Firemen of Ye Olden Time.
THE following extract from McMaster's "History of the United States" is going the rounds of the Press at present:— "The law then required every householder to be a fireman. His name might not appear on the rolls of any of the fire companies; he might not help to drag through the streets the lumbering tank which served as a fire engine, but he must at least have in his hall, pantry, or beneath the stairs, or hanging up behind the shop door, four leathern buckets inscribed with his name, and a huge bag of canvas or of duck. Then, if he were aroused at the dead of night by the cry of fire and the clanging of every church bell in the town, he seized his buckets and his bag, and while his wife put a lighted candle in the window to illuminate the street, set off for the fire. The smoke or the flame was his guide, for the custom of fixing the place of the fire by a number of strokes on a bell had not yet come in. When at last he arrived at the scene he found there no idle spectators. Each one was busy. Some hurried into the building and filled their sacks with such movable goods as came nearest to hand. Some joined the line that stretched away to the water, and helped to pass the bucket to those who stood by the flames. Others took post in a second line, down which the empty pails were hastened to the pump. The house would often be half consumed when the shouting made known that the engine had come. It was merely a pump mounted over a tank. Into the tank the water from the buckets was poured and pumped thence by the efforts of a dozen men. "No such thing as a suction hose was seen in Philadelphia till the year 1794. A year later one was made which became the wonder of the city. The length was 160 feet; the material was canvas, and, to guard against decay, was carefully steeped in brine. The fire buckets, it was now thought, should be larger, and a motion to that effect was made in the common council. But when it was known that the new buckets, if ordered, must hold ten quarts, the people protested. Ten quarts would weigh twenty pounds, and the buckets five pounds more. This was too much, for, as everybody knew, the lines at a fire were often made up of boys and lads not used to passing heavy weights. Eight quarts was enough. Much could also be accomplished by cutting the city into fire wards and giving a different color to the buckets of each ward. They could then be quietly sorted when the fire was put out. At New London five fire wardens took charge of the engines, all of whom aided in putting out fires. To disobey a warden's order was to incur a fine of one pound. If a good leathern bucket was not kept hanging in some convenient place in the house, and shown to the warden when he called, six shillings a month was exacted as punishment. At New York, however, it was long before the buckets gave way to the hose. There, if a householder were old or feeble or rich and not disposed to quit a warm bed to carry his buckets to the fire, he was expected, at least, to send them by his servant or slave. When the flames had been extinguished, the buckets were left in the street to be sought out and brought home again by their owners."