Year: 1874

q dash at us, manager 10 get uS lntS
the escape Just In the nick of time
for the flames burst through ceiling


high as he was cleariag the window


No, that wasn't what / had my


medal given to me for. 1t was an af


fair of something the same sor


though. There was twowOmen In ths
house that time; buta ire-escape con
ductOr had got one of them out, ant
had made three attempts to save thu
other, before got up. When die
get on the ground he told me how
things stood, and so l put ladder uI
to the window, went into the room
and found her, and handed her out tc
him. He had the brunt of the work
but lOokers-On thought 1t was case
of well done both, and wrote to the
Royal Society for the Protection Ol
Life from Fire, about us, and the so.
ciety rewarded us both.


o, It's only as dOn't,want to brag,
and set us all up as so many fire-eat-
ers. There's no doubt about 1t that
firemen do plucky things, and with
out making any fuss about it. Idare
say there's scarcely day or night
passes In which some fireman dOesn't
risk his life and have a narrow squeak
for it. I've had one or two myself IN
my time. In fact, L often wondered
that more firemen aren't killed. The
song says as there's a sweet little
cherub that sits up alOft, to look after
the life of poor Jack; and some
times thinks to myself as the same
might be said of firemen, as well as
sailors. / don't suppose there's one OF
us, as has seen much service, that
hasn't had q narrow escape. for his
life as it's possiblefOr man to have ;
and though we come home safe time
after time; we never got out without
having the thought that it may be for
the last time.


But though we have our risks,
though our business is, as you may
say, all risks when we are actually
at Il fire, we have our advantages too.
We have plenty of good tackle, and
know how to use it; we get to know
lots of little wrinkles that help us |;
and with practice we learn to be cool,
and that'sa great thing. If us pro-
fessionals didn't keep our heads it
would be a bad Job, for most other
people iese their heads at a fire, and
no wonder either, for when you think
of it, = it must he an awful thing to
wake in the night and find yourself
in a burning house. .-.r.. %


Well, yes, people i'm their fright do
make the work of saving
them more difficult than 1t would be
otherwise. Best half of those you get
out from a fire are senseless from the
smoke, and of course it's easy enough
to manage them, poor things but
when they have got to a window or
are in cut off.room, where they can
still breath, it's a different case. If
you don't watch it, they'll spring on
you before you're ready for them, and
more than once / have nearly been
thrown from the ladder in that way.
Then sometimes they'll get i'm each
others way, each anxious to besaved
first and at others, you'll find a GUS
toner hanging back because they
want you to save a cash-bOx or some
thing of that sort as well as them
selves. However, we generally man.
age to save all that we can reach, and
as since poor FOrd's death all the es-
capes have been wire-gauzed, that
makes one danger the less in escape
work. -


Our greatest dangers? swell, the
as tell you, is one of them,
and the other Is the falling of build
ings or part of 'em. That is the great
est danger of all, the one that most
accidents happen through; |; and that
is the hardest to guard against. /
should say that ten people were kill
ed or hurt by the falling of buildings
for one by fire. / remember seeing
cOmrade of mine standing on u firm
looking place when i'm an instant, and
without SO much as crack or a shake
to give him warning the wall that
the beam was built into gave way,
and beam and man went crashing to-
gether two stories down, and we. saw
no more of him till hours afterwards,
when we got his body out, burnt to q
cinder. ~-LsG bed
Just little while back, again,
was at work in a flour mill that had
been burnt out. The floors were fire
proof ones, and the building was reck.
Oned uncOmmonly strong, and Ger.
tainly looked it. Well, another man
and / were working on one of the
floors, when the hand that was carry.
ing round the refreshments came and
asked us if we wanted anything. We
both said no, and he turned away
but before he had gone many feet
altered my mind, and thought ]
would just take a drop of something
to drink-for working in fired build
ing Is hot berth, let me tell you
even after the fire has been put out
so stcpped after him, and he was
Just filling me out a glass Of beel
when there came crash like claI
of thunder just behind me, and turn


ing round / saw--as soon as the dust
cleared away a bit--that the building
had fallen in just where / had beer
standing not a minute before.


The other man lay buried in thu
ruins, stone dead, as 1 would have
been If I hadn't by the merest chanc'
happened to move. My heart wen
cold as saw what q narrow escape
had I thought how true 1t was wha
the Scripture says: "One shall b
taken and the other left" That


always the text / think of when l se'
danger. j might have steppet


into the danger Just as ] stepped on


of It. Such things look all chance


but we are all in the Masters hands


to be taken or left, as he may see ,fit


It's thought often gives me hear


when Pm about anything that look


particularly dangerous. -


Speaking, though, about guttet


buildings falling in, and things 0


that sort, you should bear in mint


that there Is many a man gets hur


I'm that way, crippled for life, per


baps, though he maynot be killed OF


the spot. There is often such odd


and ends as bricks, coping stones, an,


humps Of wood flying about, and yo1


can't always steer clear ofs them
though your helmet does q good des


for you mine has saved me fror


many a broken head, If not fron


worse. Then you know, getting
| lot of smoke and sulphur into YOU