The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1879-01-12
OUR FIRE DEPARTMENT.

AS now organized our Fire Department
composed as follows:
Nineteen steam engines and nineteen hose
carriages. Four hook and ladder trucks. On
hand engine at Milneburg. One chief On ginee
and four assistants. Twenty -four foremen
forty.eight assistant foremsn, and s35 aotiv
members.
During the year 1878 there were one hundre,
and forty fires, four unnecessary slarms, clever
false alarms, two general alarms, and an e.ti
mated loss of 1886. .935.
The Firemen g Charitable Association, whicl
Is composed of delegates from the several com
panies and which contracts with the city fol
extinguishing any fres that may OCCUR within
the city limits has its relief list 1924 widows,
291 half orphans and 81 orphans, all, of course
members of the families of deceased firemen.
The city owes the Association for 1875, (Dec., }
1876 and 1877, $66. .497 81, and for 1873 Sos, 500
Total $151 997 67, which with the Losses which
the several companies have suffered by being
paid in "city time" amounts to over S2o0, 600
The following named ofioera for this year
were elected at the last meeting of the Associ-
tion:
yiss pss:ide1t;aGso: ri, i Braushn.
Treasurer--W j. Cbevallier
Finance Committee.-A. Lynch. John Herbert T.
Board Of Commission srs-.Jehn Fitzpatrick. WIN
Last Tuesday evening, the St. Georges Y.
n. B. Association gave an entertainment in st.
Mary's school hall, Constance street, for the
Joint benefit OF their relief fund and OF st.
Joseph's Orphan Asylum. Notwithstanding
the weather was such that few persons cared
to leave their comfortable fresides, the hall
was nearly filled to it's utmost capacity. The
tickets and programme announced the enter
tainment to be musical and dramatic. The
only musical feature we saw about the affair
was few members of q very weak orchestra.
We had great sympathy with these gentlemen.
The cornet-man must have distended every
vein in his neck, strained every joint Of the
three fingers of his right hand and worn off at
least an inch of his tongue in endeavoring to
draw from his instrument those ear-splitting
notes which struck our ears. We are afraid
that the violin players must be prostrated, |
even to this day, from shock to their nervous
System, after the dismal filing and rasping |
sounds they extracted from their uuofendipc |
and accomplishing instruments. In our nnis !
ion, an entertainment pretending to be in any
ways musical should consist of a few songs
duets, trios, or quartettes, with an occasional
Introduction of Instrumental selections. But |
thla particular one was lacking in all of the
above with the exception of the orchestra.
The dramatic portion consisted of two Ger
man and two English farces As regards the
two former, we are not sufficiently oonverssnt
with the German tongue to write a criticism.
With respect to the two latter, we would
state that they were fairly performed. The
scenery and costumes were appropriate, the
cast very good, and the playing satisfactory,
except the usual drawbacks characteristic of
most amateurs. We would remind these young
gentlemen that q thorough knowledge of the
lines excuses many shortcomings in stage
business. The tableaux were the features of
the evening. The first consisted of repre-
Sentation of ''The Spanish Camp the second,
ITO Arms /" the third, "Death of orzo"-sll
taken from the play of "The Fathers Curse."
The unanimous verdict of the audience de-
clared these the very best features of the
We learn that the proceeds. though not as
large as on previous occasions, were suf1 oient
to elicit the gratitude of the St. Georges Y. NJ.
B. A. and that of the Sisters Of st. Josephs Or
phar Asylum.