ns, they could always hear, singly or in volleys, the
shots of the revolvers and shouts of the firemen as they fought in
Moyamensing.

Every effort to diminish these evils, or to improve the fire department
in any way whatever, was vigorously opposed by the rowdies, who
completely governed the city. The first fire-alarm electric telegraphs
were a great offence to firemen, and were quietly destroyed; the steam-
engines were regarded by them as deadly enemies. But the first great
efficient reform in the Philadelphia fire department, and the most
radical of all, was the establishment of a fire-detective department
under a fire-marshal, whose business it was to investigate and punish all
cases of incendiarism. For it was simply incendiarism, encouraged and
supported by the firemen themselves, which caused nineteen-twentieths of
all these disasters; it was the _fires_ which were the sole support of
the whole system.

I was much indebted for understanding all this, and acting on it boldly,
as I did, to the city editor and chief reporter on the _Evening
Bulletin_, Caspar Souder. The Mayor of the city was Richard Vaux, a man
of good family and education, and one who had seen in his time cities and
men, he having once in his youth, on some great occasion, waltzed with
the Princess--now Queen--Victoria. Being popular, he was called _Vaux
populi_. I wrote very often leaders urging Mayor Vaux by name to
establish a fire-detective department. So great was the indignation
caused among the firemen, that I incurred no small risk in writing them.
But at last, when I published for one week an article every day
clamouring for a reform, Mayor Vaux--as he said directly to Mr. Souder,
"in consequence of my appeals"--vigorously established a fire-marshal
with two aids. By my request, the office was bestowed on a very
intelligent and well-educated person, Dr. Blackburne, who had been a
surgeon in the Mexican war, then a reporter on our journal, and finally a
very clever superior detective. He was really not only a born detective,
but to a marked degree a man of scientific attainments and a skilled
statistician. His anecdotes and comments as to pyromaniacs of different
kinds were as entertaining and curious as anything recorded by Gaboriau.
Some of the most interesting experiences of my life were when I went with
Dr. Blackburne from place to place where efforts had been made to burn
houses, and noted the unerring and Red-Indian skill