The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1886-04-02

POLICE AND THE MOB.
4 DANGEROUS CROWD WHETHER
AT PLAY OR IN EARNEST.

AT PLAY OR IN EARNEST.
q London Mob and the Anxiety 1t Always
Occasions-In the Talons of a Police
mana Wild, Ungoverned surse-An
Exciting Incident.
London, whose smile is fortune, and whose
ss=ezEEa IS DEATH do not recollact at the
moment who was the writer of that terse and
truthful sentence. won't be sure even that
she quotation is literal. Perhaps it was said
of Chatterton. Perhaps it was written by
Chatterton himself. But Of the London mob
It may be said that death lnrks In either its
smiles or Its frowns. A London mob is like q
man-eating tiger. It is dangerous whether in
play or in earnest. .
A London mob, when it is known that it
will gather for peaceful and legitimate pur-
poses on certain day, is always source Of
anxiety and preparation with the police. On
Lord Mayors day, or on any occasion where
The queen appears in the metropolis, or when
big meeting is called for in Hyde park,
arge number of special policemen ara sworn
in. Sometimes as many as 0,000 are added to
he already large force.
IN READINESS FOR AMY CALL.
remember being impressed with the COM
oleteness of the arrangements during the last
Lord Mayors day was in London. Down
Norfolk street and Savoy street and others Of
;he small streets that lead from the bustling
Strand to the comparative quietness of the
Thames embankment, stood double rows Of
stalwart, silent policemen in readiness for any
all. Mounted policemen were stationed
along Fleet street and the Strand; every few
seet on the crowded pavements were officers
On foot, and the roadway was kept clear by
she line of uniformed men on each side of the
way standing almost shoulder to shoulder. A
mob of this kind is always a good-natured
sne. 1t is full of horseplay and likes to worry
and bullyrag the patient policemen, whose lot
at these times, as the peppery Gilbert re-
marks, lis not happy one."
When portion of the mob becomes too
,bstreperous the policemen make charge at
it and endeavor to scatter its component parts
among the more peaceable sections of the
multitude. The tactics of the police are al
ways to scatter or divide the mob into sec
lions. They do not endeayor to make an ar
est unless all other methods Of pacifying the
5oisterous individual idiot who is the nucleus
# that particular rowdy part Of the crowd
all. But once the talons of the policeman
tasten on an unruly man he is gone. The
>fficer generally makes a sudden spring at
linn, grasps him firmly by the arms or by the
,oat collar, gives him one tremendous jerk
toward him that lifts him off his feet then he
Mrns him around, shoves him ON to the next
policeman and thus the captive is whirled
uound and around and passed from police
nan to policeman with Gelerity that utterly
,ewilders him, and the first thing he knows
he is down one of the silent streets with hand
:uffs ON him, and is marched of to the sta
Jon to await the inevitable interview with
he magistrate Ia the morning,
WILD, UNGoyERsED SURGE.
All this is done SO quickly that the man is
gone before his companions have time to col
ect their scattered senses. When they do
-ally they generally make wild, ungoyerned
surge at the police, who open ranks before
hem, close in behind them, charge in turn
lpon them, scatter them through the crowd,
latch two or three of the ringleaders and pass
hem into the irresistible eddy that whirls
hem off to the prison cells and then the police
e-form in line again. All this is done with
persistent patience that is admirable to be-
lold. l never saw man dubbed in London,
)ut then perhaps the policeman's bone-crack-
ng tactics are even worse for the victim than
When man is utterably untainable, two
policemen grab an arm, and bend them sud-
1enly back till the elbows touch. Every bone
IL the wretch's body seems to crack. 1t is
ike an interview with the rack of olden
imes The instant this is done he is as limp
and nerveless as a clam.
1t is curious thing that the London mob
employs the same tactics with the police as
yOliceinen use with the people They try in
very way to divide the solid phalanx of the
otiicers who endeavor to resist by linking
lrnls with each other and in that condition
stand an enormous strain. However, when
5he mob succeeds the Individual member of
5ile force is roughly handled They wtfiprl
aim round and round, crack his bones, and ii
ne once loses his feet and goes down, it means
several months in the hospital on all eternity
II his coffin In the Strand, ! once saw
mounted policeman swallowed up, horse and
all, by the mob He didn't lose his feet, but
ne lost his head. He got angry, which is p
,hing the mob can never abide. He tried to
.harge them back with his horse The mob
literally rose at him and swept his horse and
himself for about twenty yards, The horse
staggering along sideways. plunsing and rear
ng in the dense crowd. Then striking the
pavement the terrified animal went down
Sideways, and the next instant the surging
mob seemed to have flowed oyer horae and
man.
Between getting into frenzsed London
mob or taking swim III the whirlpool rapids
below Niagara l think ther. +, very little
choice The wise man will give preference,
if anything, to the whirlpool Luke Sharpin
Detroit Free Prees.