York Sun.