Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-25
SEEN BY THE DESK SERGEANT.
All Sorts Of Trouble Brought to the
Man at the Police Station.

s'If there is one man more than another
who has to listen to the troubles OF
mankind 1t is the desk sergeant at the
police station" said Sergeant Chalmers,
until recently on duty at the first police
precinct, to a Star man, and from the OBJ
servations Of The Star man Sergeant Chai-
mers spoke the truth from the bottom OF
his heart.
Trouble for breakfast, tears for dinner
and fluctuations for supper, the desk ser
geant must endure his menu. He has 10
like and listen. II he doesn't he Is called
an unsympathetic "cuss." who Is stuck on
his buttons. From sun to sun heart-broken
Washingtonians, Of all ages, sexes and
walks make his desk the Mecca Of their
fluctuations. From him they seek SYM
patty.
want revenge. The human tongue knows
no word more odious to desk sergeant
than that word revenge" In 1t he sees
almost all of the woe that flesh Is heir to.
Men, women and children. cursed with a
spirit of vengeance. seek to make the police
tools Of their infamy. and the desk SER
geant must necessarily be the initial step
to its obtaining. Some mothers son has
licked another mothers son. The latter
and her son do not try the plan OF lick
ing the other mother and her son. put
they want the police to do 1t with the law.
son seek to get revenge by the use Of the
cell house. It isn't to punish the victorious
'kid''-it Is to get revenge.
Sympathy and revenge are the principal
elements that play around the desk ser
geant In will come some poor soul seek
ing a place to spend the night Penniless
and friendless he finds. or hopes to find, the
desk sergeant at least sympathetic.
Eye see, sergeant" he will say. lost me
Job in Pittsburg because of strike an
came on here to try to look up work. I'm
broke, tired and hungry. Can ye put me
to sleep here for the night?''
Long experience has taught the desk ser
geant to scrutinize his visitor for mark
of worthiness. Perhaps he will note that
he has a clean face, an honest eye or a
visage that shows the mark of better days.
He, can tell-almost at glance-f his VS.
itor is worthy of assistance.
He questions him closely and finds that
probably the poor fellow Is telling the
truth. Then he starts him away to IND
friends at the Homeward Bound or Central
Union Mission. The police shelter no one
at the station unless he is ION the books"
Now he turns to hear a mothers appeal:
us my boy in here?" she walls.
Maybe not" he answers.
But they told me he was here.
Then perhaps he is Just ask for the
turnkey. He will tell you"
Another case disposed OF. While this has
been going on he has been answering nu-
merous telephone calls in which somebody
wants to know II the police surgeon Is
democrat or a republican,: IL Pat Maloney
was arrested here in 1900 for being drunk;
IL It Is against the law to clip q pigeons
wings; IL it true that a man cave have
his wife arrested for picking his pockets
at night, and many others Of a like kind.
There are occasional outbursts OF humof
In the desk sergeant's life. For instance.
the other day young man named Samuel
Joseph ran into the police station crying
like q child lost in the desert. Sergeant
Chalmers was at the desk.
whats the troubler" asked the ser
geant.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., Jake Bermann.
the policeman. saw me over at the Empire
and came running up and looked me right
square in the face Every guy over there
thought I was pinched or was going to be-
He's got to quit looking at me or I'll have
him investigated. I'm no crook!
The tears were streaming down his
cheeks copiously. The policeman had look
ed at him. That was all. case Of injured
innocence.
The fashionably- dressed woman who has
lost her pet dog mingles at the desk SER
geant's desk with the woman who has been
given a thrashing by ''de old man. and
wants him arrested. The fashionably-
dressed woman wants her dog brought
home-the other wants her dog taken
away. It is only difference of dogs.
The desk sergeant's ear must be query