Never drop a match. Even if it is unlighted, some one may step on it and set it on fire. Keep matches in covered metal or china boxes, away from children and mice. Mice bite match heads and often set whole boxes on fire. Be careful of fire crackers. They often explode in rubbish, under wooden steps and ladies' dresses. Don't build a bonfire, or play around one, unless some grown person is watching. Don't leave little children alone in a house or a room, with a fire or a lighted lamp. If you build a camp fire anywhere be sure it is out, not a hot coal left in the ashes, before you leave it. Forest and prairie fires that have swept away towns have been started that way. Don't allow loose rubbish in basements and closets. Don't use gasoline, kerosene, naphtha, benzine, alcohol or turpentine in a room with a fire, or keep these things stored in a house. Don't try to start a fire with one of these things, or to fill a stove tank or lamp while it is burning. There are easier ways to die than by oil explosions.

Use a deep kettle, only partly full of boiling fat, for frying doughnuts. Don't force your furnace in cold weather. Overheated chimneys cause fire. Test your gas pipes and burners often, and don't look for a gas leak with a lighted match. If you can't find it with your nose, send for a plumber. Don't light lamps or gas jets near lace curtains. Watch a grate fire, or put a fender before it. Coal snaps out sometimes. Be careful of punk and incense sticks. Don't put candles on a Christmas tree. They look pretty, but they are dangerous. Maybe you can think of some more don'ts. Yes, here is another. Don't air bed clothes, or put flower pots on the fire escape. It may be needed any minute. Besides, it is against the law to block a fire escape, and you could be punished for it. Here are some "dos" to remember about fire.

When you move into a new neighborhood, find out the nearest fire alarm box, the first thing. It will be painted red, and have a red light above it at night. Ask a policeman how to send in an alarm. If you have a telephone, put down the number of the nearest engine house and police station, so you can call for help, if you can't get out of a burning house. Study all the possible ways of getting out of a house. If it is a tenement or apartment building, with a fire escape, see if the escape is kept clear. If other tenants block up the escape, tell a policeman and have it stopped. -See if the school is safe, and has fire drills. If not, refuse to send your children into a fire-trap, and arouse public feeling about it, so the school will be made safe.

When you go to a theater, public hall, church gallery, department store or factory, mark the EXIT and the red light nearest you. If a fire starts make your way out quietly. Don't scream or push in a crowd. A panic is easily started, and more people are killed by falling and being trodden on than by the fire. Talk cheerfully to people near you. Tell them how quickly a big school house is emptied in a fire drill. Help old people and children. If you are stopping in a hotel, locate the stairways, the elevator and the fire escape from your room. If there isn't a coil of stout rope in your room, long enough to reach the ground, ask the clerk for one.

A small fire can be smothered. You know fire cannot burn without air. If your clothing catches fire, roll up in a rug or heavy bed clothes. If out of doors roll on the ground. A boy's or man's thick coat will often put out a small fire. Pull a blazing curtain down and smother the flame. Throw a mattress on a burning floor. If you are caught in a burning house get out, if you can, without going through flames and smoke. When air is full of smoke the oxygen is burned out, so it can not be breathed. That is why people fall and are killed by smoke, even when the flame does not touch them. The best air is always near the floor, so you would better crawl. If you cannot get out, close the doors between you and the fire, go to a window, open it and stand there and scream for help. Then wait for the firemen. Don't jump. You can lower yourself from a second or even third story window, by a rope made by tearing sheets in wide strips, knotting them together and tying one end to a bed post. You can let a child down by such a rope.