So he stays—­and does all the harm he can before his fate, whatever it may be, overtakes him.

It is also his belief that if he is killed in battle his sins are forgiven him, and he will go straight to Paradise; so he has no fear of the fight, and makes a very stubborn and dangerous foe.

In the mean while, the Sultan of Turkey has a little business of his own on hand.

He is very much annoyed at the length of the conference of the Powers about the reforms he is to be asked to make.

All the dead walls of Constantinople, where the Ambassadors are meeting, have been covered with placards and posters of a character to enrage the common people, and make them turn their thoughts to fresh massacres.

It is said on good authority, that the placards come from the Sultan, and have been posted by his orders.

It is also said that he hopes to provoke the people and cause fresh rioting, and so break up the conference which so much annoys him.

Another massacre may be expected any moment.

* * * * *

There is a movement on foot in New York, to prevent any more of the very high buildings being put up.

It seems that no one has any idea of the danger from high buildings.

The Board of Trade and Transportation, which is trying to get a bill passed in Albany, preventing any further work of this sort being done, asked the Chief of the Fire Department to come before it and give his opinion of these high structures.

He told the committee, that at the present time the Fire Department could not fight a fire in any of these tall buildings.  He said that none of the engines owned by the department could throw a stream of water higher than 125 feet from the ground, and that all floors over that height would have to be left to burn.

All the very high buildings are supposed to be fire proof, and Chief Bonner was asked what he thought about them.  He laughed, and said there was no such thing as a fire-proof building, and that in fact the iron-framed structures, supposed to be fire-proof, were perhaps a little more dangerous than the old style of brick building.  He said that these frames become heated and bend, pulling the walls down, so that they fall much more quickly than they used to, and make the firemen’s work more difficult.

The only absolutely fire-proof building that he knew of was the Public Library in Boston, where there was no wood at all used in the building—­the doors and window frames even being of iron.  He was sure that so long as wood was used in the construction of any part of a building, it was quite impossible to call it fire-proof.

Several architects were asked to give their opinions, and also some engineers who had made a study of the laws of health.

These men were all agreed that high buildings were unsanitary—­which means bad for the health—­and that they made all the lower buildings around them unsanitary too, by shutting off the light and air, and making them dark, and inclined to be damp.