The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-06
JUDGMENT DAY IN YALHALLA.
RHADAMANTHUS SAYS THE FIRE
gHIRTS ARE PAST RECOVERY

Park Fire department udS lOoV iouN vi Ao
badges, four Of Its red shirts have been
made over into underclothes for the child
rem OF four expelled members and the only
man who might have been available to
fight fires In the daytime Is In hiding be-
cause there is q warrant out for his arrest
on a charge Of larceny. The man in hiding
did not steal the badges and shirts, and the
two affairs have nothing In common except
that they both indicate the deplorable
state of unpreparedness in which the Sher-
man Park Fire Department now finds
itself, The man who has disappeared,
Watson David, is accused Of having stolen
the fire alarm system, but be would be for
given and the case against him would be
ouashed il be would only come back and
ioin the company. Being a milkmnn, be
sleeps in the village days and might bear
an alarm. But the Klinger clan and all the
other fremen go to New York every day
and the village has no protection between
slnrise and sunset And whenever the
plnochle train is late the place is in jeopardy
even later than sunset.
To guard against Just such a catastrophe
the fire department appointed a committee
10 find a citizen who wasn't a commuter.
They discovered David returning early
one morning from his milk route and in
yitei him to become a Vamp. He seemed
lukewarm, so they invited him to a smoker
az the engine house, which lie held weekly,
TO that the nostrils Of the company may get
the scent of smoke and be able to identify
it if they ever are at home when there is
a fire. This method is more valuable than
might at first appear, for the stogies that
,,a - the Elinnapa ,taa yyinll n ~ rihtu nR
smokes suggesting everything from a
burning hayLoft or a hair mattress factory
to a blaze in the basement Of a paints, oils
AMI drugs concern. SO David went around
one evening after he had finished the nights
milking to smell the smokes and hear
Deputy Chief Adolph Klinger tell what
he would do if he ever saw flames bursting
from the peak of a Sherman Park barn.
j. Hauser, the head chief, gave q fire trum-
pet exhibition drill to dazzle the milkman
and shouted, Courage, lads!" and On
ward, my boys," through the smoke several
times in the course Of the social evening.
The commuters also put on their red shirts,
badges and helmets and told the milkman
that he would have a uniform just like
theirs if he would only join. They told him
of the glories of muster day in Westchester
county and promised to make him day
chief if he would join so Is to be around
days and let them borrow his horse to hitch
to the hose reel on festive occasions.
Members of the Ladies Aid Society then
served sandwiches, coffee and assorted
cakes, and Watson David was almost con-
WINGED that he'd like to join the depart
ment. He promised to think it over any
way and let the department know his de-
cision at the next weekly smoker. But
the very next day he took a new route to
get to his milk customers and happened
10 see a piece Of railroad iron hanging from
o tree neal the fire house, with a sledge
hammer beside it. Not being a fireman
and never having heard an alarm in all the
of the village, David didn't know that the
hammer and the rail were the fire alarm
system, so, being a thrifty farmer, he took
The hammer home.
1t happened that that very morning
Chief Hauser had planned to test his men
and surprise them just as they had gathered
at the station for the early train TO the city,
by giving an alarm, the most dangerous
on the oompany's printed list,-three slow
strokes with the hammer and then nine
quick ones, to indicate a blaze at or near
the Sherman Park general store.
AS there had never been O fire at the
store, it was not known just how much
Of it might burn up while the company
was counting the strokes, but all the men,
1ers had agreed that for safety; much
the chief couldn't give the test alarm,
because there was no hammer, so he ran
for the train, and on the way to New York
appeared before Justice Quinn, who com
mutes from Valhalla, n instituted John
Doe larceny proceedings in the smoking
car, A warrant was issued just before
the smoking car was whisked out Of West
chester county. Judge Quinn always sits
IN the last car in the morning and in the
first car at night for the benefit Of the
a. much of the rides to and fro in West
chester county as possible. once, before
lie thought of that precaution, the Judge
handed down n decision as his seat in the
smoker crossed the county line, and a great
deal of annoying controversy followed,
But nothing of that sort happened in
the sledge hammer case, and the next
day the constable to whom the John Doe
warrant had been given found the hammer
leaning against Watson Davids COW barn.
David was milking at the time; The con;
stable went the other side Of the COW and
tried to touch David's hand with the
warrant under the udders, but the former
was too quick for him and got away, and
be hasn't been seen in Sherman Park since.
The man for whom David worked sur
rendered the hammer and finished the
milking.
This all happened when the litigation
over the badges was at white heat. Now
that case has been decided in favor Of
the fire company by a judgment handed
down TODAY, but the badges and shirts
Gre gone.
1t vas the Hawthorne faction that caused
this trouble and furnished the four de-
PENDANTS, Charles Claus, Stephen Carlson,
Joseph Dassler and David Cox, They we're
members of the Sherman Park Fire Com
r3ny In good standing until last summer,
when they refused to march with the COM
pany in the Fourth of July parade, Their
refusal was on the ground that the parade
wasn't going through the Hawthorne sec
ton, but spent all the time marching up
and down Sherman Parks main street and
then having the squirt and the dance and
the muster in that part of that village.
The Sherman Park faction offered to COM
promise by agreeing to have a short adj
dltional parade in Hawthorne at night.
That offer was scorned. Who could see
whether their shirts were red or green ma
parade after dark asked the Hawthorne
people, and they stuck to their determine
ton not to march at all. For that breach
or discipline they were fined SO apiece,
which, Of course, nobody paid. Then they
were expelled and Chief Hauser demanded
their badges and shirts. They refused to
surrender the insignia, and all Hawthorne
stood by them. There were no more
nInnphla no p,aa IL, tha ,nArpipr apH a,,apfnn