VIE;w of the OI.D BRIDGE AND THE AZAB KAPOU : CONSTANTINOPLE 



and at night a big white linen lantern. 

 Their apparatus is of the simplest, con- 

 sisting of a hand-pump mounted on a 

 wooden box of no great size, with two 

 poles at each end, which rest on the men's 

 shoulders as they run. They run phe- 

 nomenal distances sometimes ; it may be 

 to find the fire out, or the local firemen 

 in control. If the fire is too large for 

 the true firemen of the quarter, outsiders 

 are free to come in. They do not do so 

 for love, however. 



If your house is threatened, they nag- 

 gle with you to save it if they can, or, 

 if they can't, to save the furniture. You 

 may imagine that a bargain concluded 

 amid flying brands is not always to their 

 disadvantage, especially if no other fire 

 company is by to make competition. The 

 help they give is rather problematical. 

 The stream of water they can turn on 

 a blaze is very thin, even if it be con- 

 tinuous, which, unfortunately, it rarely 

 is. They have a curious superstition 



against using sea water, imagining that 

 it makes a fire burn more fiercely; and 

 they have the name of being arrant 

 thieves. But they are capable of great 

 daring, and, with proper training and 

 regular pay, they would make excellent 

 timber for a fire department. 



I am tempted in this connection to 

 speak of the water system of Constanti- 

 nople. Like so many other local insti- 

 tutions, it is neither one thing nor the 

 other, part of the town being served by 

 water mains and part depending on the 

 old public fountains. 



PLENTY OE TIME — EOUR CALENDARS 



And there would still remain any num- 

 ber of other points that make life char- 

 acteristic and colored in a city that re- 

 ligiously follows four calendars, that pre- 

 fers to regard 12 o'clock as falling at 

 sunset, and that has so far happily suc- 

 ceeded in remaining superior to the pro- 

 verbial relation between time and money. 



539 



