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Show 5 JSS3 T H E ' FIRE ENGINE DRIVER I II f BY WILLIAM ALLEN JOHNSTON. ''f Copyright. lOOt). by tho Now York Herald I" Co. All Rights Reserved. ;l .To tho rear of tho spacious ground t." . , floor of the Great Jones ntreot stntion I . stands in patient, watchful array, a I1 t lino of fire aids whom Chief Croker I , ' styles "tho boat arm of tho eorvico " :' 1 There aro nine of them at this stn- p. " ' lion, all of thoni bays with white nosos, j' , t, all of them proonusd till their flanks I , pliston. all of thoni Boarrcd by tho I y hard knocks of sorvico, all or them I ' loved and reaped ed by every inmato Ij; ; of tho biff, busy station'houee, from tho U' urchin who hovors admiringly about the ft!, 7 front doors up to tho firo chief him- "' j Directly over their hoada as thoy r stand broastiiiff the rubbor-bouud chains $ of their stalls are those names in ffilt ' ri letters on swinirinff wooden Biffns: j' "John," "Dick," rJoc," "Charlie," J f "Georpc," "Tom." "Stovo." "Dan," k' . "Frank" and "Hob." Lt J Thoy are "first raters' all of thorn k , i and firo fiffhtors true and tried, from LV j tho instant tho ffonp clangs till thoy , ', coma rolling homo with hoavinff sidoa ; " and distended nostrils. "That Joe," ' ij says r.ho captain fondly, "you can't Si hitch wrong. Put him anywhere on- i' ffino, tender, middlo or sides and ho '11 t work liko ho filled tho place all his lifo. t That Dick is a bitnr look out for him but he's a wonder on tho 'roll." 1'-' That John" and so tho merit marks :,,, I ffo on. But tho captain stopped lonp- Mi, I est at the middlo stall before a heavy Hif bay with four white feet. Tho "Gcorpo i'l' , horse," thoy call him, and his fame is Known tnroupnout tlio department. He hasn't tho sleek, rounded sides of tho i younger horses he is fourtoen years l' - old and has been in sorvico nine hard !)' $ years but ho wears the cool, indiffcr- rjt, .J ont look of tho veteran and ne stands M j over in a characteristic pose, ono foot j, forward, ready for the straightesl, L') 1 swiftest dash to tho polo and harness, , , ij and ho bears long scars upon his breast J I and forelegs, whore onco tho flesh must i j havo hung in strips, i ' Which brings us to that big engine , , that stands to the fore of tho station I ' houso, and thence upstairs to a drivor who walks with a limp and whoso es-t es-t capo from death in a wild rido one night seems little short of miraculous. I That angino is a veteran, too, battle- ; ecarrod and worn. ' The whole front i part of her has been built anew out of , twisted stool and now parts. But she r.till stands up to her name of "six ton F , extra first.' 'and under tho last test ; j of tho underwriters she pumpod one thousand gallons a minute, which was her highest capacity the day she came m,t or. the shops. The captain speaks iondly of her also, just as he does of Oeorgo or any other objects, animate 1 . r inanimate, with character and moro v i aan human faithfulness in them. On tho baoc of th bff upright nickeled nick-eled boiler there aro two deep dents, one three inches long and narrow and I ine other almost round and quite as deep. "That lone one," said tho captain cap-tain gravely, "was made bv the ongi-, ongi-, neer's helmet Engineer Tc"ckler ho 's , here now. The other dont, the round I 1 .u Tvas made by tho chin of the as- sist ant foreman, who was riding on the H steps." j "Ilis chin!" Such a blow, It seems, must have driven a jawbone into the base of tho skull. "Was ho killed?'' ! ,'fA nr" said tho captain casilv; .lust knocked unconscious. First wc thought ho was thought his neck was broken -causo ho wiggled so. But he I came out all right." l ' Bllfc tu8 is getting ahead of tho r i story. 9" minitrnt. a zero cold ono in ( J'nbrnnr' Inst- -uon-r -fhor- i- i 1 "re at Tenth street and Third nvo- 7 nue Driver Corbett in tho seat and- llireo bays plunging in their collar's Dick tho nigh horse, Frank in tho mid-" mid-" , file and veteran George on the off i side. ' The gong was good till tho big "six M -ion" roached Seventh street, whero I suddenly the nigh horse "spread." A snap hook in front had broken and, the holding powor of the harness gone, ho swerved far out. They wero just skirting the iron pil- lars of tho "I" road at that moment. 1 md Driver Corbett made a quick, fren zied effort to whip in his horeo with a swoop of ono rein. At the same time veteran George, cool headed, quick of i! ' thought and action, threw his powerful shoulders sidowise and lungod with all , Ins weight in an effort to swing with . liis heavy mates out from that deadly i . line of iron posts. . Even in that brief thrilling moment j Corbett saw and sensed tho wonderful , animal's quick comprehension and j . otrategy, and a soft light comes now to his eyo as he speaks of it. "Aw, ,,; no did noble!" Raid ho softlr. t But it couldn't bo done, " Ono post , they passed and another, but the third ; caught poor Dick head on, and he dropped like a shot with a frnctured skull. His fall swept the reins from the driver's hands and left him pow-, pow-, , erleeB. Worse still, the cling of Dick's f traces and the tilt of the wheels over f his body swung the rushing engina in- and full on toward another post. 3 "Thud!" This time it was j '.'Frank's" head agninst the pillar: ; and then "Crash! bang!" tho