The burning house was small and quite disengaged from others, and as there was no wind there was no danger of a serious conflagration.  The Chief of Police directed the movements of his men.  The latter worked their engines vigorously, but though the carts kept in active motion the supply of water was not equal to the demand.  For some time it seemed doubtful which would triumph, the flames or the police.  Fortune favored the brave.  The building was saved, though in a condition of incipient charcoalism.

The Chief of Police wore his full uniform and decorations as the law requires of him when on duty.  During the affair he was thoroughly spattered with water and covered with dirt and cinders.  When he emerged he presented an appearance somewhat like that of a butterfly after passing through a sausage machine.  A detachment of soldiers came to the spot but did not form a cordon around it.  Every spectator went as near the fire as he thought prudent, but was careful not to get in the way.  Two or three thousand officers, soldiers, merchants, exiles, moujiks, women, boys, and beggars gathered in the street to look at the display.

The Russian fire engines and water carts with their complement of men, and each drawn by three horses abreast, present a picturesque appearance as they dash through the streets.  The engines at Irkutsk are low-powered squirts, worked by hand, less effective than the hand engines used in America twenty or thirty years ago, and far behind our steamers of the present day.  In Moscow and St. Petersburg the fire department has been greatly improved during the past ten years, and is now quite efficient.

The markets of Irkutsk are well supplied with necessaries of life.  Beef is abundant and good, at an average retail price of seven copecks a pound.  Fish and game are plentiful, and sell at low figures.  The rebchik, or wood-hen, is found throughout Siberia, and is much cheaper in the market than any kind of domestic fowl.  Pork, veal, and mutton are no more expensive than beef, and all vegetables of the country are at corresponding rates.  In fact if one will eschew European luxuries he can live very cheaply at Irkutsk.  Everything that comes from beyond the Urals is expensive, on account of the long land carriage.

Champagne costs five or six roubles a bottle, and a great quantity of it is drank.  Sherry is from two to seven roubles according to quality, and the same is the case with white and red wines.  The lowest price of sugar is thirty copecks the pound, and it is oftener forty-five or fifty.  Porter and ale cost two or three roubles a bottle, and none but the best English brands are drank.  The wines are almost invariably excellent, and any merchant selling even a few cases of bad wine would very likely lose his trade.  Clothes and all articles of personal wear cost about as much as in St. Louis or New Orleans.  Labor is neither abundant nor scarce.  A good man-servant receives ten to fifteen roubles a month with board.