DEMOREST'S FAMILY MAGAZINE. No, CCCXXXIIl. MARCH, 1891, Vol. XXVII,, No, 5. jEW YORK, not less than ancient Rome, maintains ber gladiators, — men trained, like those of old, to fight for their lives, held in momentary readiness for battle, assigned by seeming chance to sudden and varying con- ditions of mortal combat, destined all to conquer or to be slain by an enemy stronger and more blindly cruel than any ferocious beast or adversary ever encountered on the bloody sands of the arena. The mission of our gladiators, however, is not to take life, but to save it. They are — our firemen. * Prior to 1865, the firemen were volunteers. By an act of the Legis- lature, passed March 30th of that year, the present paid depart- ment was established; b u t no refoi-m was ever more vigorously combated, and it was not until 1870 that the new system was brought to satisfac- toril}' good working order. The old vol- unteers, retentive of the social importance and political influence their former service had given them, bit- terly resented being relegated to obscurity, and even went so far as to endeavor to maintain their position by force. But practical considerations of the- public interest were against INTERIOR OP AN ENGINE-HOUSE. DKMOKKST'S FAMILY M AGJ-AZINK. nENi:v D. I'l i'.ii'jv. riu:-inKNT of tiik hoaiu) ok fihk < oMMi->io\Kits them. Property owners developed a prejudice ag-ainst seeing: tlieir property consumed by fire while rival companies of firemen, instead of exerting themselves to quench the flames, beat each other's heads with trumpets and spanners, or upset each other's engines to settle the mooted (juestion of which were " de best fighters." And even when those customary dieertissements did not happen to occur, the best applied efforts of the volunteers, dat ing and skillful as the men often were, lacked the co-ordinate system requisite for attainment of the best results. By 1870 the volunteers had given up the contest for recog- nition and faded from sight, except in such sentimental existence as is still maintained by two rival societies of vet- erans. From that time until the present, the history of the Fire Department has been one of continuous progress in efEectiveness and extension of resources to meet the growing requirements of our constantly enlarging city. Jt is not easy to obtain enrollment as a Xew York fireman. The apidicant must have five feet seven inches of height, one hundred and forty pounds weight, be physically sound, pass a Civil Service examination, and make at least a credit- able showing in the gymnasium. If thus far satisfactory, be is taken on probation for a month. During that time new vistas of i)ossii)ilities for the breaking of his neck are opened up to him in training for the Life-Saving Corps, and he is experimentally sent out with some engine-company in actual service, to get practical experience in lire fighting. At the end of that prol)ational time he is ))ut through another physical examination, to ascertain if the vigorous training he has undergone has i)ri)ken him up in any way. If found all right, he is enrolled, uniformed, and assigned to duty as a fireman of the third grade, but bis training is continued until he has developed into a good all-around gymnast, and his education as a life-saver is com))lete. The advisability of having a Life-Saving Corjis had l>een talked of and tacitly admitted by the Fire Commissioners for years, without any sfe))s toward it having been taken : but the appalling loss of life at the burning of the Potter Building crystallized the talk into action, and on February lO. XS^'i, mainly at the instance of Commissioner Henry D. Purroy, the service was organized upon theliuesof the French" Pompier' system. The corps, comixised at first of volunteers from other companies in the department, was equipped and trained by Christopher Iloell. who introduced the system in this coun- try and had already caused its adoption in nineteen Ameri- can cities and towns. On May /), 1888, the Commissioners issued an order requiring all men in the Department, under the age of forty years, to go through the Life-Saving train- ing. Capt. H. VV. McAdams, successor to Christopher Hoell, is the instructor, and has a class, generally of about twenty- five in number, in daily practice at the back of the Head- quarters building on Sixty -seventh Street near Third Avenue. A .severer training than that required for this service it would be difficult to imagine ; but anything less would fail in the object sought, which is not only the instruction of the men in what to do under all possible contingencies of their service, but developing in them the ability to do. con- fidently and surely, whatever may be necessary to .save their own lives and tho.se of others in the extremes! emergencies. Each man must acquire the sure-footedness of a mountain goat, the jumi)ing ability of a kangaroo, the agility of a ])anther. the balancing power of a funainl)ulist. tin- climb- ing skill of a monkey, the strength of a mule, and withal the lightness of a squirrel. — all in addition to natural clear- lieaded coolness and self-reliance in the face of the greatest dangers ; and, just in proportion as he fails to reach any of these extremes of perfection