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Appeals, and the new Commissioners entered into and took possession of the old Fire property in this city. During the first years of the new system it was up-hill work. A body of men fixed or prejudiced in their ideas had to be molded to the new way of things. The old apparatus had to be slowly dispensed with, and the new apparatus introduced. Companies had to be organized on new principles. New engine-houses had to be built out of the old ones to accommodate the new kind of machinery and the new motive powerthe horses. It was a vast and wonderful change to inaugurate. The great opposition (and the greatest obstacle, therefore,) was furnished by large numbers of the community who sympathized with the old plan and could not be convinced of the advantages of the new.

Those things have been surmounted, and are away in the wake of the progress made by the Department. New York has a Fire Department at the present time better prepared for the performance of duty than it has been for many years. The malcontents are a few old fogies and the few disappointed ones who had private and selfish ends to gratify by the continuance of the old volunteer system, and who are now out of office and power in the new. The Legislature some years ago instituted an investigation of a most searching character into the management and affairs of the Commissioners and the Department, and failed to find anything that was the least occasion of censure, save that the Board in its economical ideas did not pay their employés enough wages out of the public money. Every feature of the system was examined, and no fault could be detected in its management, as conducted by the then Board of Commissioners. It is a significant fact that the committee, on their return to Albany, neither made a report nor adverted to the fact of the investigation at all.

The Fire Department, to a great extent, was a vast political machine run in the interest of the city "rings." It has "changed all that." It is a model which other cities are patterning after. Its machinery and apparatus are new, strong, and powerful in operation, and it has reached the period when it can successfully cope with the fires that nightly burst forth in the city. It has been said that the losses annually by fire now are greater than they used to be under the old system. But it should be remembered that the quantity of materials, goods, and property generally liable to damage at the

present time in the city is a hundred-fold greater than in years gone by, and also that the value of property has greatly increased. Thus, cotton, which was formerly worth as low as six cents, is worth in some instances five and six times as much. Hence the sum on paper seems larger, while the amount relatively and absolutely of property destroyed annually is greatly less than under the old system. It is a curious fact, despite the outcry formerly made against the Department in certain quarters, that the merchants, the insurance companies, and the property owners everywhere favored and befriended the projectors of the new system in all they did to forward its plans and objects. As a person commenting on the new system has said:

"The quietness and noiseless movements which have marked the Metropolitan firemen on their route to and from scenes of duty, have exhibited the good order so desirable and necessary to the peace of a great city to an extent in this respect that New York has never before enjoyed. Reaching the conflagration in this manner, the prompt assistance of the city police places a cordon around the scene of action that shuts out the thief, who is ever ready to spring at the tap of the bell, and but for this new feature of police at fires, would enjoy a harvest at his profession undiscovered. The large amount of money saved to the fire insurance interest by this one precautionary measure tells in a manner which all do not appreciate.

"The Fire Department in this the greatest commercial city of the continent, where immense interests of capital, trade, and a vast population are centered within a small area, is one of the gravest importance. The paid system, now in successful operation, was begun in the spring of 1865."

The Citizens' Association was one of the earliest advocates of the

paid system. The bill creating it was drawn by its counsel, and a brief statement of facts now will show the wisdom of the measure and its intimate connection with the vast interests of real estate, merchandise, and the moral well-being of the city.

It has relation, in the first place, to the large sums invested here in insurance capital. In 1860, the amount of home and foreign capital in use in this State, and nine-tenths of it was used in the city of New York, was thirty-two millions. The income of this capital over losses and expenses was about six millions. In 1870 there were fifty-one millions of capital, and twelve and a half millions of

income over losses and expenses. The increasing capital since that period shows the growing demand for insurance. While capital was augmenting, and the number of fires numerically larger, the losses under the paid system have diminished, and the ratio of income to amount of capital has largely in fire insurance increased. In natural growth of insurance-increase of new companies and augmenting capital in old ones -- the competition reduced the premium. But the efficiency of the paid Fire Department over the old, the rapidity and unerring certainty of its action, has done far more to reduce rates than competition.

The effort of the Citizens' Association to change the old system. was backed by all the underwriters and the general public sentiment of the city. Saving property in fire, and the reduction of the aggregate loss in each, was not more important than breaking up the practice of large bodies of lawless youths running to fires with the volunteers. The greater the fire, the more intense and often flagrant were the scenes of disorder. So strong was this habit when the new system went into operation, that reckless persons often cut the hose and displaced the machinery. But the new system grew steadily into favor, and in less than two years began to lessen the losses and rates of insurance.

