Show reminiscences of an old now york fireman the pride aril ard ambit loa of each oro company says aay mr zophar mills 11 were to bo be the tha first to tench reach a lire fire and tho the must efflO lOnt ju in putting it out ont wo we had as an lovo love for that as we vo poa possibly sibly could have for anything else wo we would leave our ba baseness siness our din nir ner our anything end rush for the fm en gino tile the night bight I 1 was wan getting married there wall a ft ire re I 1 con boull ld seo see it nul find I 1 wanted to go immediately immo but bat the next licit morning early before break breakfast fist thra there wad er lire fire and I 1 went to that 80 you may judge how wo liked it it we tied had a parade wo we paid tile ilia expenses our salves wa always paid fur for tho paint ing repairing and decorating of our engines engin tem engine no 11 13 to which I 1 belonged was silver bliver plated tho the unit first that was waa BO ao at acost of 2000 wo didat iak ask the 0 corporation to foot fiot tho the bill I 1 kept an account of 0 my vs ex in fit connection with the liro fire de be ment aud and I 1 found that in fit seven years I 1 bal ha paid in 10 charity in in clothing and in incidentals mr W L iTen Joli kir kizo president ident of tho liick bink of america was a member of engine company no ila 13 many of its othor mom moia bora bers were Qa quakers akers there few dougha rou on gha lynthen theia al ai in modera times timea nor were nero thoro there any sala eala ing ned except in the case or of the chief E ri gincer und and tonii r fly of the tha assistant engineers ara firemen I 1 fo men now ore aro liberally compensated they got gat a your year each and aro are retired on balf pay if infirm otter after ton ten years est vice many still and many a timo time IHYO have I 1 worked my breath out while pumping old ol 01 1 thirteen mail and lain laia in ill the ilo street awl an I 1 jumped up again and eliod the brakes because thern thera was no BO one to t take a ko M my place the city was not ilion iboa divided into districts I 1 once went from this thin very building rin ia front street near wall to astoria la 1811 and four foar frame buildings whose were already burned OR when tile alarm sounded bounded I 1 thought the liro fire was somewhere up in the bowery I 1 run ran dear nearly ly all tho the way to tho efell gate ferry at eighty gioth street and then crossed cronben the river 11 at it ft firo fire in in docka drug store in pearl street near fultor on tho the lot lat of july I 1 hall hal a narrow escape the building wits was high and all of 0 it above tho the second story etory was consumed leaving only the gable gabla walle standing standi EDIT ag several fire firemen mou utter offer the flames hail been extinguished were ordered to take their hose base up to the tha second story and play upon tho the debris in ia order to pro i ro vent sparks from flying shoat about an soil 1 alro from smoldering As I 1 stood there tit nt six BH bolock in tho the morning with two or three of ny my men I 1 AUCI denly SAW one of the high gable walle wall aprea 1 out lao a blanket bl ankot and coming down upon us my aly only chance was to turn my back and take it there wits wan no tinia time to run rtin I 1 was wait hat flat ot of course by the falling failing mass maia of brick anil and sida RUB forced through the belond story hooi floor land also through the first story floor into tho the collar cellar I 1 remember rinsing raising myself on my elbows and then getting up anil and walking out after if having gone through two floors with that wall on top of me ino why it kill me I 1 dont don t know it was Provid providence enco a mir role eugene bagwe underhill and frederick A ward who tood a law few feet from mo me and were holding the hose pipe pille wore instantly killed john T nall and william 11 hillips two other fire bremen in en 0 m a tile tho a aada I 1 me hour i lumped a aped out of a window and one oco of theca t ju landed upon a fence and wits was bd bad ly injured i wore a tin trumpet alwan awang g across my back and aud mv my flesh ill in consequence was black and blue for six months my cap call aas riot not dug daig out of the lie cellar until evening eve n lug the iho former foreman forer of thirteen who wits waa on the tha story advising us was Bt anding up to his bis nook in in hot bricks bricka so BO hot us as to burn some of ill too tons and A brikka brit iks length off the tha oil f of hid it ii log leg in consid consideration aeration of his mid to till ne he was madette made tho first drat lire fire boll linger of the city ko ile lived tor for thirty years yeara after that chief engineer galick di displayed S great presence presen oo 0 of mind in the ibo emergency his first order was waa won to la rile no ia 17 which liia as working near tho the fire to tako take off tho the tail screw lot let the water oat ant of the tha box bos and then pump air into tho the ruing the men were digging all day tor for their buried comrades soil and for the tha bodies of poor underhill and ward who stood not fifteen feet away from me ma whoa when the tha wall fell Is 11 without warning we wore w ore playing I 1 witching washing down as ai we cill called id it the object being thoroughly to put pat out the fire that lingered in the attah oat cot ton toll licud and to BO on we coad considered dered that tho ill s fire re w was as pretty much out and wore vioto only giving a few to tuu clie thirteen afterward erected a in marblo fit ble monument to underhill Undo ruiH and ward in the come tery in carmine street appo site 8 its barlek r harpers I 1 far pers magazine |