ich has been attended with more important
advantages than was at first anticipated. I mean the gymnastic
exercises. The men are practised in these exercises (in a small
gymnasium fitted up for them in the head engine-house) regularly once
a-week, and in winter sometimes twice: attendance on their part is
entirely voluntary; the best gymnasts (if otherwise equally qualified)
are always promoted in cases of vacancy.

So sensible were the Insurance Companies doing business here, of the
advantages likely to arise from the practice of these exercises, that
on one occasion they subscribed upwards of 10_l._, which was
distributed in medals and money among the most expert and attentive
gymnasts of the corps, at a competition in presence of the
magistrates, commissioners of police, and managers of insurance
companies.

Amongst the many advantages arising from these exercises I shall
notice only one or two. The firemen, when at their ordinary
employments, as masons, house-carpenters, &c., being accustomed to a
particular exercise of certain muscles only, there is very often a
degree of stiffness in their general movements, which prevents them
from performing their duty as firemen with that ease and celerity
which are so necessary and desirable; but the gymnastic exercises, by
bringing all the muscles of the body into action, and by aiding the
more general development of the frame, tend greatly to remove or
overcome this awkwardness. But its greatest advantage is the
confidence it gives to the men when placed in certain situations of
danger. A man, for example, in the third or fourth floor of a house on
fire, who is uncertain as to his means of escape, in the event of his
return by the stair being cut off, will not render any very efficient
service in extinguishing the fire; his own safety will be the
principal object of his attention, and till that is to a certain
extent secured, his exertions are not much to be relied upon. An
experienced gymnast, on the other hand, placed in these circumstances,
finds himself in comparative security. With a hatchet and eighty feet
of cord at his command, and a window near him, he knows there is not
much difficulty in getting to the street; and this confidence not only
enables him to go on with his duty with more spirit, but his attention
not being abstracted by thoughts of personal danger, he is able to
direct it wholly to the circumstances of the fire. He can raise
himself on a window sill,