The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-11-26

formerly assistant prosecuting attorney
in the police court under Judge S. S.
Urny, made a visit to the station this
morning. He came up for the Wash
burn Oklahoma football game.
The police are having the insane
period at the present time. The
bicycle craze. automobile scorching,
gambling raids and so forth have had
their turn at bat and the bug houses
come in for turn. For instance
today the chief received the following
letter from a crazy at the insane
asylum of Nebraska:
Mrs. Mary Hansen would say you
have no right to keep people from
Omaha and put them in the crazy
house at Lincoln. Governor of Kan
sas to take their own there. Bill and
Fred Throop to take their own there
also the Kansas people there. The
Nuns preacher in the court house
have no right to take other church
people and sIop and keep them from
their own people, there is 4 floors and
they keep them until there is such
bad people brought here every day.
The Topeka state house nunnery have
to bring a gold mine to take charge
of their own Kansas. Mary Hansen
belongs to Omaha. Douglas county
poor house. President Roosevelt and
President Willie Taft and the COVER
nor of Kansas, Sheldon of Nebraska"
The police know nothing of Mrs
Hansen, and they cannot figure out
the meaning of the wild letter. Inside
the letter was a. piece of fern wrapped
up in a Ladies' Home Journal. The
letter is a puzzle to be sure.
While the new police system used and
adopted by Chief of Police w. R. Eaton.
is attracting so much attention through
out the west and is being purloined by
so many of the western city police de-
partments, the Rogues' Gallery, of the
Topeka police department is in a class
by itself.
Until Chief Eaton went into office the
police department had very faint sign
of a Rogues' Gallery. There were a
few pictures hanging around on the
walls and when a gust of wind would
enter the room and blow down a rogue
or so he would lie around on the floor
awhile until swept up by a "trusty"
and then it was for the bonfire. There
were some cases where rogues were
dormant condition and they would
make it a point to steal from the walls
of the detectives office the pictures
and descriptions of rogues who oper-
ated in this part of the country.
Chief Eaton has adopted a new
method altogether, and it is the neatest
and handiest little arrangement of any
Gallery used in this part of the coun-
try. A travelling detective said not long
ago that the Rogues' Gallery of the To-
peka police department was the most
valuable he had seen in years and he
makes business of travelling over the
country visiting the Galleries of the
police departments.
The local Hall of Fame is all in a
little book case about five feet high
and three feet deep and could be
placed in the remotest corner of any
room. But the inside mechanism is
the valuable part of the apparently
worthless mass of glass and wood.
On opening the glass doors of the
case two apartments form the fore
ground. They are filled with post
card pictures of local celebrities. AT
a first glance one would think that it |
would be impossible to include a we'll |
covered rogues gallery in this small |
space. But with a slight pull on the |
foremost frame the whole inside of
the apartment of the case flies open
and can be extended six feet out into |
the center of the room. The |
apparatus works like a railroad folder |
and is constructed of series of frames
grooved and planned made to accom- |
modate the regulation size post card. |
can be inserted in both sides
of the frames and in all the cases
will hold 1000 pictures. 1t is the |
handiest and yet the most serviceable !
little piece of furniture in the office |
and is an improvement that will last |
for many years and benefit the work |
of the force.
At the present time the gallery is |
exhibiting about 200 of the local law
breakers. None but those who pass
through the hands of the local police
force are allowed to receive a place in |
the gallery and some of the criminals |
who have spent many years in the pen
Tertiary are roosting safely in the To- |
oeka Rogues gallery.
The design for the new gallery was |
made by Chief Eaton and he superin- |
.ended the constructing of his idea but |
he actual cabinet work was done by |
Charlie Boyer, the man who has made |
he police station his headquarters for |
4 number of years. Boyer is slave to
whisky and he has never been known |
% stay away from the station more |
han three days at a time. When he |
serves his time he is release and the |
next night generally finds him back /
With the police. However, Charlie is a |
genius of the better sort and he has
almost remodeled all of the office furn-
ture of the chiefs and detectives |
looms and in many other ways he has
done work around the station that |
would under ordinary terms require an |
expert of the best quality. His work /
on the rogues' gallery is a beautiful /
piece of technical labor and is in ac-
eordance with the designs of the chief |
The Topeka ROSues' gallery is always |
open to the public and Chief Eaton Will |
gladly show any interested person the
faces of some of those who have been /
The chief instruments in the crimes in /
he city for a number of years
w hat are you thankful for this morn 1
ng, said Prosecuting Attorney Phil Will .