in his physical and mental training, by so much he diminishes his u.sefulness and in- creases the measure of his personal ]>eril in actual service. The life-saver's ecjuiijuient consists of one or two scaling- ladders, a very strong belt fitted with a ]ieculiar hook, a life-line hung in a coil upon the belt, a light axe. and some spikes carried in a pocket. The scaling-ladder is a strong llUcin IlON'NFIl, (llll.F OK NKW YOIIK nllF I>F1"A KTMENT. II hickory pole, fifteen or twenty feet long, with rungs thrust through it, and one end armed with a great, wide, steel hook, dentilated on the under side, to catch over window-sills or cor- nices. The life-line is strong enough to bear the weight of three or four men safely. By the use of two ladders, alternating t li e m, the man can go straight up the front of a house, from window to window, and even clamber up to the cornice and get upon the \ r o o f ; o r \ he can tra- ^ \ verse the / front of the building laterally, swinging from window to w i n d o w to change his upward course when his line of straight ascent may be .impeded by an outburst of fire. Fastening his life-line to some secure hold, — m a k i n g one, if necessary, with his axe and the spikes, — and taking a turn of it fifty-pound ladder, thrust its long hook through a window of the next story above, climb up it and repeat the opera- tion still higher ; but that is what a man working with only one ladder has to do. The accompanying illustrations show what these men accomplish con- stantly and easily in their daily practice, and what they are liable to be called upon to do, at any mo- ment, at a fire, to reach imperilled people and save their lives. In a vast majority of New York houses, whether office buildings, tenements, or flats, a central staircase well is likely to serve as a chimney for a fire, and to become impass- able in a very few minutes after the flames break out. The only avenue for relief and the escape of imprisoned inmates is then by the windows. Hence the importance of the ladder-climbing service to which the men are al)out the hook on his belt, to serve as a brake, he can safely glide down to the ground, carrying one person, cr even two if they are able to cling to him, or can lower tlu^m while himself remaining aloft. All that he can do with two ladders, prac- tically he can also do with but one, only not so quickly, and with more exertion and risk. K is no .small feat to balance one's self on a six-inch window-ledge, at a height of sixty or seventy feet from the sidewalk, lean out far enough to guide upward and to manage a trained. But, sometimes, flames bursting from win- dows cut off the fireman's descent after he has low- ered to safety those he ascended to reach. In some such cases men have had to make long leaps of ten or fifteen feet, across gulfs of flame, or at diz/y heights, to the narrow tops of parapet walls or window-ledges, even taking such desperate chances when the already sufficiently insecure footing was made still more hazardous by a coating of ice. They have even been required to cross still wader spaces, to effect escape, by fastening one end of the life-line, tossing the other in coil to a comrade at the point to be reached, and, when it was made taut and secure, making the transit swinging by their hands. Still another resource isleap-- ing down into a net held by comrades in the street below, a thing that would not be particularly dangerous were it not always the unforeseen that is most likely to happen. If the falling man strikes one of the holders instead of the net, there are liable to. be two dead men ; DICIVrORKST'S FAMILY MAGAZINE. if be only bounces off into the street, he iaa\' only break one of his own limbs, or his neck ; liut if all goes well, nobody may be hurt. A great deal of practice is given, in train- ing, to the use of the net, both by tossing dummy figures from a great height to be caught by it, and with men jumping into it. All tenders and trucks now go to fires carrying full equipments of life- saving apparatus, and so accustomed have the men become to its use that they very frequently emj)l()y the scaling-ladders to quickly carry a line of hose to an upper story of a building wliere there may be a fire, even when there is no q u e St i o n of saving life. .Another thing that they all carry is a gun a r ranged to throw a projectile, \vhi< h, before firing, fits over the end of it like a cap. and to which a light IIN line is attached. This enables the throwing, *}^00^ over the tallest buiidintr, of a line by which a ^ heavier rope or a line of hose may l)e hauled up. ^ TJC' There is considerable dill'ereiicc between the way an alarm of fire is given in l^mdon and in New York. In London, when a lire breaks out, somebody who feels himself interested hunts up a policeman and mentions it to him ; the policeman steps around to the nearest engine-house and for- mally reports the occurrence ; a fireman is sent with a por- table extinguisher to the scene of the conflagration ; if he finds himself u!iable to cope with the flames, he returns to the engine-house and suggests the propriety of adopting more radical measures ; if suflScieut reliance is put in his judg- ment and veracity to make further investigation