When I first contemplated writing this book, some years ago, I was accustomed to hear doubts expressed by many regarding the thorough management and complete discipline of the present Department, and it used to be said that the boasts of its officials were nothing but buncombe. I remember the New York "Sun" at the time published a comprehensive and interesting story descriptive of the entire workings of the Department, the facts of which I personally know to be correct. The article, though a few years old, tells the story of the workings of the Department in its entirety, and is as follows:

Two days in an engine-house isn't very long, but when the visitor happens to be a reporter, with orders to accompany the engine to fires, and he has to fly down-stairs every time the alarm sounds, the two days stretch out to something like two months. With a note of introduction from Eli Bates, Chief of the Fire Department, to Foreman Crum, of Engine Company No. 4, the writer entered the engine-house in Liberty Street, opposite the Post Office, a few days ago. Outside, the house is very much like any other house; but inside it is like nothing else under the sun. In front of the two big doors stands the engine, as bright a machine and as handsome and symmetrical as ever

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was made. To the right, in the rear, is the tender, with fifteen lengths, or 750 feet, of rubber hose. In the other corner are three horses. A long line of hose stretches up through a hose-tower, the other ends being fastened just under the roof. At the house patrolman's desk, to the right of the big doors, is a dial telegraph instrument, connecting the house with the Firemen's Headquarters in Mercer Street.

"We get the alarm through that gong," said the foreman, pointing to a piece of shining brass, fifteen inches in diameter, just behind the small entrance door. "Suppose a fire is discovered at Broadway and Maiden Lane. The alarm-box at the corner is sounded. That telegraphs to headquarters. The operator who is always on duty there has before him a little bureau, with several hundred tiny drawers. The alarm says 35, and from one of the drawers he takes a brass wheel, with three notches on one side, and five on the other. This he fits into its socket, and opens the circuit. The

notches must strike 35, and there's no chance for mistake. the circuit, the strokes begin to fall on our gong.

The second that he opens

"With the first stroke, that little weight is dropped by electricity. The weight straightens out a light chain which holds the pendulum of the little clock there, and of course the clock stops. That's so that when we come back from a fire we can tell the exact minute when we got the alarm, and give the time in our report. The same stroke on the gong drops a big twenty-five pound weight down in the cellar; that weight gives a jerk to a long wire, and pulls open the springs that fasten the horses' bridles in the stalls; the same force strikes a gong over the horses' heads. The instant the horses hear the first stroke of the gong, they step out of their stalls, run to their places, and wait for the two 'snaps' to be fastened that complete the hitching up.

"How quick can we get the engine ready to go out? In about well, you'd better wait till we get an alarm, and then you can see for yourself. But if you're going to ride on the engine with us, don't waste any time in getting 'round, or you may not catch us. "Get up steam so quick?" continued the foreman. "Well, I'll show you. Of course the boiler has a great deal to do with it. There are 280 flues in the boiler, and that gives us a great deal of heating surface. But we always keep up five pounds of steam. Come down in the cellar and I'll show you how we do it."

In the cellar is a small stove, seemingly just large enough to heat an office. "There is a coil of pipes around the inside of the heater," the foreman explained. "The fire is snug up against the pipes. Those pipes that run through the floor connect the boiler with the coil in the stove; the heat keeps the water in circulation, and we always have hot water in the boiler. When we go out to a fire the engineer steps on a little spring just behind the engine, and that closes the pipes till we get back. The engineer—" Ding-ding. There is a rush on the floor above. The horses are loose, and their ironed feet make the floor shake. What has become of the foreman? He was pointing to the stove a second ago. Maybe he has gone upstairs. We'll go up and see. The gong keeps striking, and the reporter goes up into the engine-room. The foreman who was coolly explaining about the stove is arrayed in his official cap and coat. He stands by the side of the engine. The horses are attached. The driver sits in front grasping the reins. The engineer behind holds a torch, ready to start the fire. By his side is the assistant engineer. Six firemen and a driver are seated on the tender. At the big doors stands another fireman, his hand on the spring that opens the lock. The gong has struck 2, then 6; it strikes once more; the driver steps down, the horses are unhitched and trot back to their stalls, and the firemen go back to their work. "We can't tell," said the foreman, "when the gong begins to strike, whether it is going to sound for one of our stations or not. You see, it struck 261. When it struck 2, that was one of our stations, and if it had stopped there we'd have gone out. Then it struck 6, making 26, which is another of our stations; but when the 1 sounded, that showed us that the fire is at Bleecker and Macdougal streets, out of our district." “Do you get the alarm and man the engine every time there is a fire anywhere in the city?"

"Yes; if we waited till the gong stopped, to see whether we had to go out or not, we would lose some seconds, and every second counts. No matter what we are doing, night or day, when the gong strikes the engine is manned. Come upstairs and see how we live."

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