The Washington herald., 1914-03-01

there was some smoke. 1t cut at your
throat like the sharp teeth OF young
bull terrier. had to stay there and
eat It, and had lots of time to think
over things, for the bunch upstairs
would never retreat until they got the
word from the foreman, and the fore
man never slips it to them until a bat-
talon chief or Croker himself shouts it
| was thinking over things when
along comes white patch TO the head
OF the stairs. Never mind how black
it is, you can tell FIRE chief. He wears
white helmet and white rubbers, coat
and ALL II was Croker. He was feel
ing the hose with his feet and going up
to the fighting line. | beat it over to
ono side, and he passed me without
knowing that / was there felt lit
tie easier about Jimmie. When Croker
was chief and was around at a FIRE,
there wasn't a man, forse. or dog didn't
feel better for seeing him. He used
TO swear something awful, and chew
cigars and spit around enough to put
out a one-alarm; but he was one fire.
fighter.
He went up to the top, and the smell
of hide and hair got worse. | was
strangIing, and so hunted around for a
hose-coupling that leaked | got one
and found the puddle, and stuck my
nose in it and kept it there. That's one
of the first things department mascot
gets next to. You can take any Dali
matian that's born in the business and
lock him in gas chamber with a buck
ct of water, and he'll come out alive as
long as the water has any air in it.
| could hear the men upstairs scram-
ling around, and the AK crew began to
make some noise. But there wasn't
anything about that TO worry me. and
/ fell to thinking over things again.
The regulations always keep me guess
ing. Now this one a.out a dog stay
ing on the floor below the firemen
might mean all right for NUTS, but it
don't do any good with a dog that was
born in an engine house. The idea of
that rule is that when the time comes
for a retreat a fireman might stumble
over the mascot and not be able to get
up and make the getaway. Nobody
ever stumbled over me, or over my
mother, or my father, and my Grand
mother Blaze-but told you about her
picture up at headquarters. Before
Blaze croaked from old age she told
ME lot OF things. She said that if
the smoke was so thick she couldn't
see. and if it was a hide or paint fire,
and she couldn't get the scent OF her
driver, she could feel Just where he
was. She told me that if ! got to love
the people around me l could sense
things and know jus: where they were
and what was happening to them, even
if they were miles away. She was
right.
I was thinking about the old lady
when something told me that things
weren't right up above. ! knew that
the crew was losing out in the fight,
and | was certain OF it when three men
came staggering down with axes and
began to smash at the windows. They
knocked them out ir a jiffy, and the
smoke come rushing by like a cloud,
but some air come in, and I took my
nose out of the puddle. There was a
little light, too.
saw Mike Ticrnan, Nellie's boss,
stick his head out Of a window, and
signal Then he leaned far over and
put a hand to his ear. l knew what
that meant. He was getting the order
to beat it. l felt the floor under me
getting warm. The fire Rad mush-
roomed down from the caves. had
chewed up the laths back of the plaster
ing, and was eating away at the beams
under the fifth floor.
Tiernan turned and rushed upstairs,
yelling the order to retreat. began
to feel uneasy. l seen Croker, many
a time, jump just a second before a
roof dropped, after getting all the men
away, but | seen Jimmie Kelley stick
on a fire job so long that ] began to
hate him. ...-
The men come jumping down, all
coughing and choking. Croker was