_The Wise Peter Cooper, and his most extraordinary proposal of a Tank on
the summit of the City Hall, for the extinguishment of disastrous
conflagrations._
[Document No. 13.]
BOARD OF ALDERMEN, }
February 6, 1854. }
The following petition of Peter Cooper, in relation to the prevention
and extinguishing of fire, and to give greater efficiency to the Police
Department, was received and laid on the table and ordered to be
printed.
D. T. VALENTINE,
Clerk.
To the Hon. the Mayor and Common Council of the city of New York.
[CONCLUDED.]
It must be apparent to every reflecting mind that the great extent of
our city already, imposes a burden on the present firemen so great, that
we have no right to expect that it will be borne a great while longer by
a voluntary Fire Department.
It is evident that something should be done at once to furnish the Fire
Department, the relief that they have a right to expect from the
excessive labor that is unavoidable in drawing their engines to and
from, and the hazzard and fatigue of working them at the numerous fires
that take place.
In the opinion of your subscriber, the plan of placing light carts with
hose at convenient distances in every street, to be at the service of a
body of police, all interested to use this hose for the extinguishment
of fires with the greatest possible energy and effect, is the best that
can be adopted. By this arrangement it is safe to calculate that the
present Fire Department will be relieved from something like three
quarters of the duties they are now called upon to perform. As an
equivalent for this relief, I propose that the Fire Department shall
become the guard of honor for our city, to be called out as firemen or
soldiers whenever their services are required by the proper authorities
of our city. This arrangement proposes to continue the present Fire
Department with every privilege they now enjoy, and relieve them from
more than half the labors they are now required to perform.
It is believed by your subscriber, that the plan proposed will make the
Fire Department and also the present active Police Department, the most
useful and honorable bodies of men in our city. The hearty co-operation
of the members of the Fire Department, and also the members of the
Police to secure for our city the blessings which must naturally result
from this arrangement, will entitle them not only to the pecuniary
advantages that must result to themselves and their families, but to the
lasting gratitude and respect of every worthy inhabitant of our city.
It is worthy of remark that the insurance companies of this city have
now in their employ eighty (80) men, at an expense of thirty (30)
thousand dollars a year, to watch against fires. I am informed that they
intend greatly to increase this force; in addition, your subscriber,
with a great number of merchants and private families, have for years
constantly employed private watchmen, to guard our stores and watch our
dwellings from robbery and fires. All that these cost, and more, would
be gladly contributed to a body of police who would, by a faithful
performance of duty, secure the necessary relief for our Fire
department, by lessening annually the number of fires, and also by
reducing the amount of property stolen below the average agreed upon.
I have taken the liberty to invite the attention of your honorable body
to an ARRANGEMENT AND PRINCIPLE by which a large majority of all the
officers in the employ of the city will become pecuniarily and otherwise
interested in a faithful performance of their duty. Such performance
will not only secure to them the large fund provided by the Corporation,
and in addition the fund to be recovered from the insurance companies,
as a reward for reducing the loss by fire below the average agreed upon,
but they would, in addition, find the faithful performance of duty the
surest relief from excessive labor, by diminishing the number of fires
and the amount of crime that now form so great and so unpleasant a part
of their present labor.
The principal idea in the foregoing communication, was presented by your
subscriber to a previous Common Council, some twelve years since, under
a full sense of the great advantages that would result by saving
millions of property annually from destruction, and what is of more
value, it would save the health and morals of thousands of the best and
most enthusiastic young men of our city from being broken down and
destroyed by their loss of time and the excessive labor occasioned by
the numerous fires that take place, and which would mainly be prevented
by adopting the arrangement proposed.
All of which is most respectfully submitted.
Yours, with great respect,
PETER COOPER.
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WE have no doubt that by this time it is pretty generally understood,
that we have an engagement to fulfil, with the co-operation which, for
the present, requires our almost constant attentions. We offer this as
an excuse, partly for some very excellent extracts from the press, which
our readers will accept, together with our best wishes. We also indulge
in the hope that in our Geological researches among the islands of the
sea, that we shall make some valuable discoveries which will be of use
to the inhabitants of the earth, and to the dwellers in Gotham in
particular.
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A CAPITAL HOAX.—Some men plagiarise the thoughts of others, without
being at all aware of the pungency of the fact as regards themselves.
The _Herald_, in alluding to a few of the “minor press,” gotten up and
“spiced” precisely as the _Herald_ itself originally was, when it first
attracted public attention, remarked: “These fellows must be taught that
they cannot use the liberty of the press so far as to make it the
vehicle of their dirty thoughts and dirtier expressions, and that an
honorable profession is not to be degraded because they hang upon its
skirts, like foul birds hovering over their prey.” The beauty of it is,
this extract is, word for word, the language employed by the _Courier
and Enquirer_, in March, 1842, in relation to the _Herald_
itself!—_Mercury._
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