CHAPTER   XXVII.

FIRE!   FIRE! —THE   LIFE   OP   A  NEW   YORK  FIREMAN —THE
SCHOOL OF INSTRUCTION AND THE  LIFB-SAVING CORPS.

The Volunteer Fire Department of ye Olden Time — Ho-tv Barnum's Sho-w
Was Interrupted — A Comical Incident — Indians and Red-Coats at a Fire
— The Bowerj B'hoys — Soap.Locks — The School of Instruction and the
Life-Saving Corps — Daily Drill in the Use of Life-Saving Appliances —
Wonderful Feats on the Scaling-Ladder — The Jumping-Net — Thrilling
Scenes and Incidents — The Life-Line Gun — Fire-Department Horses —
Their Training — A Hospital for Sick and Injured Horses — A Night Visit
to an Engine-House — Keeping up Steam — Automatic Apparatus — How
Firemen Sleep — Sliding Do-wn the Pole — The Alarm — Fire ! Fire ! —
A Quick Turn-Out — Intelligent Horses — The Fire-Alarm System —
Ans-wering an Alarm in Seven Seconds — A Thrilling Sight — Fire-Boats
and their Work — Signal-Boxes and Ho-w they are Used — The Perils of
a Fireman's Life.

IT is nearly a century since the authorities of New York or¬
ganized a department whose special duty it was to ex¬
tinguish fires. Before that time the fire service, such as it Y'as,
was in the hands of the police, who had a distinct branch for
the " vieY'ing and searching of chimneys " and also for the use
of hooks, ladders, and buckets. Every house having two chim¬
neys was compelled to have one bucket at the expense of the
owner, and every house with more than two chimneys was re¬
quired to have two buckets, while all brewers and bakers were
to have six buckets each, under penalty of a fine of six shillings
for every bucket wanting.

From this crude beginning grew the old flre department of
New York, which was a most excellent institution for the
greater part of its existence. In its early days all the best
young men of the city belonged to it, and the engines were
kept in or near the City Hall, which was a very convenient lo¬
cation.    That the rules were more rigid than in later times