and report seem unnecessary, steps are taken to get the engine to work. In New York, there are three separate systems of elec- tric circuits for receiving and sending out fire-alarms, all rslN(i TIIK llATTKItlMi-lt.vM. centering at Headquarters. [We have in all twelve hundred and fen miles of fire-alarm telegraph- wire. London has one hundred.] The first are the alann circuits, each of which includes fifteen to twenty-five t)f our twelve hundred "alarm boxes," sev- erally bearing serial numbers, irresix'ctive of the circuit. S6X Pulling the handle in the alarm-box sends in that num- ber, automatically, five times in succession. The first electric impulse drops, in the tele- graph room at Headquarters, a shutter disclos- ing the circuit waked up, and registers the alarm ; and by the time the box number is rung in, the alarm is transmitted over the second and third systems, to the engine-houses in that district. By one system the great alarm-gongs are rung, and the horses are released in their stalls ; by the other, the number of the box whence the alarm comes is transmitted. That number has hardly sound- ed, when the horses are hitched up before the engine and its tender, ready to start, and the men of the company are also in their places and ready, in all the engine-houses signaled. To each signal ten or more en- gines or trucks are assigned for response. Of these only a certain proportion- — say three engines and two trucks — go out on the first alarm, the others to a second and a third call, these successive summonses only being sounded as the magnitude of the fire seems to render them necessary. The apportionment is not arbitrary, the allotment depending upon the probable needs in different parts of the city : more engines and trucks being assigned to a given space in the lower part of the city — where build- ings are big, crowded together, and filled with valuables — than in the residence section, uptown. It is a sight well worth seeinp- to behold a New Yoik T3°fj Tver's baiter ^°W9 engine-company responding to an alarm. At one second, som e of the men may be reading, chatting, or playing dom- inos in the com- pany room, others asleep in the bunk room, — with their trou- sers spread open before them and the legs of their boots already standing in them,— the horses, bare of harness, placidly munching hay in their stalls, and an air of slumberous calm pervading the entire establishment. The next second, at the first " bang " of the big gong, the horses, with a thunderous clattering of hoofs, are dashing out of their stalls and taking their places before the engine and the tender ; the men, already dressed, come flying down the " sliding pole " and instantaneously spring into their places; the harness, held aloft by an ingen- ious device over the places where the horses stand, drops upon them and is in- if ^ KEEPING THE FIRE LINE. stantly secured by spring catches operated by nimble fingers ; the front doors are open ; and all are actually waiting for the completion of the electric announcement of the box number whence the alarm comes. The best " hitching time " yet made is the recorded performance of " Charley " and "Joe," the famous team of No. 7 Engine (located at Chambers and Center sea DBMORKSarS FAMILY JMAGA-ZINE. Streets). They have got out of their stalls, reached their places, a u EM:OREST'S FAMILY M^&AZINK, 363 A FIRE HOAT. ally only crook one arm around it and let themselves go ; and there are not a few who are so expert as to glide down it head foremost. Handy and expeditious as it is, the great open trap by which it is surrounded is a constant danger. Doors close the opening, but they shut from below, are merely to keep the draught out, and give way to the lightest touch. Men have frequently been hurt, and one was killed by falling through accidentally. In only one engine-house, that of Engine Co. 5:5, on One-Hundred-and-Fourth Street, is an intelligently constructed safe system of trap doors, the invention of Capt. H. M. Jones. These close from above, can be safely walked upon, yet are thrown open by springs, counterweights, and an electric shock, synchronously with the loosing of the horses in their stalls. The Fire Department, among its other efficient apparatus, includes fire-boats, or floating engines, for fighting fire along shore. The " Zophar Mills" and the " \Vm. F. Havemeyer" are powerfully efficient boats, and upon numerous occasions have proved invaluable for the protection of the shipping in the harbor and property on streets near the water-fronts. The new fire-boat, the "New Yorker," launched April 5, 1890, will be by far the most powerful floating fire-engine in the world, and is expected by sanguine persons to be capable of making, under full steam, a speed of nineteen knots per hour. At that rate she will be able to go from her berth at Pier 1, North River (where she will lie with fires banked, but with sufficient steam always in her boilers to start with), to a fire above Forty-second Street, and be at work there in twenty-five minutes, throwing, if necessary, a five-inch solid stream to a distance of five hun- dred feet, or about forty smaller streams. An ingenious arrange" mentof metal screens, for protec- tion of the boat and her