The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1907-06-28
WHERE "HEART" COUNTS MOST
How F1RE-FIGHTERs ARE MADE FROM
The ROUGH.
Qualities the Medical Men Can't Find But Which Are Absolutely
Necessary-Fmemen Must Stand Punishment and Ex-
posure-The White Plague and Whiskey
Hard to Avoid

can show good clean papers from
some disciplined force will be taken
on Immediately Discipline is abso-
lutte in the fire department. 1t is as
strong almost as in the army or navy,
and that is perhaps the reason why
the fireman whom the public meets
in trolley cars, subway, or elevated
trains are invariably quiet, inconspic-
uous, and never disorderly. One will
more fully appreciate this trait by
comparing them to the average pO-
liceman under similar circumstances.
The fireman, moreover, is always neat
and clearly in his personal appearance
The horses and apparatus are as we'll
groomed as the men themselves. This
isn't accomplished entirely by rules
and regulations. Neither one nor two
men in each engine house and with
whips could force such neatness. 1t
comes largely from the manners of
the men themselves and their pride in
their calling.
For the most part f1remen come from
the ber-industriOus, Woodworking
classes. AS boys they have had Clean
comfortable homes, or they would not
be made of the stuff demanded. To
their mothers and fathers they owe
not a little of their training. Often
times you will find the father in the
department as well as the son, and
both of them contented and happy.
Those who go in to fight fire have no
ambition to hoard money and become
rich There is very little gold saved
by firemen. Most of them live up TO
their incomes, and not few with fam
lilies have hard work to keep out of
debt The single men, however, can
save money, and some of them do.
Wise investment helps toward the ac-
emulation of pile, and before he
knows Jack has a bank account.
There are men in the department
whose fathers are we'll fixed and ready
to put their sons into business, but
The writer knows instances of fire
men in the service today who come
of substantial, well-to-dO families, and
who have themselves, saved their
wages. and doubled them by profitable
investments. One of these men has a
father who owns big ranch in the
west, and the "old man" is just as
proud of his boy as though he were
back on the divide counting cattle.
There are college graduates in the de-
partment, and high school boys with
out number
I'VE get lot of youngsters crammed
full Of sentiment and romance" said
a lieutenant the other day The lieu
tenant himself is not more than 80.
"They read trash in the newspapers,
trash in the novels, in the magazines,
and they've got it fast in their heads
that they're cut out to rescue some
beautiful daughter of the rich owner
Of a brownstone front! Those boys
are absolute 'nutty'-something loose
up here" tapping his head. why, ii
the old man didn't keep an eye on
them, they'd get lost at every lace
curtain blaze Not that they wouldn't
be just as eager in a tenement, for
they would 1t is hard to hold them
anywhere, but they certainly are
blessed with the idea that they are
cut out for a sensation. 1t all comes
out of them by degrees, though. Doesn't
take long to get you level in this de-
Rartment"
Cutting Out the "Booze."
Whiskey is the hardest thing fire
men have to contend with. In the
vernacular, it is referred to as booze
More men are stripped for this than
anything else, and it is the cause Of
knocking out more men than consump-
ton or fever. F'iremen take to drink,
primarily, because they are the class
of men who demand excitement, and
if they haven't a hard enough head
to see the folly of it, their taste final
ly gets the better of them The de-
partment, however, will not stand for
drunkenness, and a ''boozer's" life is
a very short one IN an engine or nose
company. Exhaustion, the cold, par
tial suffocation, and decline of spir-
it's bring the men to drink, but if
they begin it too strongly they find
it difficult to stop. Many will refuse
to touch it, even at a fire when they
are numb from the cold Instead, they
almost invariably ask for hot milk or
coffee. Nevertheless, fires have oc-
Cured in the wine and spirit district
where booze" flowed about as freely
as water, and men have stood for
hours at the nozzle on nothing but
liquor, which they used alike for food
and stimulant This is a reason why
the department demands temperate
NAN ovoono tho apnIioantc and xUbv