The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-01-29
MADE A MODEL COP.
A School Teacher Spends His Vacation on
the Police Force.

From the Chicago Tribune.
Residents of Oakley avenue, near
Warren, woke up one morning last fall
ITO find a new policeman on duty in
that. neighborhood. He was a man of
sltalwart proportions and unusual intel
ltgence and made many friends. That
Is, there were many people who were
willing to be his friends, burt they will
recall the fact readily enough now that
none of them succeeded in learning
much about the officers identity or
family history. They chatted with him
freely and established a certain sort of
intimacy. Men, women and children
were alike glad to see him and talk to
him. He explained knotty problems to
the school children with an ease which
stamped him as a master pedagogue,
while the adults found no question in
politics, science or economies too heavy
for this rara avis of a policeman to
handle in an entertaining and convinc-
ing manner. 1t was not long before ne
became the neighborhood oracle, and
all manner of questions were left TO his
decision.
II never saw such a policeman" said
matron to whom he had made clear
an intricate passage in one of Herbert
Spencer's works with which she was TO
wrestle at a woman's club.
HE did my algebra for me better and
quicker than my teacher could" was
the encomium of a child who had been
stumped with an unusually hard prob
lem in evolution by logariuhms
IF the voters of this ward know
what is good for them they will send
Officer - to the city council. He talks
like an honest man and he understands
better what Is needed than any politi-
clan I ever talked with" This from
one of the largest taxpayers in the
ward.
IT, ..,,,,.n,s ,,.o. 49, ,..oa., .~oi,,o
man disappeared. He dropped out of
sight suddenly and left no clew to his
whereabouts. For a day or two the
people feared he had been transferred
to another beat, and then came the
thought that perhaps he might be sick.
Inquiry at the station house developed
bad news The policeman had resigned
from the force and gone into other bus
iress. Did the sergeant know where he
was loclted? No. The man had taken
a within and quit without consulting
anybody, and there was no trace of
him.
"A decent sort of chap he was" vol
unteered a slouchy-looking copper who
was smoking a pipe of the ''dudheen"
class, but ne never mixed much with
the boys. and 1 guess they kind of
froze him out"
Oakley avenue residents felt bad. and
they couldn't help making invidious
comparisons between the model officer
and his successor. who spent most of
his time in idle gossip with the toughs
and in taking sly drinks I'm a Madison
street groggery. But the Tribune has
good news for the mourners. The miss
ing policeman has been found. True.
he is no longer a policeman. and IS not
likely to wear the blue again in a hur-
ry though IL is a certainly he could go
through a pretty stim civil service
examination and come out at the head
OF the class. That model officer is now
the principal of n grammar school on
the South Side, and what's more he held
the same position long before he be-
came a member of the force.
For some years a man who for obvi-
Gus reasons must be nameless, had
served as principal Of big South Side
school. He worked hard, and. al
though a strong man physically. he be-
came tagged and brain weary. The
doctors advised a vacation with change
OF air and u new field OF labor. This