Sunday dispatch. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1845-1854, 1852-04-11
The Captain Of Police and hIs BI0grapIler.

Any evening the reader may choose to step
into the Merce, House, corner Of Br0Ome and
Mercer streets, he will find two self important
perso g, whose schemes and sentiments have Of
late figured largely in oe of the Sunday papers
The first is publicly described as 3 man ''rather
above the medium height, with finely formed
head and an intelligent and expressive face -
to this we may add not unpleasing figure, well
dressed the oppression above alluded to is, to
our thinking, like that Of one who seeks nOtOri-
ETY. and would die of enRHi if he were suffered
to r0main unnoticed-he is a Captain of the Po-
lice. The other is member of the Sunday
press, who neither needs nor deserves descrip-
tion. The first is the patron, the second the
t0ddy. Inc cAptsln proposes . police reform ;
in other words, he desires to make men who are
paid out of the city treasury " attend to their
duties, and the penny-a-liner Immediately ap-
plauds the act, and places his friend by the side
of Clay and Webster. as the possessor of trs ns-
cendent abilities. The couple are evidently
seeking notoriety.
Now, it is our idea that reputation Is honora-
bic only when bought by deeds not acords. We
honor the public officer who ia thfully discharges
his duty, and asks no more nOtOriety than his
position entitles him to but when we discover
a morbid craving after public notice, lea ing
man into q thousand follles, we despise the VIC
i'm. The mere fact of having &C made improve
ments in the Station House, is not so great a
triumph as to transform Captain of Police in
to great statesmen.
We are now speaking Of Charles s. Turnbull.
Captain Of the Eighth Ward Police, q portrait
and complimentary sketch Of whom were pub
ished in the Sunday Courier of March 7th
We leave it to others to doubt aptain Turn
bulls capacity to fill his p0st-to win hOnors be-
yond his calling, but we seriously deny that the
gentleman "rlth a fercety formed head . and
rather GbOUe medium height' is by auv means
a great man. We have known him as military
man, Chat is member Of a volunteer military
company in the city of New York. a bartender,
(seldOm refusing to join you,'') and lastly
police officer. but it never struck us that he pos
sessed any of those great qualities which entitle
a man to distinction.
He is not mao, of the true stamp: he is too
ambitious for public notice, and
cates not how low ne OOPS with the
tooksU 81 upo sudatory me notcc as 81 the creator Of
public opinion, as if dollars and "treats made
a res utation. In the next place, while he stren-
uOusly imposes excessive duties on policemen.
he never thinks of such thing in his own con.
duct. Example caches better than precept, and
an attentive cAief-Ofcer inspires his subordinates
with love Of duty.
1t is no credit nowadays to have ones nor
ira published in the Sunday papers, it is but
a new way of advertising 4; we have weekly the
portraits Of aciors whose only merits are genteel
figures and an easy stage walk of ma9icians.
skilled in the magic of mysterious
transformation Of birds into beasts, Randker-
Oh efs into feathers, 1--WE have not heard ofpolice
men into presdents) of tratlesmen fishing for
custom,l policemen seeking for en- nence.
These things, however, are D OF manarged with
out money; indeed, to Iour knowledge as high
as one hundred and fifty doEars were paid two
cent weekly for such an advertisement-we can
not state the sum paid by Captain Turnbull for
this bit of self-gl loriication it may have been
more or less than that amount newspapers are
not apt to publish portraits of g DISTINGUISHED
without remuneration and fatterv
is an expensive commodity
Let the ''Knight" stick to his " muddler,''
and &C the shoemaker to his last have become
proverbial expressions we might exclaim with
equal propriety, let the police stick to their le-
gitimate duties and di card purchased Applause,
let capta ms have decent egard for themselves
as wei as for the men under their command, and
trust TO the unbiased estimation of the public
'or their success in life. The portraits and
Drai. es OF hireling presses will never make Cap
ain Tu4u bull CHIEF OF THE POLICE, which as we
AXE it, is the post he seeks, and Ia tly, we ad-
7ise his Biographer to attend to mat ers before
Understood by him and leave the du les and pay
,f policemen to persons better qualified than
himself to jut'ge. LOCKERS ON.