FIRE DEPARTMENT STABLES. 



Tliere was a special class for Fire Department Stables, in which 

 three cities were entered. In this class the entries were judged in com- 

 petition, one cit}' against another, and the prizes were awarded as 

 follows: 



First Prize — City of Somerville. 

 Second Prize — City of Cambridge. 

 Third Prize — City of Melrose. 



A gold medal is awarded to Mr. James Hopkins, Chief of the 

 Somerville Department, for the great excellence of the stables under his 

 charge. Mr. Hopkins has been a member of the Somerville Fire 

 Department for more than lift}' years. 



The Judges in the Fire Department Stable Competition were: 



JOSHUA ATWOOD, 3d, 

 LEWIS A. ARMISTEAD. 



FIRE EXITS FOR STABLES. 



The following extract from the report for 1907 of Benjamin W- 

 Wells, late Fire Commissioner, and a valued Director of this Association, 

 speaks for itself: 



STABLES. 



" Scores of horses are burned or suffocated to death every year in this 

 city. Some reasonable regulation of stable construction should be passed 

 looking to the proper arrangement of runways and exits. This great and 

 cruel loss of horse life has been to a very considerable degree unnecessary, 

 and if some official supervision of stables with autliority to require proper 

 construction could prevail, the horror could be greatly abated. 



" The Work-Horse Parade Association, which has accomplished so 

 much for the welfare of the horse in this city, might well take this subject 

 under consideration." 



THE DISPOSAL OF OLD HORSES. 



There is a growing feeling in the commimit}' that old and worn-out 

 horses, or painfully lame horses, ought not to be sold, but should be 

 killed, or otherwise disposed of in a humane manner. It seems almost 

 impossible that a firm or corporation should use a horse for ten, fifteen or 

 even twenty years, and then, when he is old and worn out, sell him for a 

 small price to any chance buyer. And yet this is frequentl}' done. 



