What follows is the essay “Esquisses a la Plume: Types du Bowery—le Pompier” [Pen Sketches: Bowery Types—The Fireman] by an anonymous French observer in the city of New York reprinted in George Goodrich Foster’s New York Naked (1854). It was annotated by John Warren.
The American fireman differs essentially from his French namesake. They have but a single point of correspondence, the common object of their mission. As to the organization of their bodies and their individual physiology, there is radical difference. [Read more…] about A Sketch of 1854 New York Firemen, Sporting & Fancy