Evening star., 1903-08-31
WORK FOR THE POLICE.
Tramps Infesting the Vicinity of Ana
costa Freight Yards.

1t is the expectation of the police of the
Anacostia station that the coming months
will witness n lot of business in their line
as the result of the police beat established
in the heart of the large freight yards bor-
dering on the Anacostia river between Ben
ming and Twining City, in connection with
the camp of Italian laborers in that quar-
ter. Half a dozen tramps retreats are
known to exist in the locality, and have
been raided at intervals by the police in
the past with good results. The cars left
on the various sidings seem to be the prey
of petty thieves in search of anything they
can secure.
1t has been the belief of many acquainted
with the conditions in these yards that
crooks from other cities are in the horde of
vagrants that infest the place from time TO
time
One of the coolest prisoners ever arrested
in the Anacostia precinct was yesterday
caught leaving the yards by Policeman
James Narrower. He was a negro over six
feet tall and weighing close to 200 pounds
When removed to the police station he glib
ly repeated story of having been tramp
ing for sixteen years, with but one in
stance of being arrested in all that time.
Among the cities he named as having
visited were Chicago Philadelphia, New
York, Richmond, together with numerous
others. and he related stories of tramp life
with the ease of the professional and said
his name was Edward Logan. He had d
great scar on his right hand.
The officers held him on a vagrancy
charge. A Bible in his possession afforded
him a chance to claim to be a religionist
He told the officers much he liked
and no more could be obtained from him
Logan had not been disposed of long
when another arrival by way of the Ana
costa freight yards appeared before the
police, being, however, voluntary caller
at the station. He was Wesley Hull, a
white man, thirty years old, just from the
Philadelphia City Hospital and in search
of his mother who had removed he had
been told, from eastern Tennessee to Wash
ington. She had married a man named Ed
ward Clark and Hull supposed they were
farming in the Anacostia section. He him
self had been dangerously hurt recently in
a mine in Virginia, he said, and had been
taken to the hospital in Phila delphia
where he had undergone an operation. He
was hardly able to walk and had beaten his
way on freight cars from Philadelphia. The
police were unable to help the unfortunate
man. and he was directed to the municipal
lodging house until he could hear some
thing of his mother. His store of money
was reduced to fifty cents, which he had
obtained, he said. by selling his belt that
morning. Some storekeeperS in Anacostia
gave him food.
Mounted Officer A. w Green, doing duty
near the italian camp, Saturday evening
discovered two suspicious negroes in the
yards. He arrested them, ascertaining that
one of them had a loaded revolver on his
person, while the other was armed with a
wicked-looking pair of nickel knuckles.
They were removed to the police station
where their names were given as John Mid
dIeton nineteen years old who had the re-
the owner of the knuckleS. They are
strangers in the city.