The Jersey City news., 1901-05-08
nOURN[D BIG GEORGE.
Children Of the Horseshoe
Since Told That Their
Favorite Was Lost.

The younger portion of the population
in the vicinity of Jersey avenue north
of Eleventh street was thrown into a
great state of excitement late yesterday
afternoon by the appearance of the re-
serves of the Second Precinct police sta
tion who overran the neighberhood and
looked wise and ominous They were
about in such numbers that the curious
We're greatly wrought up and many were
the inquiries and the conjectures
That serious catastrophy had befallen
the community was generally believed
fellows actually approached a policeman
and had the temerity to ask
What's the matter, Mr.. Cop?"
Nothing, little boy. Run away, now.
and mind your own business" replied the
bluecoat; but he was not to be excused
from the desired explanation so easily,
for the inquisitor persisted with
iAw, you might tell a feller. Go on.
| amt goin' t tell anybody, see? Cross
my heart an never tell lie Is some
thin the matter with Big George?' .
Yes" replied the officer. Big George
is lost He probably gave this explana-
tion with the idea that it would put stop
to further queries, and in this he was
right. But he had no idea of the amount
of excitement and pain he had uncon-
sciously caused. He had hardly gotten
over his feeling of self-satisfaction at the
ease and cleverness with which he had
thrown the anxious hopefuls of the neigh
borhood off the right scent when he was
surrounded by a crowd of cherubs who
demanded further details. They had
heard from the boy who had courage
enough to beard the lion and in a surpris-
ingly short time the information that
Big George was lost had spread through
the vicinity.
Big George is lost, rang out in alarm
on all sides. poor Big George
Meantime the crowd about the police
man who started the story were work
ing themselves up to a great pitch. Their
imagination had broken all bounds and
they expressed some unique conjectures
as to big Georges" fate and how it
had overtaken him.
One healthy youngster, who looked like
a seeker of adventure, inspired by dime
novels, said
"Oh, say, fellersl May be a gang o.
robbers stole him an got him in deir
den. Let's go and search for the rob-
bers. It'll be great sport and if we find
dem I'll run me trusty sword through
dem like One Fingered Ike the reformed
train robber, did when the gang of In
june stole his ole mudder Wait till
get me trusty sword, and off he darted
for the den in his cellar
Yep. or may be dey stole him like
Willie Mccormick and want money for
him, said little girl. ~
The policeman went off, leaving the
young ones to go on imagining.
The fact of the matter was that there
was row in a saloon and one man was
injured. His assailants escaped and, al
though he was not seriously injured, the
police were determined to catch the guilty
ones. With this idea the reserves were
turned out and their presence led to the
inquiries. The policeman said that big
George" was lost because he did not wish
the real cause of the presence of so many
policemen in the neighborhood known
Big George is George Osterlo, a pa
trolman in the Second Precinct police sta
tion who has been on the post in that
neighborhood. He is a great favorite,
especially with the youths.