The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-12-22
Town Tales
Observation-Disclosures

"A police officer has to think quick
the other evening, to The Spy man.
Last night his remark was brought
back to me very forcibly by a story
heard in connection with the same Off
Ger.
Tt seems, according to the person who
told it, and the relator was one of
his brother officers, that he is near
sighted He was pulling in his signal
box one night, and just as he placed
the key in the door to give his duty
CALL good-natured jag happened
along. He talked with the officer, and
nothing pleases an officer more than to
show the workings of the signal box
TO an outsider.
The jag talked about the great mu-
nicipality Worcester is, being in a
enough to lose control of himself, but
felt like telling a few things, and the
officer, proud of the new signal sys-
tenn, kept him in conversation.
The duty calls are so arranged on a
signal box keyboard, that metal fin
ger has to be moved before the call is
pulled in. If the wagon is wanted,
L
finger. If he wants the ambulance, he
has to move it up one notch. A num-
Der of times since the system was in
stalled in this city, officers have for
gotten to move 1t UP also He did not
get any answer, and, thinking that
he had rung in his call, he closed the
door and stood talking TO the fellow
with the jag. He saw the police wagon
dashing towards him a few moments
q nd 11rac 11of 70
see it pull up TO where he was standing
and stop.
1t then dawned on him, for the first
time, that he had rung for the wagon
instead Of pulling in his duty call, and,
instead of telling the driver that he
had made mistake. he grabbed the
'conversant jag and loaded him into the
wagon. The jag was hauled to the
police station, and spent the night be-
hind the bars, all because there was a
new signal system in Worcester.
1t is. indeed, true that a police officer
has to think quickly to square himself
with the signal system.
An ola soldier strayed into Post 10,
G. A. r. hall, last evening, and, after
the Regular meeting had adjourned, en-
tertained a number of Grand Army men
With STORIES Oh the CIVIL war. lie seemed
to have been in about every campaign
during the entire war, and had at his
fingers end the exact location of reg
iments ana divisions in battle. And yet
this man was without home or friends
except such as he picked up in his
wandetings. Drink did it," he said
frankly. It's all my own fault" He
was downcast for a moment, and then
went On with his vivid accounts of bat
ties he had been in, and the border line
between imagination and reality was
hard to mark, even for veterans of the
war. On the table of the ante-room
he traced lines of march, ana plans Of
battle, and so interested did he become
that it was with difficulty that he
could be prevailed upon to leave the
hall. 1t seems a pity that he should
be allowed to play the role of a tramp
hut as he is his own master and APP
parentlg in full possession of his fac
ulties there is no valid reason for re-
straining him Of his liberty. Some of
the members of the post said that the
poor OLD fellow should be put in a SOL
dier's nome, where he could indulge in
his fondness for telling stories of the
war, and still have a home.
Frank Bush, who is playing at the
Park theatre, this week, is as