Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-03-15
THE DAILY
SHORT STORY.
Laying for Binks.
Icopyr.ght. 1901. by c. Z. Lewis.l


When EinkS had finished his appren-
ticeship in the machine shop. he was
a finished workman. and his boss pat
ted him on the shoulder and said:
boy. you have been Industrious, re-
spectful and ambitious. and am free
to say that we never had one like you
In the shop before. You can take that
bench over there and go to work at the
highest wages paid in the shop"
But Binks had other plans. He had
saved Il fey hundred dollars. and he
opened little shop OF his own.
Binks had not been in his new shop
a week when u policeman made an ar
rest in front of his door and displayed
unnecessary brutality. Binks protest
ed. He even gestured as he protested.
He loudly declared it q shame to bang
a man about in that fashion. In re
spouse he was warned 10 mind his own
business and threatened with arrest,
and later on in the day the officer call
ed at the shop to say:
Now, young un, you take a pointer.
If you want to keep out of trouble.
keep your mouth shut. If we hear any
more of your talk, Wen lay for you"
Blnks took the pointer, but lie didn't
keep to it. y week later and Il block
away he saw a drunken woman hauleG
about and flung into the patrol wagon
in such a way that both sympathy and
anger were aroused, and lie protested.
y crowd backed him up, and several
newspapers backed the crowd and the
police commissioners reluctantly repri-
manded the patrolman. 1t was a vic
tory for Binks, but he did not dream of
what it was to cost him. In a day or
two word went out that the captain OF
the precinct was down on Binks. He
would be, of course. When the brutal
ity of n patrolmIn is hooted by
crowd, denounced by the press and rep
rimanded from headquarters, the cap
tain feels that some of the mud sticks
TO him. Yes, he was down on Binks.
and Binks soon had cause TO know it.
He had some junk in front Of his shop
and was ordered to re.hove IL instanter.
y policeman loitered about his door
and whispered 'Suspicionr when ask
ed the reason of his presence. The
landlord was got at and the rent
raised. Repairs that had been promis-
ed were not made. In one way and an
other business was driven away, and
Binks had to move. The police had
plainly told him they were laying
for" him, asd lie was not idiot enough
to think he could win Il victory. He
moved half Il mile away in an effort to
placate the enemy and be forgotten.
Perhaps Binks might have been let
alone had he not put his foot in it
again. He found the patrolman on
that beat drunk and asleep one night
and was foolish enough to appeal to a
pedestrian to help him save the help
less man from frostbite. This pedes-
trian happened to be n reporter, and
he held the case up to public view and
wrung in Binks. The derelict officer
was fined Il months pay. the captain
sent out word anew. and Binks was
soon in hot water again. Nothing was
too petty and mean for the police to
resort to. and they boosted to his face
that within three months they would
drive him out of the state. They had
harassed and bounded him till he was
ready to give up when they put on the
climax. They sent man to him to
have burglar tools made. Binks made
them without knowing the use they
were to be put to and was arrested as
he was carrying them home. His good
character ought to have counted at his
trial. but the police found a way to
smirch it. The open way in which he
had made the tools ought to have
counted. but the police called it blind.
They piled it on Binks until he Won
dered if he was not somebody else. and
he got three years in Sing Sing and
lecture from the judge. Binks had de-
fed the police, and Binks was laid
away.
When the young machinist came out
OF prison, he had changed. He had lost
all sympathy for mankind. If the po-
lice slung a woman about like a bale
Of hay, battered drunken man, crack
cd the skull of hoodlum or insulted
a respectable girl who had to be out
till late hour, it would be nothing to
him any more. He might even laugh
over the spectacle, as others did. Such
sentiments as pity, mercy and sympa-
thy had been -weeded out of his COM !