The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-07-11
THE LIFE OF A FIREMAN.

-Ednd Dean Proctor, tr The Ndrihdttdn-
THE LIFE OF A FIREMAN. ? 4
.I wish was firemanp' exclaimed
reporter, as he paused at the door of
allowed his eve to run adown the row
of powerful men in handsome blue UNI
forms and brass buttons who were tipped
back in department chairs, listening to,
q veterans recital OF an unusually in
teresting force fight in the days when
the fire laddies not only ran with, but
dragged the 'smasheen." The reporter
lied like the average alibi witness, for
he would far rather be the third assist
ant engineer of a tread-min than ride in
a red wagon and wear q fore-and-after
leather and iron hat in a parade on the
Fourth of July, but he knew how to
turn on the fiood-gates of conversation.
"You would, heyp' growled broad
shouldered pipeman who, beside listen
ing to the yarn, was poking around in
his left eve with the corner of his hand
kerchief drawn over the end of his fore
finger searching for what he called "a
shingle off that old shanty on Kentuck
street." You'd like to be fireman,
would vel / never saw a tarn1 fool
who wouldn't, and it's surprisin' the
number of them there is in these days.
Did you ever hear of man who wanted
to be hungP Well. them fellows is
Easy times you have here" said
the reporter, inserting the probe q trifle
deeper. =.
Eyes, and SO does them fellows in
solitary confinement out in jackson.
Ssy, / presume you've swindled man,
hain't yeP'' sa-1
Cant say that ever did,
Thought you was married manp"
$50 am. Z"
"WellP" :
"I tumblei What about itP,'
"Well, most of us is married, too,
and we have to carry photograph of
our wives around with us, or we'd for
git how she looks. My children
| wouldn't know me If it wasn't for the
uniform. If any other fireman was to
go up to my house, they'd go and
climb up into his lap and think twas
me, and I'm hanged If I'm sure but the
old woman would go and shake hands
with him and say: I'm glad you
come home, Jake. want some money
to buy the children some shoes Now,
don't you be fool enough to join the
l
up to the Secretary's Office is worn hol-
low by applicants already"
"Just give me an outline of what
you have to do in week, commencing
with Monday morningp"
/ "It don't make no difference when
you commence There's 365 days all
alike in a year. We are allowed one
hour three times q day to go to our
meals; no more than that, no matter
where you live. 1t makes fellow with
a big appetite hump around lively tc
get back on time. That's all. Three
hours day to eat, and the rest of the
time we're on duty
care there not certain hours at YOU
disposalp'' 4
"Yes; each man is allowed twenty
hours in a week-ten hours in the daJ
time and ten hours in the night time
You can have it all In the day time 1
you wish, but you can only have ten ol
1t at night. That means one night in {
week with your family and six here ir
the engine-house. 1t looks nice 10 be {
fireman, doesn't it, when you come
along here and see US sitting here tell
ing stories and reading the papersl
Well, that's the hardest duty we have
to do. II there was only workshop
here to keep us busy the days wouldnh
seem half so long. In the morning W,
scrub the floors, wipe off the paint
clean the horses, sweep out the stalls
polish up the engine, sponge the
harnesses; do everything that we car
think of, and then sit around her,
Just a-hopin' that there viii be ;,
fire. OF course, we don't want any
body's buildings to burn up, but it's
big relief when the gong strikes. tel
you would rather be up on ladde
holdin' q nozzle In january than a-sittin
around here doing nothing. 1t amt $,
pleasant, but it's a change. Two o
three times day the gong strikes, an,
we hitch up. That breaks the mo
notony, even if we don't have 70 g,
out. The trouble is, even that get
monotonous, specially at night.
"You see, when we go to bed, W
push our pantaloons down onto the leg
of our big boots, and when we jump on
of bed, we jump right into boots an,
breeches at once. It's lively work, bu
they'd discharge a company tina
couldn't get out of the building wit
its engine in forty seconds, night or day
There's two or three alarms nearl
every might, and every time the gon
strikes, down we go pen-mell and hitcl
| bAAC llluC bIlab We yet IQdL QOu
we know whether it's in our district @
not, and If it is, out we go. If it isn't
we stand around perhaps half an hour
perhaps only few minutes, and the
we get the signal to unhitch. Two o
three of these alarms and fellow
three hours trick on watch break u
the night pretty WELL
But it's when you go to fire ths
the fun comes in. remember the fir
one ever worked at. When joine
the department 1 bought pair of blu
wooden shirts to wear, but / used I
keep white one in my locker to pu
on when / was going out on the street
and the boys used to call me sthe bile
shirt man. One night we had a rur
and as I'd been up on a ladder holdir
pipe, was wet to the skin and prett
near froze. That want the worst of Il
neither. Itwas an old wooden build
ing, and I was all smoked up, and th
water that ran off from the burn
shingles had soaked into me, too, and
was black as your hat. / wasn't use
f. to taking cold Wnter baths in Jauuarz