XIII.
 

»NE of the greatest impediments the Old Volunteer Fire
!> Department had to its success and continuance in pub-
5 lie favor was that the people they selected for leaders
Hooked only to their own personal comfort and popu¬
larity. Those whom they placed in power forgot that in accept¬
ing that power, they assumed a responsibility that they could -not
evade. If there had been at the head of the Fire Department men
who would have boldly taken hold of every improvement in appa-
■ ratus, who would have tried every experiment that looked to the
benefit of the city and the efficiency of the Fire/ Department, who
would have made it their pride to keep the Department equal to that
of any other city in the world, careless of wliat the result was to
their own interests when the city was servecj^ the Old Department
would have become so firm in the hearts of the people that no one
would have dared to molest it. But the head.'j of the Old Department
looked only for the time being, and considt^red self the principle.
They deceived the people into a false security, and cheated the fire¬
men into the same belief .'Vs long as a dozen of the leaders were
paid for their services, directly or indirectly,' they were willing that
the greater share of the labor should be done by volunteers. They
reaped the honor and the profit, while the woi-king firemen were
flattered by them to continue the good work.

The great curse of the Old Fire Department was- the collisions of
the firemen.    They seemed in some instances to act srj-  if they were