USA > Louisiana > Orleans Parish > New Orleans > Standard history of New Orleans, Louisiana, giving a description of the natural advantages, natural history settlement, Indians, Creoles, municipal and military history, mercantile and commercial interests, banking, transportation, etc. > Part 12
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ropolitan Brigade," although a nominal militia foree was kept up independent of them. As a militia the metropolitan police force was of great convenience to the de facto state government, as it was well disciplined and continuously on duty. The men were chosen with eare and well equipped. There was a considerable mounted police force, which served as eavalry. In the subse- quent difficulties which grew out of the dual state government, when New Or- leans was for several years in a state of civil war, the police were frequently called on to make expeditions to the neighboring parishes to suppress popular movements that refused to recognize the de facto (Kellogg) state government or to pay taxes to it. A steamer was purehased for the purpose of making this expedition, thereby constituting the nucleus of a navy .; The police thus be- came both army and navy, the army being divided into infantry, cavalry and artillery.
Under the several laws passed in regard to the metropolitan police, they were constituted a state militia and given power and jurisdiction throughout the state, becoming in their power very like the Royal Irish constabulary, the situation in Louisiana at the time being very similar to that of Ireland when a large part of the population refused to recognize the government. There is no counterpart in the United States to the metropolitan police force of New Orleans from 1868 to 1877-not even in the other Southern States where re- construction was going on ; and the situation in Louisiana, with two state gov- ernments, was sui generis and different from that of its neighbors.
"The Metropolitans," as the police were called, were used in several mili- tary movements to suppress popular uprisings and establish the authority of the Kellogg government. They were sent to St. Martin's, where the people under Gen. Alcibiade de Blane maintained their allegiance to the McEnery state gov- ernment. This country campaign was a failure. A condition of aetual war prevailed in the parish of St. Martin for some weeks, but the Metropolitans made no headway; and Gen. de Blanc finally surrendered to the United States mar- shal, but refused to recognize the Metropolitans or state constabulary. In New Orleans the police were at first somewhat more successful. They captured the building occupied by the MeEncry government as a legislative hall, and they dispersed the citizen militia who had assembled in Jaekson Square for the pur- pose of establishing the MeEnery state government by force of arms; but in the battle on the levee, at the foot of Canal street, on September 14, 1874, the power of the Metropolitans was completely broken. Under the command of
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Generals A. S. Badger and James Longstreet, the Metropolitans, some 600 strong and with several cannon, Gatling guns and Napoleons, marched to Canal street to disperse the White League and similar organizations which sought to overthrow the Kellogg state government and establish that of McEnery. The result was a battle equal to many unfortunate engagements in actual warfare. The Metropolitans were defeated, losing some sixty-odd men, killed and wounded. Among the latter was the commander, Gen. Badger, while the citizen soldiery lost eighteen killed and a number wounded. Most of the other Metropolitans sur- rendered, and the next day, with the capture of the State House and Armory, the Kellogg government was dissolved. This defeat broke the power of the Metropolitans. With the restoration of the Kellogg government on May 17, 1874, the Metropolitans were reorganized, but as a city police force, not as a state constabulary. They made no more expeditions to the country, and they no longer attempted to act as militia. In the subsequent capture of the Su- preme Court buildings by the citizens' soldiery, on January 9, 1877, they made no resistance, nor during the long siege of the State House (afterward the Hotel Royal) did they attempt any military movements.
After the breaking up of the Metropolitans New Orleans was for a short time without any police whatever, and police duty was done by the citizens' soldiery. It was practically martial law, and the peace and order of the city was never better preserved or crimes and misdemeanors more infrequent.
With the establishment of the Nicholls government in 1877 the Metropol- itan police force was abolished and a new force organized. Few of the old mem- bers were given service, so strong was the popular hatred of the Metropolitans, who had ruled with a high hand and most arbitrarily during their years of power. Nearly all the statutes giving the Metropolitans extraordinary power were repealed, and the force again became a police force in fact.
