O’Flaherty, the liveryman, Zeke Buggins, the cobbler, Swartzmeyer, the butcher, Luigi Napoli, the barber, and Cohen, the tailor, decide to have a fire department in a small community and meet at Cohen’s tailor shop and draw straws to elect a chief. A small child’s broom suffices for all, but Cohen steals a wisp of straw from a large kitchen broom, and so wins the coveted position. Rules and regulations are drawn up on a union scale. They cannot work as firemen after 6 o’clock, nor can they attend a fire without uniforms. A fire occurs, and they forget to put a hose in the wagon, and when arriving at the fire they find they have forgotten the ladders, and while a woman is screaming for aid from the top floor they stand in front of the burning building discussing who has the right to save her. The German suggests a game of seven-up, and they adjourn to a neighboring saloon, and Mr. Cohen wins. They hasten back as heroes to save the woman, who in the meantime has left the burning building. As Cohen mounts the ladder with the hose the bell strikes 5 o’clock, and as union men they knock off and go home. No other fires occur, but Mr. Cohen, wishing to win distinction for his office, makes a bonfire of a few leaves, and while his son sounds the fire alarm he extinguishes the little blaze. When the admiring villagers rush up they hail Chief Cohen as the very prince and paragon of fire fighters.