Fire Laddies of New York

Queer Street Characters

(Originally published 1893)

Was it the fireman in real life or the fire laddie of the stage who gave rise to the slang that centred around the life of the volunteer fireman? For a long time, in my school-days, "Mose," "Lize," and "Syksey" were familiar names upon our play-grounds, and we shouted to "wash her out" or "take de butt" as if we were veritable Chanfraus. The caricatures of the period found inexhaustible fun in "Mose," with, his red shirt, black broadcloth pantaloons tucked into his boot-tops, his elfin "soap-locks" hanging over each ear and down his close-shaven cheeks, his tall silk hat perched on one side of his head, and his broadcloth coat hung over his left arm. For his "Lize" he ordered pork and beans in the restaurant, and bade the waiter, "Don't yer stop ter count a bean," and to "Lize" he remarked, as he drove out on the road, It isn't a graveyard we're passin'; it's mile-stones." Possibly a new generation does not see anything laugh-able in these traditional jokes, but to the men of that period they stood for living actualities, the dashing heroes of many a fierce battle with the dread forces of fire.

I honor the old volunteer firemen. When one of the battered "machines" of former days passes by in a public procession I feel like taking off my hat to it, as I always do to the tattered colors that I have followed on many a fierce field of fight. Ah, what nights of noise and struggle were those in which the engines rattled down pavement or sidewalk, drawn by scores of willing hands and ushered into action by the hoarse cries of hundreds of cheering voices. There was no boy's play around the engine when once it began to battle with the flames. Men left their pleasant firesides to risk their lives for the preservation of the lives and property of others, and they did it without bravado, as if it were but one of the ordinary duties of their lot. They had their jealousies and their prejudices, their feuds and their fights of rival organizations, but all met alike on the common ground of self-sacrifice for the common good. All classes of society were represented in the ranks of the firemen. The mechanic and the son of the wealthy merchant were in-distinguishable under the volunteer's heavy hat, and emulated each other in labors and daring. College graduates drew the silver-mounted carriage of Amity Hose to the scene of peril, and then the boys of "Old Columbia" did as good work amid the flames as the gilt-edged boys of the Seventh Regiment did after-wards through the long years of war. And then the firemen's processions-were they not superb? What a magnificent polish the engines took, and how exuberantly they were garlanded with flowers, and how full were the long lines of red-shirted laddies who manned the ropes and were the cynosure of the ad-miring eyes of all feminine Gotham! The men who carried the trumpets were the conquering heroes of the day and the envy of every boyish beholder. It seems a pity that their glory should have departed. Has it departed? I open the book of memory again, and they are all there, and the glory of their record is - undimmed: 
"Those ahold of hook-and-ladder ropes No less to me than the gods of the antique wars."

Video Notes:

Video 1
May 19, 1903. American Mutoscope & Biograph Co.
Two hook-and-ladders, two steam pumpers, and a rescue wagon return to the 'house'. Note the kids running along and hanging on the back of some of the vehicles.

Video 2
Photographed September 21, 1903.
American Mutoscope and Biograph Co.
Camera: Frederick S. Armitage
A parade honoring the disabled and retired firemen of the city, the march is taking place through Washington Square Park. The Washington Arch, designed by Stanford White, is visible in the background as firefighters and antique firefighting equipment pass by.
New York has had a professional fire department since 1865. Before that, volunteer fire companies took care of conflagrations. New York suffered major fires in 1776, 1811, 1835, and 1845 and numerous fire-related tragedies, including the Brooklyn Theatre Fire (1876), the fire on the cruise ship General Slocum (1904), and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (1911).

Music celebrating New York firemen includes "The New York Fireman" (circa 1836), "The Diligent Hose Company Quick Step: As performed by Dodworth's Cornet Band of New York" (1849), "The Fireman's Polka" (1851), the "Friendship Quick Step"--"Composed for Phoenix Hook & Ladder Co. No. 3 of New York" (1850), and George M. Cohan's "The Boys Who Fight the Flames" (1908).

- New York: Songs of the City by Nancy Groce

Washington Square Park was originally used as farmland by former slaves until April 1797, when the Common Council of New York purchased the fields to the east of the Minetta (which were not yet within city limits) for a new potter's field, or public burial ground. It was used mainly for burying unknown or indigent people when they died. But when New York (which did not include this area yet) went through yellow fever epidemics in the early 1800s, most of those who died from yellow fever were also buried here, safely away from town, as a hygienic measure. The cemetery was closed in 1825. To this day, the remains of more than 20,000 bodies rest under Washington Square.

- excerpt from wikipedia