The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1902-11-17
STUNTS ON
The ROOF
Gregory Street Cops Hunt
ing Burglars Entertain
a Crowd.
AERIAL GYMNASTICS
Bold Bad Robber Escapes
While Officers Are Bal
ancing on the Ledge.

Shortly aften ten o'clock this morning
the usual quiet of the Gregory street
station was disturbed by the door being
thrown open and an excited citizen rush
ing up to the desk and informing Captain
Cody that a house across the street was
full of burglars.
"Aha! said the doughty captain to the
sergeant. "Call out the reserves
Inside of two minutes Captain Cody,
and Sergeant Finney and Patrolmen
Langdon, May, Bracken and McCarroll
were on their way across the street.
The house pointed out to them was
No. 43 Gregory street, untenanted. Fore
ing the basement door Captain Cody and
two patrolmen entered, while Sergeant
Fmney and the other patrolmeh dashed
through an alley to the rear. While
going through the alley Sergeant Finney
stumbled over bundle of clothes.
FOUND A CHILD.
"A club.' he cried, and after mo-
ment's thought in regular Sherlock
Holmes attitude, he announced that the
bundle had been dropped from the roof.
Without moments hesitation he gave
the command, ''To the roof, me brave
lads; to the roof.'
Dashing through the house the Serge
ant was first to gain the attic and then
twas but a moment before his head ap-
peared above the skylight Drawing
himself up to to his full six feet three
irla ha IA Nv,
seeing no one in sight, he dropped to his
hands and knees, and, like one of James
Fenimore Cooper's Indian scouts, crawl
ed carefully across the peaked roof until
he reached No. 40 Gregory street.
. CROWD. WATCH THEM.
While he was accomplishing this dan
gerous feat, crowd of almost two hun
dred people watched his perilous journey
with bated breath, expecting every
moment that he would slip.
Before Sergeant Finney had reached
No. 40, Patrolman Bracken appeared
from the skylight of No. 43. The crowd
below saw him falter moment and
then to their surprise Bracken balanced
himself and like a trained tight-rope
walker slowing walked with head erect
and arms outstretched over the peak of
the roofs. As he reached No. 40 a burst
of applause greeted his safe arrival.
About FIVE minutes later Patrolman
Langdon won the plaudits of the watch
ing throng by performing the same
"stunt."
= BOLD BURGLAR ESCAPES.
While all these aerial gymnastics were
being performed Captain Cody and his
men were busily engaged searching the
rooms of the houses supposed to have
been entered, Nos. 43 and 40. Mean
while the cause of all the trouble had
jumped the rear fence and reached safe
ty from capture by going rapidly up
Montgomery street. The solution of the
mystery was that Albert Nelson wanted
to borrow his fathers bed-quilt, overalls
and jumper.
His father, Henry Nelson, rents fur
nished room at No. 40 Gregory street.
His son entered it, and making bun
die of the above mentioned articles left
by way of the roof. Just as Sergeant
Finney had deduced young Nelson had
thrown the bundle from the roof, and
then discovering that he was himself dis
covered, escaped over the fence after
gaining the yard by way of the empty
house.
Sergeant Finney and Patrolmen Brack-
en- and Langdon We're reluctant about de-
scribing their feelings when they were
so high above the heads of the common
mortals in the street.