While the new police was in many respects a great improvement on the Metropolitan, many defects had crept in which soon showed how necessary was the reorganization on an entirely new basis. Under the existing ordinances the police were entirely under the control of the mayor, who as chief had the power of appointment and removal. With this power it was natural that pol- itics should creep in, and that appointments should be made because of political services. The police exercised an important, if not a dominant, influence in primaries and elections, and, moreover, considerable corruption prevailed, es- pecially in the matter of gambling, which at that time was tolerated, or at least overlooked, in New Orleans.
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
When, in 1888, a reform administration went into power, it set to work at once to reform both the fire and the police departments, which were permeated with politics. Popular sentiment demanded a change, and strongly supported the bill introduced by Mr. Felix Dreyfous, member of the Legislature from the sixth ward of New Orleans, reorganizing the police force, which law was at once passed. It contained the provisions usual in most of the police laws of the large American citics. The mayor continued as commander-in-chief of the po- lice, but the force was controlled and directed by a board of six commissioners, representing the several municipal districts of the city. This board was to for- mulate rules and regulations to try all delinquent officers, and to have the power to fine, suspend or remove officers for cause. All officers were appointed to the force after physical and other examinations as to their fitness, and were under civil service rules, and could not be removed without cause. Provision was also made for the establishment of a police pension fund.
The new law worked well, and the police board set vigorously to work to reorganize the force; this took nearly a year. All the officers had to stand ex- aminations, physical and otherwise, and the unworthy and unfit were weeded out. The board, however, came in conflict with the mayor during this work, and a serious clash of authority resulted.
The practical experience in organizing the police force had disclosed sev- eral defects in the law. The police board met and suggested certain changes in this law in the direction of increasing their power. The mayor, Joseph A. Shakespeare, who had not received the law with favor, because it curtailed his power, proposed amendments which, while they continued the police commis- sion, materially increased his powers. The controversy lasted some months, and found its way into the courts. A majority of the police commissioners were re- moved by the mayor and new members of the board appointed. The State Su- preme Court, however, overturned this action and restored the commissioners who had been removed ; and the Legislature amended the law, as the police board had asked that it be amended. It was a triumph of the principle of the gov- ernment of the police by a commission instead of a single individual-the tri- umph of the principle of the civil service as opposed to the political system which had been in operation previously.
It was during this period of strife between the mayor and council that an event occurred which stirred New Orleans to a pitch of frenzy, caused more or less excitement throughout the country and led the United States into serious
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diplomatic difficulties and even into the possibility of a foreign war. This was the assassination of the newly-appointed chief of police, D. C. Hennessey, by members of the Mafia, on the night of October 15, 1890, and led to the Parish Prison lynching the next year, for which Italy made demands for reparation of the United States.
The dispute between Mayor Shakespeare and the Police Board in 1890 settled the question of the control of the police. The Mayor abandoned his re- sistance to the law, and it was universally recognized that the force had greatly improved in morale, efficiency, and in every other way since the change in the system, and the adoption of civil-service rules for its control. Differences, however, crept up from time to time between the Police Board and the several mayors as to the limit of power between them. Thus Mayor Fitzpatrick, who succeeded Shakespeare, quarelled with the board over the appointment of civil officers for the police courts, and in 1894 brought action to secure the removal of the commissioners. The court decided against him and thus entrenched the board in power and fixed the limits of its authority.
The original police act of 1888 had been amended in 1890, and was still further amended in 1896, in order to make it clear and cover all the disputed points which had led to the differences between the mayor and board. The last police act provided how the commissioners might be removed by legal proceed- ings, authorized the mayor to appoint emergency officers without pay, altered the qualifications of the police force, changed the examination board for promo- tion from a committee appointed by the superintendent of police to a committee appointed by the board, made the decision of the board final in all cases and not subject to revision, prohibited policemen from engaging in other pursuits, and finally set aside a portion of the police appropriation to the pension fund. It was a move in the right direction, tended to make the police force still more in- dependent and free from politics. It will be thus seen that the police of New Orleans have been through every possible status. It has been a volunteer force, a military force (a detail from the army), a constabulary, a genuine municipal police, to revert back to the militia system, again to a city police, and finally to adopt the principles of civil service, under the control of a board, the force being responsible to the mayor yet independent, to a large extent, from the legislation and interference of the council and city government.
