News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-09-03
UNDER THE GREEN LAMP.
SKETCHES OF A NIGHT AT THE POLICE
SERGEANT'S DESK.
Begrary, Drunkenness, Crime Lives
Thrown Away with Histories Full Of
PathOs.
IFrom the N. Y. Herald.l

From the N. Y. Herald.]
1t is midnight in an east side station
house. The cry of command rings out;
the relieving squad falls quickly into
line and then marches out, the footballs
of the marching platoon sounding first
loudly on the wooden floor of the station
house, then with sharp metallic ring
on the pavement without, and so dying
away in the distance. Behind the desk
sits the sergeant in full uniforms man
with we'll fed person and large mus
tache and the air of naughty nonchalance
peculiar to police sergeants. Before him
is the charge sheet or blotter; he is
ready for the business of the night. In
the cells beyond all is quiet; they are
| as yet untenanted.
A MURDERoUs HUSBAND.
The sergeant has not settled back in
his chair when the door of the station
house is thrown hurriedly open and a
woman, bareheaded and dishevelled,
with little child in her arms, runs in.
Upon her face there is large bruise,
beneath which the skin is already puff
fng and swelling.
'For Gods sake, sergeant, protect
mel" she breathlessly cries. ''My hus-
band has come home drunk and is try
ing to murder me and the children"
The sergeant's brows contract in a
frown, as his eyes fell upon the woman's
bruised face, but he does not for a mo-
ment allow his official imperturbability to
be disturbed. He simply rings gong
beneath his seat, and in moment an
officer of the reserve squad appears. The
officer receives his instructions and at
once departs. The woman, afraid to
return to her home, is temporarily shown
into waiting room in the rear.
Ten minutes later a great noise is
heard outside the station house door,
and the officer of the reserve squad and
| a comrade appear, pushing and dragging
a man between them, who it is evident
at glance is more than half crazed with
drink. He is hatless and coatless, and
beneath his shirt, torn in his struggles
with the officers, CLEANS the upper part
of brawny arm with the knotted mus
Giles of a priZe-fighter. The arresting
officer mentions incidentally that the ar
rest was preceded by fight, and that it
was found necessary to use ''the stick"
The prisoner, cursing like a fiend, is
searched and taken to the cells, and the
wife, with her bruised face and tear
stained cheeks, can now return to her
home in safety.
SINGLE AND MARRIED-A CONTRAST.
The sergeant is philosopher in his
way and condescends to make passing
comment on the preceding scene. 81
knew that woman" he says, ''tive years
ago, when | was roundsman, attached to
a precinct on the west side. She was
then as nice and clipper little girl as
you would wish to see. She was en-
ployed as a nursemaid in family living
near the Park. They thought heap of
her; she had good home, good food,
good clothes and plenty of pocket money.
But she must go and get married, which
she did to that brute. Now she lives in
tenement house, is beaten and half
starved, and I've no doubt that every
stitch she's got outside of some old
wrapper is in pawn. And that's the
story of hundreds upon hundreds of
working girls in this city. 1 tell you
mighty few of these girls, it seems to
me make anything by getting married"
TYPES OF THE STATION HOUSE.
During the next hour and half there
was constant succession of arrivals be-
fore the station house desk. In the
throng of prisoners were tramps and
thieves, drunkards and disorderly per-
sons. Some of the thieves were mere
children; some of the drunkards and the
tramps were men whose hair was whitened
beneath the passage of time. One of
the prisoners brought in was burglar
arrested ''on suspicion" He was treated
with much respect on all sides, for his
name was great one in the criminal
world, and he was an aristocrat in the
ranks of crime. "There is a man, " COM
mented the philosophic sergeant, 'who
might, had he chosen, have achieved re-
nown In almost any avocation in life. A
well-educated man, sir, bright as steel,
and clever as clever can be. If he had
turned his talents in the right direction,
l believe he'd have been one of the great
est inventors in the country. Let him
look at any lock or safe and he'll tell YOU
the principle upon which it's constructed
how to open it, and every blamed
thing about it, inside of few minutes.
The safe men may blow as they like in
their advertisements, but there never
was a combination invented yet he
couldn't beat. A great man, sir; great
man.
Toward three o'clock tall, thin, re-
spectable-looking man, who seemed not
unlike broken down merchant, came
IN, and with abashed mien asked for
lodging. Following him two officers
brought in an old woman in dirty black,
with blood upon her face and her hair
streaming over her shoulders in an I'M
tidy mat. "That's Tipsy Bet" COM
mented the sergeant" A few years ago
she used to be the leading danseuse in
the ballet at one of the uptown theatres
Such airinessi Such dainty gracel She
was the rage among all the swells around
town. But now drinks got her, and it
is only question of little time before
she is picked up dead in the street or
winds up some night upon one of the
slabs in the Morgue.
A SENSATIONAL EPISODE.
"Ah, here's something" suddenly ex-
claimed the sergeant, as commotion is
heard outside. The door is flung open
and four officers come in bearing be-
tween them a man whose face is ashen
and whose eyes are leaden. He has been
found semi-unconscious in a hallway,
and when partially aroused has confessed |
to taking dose of laudanum with the
purpose of ending his life.
The sergeant instantly sends out a
summons for an ambulance. Pending
its arrival, however, the prisoner shows
decided inclination to fall asleep. |
This must never be, for if he once enter
upon that sleep it will be sleep which
will know no awakening. The man must
be kept awake at all costs. From past
experience the sergeant knows what to
do.
The man is taken into the corridor of
the cell room, and two officers of the re-
serve force are summoned and provided
with fiat wooden laths. With these
laths they slap the prisoner across the
shoulders until he breaks in brisk run.
Up and down the corridor they chase
him, the perspiration running down their
faces from the exertiOn. He slackens
his pace and finally stops altogether. He |
is once more logged into activity. He
begs, implores, to be allowed to rest.
He is relentlessly driven on. There is
some delay in the arrival of the ambu-
lance, and there is every indication that
it will arrive too late. At last the man
totters, staggers, falls. All efforts to
break the lethargy which is upon him
are useless. Ever effort to arouse him
vain. The sergeant bends over him.
at is no use," he says; "he's taken
enough of the stuff to kill horse"
Finally, when the ambulance arrives and |