fairs, and totally oblivious to all that is
passing around him. In no part of the great city are you so fully
impressed with the shortness and value of time. Even in the eating
houses, where the denizens of the street seek their noontide meal, you
see the same haste that is manifest on the street. The waiters seem
terribly agitated and excited, they fairly fly to do your bidding,
pushing and bumping each other with a force that often sends their loads
of dishes clattering to the floor. The man at the desk can hardly count
your change fast enough. The guests bolt their food, gulp their liquors,
and dart through the green baize doors as if their lives depended upon
their speed.

So all day long they pour in and out of the marble banks, in and out of
the great Post-office, in and out of the dingy offices--the good and the
bad, the rich and the poor, the honest dealer and the sharper. Few know
their neighbors here, fewer care for them; and gigantic successes and
dreary failures find their way into the street, adding year by year to
its romance and to its mystery. At night the street is dark and
deserted. Yet away up in some of the lofty buildings, the lights shining
through the dingy windows tell you that some busy brain is still scheming
and struggling--whether honestly or dishonestly, who can tell?

XXX. THE METROPOLITAN FIRE DEPARTMENT.

The history of New York has been marked by a series of terrible fires,
which have destroyed many lives and swept away millions of dollars worth
of property. In 1741 the first of these conflagrations swept over the
lower part of the city, consuming many houses, among them the old Dutch
fort and church. On the 21st of September, 1776, during the occupation
of the city by the British, 493 houses were burned, and great distress
entailed in consequence upon the people. On the 9th of August, 1778, a
third fire destroyed nearly 300 buildings east of Broadway and below
Pearl street. In May, 1811, a fourth fire broke out in Chatham street
and consumed nearly 100 houses. In 1828 a fifth fire destroyed about a
million of dollars worth of property. On the 16th of December, 1835,
began the sixth and most disastrous of these conflagrations. It raged
for three days and nights continuously, swept over an area of 45 acres,
destroyed 648 buildings, and entailed upon the citizens a loss of
$18,000,000. In the face of this great disaster the insurance companies
unanimously suspend