The police pension fund was established by the act of 1888, reorganizing the police force. It provides a pension for the widows of all officers who may
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lose their lives in the performance of their duties, and had in 1900 eleven fami- lies on the pension roll.
The Police Mutual Benevolent Association was organized in 1893. By voluntary contributions to the fund of this association, police officers receive so much per day when sick, and a gross amount is paid to their families in the event of death. It received and disbursed $31,511 during the six years 1893-99.
FIRE DEPARTMENT.
The Fire Department of New Orleans passed through the same changes and vicissitudes as other branches of the municipal government, and as have oc- curred in other cities of the same age. It began with no firemen at all, followed by a volunteer fire force, which assumed more and more the characteristics of a paid department, until finally the volunteer force went out altogether and a paid department came into service.
There were no firemen in the earlier days of New Orleans, and no means of fighting fire. When flames broke out in the little city, the neighbors flocked to the scene of the fire and did what they could with buckets to extinguish the flames. The soldiers also turned out and did the heaviest work.
With the lack of firemen, in a city where houses were almost all of wood and roofed with shingles, it was was natural that a great conflagration should occur. Such a fire came on Good Friday, March 21, 1788, and it was one which the city had cause long to remember. A high wind, amounting almost to a gale, carried the flames from house to house and from strect to street. The entire business portion of the city was destroyed, including the parochial church (suc- ceeded by St. Louis' Cathedral), the Presbytery (where the civil courts are now situated), and with it nearly all the archives of the colony, the municipal building or Cabildo, the military barracks and arsenal, with large supplies of arms and ammunition and the calaboose or public jail, from which the pris- oners were narrowly rescued from burning to death. Altogether between 800 and 900 houses were destroyed by fire, the total loss being estimated at $2,595,- 616. It was the first big fire New Orleans ever had, and it has never had one as large since.
The conflagration had one good effect; it called attention to the utter de- ficiency of the city in the matter of preparations to fight fires. There were not even enough buckets to use, and no organization to pass up the buckets to put out the fire where it burned or to wet the roofs of the houses which stood in its path.
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While the city was in flames the Governor sent the soldiers to the artillery quar- ter to search for such military implements as were best adapted to the purpose of staying the flames, such as axes, military picks, etc., with which to pull down houses and parts of houses and parts of houses left standing that might feed the flames with fuel.
The result of the great fire, which was felt in New Orleans for many years afterwards, was the organization of a fire department. Only four years after- wards another severe fire broke out in the city. Thanks to the improvement that had been made in fighting fires, it was not nearly as destructive as that of 1788, for not only were there buckets ready for use but engines as well, the lat- ter being, however, without trucks and carried in carts. The city at that time was divided into four wards or districts, in each of which was an Alcalde de Barrios, a commissioner of police, who had charge not only of the police or se- renos, but also of fire matters as well. The alcaldes were directed to take charge of the engines and implements, to assume command at all fires and to organize new companies as the occasion demanded. It was the first fire department New Orleans boasted of, and it proved efficient in spite of the very crude engines then in the city. In 1794 another destructive conflagration occurred, which burnt over a considerable portion of the city destroyed in 1788. The fault did not lay with the alcaldes or the firemen, but was due to the lack of necessary provisions in regard to the style of the new houses erected. Most of them were of wood and of a very flimsy character, and a fire once started was difficult to extinguish.
