History Of
The
1850-1908
A rose to the living is more
Than sumptuous wreaths to the dead;
In filling love's infinite store
A rose to the living is more
It graciously given before
The hungering spirit is fled;
A rose to the living is more
Than sumptuous wreaths to the dead.
- NIXON WATERMAN
INTRODUCTION
"Twas but yesterday one
doubted men had courage still, and flouted
At unselfishness, that vague, unmeaning word;
Then there came a sound like thunder, and the doubter saw
his blunder;
'Twas the
passing of the Engines that we heard!
For they broke upon our quiet with a mad and reckless riot,
And they shattered all the silence into sound.
How the engines hissed and spattered, how the flying horses
clattered,
As their iron hoofs sped by us with a bound!
With knightly bearing, onto smoke and battle faring,
Seemed like heroes of an age of war and strife,
For they boldly courted danger, aiding foe and friend and
stranger,
With the courage that outweighs the love of life.
Facing flame and falling ember, not one man paused to
remember
Home and wife and little children left behind.
Rushing on through smoke and cinder, nor one selfish fear
could hinder.
Or drive duty from the throne room of his mind.
There was someone yonder calling,
and the mighty beams were falling,
And the smoke was like a raging devils breath;
Still without one moments waiting or seconds hesitating,
On they leaped, and wrenched a human life from death.
From The Modern Hero by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
WHILE
it is impossible to treat the subject of The Fireman without the appearance of
a resort to sentimentalism, it is but proper that in presenting this volume to
the public a word should be said of the brave men who protect our property from
devastation and ruin who are in readiness at every hour of the day and night to
sacrifice, if necessary, their lives in the faithful performance of their
duties.
To the casual observer the firemen is but an idle-seeming fellow, and true
appreciation is given him only when the ear catches the startling clang of the
gong or the eye is arrested by tall columns of smoke sweeping skyward from a
burning building; then do we remember, when instinctively we look about us for
protection from the most dangerous and destructive of all the elements, that he
is ALWAYS ON DUTY; that when the sun rides the radiant sky at midday, and at
night when rain and tempest sweep the streets, the "fire laddie" is awaiting the call that summons him to duty
which statistics prove is perilous in the extreme. That often when the wind is
weirdly shrieking round the gables beneath which the citizen is wrapped in
peaceful slumber, the fireman is called hurriedly from his bed, and in the twinkling of an eye is dashing through
the deserted highways to save life and property from the unbidden destroyer.
The American soldier on land and sea, the pride of our nation, the envy of the
civilized world, with much more to impel them to deeds, perform acts of no
greater bravery and daring than the fireman. Passion, temper, hatred or rancor
toward an enemy in battle impel oft times the soldier to deeds of reckless
daring that emblazons his name upon the pages of our country's history. No such
incentives actuate the firemen; he must be cool-headed, calculating, and
careful. His mission is to save - not to destroy; he is not actuated by hatred
or spurred on by passion such as excites the soldier when in battle comrades
fall. There is no selfishness, no sordid consideration as to how much he
will make or lose in his efforts to save the life and property of his
fellowman. From the moment when the tap of the gong starts him to where danger
threatens, the consideration of life is held in abeyance to the dictates of
duty and devotion to imperiled humanity.
Deeds of daring by men in this branch of the public service are of such
frequent occurrence that they are as "names writ in water," and
though of equal heroism with those who fight our country's battles, the fame of
the fireman, be he ever so brave, is, at best, but short-lived and purely
local; in the gallery of the world's heroes there is no niche set apart for the
"fire laddie" and his duty is performed
without hope of ever hearing his praises sung by the multitudes.
Our lives and our property are in his keeping by day and by night; while he is
seemingly idling away the hours he is but waiting for the clang of the gong
that requires him without a moment's hesitation to take his life anew in his
hands and hasten to where danger threatens. To the "blue-shirted"
firemen we owe much and our measure of thanks cannot be too full.
Allen M.
Robinette
-compiler-