massive j ' engine rodo over his body and crump- ? led np beforo the. terrific impact of I I Eteel against iron. Then "George" did that act that is talked about today in tho fire house dormitories when tho taps of the gong nre far between and the gossip turns to horses. That sudden stoppage of the engine threw him back upon his haunches .aud a swinging whiffletrce tore a ragged holo in his breast as his forefeet rose high in tho air. But his traces parted, and with only that momentary check in his headlong course ho galloped straight on, head up, nostrils distended and cool, steady eye fixed upon that building three " blocks ahead whoso windows wero belching smoke aud flames. ne was doing his duty, that's all, as he interpreted it plunging on to his everyday goal, tho blaze ahead, even though ho waa alone and tho only remaining conscious part of his outfit of men, horses and mechanism. At his goal's end he drew up besido a hydrant, faced tho fire as if in challenge, chal-lenge, whinnied londly for the bine-shirted bine-shirted figures ho was accustomed to and now could not find anywhere, and then, wheeling, ho trotted back to his fallen mates and stood quivering beside be-side them, his own blood mixing with theirs. "There's a horeo," said the captain tersely, "and," he might havo added, "a fireman." When the tonder of engine No. 33 f alloned up to the scene of tho ncci-ent ncci-ent it found a terrific wreck. To the rear lay the engineer and assistant foreman, fore-man, both stunned by tho crack of thoir heads against tho boiler. That boiler was all that remained intact of engine No. 3 .'I. The wholo front of it, from tho steel dashboard back, waH completely telescoped. It took tho com-bined com-bined power of two trolloy cars to pull it back from its tangled grip on tho pillar, itself twisted and broken. Up the rear, swaying back and forth and enduring such pain as few men could bear and yet livo, was Driver Corbett. Cor-bett. One leg from the knee down was caught and held, crushed and flattened, in that donso tanglo of steol. Ho wa3 conscious, and for forty minutes ho sat thqro with his pain till they bent tho twisiod uiotal away from his maimed limb. I havo ofton heard it stated that in such sovero injurios the nerves nro completely paralyzod and little pain is felt ut first, and I asked Corbett if this was true. IIo shook his hend earnostly. "Oh, no, Bir. Slio hurt from the first hurt bad. You 6oe. tho bono was brokon in throo places from tho knee down all multiplo fractures, thev called them. Tho anklo was bad. Tho bones stuck right through the shoe and tho front part of my foot was turned back toward to-ward tho heel." Itt is quite remnrkablo that Corbett survived at all; it is still mor3 roinark-ablo roinark-ablo that his leg was saved. For two weeks he lay in the hospital sleepless and racked with pain while the surgeons sur-geons toiled over hira and pioced together to-gether tho splintered bones and torn flesh. Whoever they woro, they did an unusnal and most skilful pieco of work. Corbett hobbles about the station sta-tion now on firo duty ho will nevor drivo again but ho has two good legs under him. Practically every driver in the service ser-vice had previous experienco with horsos, generally in somo branch of city delivery work, beforo ho beenmo a fire truck or cngino driver. There is a vast difference, however, between delir ,ery driving and firo driving; also a fire driver's success depends very largely large-ly upon his knowledge of his horses and their knowlodgo of him, so he begins be-gins training the moment ho entors the sorvico, generally by driving home from fires. The lifo is a thrilling one. There's not a station in tho city that has not its drivers' stories stories of horses swung into " L " pillars to savo tho lives of children in tho streets, stories where drivers havo endangered their lives and almost lost them m attempts to sayo their horses for the bond of affection is a verj' close, enduring ono betwoen tho men and horses of tho firo engines. It would seem as if tho driver's scat wero dangerous enough, but he must take other risks than this, and the call to extra duty comes vory often. His place at tho firo is with his horsos, except ex-cept when the unforeseen happens and sometimes without orders and often alono and unaided. Late ono night, just shortly aftor I had left a station houso in the Bowery Bow-ery district, the engine rolled out to a firo in Chinatown. Tho bluzo was a weird sight. Tho denizens of the strange littlo Asiatic city, mindful of n recent murder committed by one of their people nnd fearful that their ancestral an-cestral gods were therefore wreaking vengeance on thorn, made tho night a pandemonium with their cries and gibbering, gib-bering, squeaking voices. A restaurant known as "Cheap John's," a lodging house, a brass store and a Chinese hospital were involved. Prom tho latter building a file of policemen po-licemen and firomon camo in a strange, &Heut procession, carrying huddled burdens bur-dens of the blind, the lamo and tho paralytic inmates. Tho houses for tho most part were wooden, and burned liko tinder, with sudden back draughts of brilliant flnmo that lit up the outlandish out-landish scene with irroat eerio flushes. It was quick work all around. Somo twenty Chinamen wore rescued from a firo escape which