Among the Buffs
DEPARTMENT OF: “They Don’t Fight ’Em Today Like They Used To”: Boston's Box 52 Association buffs are talking of the story they heard from George F. Weston, Jr., of the Boston-Herald Traveler. The anecdote concerns Major Melville who was chief of the Boston Fire Wards for many years in the days of the hand pumpers.
The Boston b’hoys celebrated the delivery of a new 12-man pumper in a manner somewhat unlike that of the present day when new rigs take their place in enginehouses. The more the firemen celebrated the new arrival, the more the whiskey flowed. Toasts were drunk to the rig, its builder, to Major Melville and to bigger and better fires. “When the festivities were at their height,” reports Weston, “some joker raised the cry of ‘fire!’
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