The Evening post. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1888-1889, 1888-12-10


belts around them as they go.
The reporters debate the matter among |
and decide not to 60 to the |
fire unless general alarm is struck
The fire is not far away and doesn't |
amount TO much. and in half hour the |
patrol wagon with the half.dozen re-
serves gets back and the sergeant reports
to the stationkeepcr the facts that he has
ascertained about the fire, and the re-
porters get what information they want
about it from the stationkeeper.
SAD INCIDENT.
A man in whose face is u touching mix
ture Of anger and despair comes in and
asks to see Mrs. Blank
The stationkeeper looks over the blotter
and finds that Mrs. Blank Is the rcspec-
table locking woman the Cab-driver
brought in drunk.
1.-The last cell on the right hand side
are the directions the well-dressed
stranger gets and he goes back into the
ill-smelling cell-room and sees his wife
sitting on the iron bench in her cell.
AS she hears his footsteps echo along
the asphalt floor and stop in front of his
cell door she looks up through the iron
bars at him blankly for moment, and
then a CLEAN of recognition flashes into
her wine-dim med eyes, and she knows
that it is her husband that Is asking her
what she has done.
She is not too drunk TO realize that
though she has always before been able TO
keep her husband in ignorance of her
drunken escapades, she is found out now.
Docs she fall on her knees and ask to
be forgiven2"
"By no means. Her husband, who is
Department clerk, tells her that he has
come TO take her home with him, and
asks her TO button the front Of her dress
aud put on her stylish hat and get ready
to 60 with him."
Her answer is TRADE of drunk en-
abuse that makes her husband vince and
turn pale as if he had been stabbed
through the heart. She declares that she
never wants to see him again, and re-
fuses positively to go home with him.
The husband walks out with his head
bowed down on his breast, the picture OF
heart broken man.
1t is nearly midnight and the police
men who have been off duty are coming
in from their homes and down from up
stairs, where they have been asleep, and
getting ready to go out on their beats.
AS JuC uduNlo Ou Wis DlH ClOCh OplOollO
the stationkeeper' desk point to twelve
the sergeant steps up behind the railing
and blows short blast on his police
whistle.
The men who are going on duty form q
line in front of the railing and answer to
roll call. Then the sergeant gives them
any instructions he may have, such as
"look out for 50 and so, colored, 20 years
old, five feet four inches tall brown com
plexion, wanted for stealing" or 'look
| out for lost child. five years old"
Then the men file out and few mo-
ments after the men who have Just been
relieved, come in and go to bed.
The station-house becomes quiet again,
and about 1890 the telephone connecting
the station-house with Police Head
quarters rings and the stationkeeper tells
the operator at headquarters any news he
may have had and the operator in, turn
gives 1t to the newspapers.
The noise of a struggle is heard out
side the station-house and the door is
thrown open with bang. A policeman
! holding young man, who is fighting like
a tiger, by the collar, comes in. Then
another policeman comes in with two
more young menf who are pummellinp
each other to the best of their drunk er
ability, and then third pc.
liceman helps man, whose face and
clothes are covered with blood, up the
steps. bn
There has been fight in nearby
saloon in which one Of the young rner
was hit crashing blow with a clhfil
and the young man with blood streaming
down his face was hit between the eye,
with beer bottle. The young men arr
all Coughs and they try to continue
their free fight in the stationhouse, anC
would do so but for the fact that the bi!
policemen keep them apart. A reques
is telephoned to the Emergency Hospita
for doctor and then the names of tn,
young toughs are taken and they ar
locked up in the cells, which are nov
about full, each having from two to fou
prisoners crowded into it,
VICTIM OF POVERTY.
During the excitement incident to tn
searching and locking up the nois,
fighters, two more policemen, bring il
a pretty, yellow-haired young girl, VIII
looks half-scared at the noisy scene.
There is q something about the prett,
girl that makes the reporters look at he
closely. An indefinite something in tn
way she looks at the two policemen VIII
brought her in as if she expected thel
to protect her and was yet half afraid c
them, that makes the reporters thin
that there is STORY in the yellow
haired girls case.
And there is. 1t is the old, old stor
that will be repeated every day SO lon
as girls are pretty.
The girls dress is plain-a trih
shabby. Her hat was evidently mad
! for an older woman, for this girl is onl
! about 10 years old, and her coat is trih
ragged at the cuffs. Her blue eyes al
cast down, and the long lashes swee
, over her checks, in which the cole
! comes and goes titfully as she stands b,
tween the two policemen who brougl
her in.
Her home was week before in
crowded alley, where she lived with he
S invalid father and mother, who, wit
c this girls assistance, supported the fan
, lily by scrubbing.
: She had often seen the 6ashily
i dressed votaries of vice that infest I'll
q Avenue every pleasant afternoon.
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