New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1853-01-11
THE FTRE.ME.N@ s CHARITABLE
.4SSOCLfTTON

.dSSOCLfTION.
We yield our editorial space, almost entirely
to the publication of the annual statement Q
the President of the Firemen's Charitable Asso
citation. 1t presents facts which must he of in
terest to the Fire Department, and should com
mand the attention of and quicken just sens
of iberality due, in others not connected Will
the Department,
The occasion and the necessity Of the Fire
mems Charitable Association are altogether
patent to the eye Of common sense, and, W.
must say, are in no measure the least credita
bic to our large property holders, our insurance
companies and the general principle of our mu-
nicipal legislation. The Association is neeessa-
rily organized, for several reasons, which it
would be tedious to enumerate. The chief is,
because the active members of the Fire Depart
ment are, almost universally, men of limited or
moderate means, to great extent dependent
upon daily effort for daily support, and yet,
sacrificing time, and home--quiet and profit, to
using Tor rather, spending) money, and risking
life, health and limb, in protecting and saving
the property of landed and monied gentlemen,
who, in the meantime, sit comfortably at home,
or, it may be, sleep costly in bed If the
generally unpropertied members of our Fire
Department are not wide awake, and on the
ground with telegraphic speed, in daytime or
nighttime, plentiful as driving snow-fakes are
the reproaches they have cast in their faces by
wealthy landlords and opulent insurance com
panies, the wealth, property and interests Of
which they zealously protect, only to be treat
ed as importunate beggars, tolerated :. Dick
Turpins, when they ask or claim one dollar to
assist them in protecting property in which
they have not one dollars interest, and to-
wards the protection of which they new
ertheless spend hundreds and thousands of
dollars, every year. They are not only
to risk life and limb, but they are to tax
themselves heavily, every year, for the protee-
ton of property in which they have no interest,
the owners of which narrowly grudge them u
dollar, and the insurance spectators upon
which consider them as merely necessary but
troublesome evils If it were not for the Fire
Department, the latter would be somewhat fur
Their out of sight of their present handsome
profits than would be comfortable to the stock
holding capitalists investing their surplus cash
in handsome speculations. And yet, what do
our home and agency insurance offices contribute
towards the support of the Fire Department
How much do those concerned shoulder with
"cunning greed,' upon young men entering.
without fortune, upon the path of life The
larger number Of the members of the Fire De
partment are upon wages and salaries-avera-
ging not more than $500 to the man-on which
they pay to the Department, in one way or an
other, some five or six per cent-all for the ben
eft of property holders and insurance compa-
MES, who would rouse the whole country with
their cutlery, if they had to pay taxes in any
thing like the same proportion to receipts
The annual statement of the President of the
Firemen's Charitable Association shows that it.
sarily suspended in consequence of debts due,
and we think we discover handsome opportu-
nifty for our capitalists, property holders and
insurance companies to redeem their past and
make their present honorable.
THE PRESIDENTS STATEMENT.
Tho Constitution makes it the duty of your President
to lay before you at the first quarterly meeting state
mont Of the affairs of the Association together with such
suggestions future management as may be prope
and necessary.
The reports of the Treasurer and Committees before you
In detail will inform you of the condition of the property
and finances Of the Association from them we gather
that s net for the past year amounted to
s4sl H. The Cypress Grove Cemetary has boon greatly
improved and considerable has been expended in
identifying and embellishing that interesting spot The
leases Of the real estate bequeathed by the late Stephen
Henderson, have been renewed upon advantageous terms
and the funds Of the Association have freely expen
ded in support of the widow and the orphan well