The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-10
A BEARS CAGE FOR A JAIL.
DUPLICATION or ENLIGHTENED
PENOLOGY IN VERONA.
II Resulted From the Happy Appointment
of Bln Began as Chlef or Police--He
Won the Cage In n Contest With a Cir
Gus Man In Cowboy Accomplishments.


VERONA, N. j. July 9-When Verona
township, New Jersey, found itself with a
nepology problem to solve it didn't send
for n socoogist but hired cowboy right
ont of a Wild West Show to be head deputy
He made so many arrests that Squire Welt
vrns barn would no longer do for lookup.
So when another show came along the pike
with an empty polar bear cage the town
ship got the cage for Jail
Now Verona is ut peace once more
Children may go to the fields berrying
without fear Of evildoers, and the women
NAV stroll from crag to crag in the Orange
Mountains and make evening calls on their
neighbors up and down the valley without
mocstation
Verona never knew what crime was until
a few months ago, when gangs of men
compod in the High Notch neighborhood
10 build a reservoir Then there were all
kinds of trouble. No henroost was safe.
Every pig pen from Overlook to Essex
Frls was menaced and tho contractors
gangs were worse for truck gardens than
the drought. The laborers lived exclusively
ON fried chicken, sucking pig and fresh
vegetables. But since Verona took action
and bought circus cage the reservoir
diegcrs have gone back to bacon and canned
stun
If it hadn't been for an accident the
township might even now be struggling
along with Eastern police methods. AS
Verona had never had police system the
town council appointed committee to
investigate and report. The committee
voted To go TO New York to make inquiries
in Mulberry Street, and il necessary to keep
on to Coney Island to study police methods
there But on the day set for departure
fhc committee lost THE train because ii
wouldn't bulge until the last of the minutes
Of the last meeting had been read and
approved.
AS the committeeman were going back
10 the mountain from the flag station
they met the particular Wild West Show in
which the star performer was Bill Bogen,
crack shot, bronco buster, strong man and
cX-cowboy.
About half the town was there, having
been down to the station to see the COM
mittee of, so the wild show unhitched
and did a turn right then and there on the
pike. According to the announcement on
the front wagon, Bill Began gave All eXhi-
htion Of shooting, roping and breaking.
Ills wife, three-quarter breed Pottawat-
tonne sQuaw, stood in the middle of the
road with an apple on her head, and Bill
mt bullet through the apple. Then he
aSsoed bucking bronco and mounted it
before the admiring villagers.
The same thought seemed TO strike every
member of the Committee On Police at the
same time. They retired little from
the road, went into executive session be-
hind a cIllmp of s,mac bushes and unani-
mously passed the following resolution
Whereas the township of Verona for some
time past has been the scene Of Il carnival Of
vice and crime and
Whereas said township, because Of said car
nival, IL in urgent need OF brave and efficient
police depart ment and
Whereas one certain COWBOY, as vet I'M
known to this committee, IL now performing
fsats of remarkable strength and daring IN
SAID. township on the high road. a little
southerlv Of Peckman,,s Creek; Therefore, be it
ResOlrfd, That said cowboy be, and he is
hereby elected chief peace officer of this
township
II was moved and seconded that the reso-
luton TO 20 to Mulberry Street be rescinded.
Ynen the committee emerged from the
clump of sumac and Bill Eogan was notified
of his nomination and election, and re-
quested 10 keep his bronco and all his guns
for the use of the town. He accepted on
the spot, shook the show and has been
gentleman OF Verona ever since, riding
up and down the valley and over the noun
tain from O'Clock in the afternoon until
midnight, seven days a week. And the
Orange NJ ountan roads have busted Tom
the bronco, as no bronco was ever busted
before.
Bill Began was born In Mott street, New
York, IS years ago. BY the time he was 20
the Bowery was 90 tame for him, so he
trekked for Wyoming, where he was @
COW puncher and bronco buster for ten
years Then he took to Wild West shows
because, he says. his Indian wife wanted to
come East and see the cities.
During his first two weeks of public
service Bill, at the request of the Town
Council gave public exhibitions Of shoot.
ing, roping and riding over by the laborers'
camp, where they could all SEQ him.
That was for the moral effect.
There has been but ono Disagreement
between Policeman Began and the town.
The town wanted him to wear blue uni
form, with brass buttons and helmet.
Bill said he'd resign before he'd tog up,
50 he still wears his Wyoming clothes,
cartridge belt and all. The only con-
cesslon he has made to style is TO wear
a 80 Calibre in the daytime, because it
doesn't bulge out so, but he changes it
every night at 8 o'clock for A. Some
times he patrols in the saddle. Sometimes
he travels in full-armored blackboard
His best catch SO far was that Of three
Italian labOrers who shot their foreman
at the reservoir diggings. The men es-
capped into 2O-foot tunnel that has been
bored for a mile under the Orange Noun
tain to save the expense of carrying water
pipes over it, The shooting was a little
after midnight. Bill chased the men
through the woods and the trail led him
10 the mouth Of the tunnel He went In
without a light. Away of in the distance
he saw the gmmer of a 'aEtern that the
Italians had lighted when they thought
they We're out Of danger. They had stopped
TO rest about a quarter Of mile inside the
tunnel Bill crept along on the sandy
bottom without making a sound till no
was near enough to hear the Italians talk
hg, The lantern was on the floor of the
tunnel in front Of them. Each of the three
mad revo Yer in his hand.
Bill had gun in each hand. He got
within fifty feet of the men and then
Hell was let loose In the bowels OF the
mountain for those Italians. The gentle
man OF Verona gave the most blood-curdling
indian yell that he had learned in the West
when he was wooing the Pottawottomie
maid, The echoes almost scared Bill him
self. The Italians dropped their guns and
crossed themselves. When Began recov-
cred and gave the second yell in the heart
OF the mountain the Italians fell on their
faces. just to complete the effect, Began
smashed the light with bullet and then
emptied one revolver in a volley over the
headS Of the Italians. The reports ran
together in one awful, reverberating roar,
and all Bill Began had to do then was to
walk tlD To tho ItoliuDg nick IN their o.