Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1884-08-01
AFOUR-LEGGED POLICEMAN
JACK" THE UsEFUf, ADJUNCT OF
THE NEW YORK POLICE.
A Dog who Captures EViI-DOeTs and
Attends Strictly 10 Duty-His
Career on the FOrce.

n DOS SetPsuNaH
Attends Strictly 10 Duty-His
Career on the Force.
Policeman "Jack, >" of the Seventeenth
Police precinct in New York, has been
connected with the department three
years. He is the only member of the
force who cannot be made to discard his
shaggy black coat for the regulation
blue, and who works for his board. In
all other respects he is a model police
man. Though he is only big black
dog of the mastiff breed, the department
has none with a better record. One
stormy night, three winters ago, Jack,
wet, hungry and forlorn, fell in with Po-
liceman Ttass on Avenue A, and on the
basis of a good square meal of meat
scraps purchased at the nearest restaur-
ant established an understanding with
him that has lasted ever since. Every
night thereafter for six months Jack met
him on his post and left him at midnight
or sunrise, as his tour Glanced to be,
patroling the beat by his side with all
the gravity of new $500 man who was
being "broken in to the business. He
has since shown on many occasions that
what he then learned he remembers,
for he stands credited upon the
books of the department with having
made not less than twenty-five arrests,
some of them as clever as any made by
Inspector Byrne's detectives, and he
brought his man home everytime. Itwas
not until he was thoroughly broken in to
the service that he consented to go to the
Fifth Street station and received an in
4rOInatiAn 20 To,o+oiY, MoT,,11orrb
Sergeant Welsing, whom he has since
made his special friends, while fraterniz-
ing generally with the men. His home
is now there in the daytime. At night
he patrols the precinct with a devotion
to duty that is a good example to his
comrades. Dog -catchers give him
wide berth, recognizing that he is about
his business and would generally be an
unsafe investment He had joined Off
Ger Mat Fisher on his post in Thirteenth
street one night, when cries of "Murder!"
were raised on Third avenue, and two
men ran rapidly down the street. Fisher
started in pursuit and overlook one, while
Jack with one enormous jump seized the
other by the coat collar and laid him on
his back, his favorite mode of clown
ing" malefactors. The two prisoners,
who had attempted to rob a man on
Third avenue, were marched to the sta
tion by their captors.
Jack never bites prisoner, but per-
suades them into the path of penance by
the irresistible grip of his mighty jaws
on their coat collars. More than once
he has arrested an evil-doer on his own
hook and brought him in unaided. Per-
haps his most famous exploit was the ar
rest of a burglar at 300 East Eleventh
street at o'clock on the morning of
April s. this year. Two burglars were
rummaging a room on the second floor
where Frederick Bockel lay asleep, un-
disturbed by their presence. To save
carrying them down, they threw some
clothes out of the window, as it hap
pened just when Jack was passing on his
rounds. The dog shifted the clothes,
smelled rat, and, bounding upstairs,
reused the house by his barking. Mr..
Bockel woke up and found himself con-
fronted by the two thieves, who attacked
him and were beating him when the door
gave way and Jack rushing in seized and
upset one of them and held him fast.
The other escaped by rushing down and
jumping over fence where Jack could
not follow him. A policeman came, at
tracted by the crowd, and took the
burglar. He proved to be a we'll
known evildoer, John Smith alias
Kelly by name, and was sent to
prison for ten years, for his share
in the burglary. Recently Jack
stopped a fight on Third avenue, and
while Roundsman O'Rourke, who is
among his firm friends, attended to the
man who had received the worst of it
he arrested his adversary.
Jack despises mixing himself up in
canine quarrels, but when last winter he
was inveigied into barn uptown by an
ex-policeman and matched against
fighting bulldog, he killed it in short
order. The other dogs friends in re-
venge shot him, and Jack limped lame
with bullet in his left torepaw. He
was cared for and the police paid for
regular surgical attendance until he had
fully recovered. The only regular spree
on which Jack is known to have been
with some brewers, and became intoxi-
Gated on beer, but even then the acci-
dental appearance of Roundsman
O'Rouke, who happened to stroll that
way, recalled him to duty and, he left
his fellow-rioters to join the policemen.
Jack enjoyed the honor of being the
first dog to cross the Brooklyn bridge on
opening day ahead of the procession. 1t
isnot improbable that the police commits
sioners will some day put him on the
roll,of honor. York Post.