THE FIREMEN’S DAY OFF.

THE FIREMEN’S DAY OFF.

It is easy to envy the bold fireman when he whirls through the street on his engine or in his wagon, donning his helmet and his waterproof coat and his rubber boots as he charges along, the sole representative of the spectacular and the heroic in our city life. It is easy to envy him as, neatly clad in his immaculate uniform of blue marked with its glittering trumpets, he saunters about the streets when he is off duy. But it is not so easy even for the street urchin to envy him as he drags himself to his fifth or sixth fire in twenty-four hours, climbing out of a bunk in which he has taken weary refuge only ten minutes before. The fireman’s life may be glorious, but it is at moments arduous to the limit of endurance. But we do not keep him on duty all the time. The practice as to his hours and his relief is very various. Everywhere in the country, we believe, he is supposed to be ready to respond to a call at any time, night or day, except during his meal hours and on his days or nights off. Here in New York we give him three hours for his meals, every fifth day off, and two weeks’ straight vacation in the year. In Boston he has every eighth day off and two weeks’ vacation; in Buffalo every tenth day only and a week’s vacation. Philadelphia allows him one day in seven. Detroit varies it with two days out of every eleven. In Chicago, where his relief program is one day, one night and two mornings and two afternoons off every two weeks, an ordinance has been introduced in the city council by Alderman Scully, which provides that no member of the fire department shall be required to be on duty more than twelve hours continuously in any one day, save in the emergency of a great conflagration, when all leaves may be canceled by the fire marshal. This proposition seems to be inspired by a disposition to make the service a "soft thing" for the firemen rather than by a regard for the public convenience. It is a part of the same spirit as that which favors the three-platoon system for police. As a matter of fact, both firemen and police, to judge from their appearance, get enough sleep and rest. There is no calm so complete, no repose so profound, as that of the engine house or the police station when nothing is doing. To throw the fireman out of the engine house for twelve hours in every twenty-four, and compel him to get his sleep and rest in a tenement bouse with a roaring and squalling population, would be cruelty to the fireman and might even menace the public safety by causing the spread of nervous exhaustion in the department.—N. Y. Mail and Express.

It is easy to envy the bold fireman when he whirls through the street on his engine or in his wagon, donning his helmet and his waterproof coat and his rubber boots as he charges along, the sole representative of the spectacular and the heroic in our city life. It is easy to envy him as, neatly clad in his immaculate uniform of blue marked with its glittering trumpets, he saunters about the streets when he is off duy. But it is not so easy even for the street urchin to envy him as he drags himself to his fifth or sixth fire in twenty-four hours, climbing out of a bunk in which he has taken weary refuge only ten minutes before. The fireman’s life may be glorious, but it is at moments arduous to the limit of endurance. But we do not keep him on duty all the time. The practice as to his hours and his relief is very various. Everywhere in the country, we believe, he is supposed to be ready to respond to a call at any time, night or day, except during his meal hours and on his days or nights off. Here in New York we give him three hours for his meals, every fifth day off, and two weeks’ straight vacation in the year. In Boston he has every eighth day off and two weeks’ vacation; in Buffalo every tenth day only and a week’s vacation. Philadelphia allows him one day in seven. Detroit varies it with two days out of every eleven. In Chicago, where his relief program is one day, one night and two mornings and two afternoons off every two weeks, an ordinance has been introduced in the city council by Alderman Scully, which provides that no member of the fire department shall be required to be on duty more than twelve hours continuously in any one day, save in the emergency of a great conflagration, when all leaves may be canceled by the fire marshal. This proposition seems to be inspired by a disposition to make the service a "soft thing" for the firemen rather than by a regard for the public convenience. It is a part of the same spirit as that which favors the three-platoon system for police. As a matter of fact, both firemen and police, to judge from their appearance, get enough sleep and rest. There is no calm so complete, no repose so profound, as that of the engine house or the police station when nothing is doing. To throw the fireman out of the engine house for twelve hours in every twenty-four, and compel him to get his sleep and rest in a tenement bouse with a roaring and squalling population, would be cruelty to the fireman and might even menace the public safety by causing the spread of nervous exhaustion in the department.—N. Y. Mail and Express.