“_Familiar in their Mouths as HOUSEHOLD WORDS._”—SHAKESPEARE. HOUSEHOLD WORDS. A WEEKLY JOURNAL. CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS. N^{o.} 7.] SATURDAY, MAY 11, 1850. [PRICE 2_d._ THE FIRE BRIGADE OF LONDON. Earth, Air, and Water are necessary conditions of human life; but Fire is the first great element of civilisation. Fire, the first medium between the ‘cooking animal’ and the wild root and raw-flesh-devouring savage; fire, the best, because the most useful of servants, and, according to the old proverb, the worst, because the most tyrannical of masters; fire, the chief friend of man in creations of nature and of industrial art, yet the most potent of all enemies in destruction; fire, the most brilliant and magnificent object on the earth, yet the most frightful and appalling when once it obtains dominion over man and man’s abodes;—to subdue, and render docile to all needs, this devouring dragon, and bend his splendid crests, not only to ‘boil the pot’ but to lick the dust before the feet of Science, this is one of the greatest triumphs of mankind, the results of which are every year more and more stupendous. But, amidst all our mastery, we are never permitted to forget that this illustrious slave has neither abandoned nor abated one jot of his original nature. Of this we are but too constantly reminded. Not to speak of lightning and volcanic eruptions, the weekly record of colliery and other mine explosions, of steamboat explosions, the burning of ships, and the dismal transformation to a heap of ashes of valuable warehouses, costly public edifices, or private houses, with ‘dreadful loss of life,’ need but the slightest mention to excite a thrill of alarm, or some passing thought of caution in the mind of every person holding the smallest stake in the social community. To meet this sudden emergency, therefore, and to restore the balance of power, or, rather, to put down the mutiny of this powerful slave, and reduce him to his habitual subserviency, we have the Fire Brigade, divided into four sections, and having nineteen stations in the most central quarters of the metropolis. This includes two ‘mighty engines’ floating on the Thames.