RANDOM SPARKS

—Paterson, N. J., is to have four new fire alarm boxes.

—Lakeview, Ore., is organizing a fire department.

—Binghamton, N. Y., wants a board of fire commissioners.

—West Randolph, Vt., will have a $20,000 water-supply system.

—Fountain Hose Company of Ansonia, Conn., will dance on December 10.

—The force of the Altoona (Pa.) Department will be supplemented by a fire patrol.

—The fire in the Standard coal mine at Connellsville, Pa., has been extinguished.

—The organization of a Virginia State Firemen’s Association seems now an assured fact.

—Engine Companies Nos. 3 and 4 of Paterson, N. J., are to be supplied with heaters.

—The fourteen-year-old Clapp & Jones steamer, Cataract, of West New Brighton, Staten Island, did fine work at the Barrett Nephews’ Dye Works fire last Saturday. At the same fire, Zephyr Hose Company stood idle, owing to lack of serviceable hose, which the members have long been clamoring for in vain.

—Active service of fifty-seven years is credited to the Georgia Fire Company of Augusta, Ga.

—The Paterson (N. J.) Board of Underwriters is talking of establishing an insurance patrol.

—Two of the Milford fire bugs, for whose arrest $500 reward was offered, have been caught.

—A fire originating from a steam-pipe was put out by the Indianapolis (Ind.) Department last week.

—Pioneer Hook and Ladder Company of Norwalk, Conn., will give a sociable on Thanksgiving night.

—Since January 1, Harrisburg. Pa., has had thirty-one alarms of fire. The losses have been only $10,000.

—Adirondack Murray lectured at Meriden, Conn., recently for the benefit of the firemen’s benevolent fund.

—Four persons were killed and a large number injured at a fire in a ball-room in Berlin, Germany, on November 11.

—Washington Hook and Ladder Company of Reading, Pa., recently celebrated the acquisition of a new Hayes truck.

—About thirty miles of water mains have been laid in St. Paul, Minn., this year, and forty miles are ordered for next year.

—The thirty-third annual ball of Knickerbocker Steamer Company No. 1 of Waterford, N. Y., will ta)ce place on Thanksgiving eve.

—Two men at work on the new 200-foot stand-pipe at Vincennes, Ind., fell from it to the ground last Tuesday and were fatally Injured.

—Seven persons were burned to death in a barn at Fessdorf, Moravia, November 9. Sixteen others are missing and supposed to be dead.

—F. H. Beecher, the lately elected chief of the Seymour (Conn.) Fire Department, was recently presented with a handsome diamond badge.

—A $300 indicator and gong striker is on exhibition at a Paterson (N. J.) fair. It is to be voted to a city engine, hose or hook and ladder company.

—Spartansburg, S. C., which, though provided with good fire apparatus, lacked a proper water supply system, has now contracted for waterworks.

—The Chinese steamship Takataman recently burst her boiler while running under high pressure in a gale. All hands, numbering ninety-six, perished.

—Rockland, Me., has a fire-bug. Two ineffectual attempts have been made to burn a schoolhouse, and a blacksmith’s shop was last week fired and badly damaged.

—At the recent trial of the new water-works at Little Falls, N. Y., 170 pounds pressure was shown at the hydrant, and a i}i-inch vertical stream thrown over 180 feet high. ‘

—A great part of the business portion of Monona, la., was swept by fire on Wednesday last. The loss is estimated at $35,000. It cannot be learned that the town had any fire protection.

—The little manufacturing village of Walden, N. Y., is one of the best protected in that part of the State, having a fire department consisting of a steamer, a hose and a hook and ladder company.

—The artesian water-works at Mitchell, Dak., were given a satisfactory test last week. Three lines of hose were attached to street hydrants and good streams thrown over the highest buildings.

—While the bark Alice M. Mennott was loading with cotton at West Point, Va., last week, a lamp exploded in the hold, setting fire to the cotton. The vessel was towed into the stream and scuttled.

—On November 11, Charles Hudson (colored), charged with a serious crime and fearing lynching, soaked his bed in the Sedalia (Mo.) jail with coal oil, lying on it,”set it on fire and was burned to death—The city of Vienna, Austria, is suffering from a water famine. The mains supplying hydraulic powers and baths have been cut off fora week, and the authorities are about to curtail the drinking supply.

—The volunteer fire companies of Helena, Mon., have disbanded and a new paid organization been formed, of which George W. Gibbs will h 1 fire marshal and Frank S. Lang, assistant marshal. The department will consist of an engine, a hose and a truck company, and a salvage corps. The members of the disbanded companies have organized a veteran firemen’s corps.

—Townshend, Vt., suffered from a disastrous fire on the night of November 12. The village has no fire apparatus and no aid could be sent from Battleboro, owing to a freight wreck on the railroad.

—George Parsons, a hermit, was arrested last Monday while settingfire to a house at Waltham, Mass. The house was saved and Parsons lodged in jail. His hermitage will probably remain unoccupied for some time.

—Indianapolis, Ind., had seven alarms of fire on one day last week. The chemical company at headquarters responded to five of them, covering a distance of 12 7-10 miles.

—The proposal to make the Cincinnati firemen act as policemen is being generally and justly condemned. The firemen have enough to do in attending to their proper duties, without being hampered with those of the police department.

—Five tramps were arrested at East New Brunswick, N. J., on Sunday night while enjoying themselves around a roaring fire which they had built on a barn floor. For fuel they were using the barn door, part of a fence and coal stolen from the railroad cars.

—Fire is eating its way through hundreds of acres of coal in Westmoreland county, Pa. The flames started some time ago in the shaft of the H. C. Frick Coke Company, and are now costing the company $2400 a day and keeping 800 men out of work.

—Driver John Wylie of Insurance Patrol Company No. 4 of New York, while driving rapidly to a fire last week, was swept from his seat by a wire derrick guy stretched across the street. He was fortunately not seriously injured, but don’t want to try it again.

—The citizens of Hartford, Conn., will not now, as was feared, have to resort to the use of water from the Connecticut river. On November 16 nearly 200,000,000 gallons were reported in the reservoirs and the streams again running in well, owing to the recent rains.

—We have received from the well-known veteran fireman, O. G. Marjenhoff of Charleston, a profusely illustrated pamphlet entitled “Charleston As It Is.” It contains a brief but graphic account of the earthquake and views of the ruined buildings, the camps, etc.

—Albany, N. Y„ had eighteen fire alarms during October. The losses were only $1098; covered by insurance of over $50,000. Since November 1, 1885, the city has had 315 alarms, with losses of $234,994, and insurance of about $1,500,000. The new fire alarm system, with 142 boxes, will not be completed before January.

—An exchange says that an Indian at North Tacoma, W. T., drank his first glass of soda water the other day, and liked it so much that he at once ” repeated ” nineteen times. The next day he took thirty-three more doses, when the druggist shut off the supply, fearing that he’d burst. There’s a chance for some enterprising chemical engine manufacturer, if he can find the Indian.