Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-08-29
NEW YORK'S FIREMEN,
ADMIRABLE QUALITIES REQUIRED
OF APPLICANTS.

Education of the Men Before They Are
Appointed-Tcsts of Proficiency-What
Constitutes Il Fireman-Courage Is Very
Observation-Disclosures Bear Smoke.
"Fire! The house is on fire!' When that
cry is heard in Il building panic sei%es upon
the inmates and indescribable confusion
ensues. Some one runs to a fire box and
sends in an alarm, which sounds in every
engine house in this city.
The response on the part of the fircmen
and their horses is immediate. There is
haste without laundering, there is no in
reference of one man with another. Eager
ness to be off and resolution to work are
depicted on each mans face. In ten Sec
Onds the drivers are on their seats, lines in
hand, waiting the order to go. 1t is given,
and away they dash, the horses needing no
urging, the men clinging with one hand to
a rail of the cart, wriggling into their rub
Der coats. Not many minutes later they
are on the ground, the hose is attached to
the hydrant, ladders are run up and the
battle with the fire begins.
The inmates of the burning building,
who a few minutes before were panic
stricken, regain confidence. Our firemen,
who, without hesitation, plunge into a
burning building, are men who at one
time in life were as liable as any one to
"fire panic" which influences men to do
very foolish and cowardly things. That
they are not so now Is due to the training
they receive and the trials to which they
are subjected. Let us follow the course
which an applicant for appointment to the
fire department in this city must undergo
before he can wear the badge, which is the
emblem of courage and fidelity"
TRIAL OF QUALIFICATION.
After being recommended by the fire
commissioners for appointment the appli-
cant is examined as to his physical quail
fications. If they are up to the standard
he is turned over to the civil service com
m~issioners for examination as to his
knowledge of the common school branches.
If he passes he is sent to headquarters,
where he enters the school of instruction
of the life saving corps, of which the drill
master is Mr.. Henry w. McAdams. He
has had charge of the school since it's organ
ization in 1889. No one can go behind his
returns; there is not political pull enough
in the city to secure the appointment Of a
man whom he rejects. 1t is in this school,
and during the thirty days he is in train
ing, that the applicant proves his fitness
or un1itness to be enrolled in the service.
The New York fire department has u
complete gymnasium, where, besides the
apparatus for the development and
strengthening of the muscles, are all the
appliances it has in use. Thorough In
struction is given to the applicant by Mr..
McAdams, himself a veteran fireman, as
to their purpose and proper handling.
Familiarity with these appliances is abso-
lutcly indispensable to celebrity on the part
of Il fireman. whose essential characteristic
must be quickness. \ slow man has no
chance for appointment in the department.
TRAINING P~ROBATIONERs.
Practitioners are also taught morality in
an indirect yet forcible manner. Remem-
bering that their calling demands of them
courage and honesty, the probationer who
is with some company, either in the engine
house or at a fire, feels that he is a~ssocia-
ting with men who are gentle in their man
ners, respectful and obedient to superiors,
ready at any instant to hold the muzzle
close against a flame that menaccs them
with death, and who would not disgrace
their uniform. If he has the true stuff in
him he will soon conform with them in
thought, purpose and demeanor, and on
every occasion emulate them in zeal and
honor.
The cultivation of good manners and
other qualities that constitute Il man is
taught in an u~nobtrusive way. For in
stance, the applicant learns the story of the
fire at Chambers street and Broadway,
years ago, when the employees of a bank
rushed into the street, leaving SlGO, 900 in
cash on the counters. The firemcn ran in,
gathered the money together, threw it into
the safe, and locked the safe door. When
the money was taken out and counted only
50 was missing, and that consisted of silver
dollars, which in the excitement had prob
ably rolled away. Hearing such a story
the applicant of the right material is very
likely to resolve to behave with equal hon
esty at every fire to which he is called.
MEN OF NATURAL COURAGE.
"Mcn are natural towards where there's
a fire" said Capt. McAdams to me. "Put
all Barnum's wild animals in that lot over
there and then drop a child among them,
and i'll nine cases out of ten the father of
that child will go in after it. But let there
be an alarm of fire in the house in the night
time and that same mar will run into the
street and leave his child behind. have
never seen a man suffocated at a fire with
d IA LII III IL LIS, Jul 1 nave seen women
lying dead from suffocation with a child in
each arm. The mans first thought is to
get into the street when he hears the house
is on fire. The woman's first thought is
her children"
The probationers are, no doubt, naturally
courageous, and each one resolves to be as
heroic as n man who has won the Ben
nett medal; but when there is a fire and
they Ego in" with the fremen their true
metal is shown. The captains eye is on
them. If they waver he sees it, but if they
resolutely hold their faces to the fire and
obey orders, no matter if the smoke is thick
enough to be cut and if their teeth are chat
tering loud enough to be heard above the
cracking of the flames, he knows that they
are of the right stuff and reports favorably
upon them. If m applicant cannot stand
the smoke, which, Capt. McAdams says,
"feels in your throat as if some fellow were
trying to force you to swallow a baseball"
he is dropped from the list.-Epoch.
NiysS Nfoto