Terhaps one of the greatest rea-song for the total loss of the bui ings was that the firemen could not gut at the base of the flames, the pressure, there were 90 many streams inid on the fire, being very weak and, at last, they had to eon-tent themselves with protecting ad-Joining buildings. 'The brigade lost considerable amount of equipment because of the rapid spread of the flames, and, when the last fire wall gave way, there wag a hurry and scurry to' seeute about a thousand feet of bose.
Earlier in the evening, when one of the walls fell in, four of the fire men were in imminent danger and three of them got away. Theve was some question about the fourth for Jo long time but he, too, finally appeared, For fully an hour the adjoining rauls were filled with spectators, the majority being Chinese, and a large number of foreigners drove up im their motor ears. When it appoured as though the flames had been subdued, after the first building was ruined, most of them went away. From the point of view of the spectator, the fire in the second und modern' building was more spectacular and gorgeous, and not few who had attended the theatres Jappeared on the scene just before midnight,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.