Administration, sent the young Texan and personally offered him their thanks for the help he had rendered to the city in putting down the fire. The general and his staff also discussed with the young American the idea of an organised fire brigade in Tachienlu. Holder examined the present equipment and prepared a number of suggestions which he hopes to submit to the authorities.
When à fire starts in Tachienlu the construction of the city acts on it somewhat like a pair of blacksmith's bellows. The city is approached along three gorges and if the wind is not howling along one it is certainly doing so along another. When a fire starts, the wind gets hold of it immediate! making it very difficult to fight the flames. However a river flows through the centre of the town and with a well-equipped fire brigade with sufficient pumping power a fire might be kept under. This is the second fire within a few weeks.
Some years ago a fire settled a very serious dispute in Tachienlu. The' buildings on a certain bit. of land hospital a few days Minister, left, and Herr Guido Schmidt Since this agreement was signed Austro-German relations belonged to one party and the land to another. Both parties refused 1o budge: the party owning the land refused to move and the party owning he buildings acted likewise. One night a terrible fire swept the city settling a very difficult and ticklish question.
No one seems to know how the present conflagration started so rumour has been rife. One report says that the house cook was making doughnuts for the New Year and the oil went on fire causing the blaze.
Another rumour said that one member of the family took a small hand warmer to bed to keep his feet warm, went out for a walk and forgot to remove the foot warmer. Another report stated that a spark dropped from another building. All of which have been denied Apparently no one in the house knew that the godown was on fire till people rushed in to report it. One difficulty about fires in Tachienlu is this: when a fire takes place the occupants of the house come under a heavy fine for permitting a fire to occur; consequently when a fire does take place everything is done by the householder to put it out before it becomes public and in this way obviate the fine.
A Dangerous Blaze In this, way, a small fire, which might have been handled quite easily becomes a blaze endangering the whole town. The extent of the damage is unknown but considerable musk went up in the-flames, and tell it not in Gath, a large box containing bank notes completely disappeared. Fortunately the dwelling part of the establishment was not touched by the flames, so in spite of the heavy N the musk merchant and his family have at least a place to pass the Chinese New Year.
The lady of the household is well known in the city for her good work r helping the poor. Quite recentl flew from Chengtu in Szechuen to Kunming in Yunnan, as the musk road to Shanghai is closed to traffic at the present moment, so she is availing herself of the outlet to Hongkong, via Haiphong, Numerous Good Deed Societies and religious institutions in Tachienlu have benefited by this wealthy lady's generosity and to many she is known as a friend in need.
For some years she maintained her own musk agent in Shanghai. To-day February 4 is also known on th Chinese calendar as po-wu' that is, the breaking open of the fifth day of the first moon when business to a certain extent begins in the New Year. Apparently no one will do anything serious till after *pi-wu' and then the struggle for existence evidently begi Mr. F. W. Rickett, who has resigned the mastership of the Craven Hunt, is one of the m men of British finance. He penniless when he left the Army after the war. Within 15 years or so he had a large hunting-box near Newbury a house in London, rented Lord Kylsant's castle at Kilgetty in Wales, and had become Master of the Craven. He was said to have made a fortune out of an oil concession in Trak.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.