The age-herald., 1899-05-25
PTCKUPS AMONG
 THE POLICEMEN
lAsR

"These are indeed dull times in police cir
 cles," said a patrolman not long since. T
 remember at one time it was so that an
 arrest for highway robbery, murder or a
 big offense of some character could be made
 almost every night, and shooting scrapes 1 were very ordinary happenings.
 l Now 1t Is different, and we fellows have
 to be content with picking up a drunk man
 or pulling few tramps, except on special 1 occasions, when, of course, disorderly con-
 duct cases are very numerous. The excit-
 ing times were during the days of the boom.
 "Buzzard's Roost was then policemans
 paradise-that is to say, we had all the I men we wanted to arrest, and sometimes l more. The most peculiar incident I ever | heard of occurred one night while we were l attempting to break up den of negro crap l shooters in that locality. There were two 1 detectives and four policemen in the raid- ing party, and after locating the gang of l gamblers we planned a mode of attack. "Three were to go to the back door and | two were to stay in front, while the other l two were to break in the door. was one 1 of the two that broke in. As we approached | the door we could hear the rattle of dice and the usual sounds of "crap talk that l goes with the game. We knocked on the 1 door and everything inside suddenly came l to 0 stop. We could hear the moving l around over the floor in an attempt to es- l cape, and thinking it time to go in threw | my weight against the door. The force of l the blow was not sufficient to break the l door in, and before could renew the att l tack some one on the inside began shoot | ing at the door and splinters fell all over 1 me. The outside men then rushed to our assistance, and by the combined weight of l our bodies the door fell in with crash. The negroes began shooting and we re- l turned the fire. For few moments a l pitched battle ensued in the dark. -+..s. l "In the scrimmage I fell over a chair. While lying on the floor I saw a kinky
 head bob up near one of the windows. I l took deliberate aim at the head and fired.
 A chatter of glass answered the shot and 1 the body of the negro fell to the floor. We l hurriedly struck matches and lit the lamps, l and then 1 ran to the man who had fallen | The bullet had plowed a long gash in the 1 top of his head and on his forehead lay picture of the head of Abraham Lincoln. I am not superstitious, but I'll admr that l a creepy feeling came over me. Glass was l lying all around the negro, and looking up | to see where it came from, I saw that the head of picture of Abraham Lincoln was | missing The picture had evidently been cut from some large paper and had been put in frame with a glass oyer it. The bullet from my pistol had hit the negro in the top of the head and glancing up had hit the glass of the picture, cutting the head of Lincoln off at the neck, the decapitated picture head falling on the negro's face. Flight of the gang were captured and marched to the citys jail"
 Some amusing incidents have occurred as a result of the new Sunday closing law, and the negroes have been very particular not to violate it.
 On last Sunday a policeman was ap preached by an old negro, who sad that he wanted to buy a shroud for his dead baby.
 "Wel, why don't you buy one?" asked the policeman.
 Boss, did try to buy one, but de dry goods man said dat he couldn't let me have no shroud until seed policeman and got him to go wid me-"
 Here was an enigma for the patrolman. Under the law nobody could sell on Sun day and still he knew that the old man ought to be allowed to buy the shroud.
 
 for the corpse and it would be all right. The old man went away muttering: "Dis law sho is hard one"
 He evidently got the shroud, as the po- liceman heard nothing more from him.
 A few days ago an old man appeared at the police station and remarked that he
 had come to get his son out. He was will ing to sign bond, but would not produce any money, notwithstanding the fact that
 he said he had plenty. The men in charge
 know nothing of the old man, and, of
 course, would not take his bond. He left
 the station saying that he had come here
 to get his son and was going 70 stay in
 Birmingham until he got him. That night
 he was found lying next to the wall of
 building dead drunk. The "Black Maria7
 was called and he was taken to the sta
 tion. He was so limp that a stretcher had to be used to get him inside the jail. Dur
 ing the day the old man had mentioned the
 fact that he was in the stock business and
 his mumblings that night convinced every
 one present that his statement was correct.
 When one of the attendants began pulling
 the stretcher out of the wagon the old
 man evidently imagined he was in a wagon going down flill "Whoai Whoa! Be easy now,' he muttered. The man kept pulling nevertheless and the old man kept talking to his team. As his body was nearly out of the wagon the old man became frantic and began swearing at his team that he imagined had gone into ditch. "Whoa! Whoa, you long-eared scoundrel, haven't you got a darn bit of sense?' He was taken inside the prison and searched, and the only property found on his person was a summons to appear before the next ses- sion of the grand jury of an adjoining county.
 A funny incident Is told of a policeman, who some time ago went to arrest a ne- l gro who had committed a burglary. The negro was found in his room, and the offl- cer without any formality broke in and | attempted to arrest him. The negro jumped | up to defend himself, and the first weapon that came handy was small alarm clock. | He picked this up and hurled 1t at the cop. | The clock struck the officer full in tho | face and knocked him down, the alarm in | the meantime going off The negro es- | capped, but the officer was quickly up and | after him. The negro had too much of