Leaping to his feet he found himself face to face with his kind old friend, Mr. Dewsnap, known to all the members of the company as the “fire crank.” Mr. Dewsnap’s companions were two gentlemen, both of them well dressed and of prepossessing appearance, and both unquestionably foreigners. One was a tall man, attired in a suit of very large checks, and the other was short, rotund and long haired. The former was evidently an Englishman, and the latter a German.
“Where’s the chief?” inquired Mr. Dewsnap.
126“Out with the company,” replied the boy, taking off his cap, for Bruce had sense enough to know that politeness to his elders was always a strong point in favor of any boy.
“That’s too bad,” replied Mr. Dewsnap, taking out his watch, “because I have brought down these two gentlemen to show them the way we have in this country of putting out fires, and I wanted to have them make Chief Trask’s acquaintance. However,” he continued, “I’ll just take them inside here and explain what I can myself; then when the chief comes back he can show them the rest.”
With these words the three visitors entered the building, and in a moment Mr. Dewsnap was in the midst of a voluble description of the workings of the service. Bruce noticed that both strangers seemed to display a more than ordinary degree of interest, and they both of them took notes of what they heard. Mr. Dewsnap, who knew as much of the department as a good many firemen, talked to them energetically and kept them interested until the company returned from the fire, and Chief Trask, alighting from his wagon, came forward to welcome his visitors. The two visitors were introduced respectively as Baron Bernstoff and the Honorable Rupert Doubter.
127“These gentlemen,” said Mr. Dewsnap, “have come to this country for the purpose of studying its peculiar institutions, and they are particularly desirous of learning all they can about the Fire Department of New York, the fame of which has spread through every city in Europe. The fact is, that although they are too polite to say so, I am afraid that they do not believe what has been told them in regard to the rapidity with which our companies get out to a fire when the alarm sounds. I’ve shown them as much as I can about the building and explained to them the way the alarms are sent out, but I just wish you would tell them what you know, and give them a little illustration of how things are done.”
Chief Trask, like all efficient members of the service, took a just pride in his work and was never so happy as when expatiating to benighted foreigners on the wonderful efficiency of the fire brigade of New York, as compared with those of the other leading capitals of the world.
“Our motto, gentlemen,” said the chief, “is to be always ready for an emergency, and when that emergency comes to meet it without an instant’s loss of time. We have just come from a fire about six or eight blocks from here, 128and now you will see that the men are getting ready for the next alarm.”
As he spoke he directed his visitors’ attention to the truck, which by this time had been backed carefully into the quarters to its resting place in the centre of the building, while the men were leading the horses slowly up and down the street, to the admiration of a group of small boys who had been attracted to the scene by the return of the apparatus, and were now gazing upon the firemen with that profound respect which a New York boy always entertains for those superior and uniformed beings. The horses were thoroughly rubbed down and then returned to their stalls, and at the same time the men, aided by Bruce, carefully inspected the hook and ladder truck to see that nothing had been broken in their swift run, and then washed the mud from its wheels and did not leave it until it was in perfect order and ready to go out at once on parade should occasion require it.
Baron Bernstoff viewed all these details with interest and approval, for the care with which everything was attended to and the industry with which the men went about their duties appealed strongly to his German mind, while his English friend, although he watched everything 129just as attentively, did not seem nearly so much impressed with what he saw and was evidently very skeptical in regard to the efficiency of the American service. It was plain enough to Chief Trask, who was a keenly observant man, that in his secret heart the Honorable Rupert Doubter was not quite willing to trust the evidence of his own eyes and regarded all that he saw as things done simply for show and not for use.
“That’s all very well,” he said at last, “and it seems to me that if you could tell exactly when a fire was going to break out your service would be perfect, but supposing the alarm comes in when some of the men are playing checkers and others are up stairs taking a nap, and a few more perhaps are up at the corner——”
But here the chief interrupted him rather sharply. “My men don’t spend their time hanging round street corners, and they don’t take naps in the afternoon like a lot of old maids. They play checkers sometimes, but I can tell you that if that gong rings they stop just where they are and don’t wait to finish the game. As I told you before our motto is to be always ready and I’ve forgotten the Latin words for it, I am sorry to say. The alarm may come in in the middle of the night when 130they’re all in bed and asleep, and it may come in and find them all down stairs as you see them now, but the result is the same. By the time the driver gets into his seat the men are on the truck behind him, and off they go. If you will come upstairs with me I’ll take pleasure in showing you where we sleep and the way we have of getting out on time when we’re sent for.”
Saying this, Chief Trask escorted his visitors up stairs to the dormitory, where he explained the method of turning out at night and sliding down the brass poles. To illustrate the last named feat, he called Bruce upstairs and had him go through the act of jumping against the pole and sliding down it to the floor below. The foreigners witnessed the act in silent amazement, and then the Englishman turned to Chief Trask and said, “Upon me soul, this is all very extraordinary, don’t you know, but I would like to ask why they don’t go down the staircase; it must be so much easier, and it is certainly not so wearing on their clothes.”
“The staircase!” cried Chief Trask, in horror, “Why, that would take them fully five seconds longer than it does this way.”
“But what does five seconds count in getting to a fire?” persisted Mr. Doubter.
131“I can tell you, sir,” replied the chief, “that we look upon five seconds as a considerable period of time in the matter of getting out to answer an alarm.”
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