A FIELD DAY WITH A FIRE-ENGINE. 375 



in the thronged streets adjacent to water, and commenced 

 our field-day. At first the water came sparingly, and the 

 passengers went by unsplashed, and the boys and Boh- 

 hoys leaped playfully here and there over running but 

 diminutive gutters. At last the power of the engine 

 made itself felt, and, to my intense amusement, thundered 

 a volume of water on every adjacent window, carried off 

 tiles from the tops of private houses, shook chimneys, and 

 knocked away coping-stones ; and then so terrified mules 

 and horses, and washed people who wished to exercise 

 their freedom or right of way in the midst of our aqueous 

 liberty and revel, that it rendered the streets around us 

 untenable to every living thing but ourselves, and at once 

 proved the indelible right of free citizens to do as they 

 liked without the slightest reference to others. Every 

 thing, however, went off in the greatest good humour. 

 Proprietors of houses put up their shutters, or shut their 

 windows and doors, till we had done, and the whole host 

 of Boh-hoys who collected to stare at us and frisk about 

 amidst the puddles and streams occasioned by our hy 

 draulic experiments, however low their state and station, 

 could no more be taunted with the appellation of " the 

 great unwashed." Some account of the Fire Alarm Tele 

 graph, with which this fire-and-water engine was associ 

 ated, may neither be uninteresting to my readers, nor 

 useless in guiding us to as good an arrangement in our 

 cities and towns. 



The fire telegraph in St Louis has, I think, been estab 

 lished for three or four years. It consists in a system of 

 telegraph wires connecting different parts of the city with 

 the main station in the north wing of the court-house. 

 There are five districts, in each of which there are an 

 alarm bell and several stations. Each station has an iron 



