It is
not at all uncommon for a cabman to earn four or five shillings of a
night by driving fast to the different stations and giving the alarm,
receiving a shilling from each for the "call."
In most Continental cities a watchman takes his stand during the night
on the topmost point of some high building, and gives notice by either
blowing a horn, firing a gun, or ringing a bill. In Germany the
quarter is indicated by holding out towards it a flag by day, and a
lantern at night. It immediately suggests itself that a sentinel
placed in the upper gallery of St. Paul's would have under his eye the
whole Metropolis, and could make known instantly, by means of an
electric wire, the position of a fire, to the head station at
Watling-street, in the same manner as the Americans do in Boston.
This plan is, however, open to the objection, that London is
intersected by a sinuous river, which renders it difficult to tell on
which bank the conflagration is raging. Nevertheless we imagine that
the northern part of the town could be advantageously superintended
from such a height, whilst the southern half might rest under the
surveillance of one of the tall shot-towers on that bank of the
Thames.
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