The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-05-07
WHY POLICEMEN ARE FAT.
Reasons for the Ponderous Proportions of
tho Guardians of the Peace.

Reasons for the Ponderous Proportions OF
the Guardians of the Peace.
From Harper's Weekly.
a police surgeon has recently given
voice to some opinions on the case of a
fat policeman. a very fat policeman, in
deed, and thence with Machavellian art
has proceeded to formulate an assay on
the fairness of policemen in general. The
policeman weighed $50 pounds when the
surgeon first began to observe him, but in
the course OF a four months Illness he
dwindled to 24o pounds and still the sur
geon believed him to be too fat. We are
prepared to believe II. In the course of
his general remarks he makes one start
ling statement. namely: THE life of a
policeman is at best very inactive one"
Ii is surprising that this should be the
fact. True, observation of our individual
policemen is mostly associated with see
ing them leaning against lamp posts,
chatting easily with acquaintance or
with each other. or else standing before
some building which they are set to
guard. The peculiarly imperceptible way
in which they manage TO get from point
TO point does not quite convey the idea
OF motion. yet when the complacent citi-
zen thinks of the force" as guardians
of the peace" the idea of suppeness,
alertness. swiftness. arises embodied be-
fore his minds eye in an ideal body OF
police. This ideal is plainly what Oar
winians would call a survival" The
modern policeman in the United States
has put an envelope of fat about 1t.
Proceeding with his general remarks,
the surgeon says: Anyone can notice
that as soon as a man is appointed on the
force he begins TO increase in weight and
belt measurement. his muscles become
fiabby, and as a result of all this he
moves more slowly than was his won't"
Precisely, therefore, at the period when
We imagined him smartened out of the
loose conditions of civilian life, straight
ened by discipline. and urged by the ira
ditions of his new calling TO a foX-like ac-
tiVity, he is, IL seems. accommodating fat
and settling down into numbering OBJ
Ject in uniform, with an aversion TO loco
motion That a low morale may follow
in the same ratio should not be incredible.
When Shakespeare makes Falstaff apol-
ogize for his general want of moral tone
does not Sir John say: Thou seest /
have more flesh than another man, and
therefore more frailty?" This plea. so far
as we are aware. was not interposed
even by the police themselves to meet
the charges OF corrupt dealing formerly
urged against them in various quarters,
but IL is clearly worth considering
And why should not the converse OF the
proposition be taken 10 hearth Would IL
not DC wei 10 Buafo against fratltN,
while giving a desirable spring to con-
stabulary heels. by forbidding fairness on
the force? There Is. no doubt some con-
nection between mental and physical
states. Without straining the point to
find an intimate link between rotundity
and rascality, IL is a very clear PROPOSE
ton that the will TO catch a light-foofed
thief is modified by the inability 10 run
a mile, say. Exercise, such as might be
had in the station houses. combined with
an order TO run around their beats. say.
twice a day. would be some corrective
but ultimately, as in every case Of obesity
without exception. fat can only be con-
trOlled by a dietary. Obesity has only
one meaning-overfeeding.
Tell that TO any fat man-policemsn or
other-and he will be indignant Mention
IL TO a lady who has passed beyond the
state good-naturedly indicated by that
troublesome word embOnpoint, and you
may be prepared 10 deal with mysteries.
but Il Is most true. Fat is the superfuity
Of the heat supply OF the body. The po-
nceman who has been a workman finds