Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1901-07-29
EVERYDAY HEROES.
Firemen in Great Cities, Whose Life
Is Always in Danger.

In st. Nicholas Cleveland Moffett
takes up The Firemen. 'In all it's
history" he says, 81 suppose the world
has seen no heroes like these, who
join the skill of gladiators with the
valor of crusaders. Does that sound
like exaggeration? l should call it
rather understatement'
AS illustrating the things firemen
do every day, and do gladly, he gives
some incidents of one particular fire
that happened in New York on St.
Patrick's Day, 1899 1t was a pleasant
afternoon, and Fifth Avenue was
crowded with people garthered to
watch the parade. A gayer, pleas
anter scene it would have been hard
to find at three o'clock, or sadder
one at four
The Ancient Order of Hibernians,
coming along with bands and banners,
were nearing Forty-sixth street, when
suddenly there sounded hoarse shouts
and the angry clang of fire-gongs, and
down FOrty-second street came hook
and ladder 4 on a dead run, and swung
into Fifth avenue straight at the
pompous paraders, who Immediately
became badly scared Irishmen and
took to their heels But the big
ladders went no father. Here they
were needed, oh, so badly needed; for
the Windsor hotel, at Fifth avenue
and Forty-seventh street. 1t was on
fire, and far gone with fire (the thing
seems Incredibly, before ever the
engines were called; and that every
body supposed that of course some
body had sent the alarm. And so they
all watched the fire, and waited for the
engines, ten minutes, fifteen minutes,
and by that time a great column of
flame was roaring up the elevator
shaft, and people on the roof, in their
madness, were jumping down to the
street. Then some sane citizen went
to fire-box and rang the call, and
within ninety seconds engine IS was
on the ground. And after her came
engines 81 and 81. and then the hook
and-ladder companies. But there was
no making up that lost fifteen minutes.
The fire had things in it's teeth now.
and three, four. five alarms went out
in quick succession. Twenty-three
engines had their streams on that fire
in almost as many minutes. And the
big fire-tower came from Thirty-sixth
street and Ninth avenue. and six hook
and-ladder companies arrived.
Let us see how hook and ladder Il
came. She was the mate OF the fire
tower, and the rush of her galloping
horses was echoing up the avenue
just at Battalion Chief John Binns
made out a woman in a seVenth-story
window on the Forty-sixth street side,
where the fire was raging Hereby.
The woman was holding a little dog
in her arms, and it looked as if she
was going to jump. The chief waved
to her to stay where she was, and,
running toward the truck, motioned 1t
into Forty-sixth street. Whereupon
the tiIler-man at his back wheel did
pretty piece of steering, and even as
they plunged along, the crew began
hosting the big ladder. Such thing
is never done, for the truck might up
set with the swaying; but every
second counted here, and they took
the chance.
AS they drew along the curb, Fire
man McDermott sprang up the slowly
raising ladder. and two men came
behind with scaling-ladders, for they
saw that the main ladder would never
reach the woman. Five stories is
what it did reach, and then MIC
Dermott, standing on the top round
smashed one of the scaling-ladders
through a sixth-story window, and
climbed on, smashing the second
scaling-ladder through a seventh-story
window, and five seconds later had
the woman in his arms.
To carry a woman down the front of