Being, to a large extent, without homes, they are able to vote early and often, without regard to the penalties for fraudulent voting. This may explain why so large a share of firemen are in the Common Council. Because it involves an immense waste of time and labor. Four hundred men would be more efficient than four thousand can be. The time of three thousand six hundred men would be saved by a reorganization, and might be, if the men were willing, devoted to valuable productive uses.
Every fire is a mob and a riot under the present system.
These extracts afford an intelligent insight into the temper of the times. Every passion was running high. The volunteers died hard. They fought to hold their Organization with that tenacity of purpose and grim resolve which so characterized them as firemen. There are a number of smaller items, some arrearages, etc., not reckoned in the above, but which properly belong to the expense of the department, and the Common Council takes the liberty of ordering our expenditures at its pleasure, whether there be an appropriation or not, so that it is difficult to say what the service will cost in any year.