The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-07-22

Bob NAndewater. Ghief Of Police, Dlda't
Get a Scorcher and Justice Gittlns Had
Nobody I o FIne-shows what . HAttle
village Can do when IT'S on Its Ear.
BY whichever road Of the seven oiled and
approved ones you steered your auto into
Hampstead. l.. l., yesterday you were
greeted by a young man who waved a red
flag and shouted Hi. Bill" until you
stopped. And when o had stopped you
heard:
Better low up, Bill. ALI full O. cops
down the line Keep her down to ten miles
or they'll pinch you sure. lake my ad-
vice and you'n hold her down to eight.
They're on it again to-day. Bill, and you'd
best take no nance unless you want TO 60
to the Town Hall. Auto Club Of Long
islands dom this. Well, let 'er go. Just
remember them tr ps."
So you eased her down 10 a crawl and
kept her tina way from Porrier's Corners
to tho Mineola line and looked for cops
with the tail Of your eye but didn't see a
blessed one unless il was forenoon, when
you happened to be intruding ON Hemp
stead's Sabbath. Chief of Police Bob
vandewater was out early with his measur-
ing tape and stopwatch considering the
hard Saturday he had put in a-painting OF
Jabe Gildersleeve's barn. But the seven
fagmen sent down from Brooklyn by the
Long Island Auto Club were on the job
by q o'clock and OF the thousands Of shiny
devil wagons that whisked into the village
there wasn't one that could he tortured
out Of a ten mile an hour loaf.
At noon the police snd the deputy
sherifs who we're helping gave up and
went home.
The Sunday before Chief Bob AND the
rest of the force. Cop Bill Cooper and Cop
Bill Gardner, all of whom learned the trap
ping game in the days when they lay in the
brush outside the Belmont estate and fat
tened the town treasury by nabbing boy
clists who streaked along at more than
five miles an hour, started the sesson Of
1907 by hauling in no less than seventeen
a~utomobilists. Fifteen paid their ines.
Lawyer Hugh T.. O'Reilly demanded a jury
trial. DR.. Lount Of Hampstead. says the
Hem psfedd Republican. upon his proof to
the effect that he was hurryng to the bed
side of "A patient who was critically Ill. was
to proceed. being regarded in the same
category as an ambulance.
Justice Gittins left his dinner table last
night long enough to say that all this talk
about somebody getting a rakeon' n
people being arrested and fined who weren't
doing a bit more than eight niles an hour.
made him very tired.
Its the town trustees that are engineer
ing his business az they should be, he said.
I'm only a Justice, and when these sworn
the laws of our village have been ~disregarded
what can ] do but fine them?. The speed
limit, mind you, ia ten miles an hour Every
road in the village is posted to that effect.
Aren't these auto people intelligent folks
what's the need Of red fiags2 And at that.
the town trustees have instructed the Off
GERS to make no arrest unless their watches
catch fifteen miles an hour. Seer We
give 'em five miles OF grace. and then they
nave the nerve TO say that they are being
prosecuted. and are advising club mem
bers TO put up a fight: Well. on other
Sunday afternoons they have been tearing
down Fulton street right past my house
here fit to Kill. % see any Of that to-day.
do you? Guess somebody's learning that
Hampstead 10 no r8oetrack.
Chef Vandewater. on Front
street. admitted that the day had been
pretty tame.
you see. I'm a painter by trade. and the
police business 10 a matter OF only evenings
and Sundays." he said. -Hempstead's
R Hss c p1ss'y Up o hslpsd 3I thing. ' out a aI iot'
for We all like 10 think we're as e%nterprisin'
as anybody, and il gave us a a M to prove
il. Bill Cooper. he's a dog trader week
days. and he and Bill Gardner think the
same as | DO. I ain really chief. you
know-guess you see they amt no letters
to tina effect on my cap--but the law says,
so they say, that somebody's got to be
chief. so they just call me that, bein' as We
been on the force fourteen years. Yes
they all call me chief.
well. last Sunday the first one that
comes along is a lawyer Teller from Garden
City. with a load OF women folks. He
stors and | urs in the seat. | says:
-'Mr. Edwards. IL that's you name, we'll
now peTceed to the Town Hall You're
Damned IL I will says he, just like
that.
This is my machine. and I guess We'll
keep on goin' about where we please. Who
be your he says.
I'm Chief tande water says I, and if
you'll excuse me-if you'll excuse me, you
ladies' says I. we will now move along
toward the Town Hall. where Judge Gittins
is waitin'.
AT that this lawyer ups and gives the
handle a yank and we starts right down
Franklin avenue. D'you know what he
was tryin' TO do? Wen. sir. he was q tryin'
to kidnap me-a tryin' to kidnap the Chief
OF Police OF Hampstead. And what does
do? / just leant over and ketched a holt
OF that wheel business and gives IL a whirl.
The automubbil shoots for the side of the
road and slam bangs into that big maple in
front Of Fred Thsyer's. II want goin' fast
enough 20 hurt US. but when we got out and
looked this lawyer felier cussed some under
his breath. Thedurn whifietree was broken
and the ex, too. I guess. Anyway. there was
no a but hosses TO get her back to Por-
rier's garage. Bill Cooper comes up then
and I says, Bin. can they beat this game"
Not in Hampstead, " says Bill.
The Hampstead Weekly Republican adds:
The good effects of the so-cslled crusade
are already being felt in the village. but
there is still room for improvement in the
conduct Of these speeders, and we earnestly
hope hat the crusaders will continue
their good work until our village law Ia held
mp TO respect andl not the object OF derision