LONDON AND AMERICAN FIREMEN.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2486, 16 June 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

LONDON AND AMERICAN FIREMEN.

Within the past few years there has been a keen competition between the various cities of the older world to establish the most efficient fire brigades possible. A London fireman is generally a British sailor by origin, used to climbing and with a head on his shoulders. He has to learn very many sensible things at the head office before he is drafted off to a field of farther public usefulness elsewhere. He has to climb up ladders to the top of five-storeyed houses ; lie has to run like a cat among chimney-pots and crawl about roofs ; he has to study the mechanics of ladders, • lgines, andescapes ; he has to learn how to carry a lifeless form from a giddy height down a narrow ladder; he has to study the art of hoisting on his shoulders a dead, dying, or fainting form ; he has to be told how to tie a " chair-knot" with an ordinary length of rope, and, in addition, to know how to use it; and, nastiest job of all he has to stand on a narrow window-sill of a second-floor window, and jump into a canvas sheet extended for his use by his earnest and encouraging companions. But how can all this be done, peacefully, during the intervals of fires, in the busy headquarters of the Sonthwark Bridgeroad ? They surely cannot inprovise fires, or turn on false smoke and flames, or collect amateur crowds or rehearse the terrible din they will hear, by-and-by, when a "call" summons these fine fellows to a post of danger ! No ; they cannot exactly do all that; but in a convenient quadrangle, where the firemen have their quarters, THE RECRUITS

who have joined from sea duties can gain a very fair practical acquaintance with the ordinary duties and difficulties of a fireman's life. We know that at a fire, in all circumstances, the window should be kept shut. When a fireman enters down goes the window. We understand the trick of carrying a fainting form, have been instructed in the art of tying a "chair-knot," and have had some experience of its usefulness by being hoisted into the air by an improvised chair which a child could tie. The only portion of the drill which the recruit fights shy of is the jump from the window into the sheet. He can swarm up. but he does not like looking down. A little encouragement and chaff from the " pals " below usually gires courage; and, once down there is no further difficulty. But when a man is found to be disinclined to jump in cold blood he is never forced to do so. He retires, and tries again another day. But it makes a vast difference when life is at stake, and a roaring fire behind the hesitating figure. Then it is the greatest difficulty to prevent man or woman from jumping. As a rule, they fling themselves out even from top storeys before the brave firemen can prevent them.

THE MOST INTERESTING FEATURE of a London fireman's life is its handiness and comand of varied accompishments. With the exception of the men who drive the horses at such a prodigious pace, each fireman is in himself a complete epitome of fireman's knowledge. He can work a telegraph, speak through a telephone, keep books and make out reports, carpenter, splice a hose, mend a fireengine, feed a boiler, scale a ladder, jump out of a second-floor window, and risk his life like a brave fellow in the noble duty which he follows, and whose awful responsibilities he never shirks. His sailor's life has trained him to be ready on any emergency, to do without regular sleep, to be smart and active at the call of duty to understand the value of discipline, and to obey orders; but, like the soldier or sailor, he has inherited from his forefather* a noble disregard of danger, and a sacrifice of all personal consideration for the public good, which were onoe the characteristics of most Englishmen. The fireman, as a body, are men of whom we may well be proud, for in addition to to their fine physique and undaunted courage, they are the proved possessors of that innato tenderness end

CARE FOR THE HELPLESS which are the best features of a naturally brave nature. In London, a« in the Sydney Metropolitan Fire Brigade, numbers of married men are engaged; while in American cities single men are preferred. IK CHICAGO a series of novel devices has been adopted to reduce to a minimum the time necessary to get out of bed and reach the fire. The dormitory of the men is on the necond floor, directly over the room where tho patrol-wagon and horses are kept in readiness, and communicating with the ladder by trapdoors and short stepladdew, The beds are placed in a circle j the feet converging toward a common centre. From the wall over the centre of this circle hangs a pulley; and from this pulley radiate cords attached to the bedolothe* covering each eleeper. The electric shock which gives the fire-alarm also loosens and lets fall a weight attached to the pulley, whereupon the bedolothes are suddenly jerked into the air. Simultaneously the trapdoor flies up; and tho step ladders drop into their places automatically. The men tumble out of bed, and swarm down tho ladders; each taking his allotted place in the patrol wagon, to which the trained horses are already harnessed. Off they go, like the wind ; the men putting on their clothes as they are whirled through the etreetß to the fire. Quicker work than this is inconceivable, unless the patrolmen be made to sleep in the mouths of loaded cannon, to be aimed and fired at the sound of the alarm. It is evident that Chicago does not mean to be surprised by another conflagration.

IS NEW TORK the firemen have to pass the Civil Service examination with the view of proving their physical powers and their knowledge of the work they are required to do; and no candidate is admitted into the brigade unless We has passed to the satisfaction of the examiners.