New-York tribune., 1905-07-17
AUToMoBILIsTs TRICK OFFICERS.
Hire Detectives to Watch Deputy Sheriffs
and Warn Speeding Cars.

Under the auspices of the State Automobile Club
1t Is alleged, four patrolmen have been stationed
on the roads most used by automobists for the
purpose of warning them that deputy sherffs are
lurking in ambush. The men are paid 50 a day and
80 for Sunday work. They are Henry Hallock ST.
and his son; Jacob Ritchie of Patchogue, and
Louis Smith. of East Patchogue. working under
Nat Roe, of Patchogue
1t has been the practice of IDENTITIES tn ambush
themselves at the ends of measured courses, and
time passing automobiles signalling their fellows
to make the arrest if the stop-watch showed more
than legal speed The automobiist. not having
held watch. could offer no adequate defence, and
hne followed, the deputy receiving a share
Naturally, the commission offered rendered the
deputies keen to make as many arrests as possible
Many automobilists allege that arrests were made
when machines well within the law
The idea was conceived by some speeder that If
deputy sherfrs able to lay traps for them IT
was possible to track the deputies and learn their
game The hiring of the men named Is the initial
experiment. and it is said work like charm
NO sooner do the patrolmen discover deputies
measuring off stretches of road than they plant
themselves In the neighborhood, one on either side
OF the outpOsts and automobilists of the
proximity of the deputies. Ii Is well understood
that an arrest elsewhere than on a timed course
will not produce fine The deputies apDear to ba
completely thwarted.
In Suffolk County. where the deputies have been
most active and where, is known, one deputy
INDUCED in pistol practice at party of motorists
It is believed the automobists are now getting
Dack at the deputies for the indgnities heaped
upon then during the last two three years
deputy Sheriff Bedell of the men picked
out 10 suffer. He was driving a spirited horse and
Ieaulng another yesterday when large touring
car passed him near Great River and struck the
Ied horse on the flank and upset his buggy. When
Bedell picked himself out of the ditch and rghted
his overturned buggy he looked for the cars mum
per But the car was over mile away by that
ume. and only the memory of great. horse laugh
fingered in the dusty air
Bedel Gained the horses ruffied feelings and
started along the road again. He had travelled
less than half mile when he five automobiles
rife speed rhe road narrow at the meeting
place which was close to the Cutting estate and
the first machine hit the hub of BedelI's rear
wheel ditchng the vehicle. which the horse
dragged along for a hundred yards. with RedelI
clnging TO The lines. Again BedeI essayed to dis
cover the numbers OF the machines but they were
, far away before he had quictei his horses
Since patrolmen have been on the roads leading
into Patchogue two weeks ago there has not been
Il single arrest for speeding
The Bournes. of Oakdale; the Roosevelts of Say
Vile; the vanderbilts Charles F. Murphy Daniel
Noble. Of Jamaica. ard hundreds of other auto
mobsts said to he among those warned by
the patrolmcn. Some Of these. the Roosevelts for
instance, needed no warning. for their machines
speCded beyond the legal limit. but that
the warnings have been of 10 many is best
evidenced by the fact that there has not been
single arrest for speeding since the patromen took
their stations the roads. whereas arrests be-
fore frequent The automobilists regard the
as q blessing.