wn3 heating up so rapidly that those who wero crowded agninst tho iron railing screamed with pain as the hot metal- scared their flesh, and were led into the smoke fillod room and out through tho main hall. An instant, later the building was a volcano of flame, and the firomcn wero ransacking the adjoining restaurant restaur-ant for other panic stricken inmates. Out iu front of the burning lodging .house stood Driver Decker besido his horscn and Deputy Chief Guenn. who was directing his men with an all seeing see-ing eye and sharp orders. A crowd ot Celestials surrounded thorn jabbering, so tho chief thought, with tho panic symptoms that usually go wjth a Chinatown Chin-atown firo. Finally one, who could speak a little English, clutched the arm of Driver Decker and pointed up to a firo escapo landing on the fourth floor. "See!" hp appealed. "Two niorot Savo, quick! ' ' Driver Decker looked up, and as the flamcB and smoke curled away for an instant ho mado out tho huddled forms of a man and a woman crouching down inertly before a firo bleching window. Either thev wore unconscious or else stolidly thev chose a roasting death to rescue They mado no outcries, nor any attempt nt escape. That fire escape was like a red hot grill, rt was out of tho question to climb it- T5nt there was another one 0 nan adjoininc building, with a small cornico coniicclint: tho two. He sprang and cnught tho latter escapo and climbed climb-ed it, followod by a muscular patrolman. patrol-man. From the fourth story landing he could jump by an effort to tho other landing, where he could see tho two figures in their halo of flame, but there was that red-hot grill. A flimsy cornico intervened, nlread" blistering and cracklinrr with heat. That was the only bridge across. Would it hold 7 Could ho make it? Woll. there was a chance. He gave a signal to tho chief bolow and started for it. That signal was for water ;wator to cool tho grill, to savo the cornice while he needed it for a footing to Havo his own clothes from the flames that leapod about him. Jt was prcttj' work for tho mon below be-low to play that heavy stream about him and yet not knock him off his frail perch. But they did it safely, somehow, and Decker did his part. Two minutes later, while tho crowd bolow cheered excitedly, Decker and the patrolman pa-trolman camo slowly down the tire escape, es-cape, each with a burden in his arms, the last inmates of tho lodging house, which all but collapsed as they reached the street. But these experiences nre comomn; ovcrv fire driver could add to tho list of stories. So, too, could the horses if they were able to talk. Veteran "Goorco" had another scrape besido the ono cited, in which tho two horses hitched with him were killed. Time and again a singlp horse has suffcrod death besido him. It would seom only simple charity to retire re-tire this faithful animal now from the dangerous post ho has tilled so well for so many yoars. But Captain Hughes laughed at the suggestion. "Ho'h too good a horse," said ho, and ho added: "'He wouldn't bo happy if wo did. Last year we sent him to another station for a rest. but ho took sick homosickncEsTf all it was and wc had to.brinl back. He was glad to cct bal right. Shook hands all arounl then bcan to eat his oats M well ns over.'.' va Upstairs the, captain showed '3 medals his horses cot in the lastH horse parade. It was characteriSi him and of other firemen that liea exhibit these medals first, and pij and his own later and only afterTj ond request. lt is a Bennett modal andfcim "Vor meritorious services," ! with a fireman means, "For hcrri "What did you do?" I askei Tho captain looked sneaky ant conscious, like a schoolboy injt' oxercisos. "Oh, I brought downf man and five children," said hoTi but the records give n fuller di tion. It happoncd some years apjjj Captain" Ilughos was plain .TohnlJ drivor for tho present lire chiei was then a deputy. Thoy wore t back from a Washington sirea when the chief 's quick eyo saw and flames streaming out of'Va story window at 170 Greenwich!; They stopped and tho drivor j down. "Do whnt yon can," tt chief, and drovo swiftly to thoTj firo alarm box. ia Driver Hughes did what he which, as firemen interpret it:4 simple duly. Ho climbed aij spout to tho firo escapo and) swiftly upward toward where aj ziod mother and livo childron str their arms to him. - They woro not at tho fire escuj dow that was filled with flamo'S ironwork was blistering hot but' adjoining one, toward which 1 using elbows and knees ngainstti iron, worked his painful and.c ous'way and began stolidly his v rescue ' Twice ho was all but hurled fj porch, but a leg twisted about tl der saved him. First tho oldoi insane with foaT, jumped wildly! and all but broke his hold. Ag nearly fell with the strngglingf; in his arms. Ho had to, tear the! est child, 's arms from tho mother1 to get her out and down, and tl dreu, two at a time, he carried'! across tho cornice. & It was quick, hard work for oi to do. Thoy know about thesa! in tho department, and Hughes? was quickly promotod and sunt tho lino to tho captaincy ho nayi This is tho only way the depii praises. 4: It was dangerous, heroic wbr Thoro wero thrilling moments! rescue, a good description off would hold the breath in suspen tho records never speak of tn tore and you would never gel from Captain Hughes. |
