Reminiscences of the old fire laddies and volunteer fire departments of New York and Brooklyn. . orshaving the public out of its ownin the city. The most barefacedtransactions were performed withimpunity. Men were cupped orsoft-soaped out of their money byhundreds daily, and yet it was tol-erated. The papers, at this time,puffed and gave notoriety to it untilat last the head of this concern—Sam Grant, the barber—was driven, for causes best known tohimself, to seek the golden shores of California, to better himself andlead a different life. Little did James Gordon Bennett, at the timehe put him
Reminiscences of the old fire laddies and volunteer fire departments of New York and Brooklyn. . orshaving the public out of its ownin the city. The most barefacedtransactions were performed withimpunity. Men were cupped orsoft-soaped out of their money byhundreds daily, and yet it was tol-erated. The papers, at this time,puffed and gave notoriety to it untilat last the head of this concern—Sam Grant, the barber—was driven, for causes best known tohimself, to seek the golden shores of California, to better himself andlead a different life. Little did James Gordon Bennett, at the timehe put himself under Sam Grants hands for his tonsorial perform-ance, dream that he would, in 1865, purchase for the sum of nearlythree-quarters of a million of dollars the little plot of ground, 50 by100 feet, upon which he was then paying his sixpence for a shave,its vaults to-day undermining Broadway until they come in contactwith those of St. Pauls Church, wherein lie the ashes of men likeEmmet, Montgomery, and Cooke, whose deeds have been chronicledand printed in the pages of history s Fire.— Thieves and Gamblers. 11 I remember after Barnums was burned the opinions that wereexpressed concerning the showman and the chances of his everrecovering from the loss of the fire. It was suggested at the timethat the Central Park Commissioners should make him custodianover all their wild beasts, birds, and reptiles. It was even urgedthat, as the great showman was such a heavy loser by the fire, thatthe Commissioners should take him in their employ and make him asecond Noah—give him a commission, with a large salary, to travelthe world over in search of strange things. The veteran was wontto laugh at all these suggestions, and closing one eye significantly,would observe: Give me a little time, boys. I 11 land on myfeet again. It is unnecessary to say the old man made good hiswords. Our city has had in its time many notorious places, spots, andcorners, on which have congregated
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