Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1901-01-01
JACK OF ALL TRADES.
INTERESTING AND VARIED ExPERl-
ENcES oFNEW YORK POLICEMEN.

A Single Days Varied Deeds of Bravery-
Typical Example OF Occurrences Which
Combine to Produce the Finest Police
Force in the World.
If anything happens IN New York,
It's Call policeman" He's the muni-
! cipal jack of all trades He goes to
all the church weddings with feminine
persistency. He attends about half
the funerals. He escorts inebristed
| gentlemen to their doorsteps, and
drags common "drunks" to the station.
| If there's a murder, he's on hand. Ii
| the cook Sauces" her mistress, he's
| invited into the mansion. II the mis-
tress is out, he's invited in by the cook.
When there's a runaway he is much
in evidence When there is an acct
dent he appears in force.
The policeman one hour Is diplo-
| mat. the next prize fighter. In one
| block he is the tyrant, sending the
pushcart men sccrrying from the blows
of his night sticl,: in the next he is the
| Scion. issuing wise orders to preserve
| the peace of the community. Now he
is the. Sherlock Holmes, stealthily
| trailing the criminal to his haunts:
| again he is a hidden but unintroduced
| guest at the society function, keeping
| an eye on the silver spoons.
He is all things to all men and a
hundred things in one. Every day
he has to do things at which the aver
age citizen would blush. Every day
| he does things as a matter of course
about which the average citizen, IL ne
did them, would boast for month. II
he does not report the dead cats on his
"beat" he is complained of at Head
| quarters and loses days pay. IT,
when he gets thirsty, he takes drink,
as ordinary mortals do. it's two days
pay If he is caught Not day passes
but he risks his life. Sometimes he
| gets honorable mention or medal
More often he gets only spoiled uni
| form.
Here's just glimpse at the police
mans life. chronicle of few of the
| things he did one day recently, illus
trating the courage, quick wit, physi-
cal powers and qualities of heroism
that make the Police Department of
| New York the finest in the world.
AS 1t happens, the day on which
these instances were noted was one OF
those times when the fire king shows
his power. From midnight to mid
night the firemen were answering
alarms and the streets were seldom
without the clatter of hoofs and the
clang of gongs.
Five alarms had been sent in for a
destructive fire in Sixth avenue late
the night before. 1t drew the fire en-
gines from a large section. and when
smaller fires came later the firemen
were much longer than usual in arriv-
ing. At the scene of the big fire were
the police reserves from several sta
tions.
Almost with the fire alarms came the
call for reserves. There were eager,
pushing crowds to keep out of the
firemen's way, threatening walls to
watch, reporters questions to answer,
heaped up goods from the burning
building to protect, hundred other
things to do, and scores of tired po-
licemen, dragged from their slumbers,
did all these duties uncomplafningly
until the morning broke.
But all the heroes of the force were
not at the fire. One lone policeman
was riding On the rear platform of an
east side car. His watchful eye saw
smoke issuing from store on the
ground floor of Norfolk street tene-
ment. 1t was only a seconds work to
dash to the nearest fire alarm box and
call the engines, thereby bringing the
firemen in time to rescue shrieking ten
ants whom the flames had cut off from
the fire escapes and stairways
Not many blocks away two police
! men. few hours before, had been vi
| olating that much transsressed rule
| about talking on post by having a
friendly chat. On the opposite cor
ner was fire alarm box An excited
| citizen ran up and opened the door of
| the little red box. He thought he had
called the engines to a nearby fire, but
he had not. 1t took the policemen on
| ly a second to discover that he had not
pulled the hook" according to direc-
tions. and they quickly remedied the
delay that might have brought death
to many in tenement.
Over on tie west side. in West
Fourth street IL vas little girl, play
| Ing with fire. ignited sofa The house
was in panic. Tenants scurried hith-
| er and thither, helpless from fright.
Some one had presence of mind CROUCH
to turn in an alarm. but before lshe
engines arrived came a cool headed
! young policeman. The sofa was blaz-
ing merrily. but nothing else had
caught. He flung up window, tossed
the sofa out into the street and went
back to his post. He had saved a
building from the flames, hut what's
q policeman for?
Further I'D on the west side a fire
started on the third floor of the house.
| Up on the fourth floor was a poor wo-
mana consumption victim-with her
baby, six months old. She heard The
shrieks of the other tenants as they
ran from the building. None thought
OF her. Picking up her ehild she
sought to escape by the stairway
Weak from illness. the smoke over
came her. A big policeman found her
there. and tenderly carried mother and
babe to place of safety. But that's
only an ordinary thing for a police
man to do. and the station houss blot
ter will not even tell you his name.
And while all this was going on
thieves were being arrested. intoxicat-
ed men taken care of, pedestrians
| guided through Broadway's mazes,
strangers directed to stores and ferries
attempts at suicides being investigated
all by policemen.-Nev York Herald.
Running an Express Engine.
| The general public has no idea what
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