The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-10-26
SAVED TWENTY-NINE LIVES.
A New York Policeman Prom oted
For Signal Gailantry.


In the October Century there is an ar
ticle by. the Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, en-
titled "The Roll of Honor of the New
York Police" In speaking Of promo
tions for.gallantry, MIR. ROOSEVELT says:
Among the first promotions We made
were two which illustrated the attitude of
the board toward cases of this kind. and
which also incidentally illustrated
exactly what we mean by taking the
force out of politics is. by admin
istering 1t on principles of decency, and
appointing and promoting men on their
merits, without regard to their political
backing. The first case was that of an
old fellow, veteran of the civil war. who
was mt the time a roundsmnn. / hap
pened to notice ono day that he had saved
woman from drowning. and had
summoned him so that l might look into
the matter. The old fellow brought up
his record before me, and showed not a
little nervousness and agitation, for IL
appeared that he had grown gray In the
service, had perform Cd feat after feat OF
beroism, but had no political backing of
any account. He was n Grand Army
man, but not one of the political" type,
and so had not received any attention
from the former police boards; and now,
at last, he thought thore was chance for
him.
He had been twenty-five years on the
force and during that time hnd saved
some twenty five persons from death by
drowning varying the performance once
or twice by saving persons from burning
buildings Twice Congress had passed
laws especially to empower the then
secretary Of the treasury, John Sherman,
to give him a medal for distinguished
gaIlantry in saving life. The Life Saving
Society had also given him its medal,
and SO had the police department.. On
examining in to his record carefully, we
found that il was wholly free from COM
plants of any infraction Of duty, and
he was sober and Trustworthy. We felt
that he was entitled to his promotion,
and be got IL. We did not know bis
politics, nor did we caro- about them 1t
is very unlikely that tho woman whom
he last saved as he swan out toward her,
felt any special interest as to whether he
had voted for Cleveland or Harrison nor
did we. He had risked his life freely
again and again in the performance Of
his duty; he had conducted himself so as
to be credit to the department., and a
credit to the city ana we felt that no was
entitled to his reward.
II is worth while mentioning that he
kept on saving life after he was promoted
70 n sergeantcy. On October 2l 1896, ho
again saved man from drowning. IL
was nc night, .nobody. .4else was in the
neighborhood. and the slip from which
he jumped was in absolute darkness. and
ho was about ten minutes In the water
which was very cold. The captain Of tire
precinct, In reporting the case. said 1.-The
sergeant was oil the bulkhcad anu into
the water after his man quicker than 10
takes TO say Jack Robinson. " There
was no way i'm which the board could
reward him for this except by telling him
that hc was an honor to tie department
fui he had nccn Riven Ali tho medals and
bars for medals that be could Ia given.
a was the twenty ninth person whose life
he had saved during his twenty-three
years service in the department. and ne
was 90 years old when be saved hip