The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-05
LIVE TOPICS ABOUT TOWN.

One explanation of the success Of thieves
in Brooklyn is that at night the borough is
50 poorly policed that citizens have little
or no protection save their own vigilance
and private watchmen. Policemen who
go from Manhattan to the other borough
to do duty are amazed at the length of the
posts they are supposed to cover. A sample
night post, in the Casson avenue precinct
is from Classou to Washington avenue, a
distance of several long blocks in one Of the
most thickly populated parts Of the borough,
and from Myrtle avenue to DeKalb avenue.
That means two long blocks north and south
for each one long block running east and
west Three policemen couldn't cover a
beat like that at night, yet there are scores
of police beats longer and more difficult
than this. The wonder IL not that there are
SO many successful burgaries in Brooklyn,
but that there are so few.
Under the Van Wyck administration the
elevator men in the Criminal Courts Build
ing we're an autocratic set who ran their
cars when they felt like it, and if they
didn't happen to like a man. would refuse
to carry him up or down. Until one elevator
had made trip up and down again the
the only use Of two elevators was to give
the elevator men rests between trips. The
elevator men used to acquire large number
of cigars daily from their admirers and
were really persons Of consequence about
the building The change in their con-
dition is hest expressed by one of them,
who was telling an old friend all about
1t the other day
"Well," he said, "the good old days have
gone. They treat an elevator man now
adays as though he was a common laborer.
Here they make me start from the bottom
up as soon as Pete on the other starts from
the top down. I left the machine for
fifteen minutes the other day, and when
l come back darned II some one hadn't
made kick about 1t. Az for cigar-.well
| buy them now. That shows how things
are going How can these reformers ex-
pect to beat Tamnany treatin' Teller
like that"
There is an octogenarian in Thompson
street who comes out regularly about mid
night twice week to tho fountain in Wash
ington Square. He wears no hat and his
hair CLEANS ghostly white in the moon
light. From distance he appears to be
performing some mystic incantations as he
bends over the fountain. Really, he 10
washing his clothes, and manages to keep
his linen spotlessly white with soap and
cold water. He harms no one, and the
police do not modest him.
Down at tho First district police station
on Pier A dwels an aged cat, honorable
as the mother Of fourteen families. Her
name is Jenny, and she Is II years old.
About year ago the desk sergeant then
at the station decided that the half dozen
most recent members of her numerous
progeny were sufficient to keep down the
rats In the place, and presented Jenny to
a sea captain about to sail.
The captain says that she stood on the
bow and watched her home vanish az she
was rapidly born away from Pier A. Then
she resigned herself to travel like many
another grandmother. She was OF a retiring
disposition, though, and withdrew to tho
hold where she remained for ten months
The crew all gave her up for dead, the
captain says but when they were sailing
into New York harbor after nearly a year
pussy waddled UP on deck as fat as butter,
with her tail waving proudly aioft. APP
parently she had lived on the rats In the
hold.
After that the police wouldn't and couldn't
lose her. The present desk sergeant tells
the story with great pride. and Jenny,
who has settled down to quiet life again,
purrs contentedly beside him
acsho 10 , fna ont SAWS tho dealr aer0aapt