t the plague was stamped out for good and all.

The present fire occurred in the most crowded part of the city, in the
heart of the business quarter.

London is not laid out like an American city, in blocks and squares,
with broad straight avenues running for miles, crossed at regular
intervals with wide and open streets.

It is, in the older part, a network of narrow roadways, with courts and
alleys lying back of them. The streets turn and bend and twist and go in
every direction, and leading out of them are other little winding
streets. These side turnings are delightful for those who know London
well, because you can turn down here and up there, and cut off corners
this way and save miles that way, by threading through these strange
byways that lead in and out of the highways.

In case of fire, these time-saving lanes and alleys are most dangerous
to the welfare of the city, for they are very narrow, with houses on
either side, and flames can easily reach from one side of the street to
the other.

This is precisely what happened at the recent fire. It sprang from side
to side of these narrow ways, until much of the business portion of
London was in flames.

There has been a good deal of talk about this fire, because the first
engine did not reach the scene of the disaster until fifteen minutes
after the call had been sent, and it has been said that the English
firemen are not nearly so expert as the American.

It seems hardly fair to criticise the English firemen without knowing
the difficulties they had to contend with. Some of the streets through
which they had to drive are hardly wide enough for two vehicles to
pass, and the fire occurring at midday, all these ways were blocked with
carts.

The English firemen cannot drive as rapidly and recklessly as our
firemen do on our wide avenues, for any attempt at such driving would
mean certain destruction to engine and apparatus.

The English alarm system does not appear to be so perfect as ours, but
otherwise the same engines are used, and the department is finely
organized. The arrangement of the city is all that prevents them from
doing the quick and effective work that we can accomplish.

When a fire breaks out here, it is the duty of the person discovering it
to run to the nearest fire-alarm box, and, opening the box, pull down
the hook he will see inside. This causes a signal-number to appear on
the key-board in front of the operator at headquarters.