broke out in the British Concession of Tientsin in the early morning of the 12th of January, when the large blocks of premises formerly known as Collins's store and godowns, but recently occupied by the 'Tientsin Trading Company and by Messrs. Arnhold, Karberg &Co. were completely burned out.' The fire was a most imposing affair as 8 spectacle, and of course created a profound impression in our community, which turned out almost en masse to see There was happily no loss of life and it is generally understood that the buildings and goods are fairly well covered by insurance, The fire began in a little outhouse at the S. E. corner of the main building, near the gate giving entrance from Victoria Road. The smoke awoke the European residents in the upper storey, who made a successful but none too speedy exit by the wooden stairs at each end of the building, before the flames had got complete possession. Mr. and Mrs. A. Newcombe. Mr. F. H. Clarke, of the Trading Company, and Mr. Crofts, of Messrs. Arnhold, Karberg & Ca., were on the premises, but beyond the very serious inconvenience of the loss of their wardrobes and personal T effects "in one case uninsured) are none the worse for their exciting experience. Messrs. Arnhold, Karberg & Co.'s agent, Mr. Niclassen, lives in the house adjoining the South side: the fierce heat set the window sashes and frames on fire and for a time it was just touch and go with this building, but a strong landing party from the Linnet made its appearance and under the energetic orders of Capt. Sparkes these fishes were pit out and everything combustible removed. The Japanese Maya also sent a large landing party, which did excellent salvage work. There was fortunately no wind; had there been nothing but dynamite or gunpowder could have saved that quarter of the settlement. It so happened that both the British and French Concessions are densely entered with buildings in that particular spot. As it_was the trees on the opposite side of Victoria Road caught fire and all the adjoining residences and stores are charred amoked. The inhabitants all undertook salvage operations and had a very bad hour and half. The municipal authorities and police were promptly on the spot with their manual engines but for the second time in Tientsin experience the latter proved all but useless. The water in passing from the river through the long lengths of hose, freezes. Until deep laid mains are introduced, Tientsin must remain more or less at the mercy of the Fire-king during the winter season: this however is no excuse for our insufficient fire-extinguishing apparatus during the rest of the year.
The native fire-brigade came down in force but in the absence of water supply was able to do little beyond throwing snow on to smouldering heaps later on. The sdwirable order kept by our Sikh and native constables and the sailors quite checkmated all the looters and Tientsin city canaille who find their best chance ata fire. All the approaches to the concessions were promptly guarded and the Chinese mob barred out. very large and expensive st sag hand, The Tientsin Trading Company had o wa. as chance had it Messrs, Arnhold, Rarbery & Co.'s glow: repletion wi lines to the amount of Tis, 89,000 are already known to have been' under-sutten by the London and Lancashire, the North British, the Phoenix, and the Lancashire. There is the usual wild talk of enormous losses, and Tls. 250,000 is noted as the sum total; the more rational think that it will be well under 150,000. Daring our thirty odd years tlement we have had but two big fires. A large and brilliant social gathering at Taiku was just breaking up as the fice reached its climax (1 a.m.): the Indies, snugly wrapped up, all went along in their ricshas and remained there watching the fascinating and impressive sight till 3 and 4 o'clock.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.