I look into your faces, gentlemen, and see written there the determination to fight this battle to the bitter end, I feel that it will be manfully fought. It is too soon to figure the result. Ours will be no easy victory, and energy and watchfulness alone can decide whether we triumph or succumb to a superior force. We all hope for the best - we will work for it - we will fight for it.

"Who does the best his circumstance allows, Does well - acts nobly - angels could no more." Gentlemen, you well know my principles, and I am glad to know that they are yours. Together let us give " a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether," and after the votes are counted I trust to return your congratulations of to-day with compound interest.

Speech of Mayor at a Volunteer Firemen's Review,

The different fire companies being grouped in the vicinity of city hall, the mayor occupying a position where he can overlook the firemen as he addresses them.

Friends or Aurora : An examination and review of the different fire companies of Aurora by the city council recalls the fact that one hundred and twenty firemen report here for duty at the present time, who, in case of fire, are assisted in extinguishing it by fifteen hundred feet of hose, two miles of Holly water-pipe, ten hydrants, three Holly pumps, hose-carts, and three excellently equipped fire-steamers. All in all, in her fire-extinguishing appliances, Aurora can safely challenge comparison with any of her sister cities; not only is this so in number of men, number of steamers, hose-carts and accessories thereto, but particularly are we fortunate in having always at hand, in the central and business portion of the city, a great abundance of never-failing water.

Two parties are to be thanked for this very superior fire-extinguishing equipment we see here to-day - namely, the men who have so generously volunteered, in many cases at personal loss and discomfort, to do the firemen's duty, and the taxpayers who have at various times, in all, appropriated some $50,000 in furnishing the necessary machinery to aid our firemen in subduing a conflagration.

That the department has attained an excellent degree of efficiency is shown in the fact that, at all ordinary times, within a reasonable distance from the engine-houses, water is thrown upon a fire, in the day-time, within ten minutes after the first tap of the bell, and at night the time for getting to a fire need not exceed fifteen minutes.

How efficiently our fire department does its work, and the large amount of property it saves, has been repeatedly demonstrated to our people.

We have seen several wooden buildings completely wrapped in flames and nearly burned down when the alarm was given, following which our firemen came to the rescue and the conflagration was subdued, while an adjoining wooden building, directly alongside, not two feet away, was scarcely scorched.

It is not many months since we saw, through the efficiency of our fire department, a fine church edifice saved from destruction. We saw the Hoyt Brothers' manufactory rescued from the flames, while the sparks danced like hail-stones upon its roof, and but a few months ago the valuable central school-building was preserved to us through the gallantry of our firemen - a saving vastly greater than the entire amount ever appropriated for the support of the fire department.

For this, and much other noble work done by our firemen in the past year, I desire, in behalf of the city council and the people of Aurora, to tender you our warmest thanks.

The people have voted liberally to furnish you the needed appliances for extinguishing fires. They now, as exhibited in this review, have the consciousness of knowing that the money they expended has been wisely appropriated - that we have a most excellent body of firemen, and that this department of our municipal protection is in a very high degree efficient.

Thankful for our general freedom from large fires in the past twelve months, grateful to you for the thorough manner in which you have guarded us from conflagration, the hope is, that through your continued efficiency we may be alike fortunate in the year to come.