100 OKGANIZATION OF FIRE-BRIGADE. Chap. VI, 
articles of interest and value, both native and 
foreign ; yet, however tempting these things might 
have been, not a single article was missing. Alto- 
gether I had never seen such a perfect system 
of organization. In China it would have been a 
most difficult matter to have restrained the mob, 
who would have seized the opportunity to plunder ; 
here, however, it seemed perfectly easy, and every 
one was under the most complete control. Scenes 
like this must be constantly happening in Yedo. 
Fires are almost of daily occurrence in some part or 
other of the city ; and, owing to the houses being 
principally built of wood, the fires spread with great 
rapidity. The officers of the Government and the 
members of the different fire-brigades have constant 
practice; and this, no doubt, accounts for their 
perfect system of organization, which was the 
admiration of every one on the present occasion. 
Here, however, our eulogium must end. 
The engines which were brought to put out the 
fire were the most wretched machines I ever saw. 
A little pond in the garden, in which there was a 
good supply of water, was not twenty yards from 
the house ; yet the engine had to be filled with 
buckets by hand, there being no hose to connect it 
with the pond. The stream of water it threw out 
was little larger than that thrown by a hand- 
syringe, and much less than could be discharged 
from a good garden engine. A number of men 
carried water in buckets up ladders to the roof of 
the building, and emptied it upon the flames ; but 
