The San Francisco call., 1895-11-17
PHYLLIS AND TOMMY GO THEIR
WAYS.

There was no chance at all for Phyllis to
get in the Fire Department. The Chief
said it wouldn't do, the driver said it
wouldn't do and mamma herself said there
was no use in talking about it.
Ply Ills and papa think that girls are just
as good as boys, and maybe they are, but
wouldn't Phyllis look silly and be pretty
sure to get hurt if she was strapped onto a
fire engine and went whirling around the
street corners with he long curls and her
ribbons and her skirts all flying out like
flags in wind?
Anyway. our side won, and Phyllis went
off to one of tho Sc places they call studios,
where some young ladies who paint and
make things were having big time.
Phyllis was supposed to be going to see
whether she would like to be one of those
things they call bachelor maid and live
in a studio all by herself. But all the
same l heard one Of the young ladies ask
mamma for Phyllis, and she said she
wanted to borrow her as a decoration for
the studio.
They put green velvet dress on Phyllis
that came down to her heels, and she had
a kind of a guimpe thing with pink flowers
on it, and great big hat with some fine
feathers on it.
Fine feathers make fine birds, you know,
so my sister looked quite decent for once
in her life.
Ever since that she says she's going to
be an artist all the rest of the time. She
says all you have to do is to wear pretty
green and yellow gown that drags on the
floor. You don't have horrid old kitchen
in the house, and when somebody comes
to see you you just sit down in the middle
of rug on the floor, and you have little
m q a 70 Of
tea, with lemon in it, and nice little toasted
crackers that you could eat all day with out
being made unhungry.
Maybe you have to do something else
besides that and hanging your rugs mostly
on the wall to be really artist, but if you
do Phyllis didn't have sense enough to
find out about it.
She wants to turn our playhouse into a
studio, and / want to turn it into an en-
gine- house.
We haven't settled about it yet, and
don t believe the two things would go to-
gether very well.
1t takes kitchen to furnish the kind of
dinner that we fremen have to have.
There was pork and beans, and beefsteak k
pie, and plenty of good, potatoes and
gravy. It was in restaurant next door
to the englne-house, and If it hadn't been
we couldn't have had any dinner at all.
A fireman cannot go more than block
away from the engine house when he is on
duty unless he goes to a fire.
[ want to tell you they have things fixed
so they can just more than spin out of
there when there is fire, though.
Upstairs wherc the men sleep they leave
their boots standing beside the. bed at
night and a pair of trousers already pulled
down over the bootlegs.
The men go to bed in their big warm
fannels, and when an alarm sounds they
fcSa 0f bod i,a+O
jerk the suspenders up over their shoul-
ders.
Did you ever hear of climbing creased
pole?
Those men don't do that, but they do
really slide down smooth pole instead of
going downstairs.
1t would take too long to do that, and so
they just have pole in the middle of the
room and have a space around it, so the
men can just grab hold and slide down as
quick as scat-they do, honestly.
When the alarm sounds the chains in
front OF the horses just drop down. The
horses walk out and when the men have
slid to the bottom of that hole they find
the horses standing in their places, waiting
to 60 and just tickled to death.
The men have to buckle about two
straps, and then they just swing up to
their places, and the horses rush out while
the men are putting on the coats and fire.
mans hats that are all hanging on the
engines and hosecarts waiting for fire.
Another fireman told me that when the
Half-million Club went down to get ac-
quainted with the San Joaquin Valley the
people of one of the towns wanted to show
off its Fire Department.
1t was made up OF volunteers-nice busi-
ness men and bankers and schoolbovs and
everything. They sounded mock alarm,
and they got the engines and the hosecart
and the hook and ladder trucks and every
thing out in Just about less than no time.
The Half-million Club thought more
than ever that this is great California,
and they felt very, very sorry for all the
people that have the bad luck to live in
New York and other places.
But in the morning when the brass
brand came to take the visitors to the
train they had to go past place, right in
the middle of the town. where two houses
had been burned every bit up in the mid
die of the night.
Where was your fine fire company"
the people asked.
"Oh," the Mayor or somebody had to
answer, 1.-The fire company didn't come
out. You see it's pretty hard to get them
out.ln the night, sometimes"
Well, that isn't the kind of firemen we
are up here in the City.
1t doesn't make any difference what
time 1t is by the clock, nor what kind OF
weather there is out of doors when fire
alarm sounds. The horses are just as
quick and know just as well what is the
matter and what they have to do as the
Il 'men could. / would like to get ever so