crew, will permit her fire-fighting to be done at the shortest range de- sirable, — in the fire, indeed. — and her efllective service will practi- cally cover a belt two thousand feet wide all along the water- front. This stupendous geyser- producer will afford a new assur- ance of protection for the " dry- goods district," — a source of con- stant anxiety by reason of the enormous values there gathered in a small space that is now very inadequately supplied with water, — since, even should she not be able to play directly upon ■d fire there, she could serve sev- . eral land-engines, and at the same time keep Commissioner Purroy's great portable tank filled for others to draw upon. For fighting fire in the upper part of tall buildings, the water- tower, another modern invention, is often invaluable. The princi- ple of these towers, of which there are several devices, is very simple. A metal tube, the upper end terminating in an adjustable nozzle, is so arranged over one end of a truck that it may be raised to a height of sixty feet above the street pavement, and at the bottom is connected with a very large hose which is .supplied with water by two or four engines. The nozzle is controlled by a man on the truck, and tlie stream of water can be thrown upward, downward, or in any direction needed, with ease and certainty, even through the upper windows of the highest buildings. The Fire Department is managed by three Commissioners, Henry D. Purroy, President, and is divided into four Bu- reaus. The Bureau of Chief of Department, Hugh Bonner, Chief, does the real work of fire-fighting. There are over thirteen hundred paid employes in the Fire Depart- ment, in all its branches, of whom about one thousand are uniformed. The pay of firemen runs from $1,000 to $1,200 per annum. If a man is crippled in the service he is provided for out of the pension fund. If he is killed, his widow gets $1,000 at once, and a pension of $300 per year as long as she does not re-marry. There are in pres- ent service fifty-six engine-companies, of which nine are double ; twenty-one hook-and-ladder companies, one of them double ; and two water-tower companies. An engine com- pany comprises a foreman, assi.stant foreman, two engineers, and eight men ; a hook-and-ladder company, a foreman, as- sistant foreman, and ten men ; the double companies each have two foremen, two assistant foremen, four engineers, and twelve firemen ; and a water-tower company, a fore- man, one assistant foreman, and three men. J. H. Connelly. S64 DKMOREST'S FAMILY MAG^AZINE. THE RIVER OF PEARLS. By Ken£ Db Pont-Jest. Part I. A Dhop of Watf.r. {Continued from page 223.) SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. LlnK-Tn-I.ang, the eldest son of a wealtliy Clilncse iiiaiularln. Iiad Just married the beautiful Llou-Sloii. or Embroidered Willow, and at the conclusion of the wfddlng-feast was abuul retiring to the apartments of Ills Inide. whom he had not yet beheld, wlien he was followed down an alicj of his ^rden by a sinister Individual who had been shadowing hini, and In the meantime liad stolen a fan from another guest, a literary man attached to the pagoda of Fo. The bride was admiring her we lding-jewels, when the attendants announced her bridegroom. As she heard his approaching footsteps she fainted, and knew no more until morning, when her father-in-law dragged hir from her rooms to behold the murdered body of her husband In the garden, and accused her of the murder. The police-prefect Ko-Ilop was sent for, a fan was discovered under the body of poor Ling-Ta-I.ang, and Kmbroldered Willow recognized It as belonging to her cousin I-ti, the literary man above mentioned ; whereupon the prefect declared I-lc to be the murderer and the young bride his accomplice, and ordered Embroldtted Willow carried to prison. In recalling the circumstances which led to the poor little bride's misfortunes, we are Introduced to Tehuu, a butcher of repulsive as|)eci, who had fallen In love with Llou-Slou before her marriage, fancying th.it a drop of water which fell In his eye from her watering-pot, as she was tending lier flowers at her window, was Intended as a love-token. In this fancy, liose, or Me-Koul. the maid of Embroidered Willow, encouraged lilni, pretending to carry notes, etc.. until he saw the notice of Llou-Slou's marriage to LIng-Ta-Lang posted on the wall of her house, as Is the Chinese custom, and knew that he had been du|icd. Then he became furious and vowed a fearful vengeance. Embroidered Willow, however, had no suspicion of Tcliou's aflectlon, and was, besides. In love with I-t£. Mrs. Lion had told I-t£' when he spoke of his love for her daughter, that she had more ambitious views for the beautiful girl ; so the self-sacrlflelng I-t6, overhearing I.ing-Tlen-I.o. father of l.lng-Ta-Lang, praying In the Pagoda Ml that he might find a suitable wife for Ills .son, suggested Embroidered Willow, and the match was concluded. The fan being found under the murdered body of Llng-Ta-Lang, and the fact that I-t^ had confessed his love to the father of the bridegroom, were sutllelent excuse for I-ti to be put to torture to make him admit his siiiiposed share in the crime. He refused, and Embroidered Willow, after having