When New Orleans passed under American control and a city government was established, the first work of the new council was to overhaul the fire de- partment and improve it. There were four engines in the city, one for each of the four quarters of the city, but they were without trucks; and the committee to which was given the matter of strengthening the fire department recom- mended that there be organized for each engine a company of fifteen men, under a foreman. These first foremen were le Sieur Chesse McNeal, Hilaire Boutté, and Gagné. A fifth engine, called L'Union, was soon after provided, and the council appropriated $1,000 for the support of a volunteer fire department- the first appropriation made for the purpose. It provided also for a detail of firemen each week for patrol duty. The several companies were entirely inde- pendent of one another, and considerable confusion resulted, requiring the at- tention of the fire committee of the council. It was found too arduous work for the firemen to do patrol duty as well as service with their engine, and the
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
fire patrol was abolished in 1806, and the ordinary police patrol was required to give notice of fires to the fire companies.
In 1806, the council showed that it was beginning to understand and appre- ciate the necessity of taking precautions to prevent fires, and a number of very sensible ordinances were passed, such, for instance, as the prohibition of shingle roofs, providing for the inspection of chimneys, relating to the proper policing in the case of fire, so as to prevent looting and other depredations, which were frequent at that time.
A still more rigid law was passed in 1807, known as the "bucket ordinance." It fixed the limits within which the construction of wooden buildings was pro- hibited ; it required every houscholder to have a well on his premises and to be provided with at least two buckets.
A depot for four engines, known as the Depot des Pompes, was provided at the City Hall, with twelve dozen buckets, twelve ladders, ten grappling-irons and their chains, ten gaffs, twelve shovels, twelve pick-axes, twenty axes and ten sledge-hammers. Six other engines were provided for-one at the Theater St. Philippe, one in each of the four quarters or wards of the city, and one in the Fauxbourg St. Marie, the new or American district of the city, which was grow- ing up above Canal street. Each engine was to be served by a company consist- ing of from twelve to twenty-two men. There was, in addition, a company of "sapeurs" (sappers), composed of thirty workmen accustomed to use the ax, such as carpenters, blacksmiths and iron workers, whose duty it was to tear down buildings whenever this became necessary to prevent the spread of fire. On the first Sunday of each month the engines were required to repair to the Place d'Armes (Jackson Square), there to play their engines and otherwise exercise themselves.
The ordinance is a long one, and there are numerous provisions as to the fire department ; indeed, it was so complete that it has formed the basis of nearly all the subsequent legislation on this subject. It will be noted from the detail of the engines and other implements of the fire department that the latter was very well provided, considering the time and place for fighting fires. It was certainly in marked contrast with the condition that had prevailed eighteen years previous, at the time of the great fire of 1788, and gives some idea of the progress that New Orleans was making under American rule.
The firemen were all volunteers; and to encourage the citizens to join the several companies, the legislature passed a law exempting from jury duty all fire-
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
men, a provision which remained in force up to the time of the disbandment of the volunteer department.
The council, at the same time (1807), offered a reward of $50 to the fire company whose engine first reached any fire.
A fire-alarm service was provided for, but it was of a most primitive char- acter. A watchman, or sereno, as he was still called, was required to be by day and night on guard at the porch of the St. Louis Cathedral, whose duty it was to call the hours, and who, at the first sight of a fire, should ring the alarm bell. He was further to indicate to the citizens who rushed toward the church the di- rection in which the fire was by waving a flag by day and a torch by night.
In the event of a fire aların, all the watchmen who could be spared from police duty were required to report at once at the City Hall, whence they were sent in squads toward the fire by parallel streets, obliging all persons whom they met to go to the fire and lend their assistance in extinguishing it, by working the engines.
The necessity of a good fire department became more and more obvious. Whether with reason or not it is difficult to say, but the belief prevailed that there were a number of incendiaries in the city who were desirous of burning it down. In 1807 the council passed a resolution, in which it was announced that there had been two recent attempts to burn the city ; and rewards of $500 were offered for evidence that would convict the incendiaries. How strong the popular senti- ment was on this point is borne evidence to by the passage of a law allowing slaves to testify against their masters in cases of arson or incendiarism, and even giving them their liberty as a reward for furnishing information in cases of incendiary fires.
