The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-05-12
VOLUNTEER FIRE
 FIGHTERS SCRAP
 AS FIELD DLAzES
Milford and Stratford Fire men Exchange Verbal
 Briekbats at Shore.
SMOULDERING ENVY
 BURSTS INTO FLAMES
Chief Judson Admits He Doesn't Think So Much
 of His Neighbors.
'(speciaI to The Farmerl

f s I Especial to The Farmer) .72
 Silver Sands, May 12.-Milford's i fearless fre-hgFters renewed ac- quaintances with Stratford's intrepid smoke-eaters here yesterday afternoon when a grass fire threatened several l shore cottages.
 l When hosti1ities ceased, the early settlers on the shore front had it, on the authority tof the Milford firemen. that the Stratford representatives, were a lot of tsthis-and-that's''; to say nothing of their being just one block removed. from the ignominious cate gory of t'thus-and-so's''. In addition, according to information supplied by the volunteers from Milford, their Stratford brethren, considered as fire fighters, were an adnixture in equal parts of camembert, sweitzer, roque- fort and just plain Stratford cheese.
 The Stratford drenen didn't mind. the taunts of the Milford folks They just stood by, ready to take care of the conhagration when the Milford squirters fell down on the job-as Mil ford hreen have a habit of doing, say the stratfordites.
 Of course,s the Milford department was working on the nome grounds. It was, by rights, their own hre.. It was in the corporate limits of the town whose property they are sworn to pro4 tect every time the bell atop the Arc
 
 road depot, sounds it wild alarm. ] Once before-some three years ago "a scatter brained telephone operator had summoned aid from Stratford to help the Milford department fight a fire. The Stratford help was neither sought nor accepted, and the Milford department ceased. the battle against the Fire Demon long enough to offer certain views on t11is point in the ex- pressfye tongue of native Mi1fordese.
 Practically the same thing happen ed yesterday. The Milford depart flames with it's accustomed intrepidity \ and despatch. The situation, was well l in hand, the f1renen Allowed. Then a telephone operator in Mil l ford became alarmed. She phoned l to Chief Johnson of the Bridgeport fire department, asking him to send I aid: Chief Johnson thought that the l Stratford department would be hand | fer and allowed that Chief Judsons of Stra4ford, would be glad of a slight break in the routine of being chief of i the Stratford fire department, and
 would be glad to go.
 The operator got Chief Judson on 1 the phone. Sure, he'd be glad to show those Milford fellows the proper way to handle a fire. They didn't appreciate what was done for them three years ago, when the Stratford l department pulled a house out Of the fire for them, and they probably would resent Asl1re,s he'd be right over. 1 Chief Judson hustled across the i street to the luncheon of George H. jBateman, president of the fire depart
 ment,E to get permission to take the | department out of town. The proxy | was willing-in fact, he'd go himself fate, the president of the department | climbed aboard the motor-driven
 chemical At St Johns drugstore,
 a couple of more volunteers were pick ed up.
 According to those aboard the was made in a fraction less than nothing, flat"
 In true metropolitan style, the Stratford department dropped off 9
 couple of men at a handy hydrant l and ran out 800 feet of hose to the I the nozzle and megaphoned for water.
 None came. The men at the hydrant were inactive; their mien disconso-
 late.
 1 Hurried consultations developed the fact that the hydrant and hose coup 1 1ings weren't mates. The 800 feet of | perfectly good hose was useless.
 'sIt't a wonder you wouldn't get reg
 ular hose, like a regular fire depart
 ment,'' shouted Mi1fordite, pre-
 sumabIy a rank partisan and possibly l a member of the department. There wasn't any comeback to that. l But the Stratfordites allowed that it was something of a shyster trick for a town to install hydrants of such an
 ancient type that only their own an
 cient fire department could use. Chief Judson is resourcefuI. He ordered half of his crew to .'pfck up,'' and ordered the other three to man | kT, Tzo 1iS170 Ina nd lextinguisher battalion came up to, 1 the scene of the fire on the run.
 The Milford smoke-eaters dropped their work nome ptari1y to inform the I newcomers that they weren't wanted This was a Milford job distinctly. and sented to the extent sketchily express
 ed in the foregoing. The exchange of courtesies was even warmer than
 the fire, spectators said.
 1 The result was something of a vic I tory for the Mi1fordites. The outside
 department didn't get a chance to horn in. though Chief Judson kept his men on the job for three hours, wait I ing for the expected collapse of the Milford men,.
 'sBut you say this,' the chief con tinued, We're off Milford for good. We wouldn't go over there again, l even to save the Arctic Hose Com
 pany quarters from destruction by hre.''
 The fire swept four or five acres and came close to several shore cot tages.
 l At the Stratford fire headquarters today. Chief Judson said there wasn't any truth in the report that hydrants in Stratford would be changed so that the Milford department could never step in on the local preserves. They wouldn't get here the same week of the fre,' he allowed, "so we afnt wor- ryinas about them