The Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Scott Co., Iowa) 1841-185?, 1853-11-24

1 4
And the let them lie, on their feathers warm,
While my little chick lies here on my arm
From the y. Y. Tribune.
THE FIREMAN's FUNERAL.
| On Saturday last our City was stirred
with the terrible news that two fremen had
died in the discharge Of their dutv-had
been crushed, stifed, charred into corpses-
d moment before in the strength and glory
of YOUTH Terrible fate! What more is
martyrdom at the stake-fames eating up
the heartstrings and the nnermost marrow
of the bones, and grinding out agonies typ
| ical of the tortures of the damned! Alas.
alas, in the big business maelstrom of this
great City, with its fierce suction of one
thousand immigrants daily from Europe,
the old and the distant-of the traveller and
speculator too. from thirty-one domestic en-
pires in the linked-Ioves of interests, prides
and hopes-how little do we think Of the
sublmity and the sadness of the spectacle
before us! Where now are the resonant
voices calling on their comrades to do or
die; where are their manly muscles wreaked
in enthusiastic strength on the forlorn hope
of dashing up slippery ladders, cutting away
flaming timbers, out-brazening the very ter
rOrS OF neil ltseI.
Yes, on Sunday we witnessed the very
elimination of heroism, equal 20 such as
was inundated The flames had done their
worst. Tall, gaunt and SCARED, like a
pauper grenadier of many wars, stood trem.
bling the lofty leavings oftwo walls. There
they shivered and smoked, coquetting with
the ruin near at hand, ready to fall IN Lead
en- wrath on those underneath. But did the
firemen fy! They were the soldiers Of the
] forlorn hope. 1t was necessary not to leave
those palsied fragments OF attenuated walls
to come crashing down against houses OF
passers-by, but they must be pulled. down
How to do it! Measuring them with an en-.
gineer's skill, it was found that the chances
were they would at one single angle left
bear ladder. So fire-lalder turret-high
was placed-.nd up bounded in destruc-
tion's face young man named Farnham-
nj ncknamed The Pony, from his prowess.-
Coolly and CONSIDERABLY he goes to work.
He prepares his lasso. He throws it around
the noddng bully of smoldering savagery.
/ It is arranged 50 that his coagitors on the
neghboring houses can catch the ends OF
the ropes Then he takes satisfied survey
of his work, and without furry slides, with
feet clutching the sides of the ladder, from
1 the dizzy height to the ground. There is
no cheering at this. That he should expose
his life: that he should work artistically
seems to be taken for matter of course.
And now commences the task of shaking
the towering wall-relics 50 that they may
fall to the best advantage. "Clear the way
there." roars the engineer from his trumpet,
"it may fall in that direction" With pom
derous pulls tug the firemen from the cir
cumambient heights. Which way shall the
| first wall 90 down! In the street! Why it
will show er havoc among the nesting houses
of the narrow streets! whirring crash
takes place outside; but it is only warning.
The wall is so moved that the final indula-
ton is succeeded by plunge into the will
derness of hot and murky debris within,
and the neighboring shops and domlciles are
unharmed Now comes the attack on the
1.-THE and lofty remnant of wall Immediately
at the corner of Nassau sts. The stones
are loosened yet more; they fall in hail like
thickness on the City lamps beneath. But
the rebound has been rightly calculated.
The mass again falls inward; the engineer
ing has been perfect. The grave has been
sated, this time. No more lives are lost.
Two iiremen, however, are certainly kill
ed. They have died for their country as
much so as Warren or lawrence. Where
are their apotheosis, Where is their record
| in Hstoryl Where is the momento for
them at the Capitol. Empty questions these
They died only for the glory oipeace. They
died to save the materia!ised values of col
lossal industry. They died to drag from the
frantic flames the worlds centred wealth of
the great metropolis of the great country
They died to stop the gulph Of destruction
into which, but for such skill and courage,
would have been hurled this whole city and,
perchance, from the omniverous opening,
not one home, or hearth, or altar left! Think
of that, stranger, when you visit the tire
mans grave. Drop a tear for him, though
Haunting fame, and rowdy record know him
not. Think of his fate, too, when the gal
liant rei-shirts run or walk, work or parade
through the streets. For as he perished,
must martyrs suffer again. Out of four
thousand fremen in New York, there is at
least the average of one killed every year,
(there were four this year,) and the wounded
count by tens and twenties. Here, then,
is an army, sworn to do and die, and it does
! both There are forty-tive engine compa-
nies, and fiftv-tour hose companies, thirteen
lnook-dHu-lhuuSI tOiipaHics, anu tiftt ny
drant companies, forming the entire force
devoted to the City's safety.
Yesterday the nartyred firemen were
buried In the mourntul measure OF death
music-in the gloomy panoply OF funeral
| parade--in the traternal display oEthousands
of their grieying asSociates-slowly, heavily,
drearily wended the procession. Here was
no sham. No technica! hypocrisy; no hol-
low show; no COURT" compliance: but genu,
inc manly grief--the grief of those who
were of the same family; the same electrical
flashes of courage, skill, devotion heroism
in the proud philanthropes Of the tireman>s
mission, but two days before bound them