These acts stopped the incendiary fires, but in 1816 another big conflagra- tion broke out, in the lower part of the city, which exposed the utter inefficiency of the fire department. A board of fire commissioners was created, five in each of the eight wards of the city. The commissioners were required to be at all fires, bearing white wands as badges of office and authority, and to direct all persons present at the fire, whether free or slave, by forcing them into ranks for the pur- pose of handling buckets to supply the fire engines with water, and perform such other duties as were required of them. The council tried to organize a municipal and partly paid force, but it was more or less a failure.
In 1829 New Orleans abandoned all efforts to support a paid fire department of its own and arranged with the volunteers (the Firemen's Charitable Associa-
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tion), for the extinguishment of fires. The volunteer firemen had several contro- versies with the city before the latter fully accepted their services in the extin- guishing of fires. One of the most serious was in 1833, when the council placed two of the engines under the control of negroes -- negrocs having been previously used to a great degree as firemen. The volunteer firemen held a meeting and tendered their resignations, in case negroes were continued in the service, where- upon the mayor and council gave in and the engines were turned over to white fire- men.
The expense of the fire department during its earlier days was very small. The cost for 1835, for instance, was only $10,430. The city gave only $1,000 a year. The insurance companies and banks gave $1,500; the firemen them- selves, $250. The balance was given by individual subscriptions from property holders and merchants, who were interested in preventing fires. Thus, it will be seen that the new service was doubly a volunteer one-the firemen giving their services free, while the money for the necessary and legitimate expenses of the department was contributed by voluntary subscriptions. It was such a fire ser- vice as might be expected in a very primitive state of society.
Its popularity did not prevent the volunteers from getting into serious diffi- culties with the city. There was no sufficient head to the department, and the rivalry of the several companies led to unfortunate results, which more or less interfered with the extinguishment of fires. The council attempted to restore order and discipline, in 1855, by the creation of the office of chief engineer of the fire department, and selected James H. Wingfield for the position. It also passed an ordinance providing, among other things, for the payment of the fire- men ; in other words, it attempted to establish a paid fire department. Finally, seven of the companies which had grown very weak, were disbanded and deprived of their charters.
The result of this legislation was a revolt on the part of the volunteer fire- men. They asserted that the plan to get rid of them and substitute a paid fire department was the work of the underwriters. They accordingly announced their intention of retiring from business, met in mass meeting and resigned from the service.
The city invited bids for the extinguishment of fires, and the Firemen's Charitable Association, to the surprise of every one, bid in the contract, for $70,00. This contract plan continued for thirty-six years, until 1891, the amount allowed for the fire service being increased from year to year.
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In 1860, just before the opening of the civil war, the fire department con- sisted of fourteen hand-engines, five steam-engines and four hook-and-ladder trucks. At the outbreak of the war, the firemen were organized into a military body, uniformed as zouaves and equipped with arms; but this organization, of course, broke up when Gen. Butler occupied the city, and the firemen returned to their duty, being granted special privileges by the military commander.
With the return of peace, an attempt was made to get rid of the volunteer system, which had been abolished in New York and most of the other cities where it had prevailed. An ordinance was passed in 1881, establishing a paid depart- ment and creating a board of fire control, but was vetoed by the mayor. The board of control was created, however, in 1886 ; and in 1889, when the contract between the city and the volunteer fire department of the sixth municipal district expired, the city took advanage of the opportunity to establish a pay system in the sixth district. This was followed two years afterwards, in 1891, by the refusal of the council to renew its contract with the volunteer fire department, which expired that year, and decided on the establishment of the pay system for New Orleans. It had taken the city much longer to get to a pay system than most of the larger town of America, because of the success and prosperity of the Firemen's Charitable Association, and its great political strength ; for its mem- bers had exercised the greatest influence on the community, and had filled high positions, as mayors, and even as governor.
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