Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-05-11

At Trenton the other afternoon q vet
eran Jersey City detective boarded the
train for New York. He had brought a
prisoner from Jersey City to the great
prison at Trenton that forenoon, and was
returning. To friend whom he met in
the smoker he was telling about 1t.
THE man brought down this morning"
he said. was q bookkeeper who'd dipped
in for few hundreds to get out of a pony
playing hole. He was staked to three
Speaker for the job even after his employ
ers had told the judge that they'd rather
see the man turned foose-you know about
Jersey JUSTICE
We'll. I was some gulpy about a thing
that happened when 1 got THAT one to the
station in Jersey City. He piped around
az soon, as he got inside the station door,
as If expecting to see somebody. and in
ten seconds he was asking me II It'd be
all right for me to unlock the wristlet that
bound him to me for just minute or so.
There's the wife and kids over yonder.
he said, pointing to little group. woman
and three children, sitting down with their
backs to the door some distance away.
and. say. If it'd be all right-if it wouldn't
get you into any trouble or anything
well. say, kind O. hate to have the kids
and the little woman see me with the
steel on. understand?
Did 1? Well, don't get 1t into your
conk that I'm Butch the Bite just because
I'm fly cop. I sure did understand, even
before he got through asking me- 1 hadn't
any sooner slipped the bracelet of of him,
either, before his wife happening to rub
Der around to look at the door, caught
sight of him. and she rushed over to him
she was neat little thing in cheap
dress and a cheap twisty old hat, but
sweet and clean all the way through-and
him nd mo
looking away and pretending to be listen
ing to the mugs calling off the way sta
lions of the departing accommodation
trains.
Then she called to the three young 'uns
boy and two little girls, scrubbed tykes,
with big lamps like their mothers, and
neat like her, too-and they came a-runnin'
over, clapping their hands over the sight
OF their dad. and begging him to take
them away to where he was going.
But papa can't take you. children
mes going away on long journey-but
he'll take you down to the merry-go-round
in the big boat when he gets back the
little mother told the young uns, to cool
'em out of the idea that they must go along
with their dad.
.'Then. as it was close to train time,
tipped him the wink from where 1 was
standing, and the little woman kind O got
her head glued to his shoulder till he had
to push her away, and then he picks up
the shavers and stakes 'em all to hug,
thing nice when he comes back from the
place where he Is going-well. it had me
pretty lumpy around the fichu. If you're
asking me. Bring US back sonnet hing nice
from where you're going. says the tykes;
waving dada at him, and the Clean little
woman in the cheap dress standing there
by the door with her hand over her eyes
and her breast heaving-the gag had me
around the neck for long time after got
my man on the train-if 1t didn't, I'll be
choked.
Its queer thing-and then again not
80 queer-but a good many wives are
last goodbye of their man before he goes
away to the pen. no matter If they're told
In advance that they'd better stay away.
Often enough they really mean not to
away with it, and there they are when the
boys brought In. l always let EN- have
word or two alone. 1t isn't regulations to
take the bracelet of a prisoner in the sta
ton, but l never could see this thing of
shaming man, especially first timer, be-
fore the woman by keeping the steel
him when she's there waiting to look him
over for the last time in a long while.
1 nudge away and let EN- hold hands as
long as the time allowance for the trains
departure will stand for 1t.
The boys generally glancing UP out of
the corner of his eye for me to give him
the signal with the finger, and then he
gets up andstAe. bad spaft.aof the Job pref
ty generally happens right then. I've seen
first timers have to use all the strength
they had to unwrap .he arms of their wives
from around their necks at that minute.
People in the station don't generally know
what's coming of in such cases-they sup,
pose merely that the boy is going off for
long journey and that the girls just cry
ing over him for that reason.
when he gets loose the manll general
ly join me at trot, calling over his Shout
der, Goodbye. and be a good girl. and
then the quick dart through the swinging
doors to get the picture wiped out. And
they're good girls, and stay good, that
kind, all right. you take. it from me.
They're good away down to the core, and
they're stayers that 'ud go the distance
If it was a million miles You've got to
give it to women like that. They've got US
skinned whole lot of ways from the ace
when 1t comes to that sticking thing. and
I'm saying 1t that's middling elderly man,
and I've been watching the fall OF the dice
most of my life.
And II always gets me some shaky around
the neckband. too. to listen to the man and
the wife making their little plans in the
last talk about what they're going to do
when he gets out. Heard pair fix it all
up IN the Jersey City station couple of
years ago: He was a young fellow with
gathered in by the rum thing-occasional
spree kind-and he'd turned some little kind
of a gouge trick o1t Of the boss cash draw
er while on one Of EN-. so that he was fixed
out with year at Trenton. The girl that
met him at the station couldn't have been
out of short dresses more than year
just child, but the true-blue pal-wife If
ever there was one.
" Now, you're not going to worry one
bit' she said to him. stroking his hand as
they sat there on the station be.ch and
you're going to get fine and strong in-in-
where you're going. and you're going to
make up your mind, Jack, dear, now amt
you, never to touch another drop when you
come out? 1t won't be long, and then your
uncle out in Denver has written that he'll
be glad to give you a chance in his store
and I'll have our furniture stored and go
and live with mamma. and then We can
ship the furniture and rent a little place in
Denver. and
well, you can about dope 1t out-lot O.
that. 1t would have sounded more like
sure thing. the little womans arrangement,
II hadn't noticed that the young fellow
had peculiar sort of cough.
''Well. about eight months later was just
about to put another DIAN on board the train
at Jersey City when saw that little woman
walking alongside some baggage handlers
who'd just taken a box of an incoming
train. She was SO blinded with tears that
she could hardly see where she was walk
ing, and would have stepped of the plat
form on to one of the empty tracks il 1
hadn't caught her. Somehow or another I
was sure dense on that occasion. I wasn't ).
wise at all to what was coming of.