They are quickly mastered.

But it was not always so.

There was a period about fifty years ago when great and destructive fires succeeded one another like a deluge and wiped out large portions of the growing city.

There was then a woful lack of water, which is now most abundant, and the fire engines were very primitive in character and inadequate to the needs of the place.

To-day every precaution is taken to guard against fire, and the great business blocks and the miles and miles of handsome homes are well protected.
I visited the central department, and it was most interesting to note the appliances of other days.