236 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



But, as we were just saying, an alarm sounds, and 

 the scene changes. In a corner of the ceiling, near 

 the front door, is a circular opening, through which, 

 rising from the floor, passes a shining brass pole. 

 When the men are called out, they r throw themselves 

 on this pole, and come down like a flash of lightning ; 

 the feet of the second man almost touching the head 

 of the first, and so on. The horses scramble on their 

 legs, the doors in front of them fly open, and out 

 they rush, their heavy iron-shod hoofs thundering 

 over the floor. Each horse goes to his proper place ; 

 the driver, from his seat, lets down the harness ; two 

 or three men standing at the pole snap the collars to- 

 gether, fasten the reins to the bits, and off they go. 

 There is nothing more to be done : the girths are not 

 used in running to a fire ; the traces are already at- 

 tached to the whiffletrees and the pole-straps to the 

 collars, so that the fastening of two collars and four 

 reins constitutes the harnessing. Often, perhaps com- 

 monly, the horses are harnessed and everything is 

 ready for a start before the gong has finished telling 

 the number of the box. Half a minute is about the 

 maximum time for companies in a first class depart- 

 ment to make ready and leave the house ; and the 

 ordinary time is, I believe, fifteen or twenty seconds. 

 The fire marshal of the Chicago department informs 

 me that, " on the test of a certain engine, with men 

 in bed and horses in stalls, the hind wheels of the 

 apparatus crossed the threshold in eleven seconds." 

 For the Brooklyn department the time is given as 

 " from four to eight seconds, according to distance of 

 horses from the engine." 



To teach a green nag to come out of his stall at the 



