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Another article featuring Patrick Crowley has been found and this one provides a wealth of information on the working conditions of Boston firemen and policemen in the early 1900's.

The Boston Daily Globe November 29, 1914 - Fireman on the Police Force article investigates why so many Boston firefighters are leaving their jobs and taking pay cuts to join the police force. Patrick Crowley (husband to Margaret Sullivan) was one of these former firefights turned patrolmen. The article displays his photo and mentions him. It is a long article, so I will not type it out below, you can click on the link above to read the full feature. Here is the bit I found most interesting:

Why do so many men leave the Fire Department for the Police Department?

Too Much Housework.

Full paid firemen who give up their positions now to enter the police service must expect to serve between five and six years before they are paid the salary that they were receiving when they made the change.

Firemen have a day off in every five, two weeks' vacation, an hour and a quarter for meals, and when conditions permit are granted on Sundays what is known as "Church Leave." Unless an alarm to which their company responds is sounded, they are in quarters 20 1/2 hours daily.

Actual firefighting occupies the smallest part of a fireman's time. It is the housework that wearies a fireman. In every house there are men who have duties similar to a servant girl. Making beds, sweeping and cleaning is a part of the everyday work of a fireman and in some houses the "skippers" are very exacting and have specially constructed brooms for locating tiny particles of dust.

In some districts the firemen have to wind clocks and discharge other side duties not in line with firefighting, tasks which have been passed down to them from other generations.

What a policeman has to do and how he should do it is outlined in the manual. You never have seen a policeman pushing a mop around unless it was in his own house. Policemen receive a day off in 15, two weeks' vacation, but no church leave. Day policemen have meal periods. Night officers do not. A house patrol in fire station is done in 24 hours a day and this breaks into the sleep of the men, but must be done.

When the amount of time that a policeman devotes to his work is computed it is apparent that he does not have a great amount of time to himself, but still he is really never confined for any great period indoors. Within every six days a night policeman, in addition to his regular tours of street duty, has to do what is described as an "evening in the floor," a "house day" and a "morning in."

Labels: Sullivan