New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-11-10
POLICE QUESTIONS GOT OUT
SOME APPLICANTS HAVE PROFIrED BY
LEAK IN A PRINTING OFFICE
THE MEN BELIEVED TO BE RESPONSIBLE DIE
CHARGED FROM THE OFFICE AND A PLAN
TO PREVENT A RECURRENCE OF
THE ABUSE ADOPTED BY
THE COMMISSIONERS.

THE COMMISSIONERS.
A leak IN the printing Office OF the Martin a
Brown Company by which information about ques.
lions to be asked I'm Civil Service examinations had
been conveyed to applicants for appointment q
policemen was stopped yesterday Police Com.
missioner Roosevelt and other officials then ad.
mtted that there had been efforts made for several
months to discover the leak which they suspected
existed, and that a few policemen. perhaps twenty
who had been appointed in that time were under
suspicion OF having paid for information about the
Civil Service questions previous to the examine.
lions.
Several m onths ago the Commissioners were ex.
cited by the information that clerk who had
been connected with the police Civil Service Ex-
aiming Board and had been dismissed had started
a school for coaching applicants for appointment
and was Offering to guarantee appointment for
$500 man. They caused the former clerk TO be
Swallowed by detectives. and they resolved not to
appoint any applicant for police berth who was
known to have paid the sum demanded at the
school, 10 matter how excellent an examination
the applicant had passed. For the purpose Of aid
ing the detectives some young men connected
with the City Vigilance League made applications
for appointment policemen, and passed the ex-
aminations The Civil Service examiners intro
duced some extremely hard questions. which no
applicant was expected TO answer. and men who
did answer them were Swallowed In the hope that
they might betray the leak. The detectives nnally
decided that somebody was getting copies OF the
printed examination papers from the printing Of
fee and they arranged TO keep watch In the print
ing office on Tuesday of last week. when a lot Of
examination papers were to be printed.
The eyes Of the detectives followed every motion
of the compostors who set up the type. and the
copy was watched until 1t had been returned to
the foreman after the proof had been read and
the corrections had been made. When the form
was sent 10 the pressroom one Of the detectives
noticed that the first impression was taken by the
pressmen and thrown into a waste-paper basket
He allowed the pressmen to know that they were
being watched when he went 10 the basket and
looked at its eonaens ana ta'er oe OF he spposS
This led the detectives to conclude that IL nad been
the practice to steal from the basket the hrst In
preston Of the examination papers ana Sell II 70
somebody who In turn sold information TO appn'
cants for appointment policemen. The invest-
CATION was pursued until the detectives were rea'
sonably certain that two OF the men employed IN
the printing office had been concerned IN the work
OF stealing copies OF the examination papers but
they could not produce sufficient proof 10 JUSTIFY
the arrest OF the men. .
printing office and Commissioner Roosevelt said
that there had been an arrangement MADE py
which the copy OF the examination papers IN nut
ure will be carried TO the printing ONCE on the
will keep watch that copies are lost or stolen
thereafter no such leak VIII be possible. MI
Roosevelt said "Al the men who were receiving
tuition from the former clerk have been rejected
by the Police Board so far know. The case
of the former clerk has been brought before the
Grand Jury once and will be again. From az IN.
formation we have. very few men who have oeeh
under his tuition have been appointed. IL we can
find any Of them who paid him 10 secure their APP
pointment we will turn them out. Hereafter no
man who studies under him will be appointed