languished In prison two weeks, also refused to confess the crime of which .she knew nothing, although cruelly tortured In the open court ; but when \-xk was put to torture In her presence she broke down, and said that she had killed her husband, which statement her mother, who was In court. Immediately denounced as a lie, forced from the lips of an almost crazy girl, \evertheless, both I-t^ and Embroidered Willow were .sentenced to die In one month's time, and I-t£ was taken to the hospital. Mrs. I.lou was prepar- ing to return to prison with her daughter, when Captain Perkins, un American, who had witnessed the proceedings, came to her, and odered to assist her In proving Embroidered Willow's Innocence. He prepared a petition to the viceroy, I^Incc Kong, showing how unjustly the law had been administered In thh case by Ming, the presiding judge. Mrs. I.lou intercepted Prince Kong on his way to the temple and presented the petition, which the viceroy Immediately promised to look Into, and requested the poor mother to remain at the palace until he could do so. In the meantime her house at Foun-sl was entered and robbed, and the servant liose bundled up like a bale of goods and carried off. CHAPTER XI. The .Abduction of Rose. OME ! We will go now," said the leader. The two wretches lifted the servant, while the Sr'^^'^ other went before them into the street to make sure that it was deserted. There was no one passing, nor was there even a light in the neighboring dwellings. He called his men in a low voice, and after softly closing the door he took the leatl of this sinister group and they all went down an alley close at hand, which led directly to the river. After having confided to his frientl his shiin; of the stolen goods, one of the sailors had Hung Rose upon his back, and, tied up as she was, she lookctl like a bundle of fish-nets. They soon reached the river. The night was dark : there was no moon, and the sky was starless. The waves of the River of Pearls, lapping mournfully upon the almost indistinguish- able shores, made the boats, tied to piles, bump against each other with dull-sounding collisions. The leader of this strange expedition ])ulled in one of these boats, and after having made sure that it had oars in it, he made the rest get in ; then cutting the rope which held it, he launched out with a vigorous stroke of the oar. The current was rapid, but the abductors soon reached the opposite side, where the waters were more tranquil. At that point the River of Pearls divides into throe branches, two only of which are navigable and come out ul)ove the forts of Boca Tigris. The third, full of rocks and shallows, is, besides, interrupted in its course by a fall of water, whose roar, multipru'd by the echoes, may be heard three or four miles off. It was towards this dangerous arm of the river the boatmen went; but they hail not proct'eded far, when their pilot uttered a cry, startlingly resembling that of the gunmala, the devil-bird. A similar cry replied to him, and a man appeared upon the rock against which the waves broke. The sailors lifted their oars, and the skiff grated on the l)pach. " Is It you, Woiim-pi?" asked the man. who seemed to have just been cast up by the waters. " It is I, master," replied the fisherman. " Is it done ? " " Yes : the woman is here." "Then get to work, you I " These words were addressed to a dozen individuals, whose heads could scarcely be discerned among the tall grasses. They evidently were expecting this order, for they immedi- ately weni down Into the river, where several of them dis- appeared up to the shoulders, and began to work vigor- ously. Divided into groups of three, they seized '.he ends of heavy ropes attached to buoys, and united all their efforts to raise something which scenietl to be at the iKittom of the river. Sotm this unknown object emerged : it proved to be a long boat, painted I'ed, either a racer or a pirate, for its bow was very sharp, and it would carry twenty rowers. It could instantly be sunk, by means of a large valve upon one side, and consequently put out of the way of anyone seek- ing it. In a few minutes the grim workers raised the Iwat and turned it over to empty it of water, closed the valve, put it on the river, and took their se",ts in it. Wouin-])i i>ut Rose in also, who, when he removed the veil from her face, watched these preparations in terror. All at once the Ixiat shook violently. The chief of the fishermen jumpetl into it with a tremendous leap, antl seized the long oar which served him as a rudder. " Tchou ! " muttered the poor servant, her scream stifled by the gag. She recognized the butcher of the Street of the (!old-beaters. " Yes, Tchou ! '' the Intter re]>»>ated, bending over her as if to revel in her terror. "Tchou. whom the falseness of your mistress luis made an as,siissin ; Tchou, the ' Red Spider,' who will avenge his tortures \\\to\\ you, as he has already done uj>on Embroidered Willow." Brutally kicking aside the poor wretch, he gave a brief order: the twenty pirates bent to their oars, and in an in- stant the yawl gained the arm of the river, where it soon disa])peared amid the shadows of night, and only the ca- denccd sweep of its oars could be heard iu the distance.