Evening star., 1928-11-25

lad. He was paid conSida cradle sum
OF money by q certain railroad to LET
them run their tracks across his farm
and also his land was greatly improved
IN value by having the railroad near
u. His name was Dennis O'Connel.
Well one day one of his COWS was
struck by train and Dennis, accom-
panied by my father, journeyed out to
view the remains. After he had sur
Veyeo the slain animal sorroWfully for
lew moments. he turned to nv father
ana said, IF I had only stopped that
Gang railroad from coming across nv
farm, why my cow would be alive this
minute" '-1A'
And SO it is with nf Tho rast
or us when some individual hurt oc-
ours 10 uS-tn cur pam ana sorrow We
fare - "e'-
Higaly Skilled Drivers.
Only the highest skilled and most
Iearless drivers are selected to pilot a
piece OF flre apparatus to a fire. They
are usually veterans of MANY wears,
service in the Fire Department 7 inter.
viewed one Of these drivers recently
VINO IS attached to one of the downtown
nre houses, and who has had MANY
years OF experience in driving to fires.
ne h2S driven horsa-drawn apparatus
an the old days and when they discard
ca hoTses for motor propelled vehicles.
ne was assigned to drive one of the first
70 be purchased by the city. My inter-
view With him wss for the express pur-
pose OF securing his views on rho value.
III point of efficiency, thai spaed has en-
piece OF FIRE apparatus in reaching the
scene of fire.
'Lyeil ha eaid G;n 49, g..
the one thought that = drilled into us
nremen both By teaching ard exuari-
ence is that the most important thing
ABOUT fire from our point of view Is
Tor us to reach it quickly. It is the
nrst few moments that count with a
nre. No matter how bad a fire might
nave been, it vas just a small blaze ii
We reached there quickly enough. Every
tning In this station is designed to IA
ciiltate our leaving quickly after tho
alarm comes in. We do not walk down
stars, we slide down poles. Each man
keeps his outer clothes. fire garments
etc. folded in such a fashion that h.
may leap into them instantly. It is a
matter Of seconds after the alarm comes
In before I am III the seat of my truck
and have the motor running. It's but
very lew seconds more before I get The
signal All set and away We 20.
1 try to reach the fire as soon As
humanity possible. My greatest difficulty
= WITH the people who will not obey
the law. which says all people On the
street and vehicles must draw to one
sac instantly upon hearing the fire
STsn ana let the fi.e trucks have the
I'll right OF way. I have never had an
accident myself. but many and many l.
the TIME my heart has been in nv
mouth when 1t seemed like I could moi
miss striking some one who did not
near or who utterly diSregarded our
siren, and scarcely ever make a triu
10 a flre but / am delayed By drivers
VINO seemingly make no effort to give
me the right of way. OF course. these
drivers are the exception Almost
everybody will Instantly Dull aside an6
appear anxious to DO all they can tC
facilitate my progress, but there always
seems to be enough people-dcggone
'em-who don't seem to give a hang
and they are the ones who cause me al
my trouh.e.
Try TO Drive With Care.
"A lot OF people seem to have the
idea that we just team along as fast
az We can and ii everybody dent get out
Of our way it's lust third hard luck. but
this is not true. We try to drive a.
course. we do drive as fast as we car
with safety. but we try to limit oul
speed to that pace which the trafit
conditions or the nature of the stree
on which We are driving would seem Il
allow: our paramount canceTn Away
being the safety of everybody involved.
From my point of view it would dc
little good to rush to fire for thu
express purpose of saving propcrtT o.
maybe to rescue some Individual If VI