Book Description

Excerpt from Fourteenth Annual Report of the Board of Fire Commissioners, for the Year Ending April 30, 1887 The street - patrol system, largely peculiar to the Boston department, deserves a word Of comment. Of a total of 826 alarms, 17 have been sent in by the night patrol. Some have been needless but at least a round dozen have been for working fires. This may seem a small proportion of the whole but their character, not their number, determines their importance. The Board has no means, of course, of mathe matically estimating the value of the system, but it can instance at least three fires where minutes were worth thou sands of dollars, and one where life was probably saved by an effective vigil and a prompt alarm. The system has been selected for criticism by those interested in the department on various grounds, the principal being that it unduly in creases the temptations to which the men are exposed. If there are men in this service who cannot resist temptation in the discharge of a Specific and an important duty, then they are in the wrong place. They are not desired in a depart ment the distinguishing characteristics Of which, the Board is proud to believe and say, are manliness, bravery, fidelity and zeal, and should retire and place themselves under the restraint and protection which society provides for beings Of weakwills and feeble minds. While the present Board remains in authority the patrol will not be abolished, pro vided it shall continue to as triumphantly justify itself as it has justified itself in the past; and the Board tries to impress upon members Of the department the fact that their zeal in preventing a fire will have equal weight with their zeal in conquering it, in their claims to recognition and reward for faithful and efficient service. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.