The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1902-04-11
LAYING FOR BlNKS
lcopyrlght, 1901. by c. B. LcwIs.l

copyright 1901. by c. d. Lewls.l
When Binks had finished Ills appren-
ticeship in the machine shop, he was
q 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 so to work at the
highest wages paid in the shop
But Binks had other plans. He had
saved few hundred dollars, and he
opened little shop OF his own.
Blnks had not been in his new shop
a week when policeman made IN ar
rest in front Of his door and displayed
unnecessary brutality. Binks protest
ed. He even gestured us he protested.
BE loudly declared 1t shame to bang
q man about In that fashion. In re-
Spouse he was warned to mind his own
business and threatened with arrest,
and later on in the day the officer call
ed at the shop to say:
Nov. young I'm. you take pointer.
II you want to keep out Of trouble.
keep your mouth shut. II we hear any
more Of your talk, we'll lay for YOU"
Binks took the pointer, but he didn't
keep to 1t. A week later and block
away he saw drunken woman hauled
about and flung into the patrol wagon
in such way that both sympathy and
anger were aroused, and he protested.
A crowd backed him up. and several
newspapers backed the crowd, and the
police commissioners reluctantly repri-
manded the 'patrolman. 1t was vic
tory for Binks. but he did not dream Of
what 1t was to cost him. In day or
two word went out that the captain OF
the precinct was down on Blnks. He
would be, OF course. When the brutal
1ty of patrolman Is hooted by a
crowd, denounced by the press and rep
rimanded from headquarters, the cap
tain feels that some Of the mud sticks
70 him. Yes. he was down on Binks.
and Binks socO had cause to know 1t.
He had some junk in front Of his shop
and was ordered to remove 1t instanter.
A policeman loitered about his door
and Whispered suspicion" 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, aud he was not idiot enough
to think he could win victory. lie
moved half mile away in IN effort to
placate the enemy and be forgotten.
Perhaps Binlls might have been let
alone had he not put his foot in 1t
again. lie found the patrolman on
that beat drunk and asleep one night
md was foolish enough to appeal to a
pedestrian to help him save the help
less man from frostbite. This pedes.
TRAN happened to be a reporter, and
he held the case up TO public view and
wrung in BinlSs. The derelict officer
was aned n months pay, the captain
sers out word anew, and links was
Sccn 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 aud 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 he put to and was arrested as
he was carrying them home. His good
character ought to have counted ut 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 1t on Binks until he won
dered II he was not somebody else. and
he got three years in Sing Sing and
lecture from the judge. Blnks had de-
fed the police. and Blnks was laid
away.
When the young machinlst came out
Of prison, he had changed. He had lost
all sympathy for mankind. II the po-
lice slung q woman about like bale
Of hay. battered a drunken man, crack
ed the skull of hoodlum or insulted
a respectable girl who had to be out
TIL late hour, 1t 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.
position, and he was prepared to bow
10 indifference and brutality. But
Binks didn't have the chance. The
smlrcned police captain and the drunk
en- patrolman had not forgotten him.
They would have taken him back Mt
the old shop but for the police. They