The Book of the Fire Brigade. By A. L. Hayden.
(The Pilgrim Press. 3s. 6d.)—The London Fire Brigade, the older Metropolitan Fire Brigade under its latest name, is naturally the chief of all brigades, and fills the principal place in this volume. Nothing could be more thrilling to the street passenger than to see and hear an engine tearing through the traffic, with the peculiar yells of the man beside the driver ; a motor engine with a bell may be more efficient but less exciting. There are plenty of kindred thrills to be found in reading this book, and serious information too. There are stories of heroes and particularly pleasing tales of Fire Brigade dogs. As to the information, how many people remember now that, like other good works, this organized defence began as private enterprise, or know that there is still at least one country town where the fire brigade is the concern of the insurance companies working in the neighbour- hood, or even that the London Salvage Corps is not yet under the heel of any statutory authority P The volunteer brigades of the country are not neglected, and though the serious history begins from the date of the Tooley Street fire, the author takes U3 back to the great fire of London, and even to the cohortes vigiluns whom Augustus established as the police and firemen of Rome. There are also comparisons with foreign institutions, such as the latest floating engines of New York.
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