The Forrest City times., 1900-01-26
FIRES IN OLD NEW YORK.
The Racket Brigade of . Century Ago Worked on . Home
 Rule Principle.

Fire engines in New York century lgo were of very inferior quality and of primitive design. The only water there was for fire purposes was obtained from wooden pumps, and by law of the corpofation every owner of dwell- ing was obliged to supply fire bucket for every fireplace in the house or back kitchen; these buckets held three gall Ions and were made of sole leather; they were hung in the passage near the front door. When the bell rang for fire the watchmen, firemen and boys, while running to the fire, cried: Throw out your buckets!" These were picked up by men, women and boys running to the fire. Two lines were formed, from the fire to the nearest pump; when the pump gave out the lines were carried to the nearest river; one line passed down the empty, the other passed up the full buckets; if person tried to break through the lines he was com pelled to fall in and help, under penal ty of severe drenching for refusal. The buckets were marked with the name and number of the owner, and any householder not supplied with a bucket was liable to fine and in some eases imprisonment.
 Every morning after fire the corpo- l ration carmen went to the streets near the scene, picked up the buckets and dumped them in the lobby of the city hall. People then sent their children or servants to bring home the buckets, to await the next fire.
 This method of fire fighting had many disadvantages, though at that pe- riod most of the inhabited part of New York was below the line of Fulton street. and in consequence the distance to either river was not very great. Moreover, the riparian boundaries of New York were less extended than they are now, Greenwich street and Front street being the outside boundaries. As the city grew northward and as the distances from the central Broadway line to the river front were gradually increased it was no longer practicable to depend on buckets passed from hand to hand, and therefore there was adopt ed a copper pump for drawing water out of the river in case of fire, and there by avoiding the disagreeable necessity of the inhabitants going down to the slips and handing the water up in buckets. This was ordered by the cor. poration in 1799. One year afterward this pump was deposited, by authority. in the rear of the city hall. The wheels of the engines were at that time so small that locomotion was extremely 1 difficult when there was much snow. Accordingly a new style of sled was tried and similar ones were ordered to be made for the other engines. But they were found to be worse than use- less. for in attempting to turn a cor ner the engines were often upset and damaged. In very narrow streets some- times they were left to be burned. be- cause it was impossible to get them away.
 About this time each engine house was supplied with two poles long enough to carry 12 buckets each. These poles were borne on the shoulders of four men. The general rule was that the first fireman to reach the engine house after an alarm of fire should have right to the pipe and take it with him to the fire; that the next four firemen to arrive should bear away the bucket poles, and that the rest of the company should run off with the engine as best they might. 'bawling out and demand ing the aid of citizens as they proceed ed on." The 'bawling out" process, which had the indorsement of ordi- nance as we'll as custom, was not wholly satisfactory to New Workers. as "a case of false alarms it often disturbed the slumbers of the burghers and at other times emptied taverns and other meet ing places without any practical result. N V Gnu