OLD   FIRE  LADDIES.
 

I.
 

'To HUMBLER functions, awful power!
I call thee:  I myself commend
Unto thy guidance from this hour;
Oh! let my weakness have an end 1
Give unto me, made lowly wise,
The spirit of self-sacrifice;
The confidence of reason give;
And, in the light of truth, thy bondsman let me 1
Wordswortti,  Ode ,
 


 

ij N writing of the "Old Fire Laddies" of New York,
Y-1 might state en passant that they were men who
\ daily and nightly imperiled their lives to save the
ilives and property of their fellow-beings. It is cus¬
tomary nowadays to picture the "old fire laddies" as the per¬
sonification of all that is rough and uncouth, with a penchant for
liquor and a disposition to precipitate a quarrel upon the slightest
provocation. I would like to know if there was ever a body of
men banded together for any purpose whatever that did not have
its black sheep. When some of our namby-pamby people tell
you of the faults of the "old fire laddies," ask them if in the
majority of cases the virtues of the men did not exceed their vices,
1 am well aware of the fact that the old-time fireman was addicted
to fighting with  his brother fireman, but if his ambition to reach a