San Francisco Pioneer Firemen.

San Francisco Pioneer Firemen.

The San Francisco Chronicle publishes an interesting account of the early history of that city’s fire department. The first fire to which the infant city was exposed was on December 24th, 1849, on which occasion only two engines were used, one belonging to an English importing house, and the other owned by a speculator, who had brought it out to pump water from mines. The former was nearly worn out from prior service in the Sandwich Islands, and the other was a toy affair which had been formerly used by Martin Van Buren in irrigating his estate in New York. They could do little, however, and the most effective work was done by plastering the houses with mud from the streets. About a million dollars worth of property was destroyed on this occasion, and after it a Fire Department was organized. Two side-stroke engines were brought from New York, and in June, 1850, when the next fire occurred, four engine companies turned out. Magnificent engine houses were then erected, and a Spirit of extravagant emulation was fostered, in catering to which money poured forth in floods.

In 1854 one company, the Monumentals, brought out on two ships a $6,000 end-stroke machine, which beat anything on the coast in point of throwing water, and put “Chief” on it in big letters and paraded it up and down to the anguish of their rivals. In 1S60 anotner company quietly sent to New York for a steamer, but the Monumentals got wind of it. sent a special messenger to the states by express and had a steamer sent to them by Isthmus almost before the order of their rivals reached the manufacturers. Then came more heart burnings and jealousies, but the Monumentals were ahead and kept there. The Monumentals gave the first ball, too, with tickets at $20 apiece, and no admittance to anybody not wearing a claw-hammer coat and white kids, but the Empires came out first at a concert in aid of the Charitable Fund, and bought the choice box for $1,225, and presentqd it to the wife of tbeir foreman.