The sun., 1908-05-17
BUFFS FALL FROM GRACE. 'a
Baseball Talks Interfere with Fire Talk
I'D NJ 33 Engine.

Up at 33 Engine in Great Jones street
there is house divided asainst itself.
1t is surely meet and proper that fremen
and bluffs alike should discuss fires and fire
matters only; but since the opening Of
the baseball season some OF the bluffs have
been increasingly falling from grace,
A famous house, as large house az you'll
find In the city. Chief Cpoksr's headquarters
and reposing place of his red chariot. 3s
ber Of buffs hang out. Some good nights
you'll hnd as many as twenty-hve buifs
lingering in front Of tho house. The fact
that 80 gets every alarm throughout the
greater city from Tho Bronx to STATEN Island
and Queens helps to swell the number Of
bockers to old timers who wheeze.
In the strict sense OF the word these
are not S,tffs A real buff IL boy who
lives. moves and has his being In a fire-
blacks their boots. and ne ministers 10
their wants generally. .@ ~
He has the entree 70 the house at all liours
and he attends every fire with his CONE
pany. There he sees that his men rot all
Of their share Of the hot coffee. whether
But a3 Engine Is the Chiefs headquarters
and no buf is allowed inside the doors.
The Chief is very strict about this soft of
thing, and so the bluffs ON Great Jones street
stand in the doorways and talk, while the
younger. ones may go on srrands for the
But even IL the bulfs can't live In the
house, they can make 10 up In Numbers and
zeal One chap comes all tho way from
Greenpoint to hear the bells, and fhere ID
nights in the week and rolls 70 ali tbs big
dres from l75th street to the Battery.
II good sized lire happens near eno,irh
70 his residence. why. perhaps be gets home
II q fourth alarm hit from Arverne some
Of those buffs would simply make dive for
Island Railroad. @
With such a spirit manifest YOU misht
think that everything would be peace And
amity. and so it was till the Giants and the
Highlanders came to town. Then trouble
Some Of the bluffs began to iptersperse
the discussion. Of third alarms with observa-
tions about three begEers. III Enuino 2S
got first water on blaze when 80 was flrat
due the circumstance failed with the younger
ones to receive notice betting lie inpor-
stolen base and II would be all of. A home
run appeared to be o much more fertile
topic than run to fire.
These symphonic of heresy were porceived
by the older buffs with great disapproval.
efforts to divert the conversation back into
its proper and legitimate channels; but
engineer their best they couidn't dam the
baseball stream. %,
The cleavage between bur and bun be-
came wider and wider tl1 now Il has come
TO such pass that the real buns stand In 8
doorway by themselves whore they cal,
tinge every Hentenoe with q flre referencf
OF some sort, undisturbsd by the talk o
pennants and percentages. s.g' X,
This, 1t must be Admitted, Is o moet un-
natural condition. It only goes 70 show
nuca mora that M man "a aSRva tu3o ma N :.
ters, for either he viii sniff smoke with ,', up-
tilted nostrils or he will shout hia lunRs out
when the batter strikes out.
on,inous as the existing state Of affairs
seems TO the cursory eye; the older bufYa
know that It viii all be well in the end.
Baseball fadeth away like the rose, utterly,
but fires are everlasting and permanent
and in their essence indestructible. When
winter comes the heretics will return 10
the fold, although II is the general opln-
lon that thSy should be made to. 20 works
Y 7-'.st . ~