The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-12-16
That Tell on
the Men.
BERTILL0N'S RULES
Sprung on the Candidates
for Police Force.

Fifty-one would-be policemen ap-
peared before the state civil service ex-
aiming board at the Y. NJ. c. A. gym
nasium yesterday, and went through
severe physical test, which brought in
to play every muscle in the applicants
bodies. The men did the best they
could, and now they are wondering if
they succeeded in passing.
The work was in charge of Henry
Sherwin. the states chief examiner.
DR.. Augustus Brown and Albert e.
Taylor of Boston, and Frank B. Hall,
The local member of the state examin-
ing board.
DR.. Brown has been connected with
the state board IL years, and during the
summer the doctor has been in Paris
studying under Prof. Bertillon, who
has a, worldwide reputation as the in
ventor of the system of measurements
for criminals which has been adopted
by all the large cities of the world.
I a. irst lot of men who wished to
be poIcemen and with the policemen
stand" arrived at the Y. M. C. A.
gym" at 10 o'clock, to take the devel-
opment test, as it is called. This test
ments of the body, each measurement
is multiplied by q certain factor, the
sums added together and then divided.
The result shows a figure representing
the development, and a man must get
Go per cent in order to pass. The
strength test is figured In the same
way, and IS per cent must be reached
before man is considered strong
enough to carry a Worcester police
mans club.
Fat men, lean men, tall men, short
men, old men, young men, and every
kind Of men We're represented.
When they first started they smiled,
but before they were quarter way
through, they commenced to groan,
and when they reached the perspiring
point they nudged each other and
asked: WHO in HI is this Bertil-
lon? Was he ever a policeman"
The men first took a turn on the
trapeze and were obliged to see how
many tiAes they could lift themselves
from the floor. This test is supposed
to teach a police officer how to hold
drunk while waiting for the patrol
wagon. The trapeZe exercises were to
show the strength of the arm muscles.
Secondly, the men worked on the
horizontal bars, to try the bioep and
tricep muscles.
Thirdly, the men were obliged to lay
flat on their backs on a mat and try
and lift without raising their bodies,
first, 25-pound dumb bells, then So
pound bells, and lastly, 40 and So
Founders.
All the applicants got the 25-pound
ers up the required height One-third
raised the 35-pOunders and less than
dozen were able to raise those that
weighed 40 pounds.
Then the men put up dumb bells that
weighed from % to SO pounds.
The funniest test of all was the lung
test The men stood in front of a
blowing machine such as one sees at
country fairs, and when told to blow
by the doctor, they blew until their
cheeks looked like toy balloons and they
became black and blue in the face.
The fat men were not in it with the
can men on the blowing test, which it
supposed was devised for officers to
get accustomed to blowing them
selves" and their whistles to call for
assistance to help capture John Reed
II some other bright criminal who
might escape.
The applicants wrist muscles were
also severely tested. Mr.. Bertillon
probably devised this method to make
sure that all policemen would know
how to pull in wrOngdoers,
The last lung test obliged the men
to give one short, sharp blow into a
rubber tube. There were 81 Of the
best blowers DR.. Brown said that he
had met in many day and probably
they win make very good policemen.
The test closed with running high
jumps, and even the fat men vaulted
the stick like greyhounds, and they
showed that Worcester criminals viii
have to practice Bertillon if they want
to get away from the coming police.
DR. Brown said that he was more
than satisfied with the applicants, and
that they were far better than the av-
erage.
The percentages win not be given out
for 10 days or two weeks.