AFRICAN CAMP FIRES. 



tion. Individual campaigns were everywhere in 

 progress. I saw one man standing on the roof 

 of a threatened building. He lowered slowly, 

 hand over hand, a small tea-kettle at the end of 

 a string. This was filled by a friend in the street, 

 whereupon the man hauled it up again, slowly, 

 hand over hand, and solemnly dashed its con- 

 tents into the mouth of the furnace. Thousands 

 of other men on roofs, in balconies, on the street, 

 were doing the same thing. Some had ordinary 

 cups which they filled a block away ! The limit 

 of efficiency was a pail. Nobody did anything 

 in concert with anybody else. The sight of these 

 thousands of little midgets each with his teacup, 

 or his teapot, or his tin pail, throwing each his 

 mite of water for which he had to walk a street 

 or so into the ravening roaring furnace of flame 

 was as pathetic or as comical as you please. 

 They did not seem to have a show in the 

 world. 



Nevertheless, to my vast surprise, the old 

 system of the East triumphed at last. The system 

 of the East is that if you get enough labour you 

 can accomplish anything. Little by little those 

 thousands of tea kettles of water had their aggre- 

 gate effect. The flames fed themselves out and 

 died down leaving the contiguous buildings un- 



