INTRODUCTORY.
1899.
THE object of this volume is to present a true history of the Police and Fire Departments of the Twin Cities from early village days up to the close of the nineteenth century, with biographical sketches and interesting personal experiences of its members.
The St. Paul portion of the work has been compiled and written by Alix J. Muller, and the Minneapolis portion by Frank J. Mead, both well known local journalists. The engravings are all vignetted, and are the perfection of the engraver's art. The material on which the work is printed is of the best quality. Typographically the work is unexcelled. Neither time, labor or expense have been spared, and it is confidently believed that it will prove an instructive and valuable historical record which will be highly appreciated now, but infinitely more in the coming time when future generations shall take inspiration from the lives of these stalwarts and from the services which they have given to the commonwealth.
The government of the municipality is largely the work of the Police and Fire Departments, and it has been the intention of the publishers to set forth this fact while introducing the individual members to the community which they so faithfully protect.
The work of these departments is of the most vital importance to the city, and each individual member is entitled to the highest consideration and appreciation for his share in it; but without a written record or history, which should present tangible evidence of the important duties which he performs, he is almost forgotten in the great drama of life in a large city.
Although there is no department of the public service so highly interesting to every citizen, yet there is none of which so little is known. The old maxim "Truth is stranger than fiction," applies with full force to the experiences of the Police and Fire Departments, and many thrilling incidents and tales are related.
In early days the volunteers were the most important men in the community; they were leaders in business, social and political circles, and now in old age they are justly proud of the protection which they afforded the infant cities in days of vigorous manhood.
Those who read this work carefully will agree that it must have a strong tendency to elevate the departments and the men and give them the prestige and influence to which they are so justly entitled.
It will create a deeper interest in the life work of the members of these useful departments of public service and bring about a closer acquaintance with each other, familiarize them with the work of the past and doubtless will exert a beneficial influence upon the organizations in the future.
ALIX J. MULLER.
Writer of the history of the St. Paul Police and Fire Departments, is a St. Paul girl, daughter and granddaughter of pioneer settlers, and by reason of close affinity to the growth of the city, thoroughly conversant with the subject in hand. At the age of fifteen, in 1888, she was a high school graduate and subsequently spent five years on the Pacific coast and in Montana, where her first literary work was done. In 1895 she became a member of the Pioneer Press staff of reporters, and in 1896 was a special writer for the Salt Lake Herald during the Bryan campaign. While in Utah the Equal Suffrage cause engrossed much of her attention and led her to become the coeditor and publisher of the only woman's weekly then issued between Portland and San Francisco, the Pacific Empire, of Portland, Ore. Upon her return to Minnesota she became associate editor of the Spring Valley Vidette, remaining until the paper changed hands in the spring of 1898. Miss Muller has contributed largely to periodical literature in the form of descriptive articles and views on current topics as well as book reviews, and is a young woman of whom one may very safely say that her whole heart is bound up in her chosen life work.
