The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1909-05-17
ARMY INVESTS PLUM ISLAND
r,ooPs SENT TO SQUATTERS'
VRANGLING GROUND.
..o,u.nt From Twelfth Infantry Oc-
cuplcs the sandsptt. which 10 Uncle
S.m.s-They Have q Months Ratisns,
hut small Prospect OF o Battle.

.,,,cs the Sandsptt. which 10 Uncle
sam.s-rhey Have q Months Ratisns,
MT small Prospect Of . Battle.
A. army Of occupation composed Of
..n,,lar troops Of the military arm OF the
%rnrnment Of the United States OF North
U.rica at noon yesterday sailed from
n"arnors Island on the Col. Wyokof.
liz armed, and captured Plum. this
.,r without the loss Of a single man.
w. this is not comic opera stuff nor Ia
= sny OF this other rough stun written
Tor The stage. It's on the level.
ent about this Plum. you ask? Look
snv exact military map or geodeto
,,r,,sv chart that goes in for details and
~, will read: Plum Tor Plumb)-Sandspit
!.i,nated in Sheepshead Bay of Vile
~ng,,e's: principal crop of island, bluefish;
fra variable. or depending upon the item
~ wbetber the tide is in or isn't; lies due
.sst Of ex-senator Platt's suite at the
oriental Hotel. Manhattan Beach. and
.nu,.sou'west. half pint west OF the
,r.dasmep's entrance to Lillian Russells
od cottage at Far Rookaway.'
plum began back in the days when VIII
h.luenr,s Churchill was granted by the
rroun or something the Island OF Coney
nm which to pasture a cow. As any school,
nov knows the Crown overlooked the item
uf giving Wilhelmenus a COW along with
Voney Island, and so he moved UP to the
nreesnt location OF Fort George to open
= roller skating rink for the Indians in
stead. But that is neither here nor there.
To resume about Plum, which has been
IN trouble ever since the Government
sook It over from the State Of New York
about sixteen years ago to establish q
mortar battery thereon. Nothing came
Of the battery because Of the formation
Of Plum.
Plum began, as has been said, with the
grant Of Coney. One day Wilhelmenus
Vas walking along the eastern point OF
Coney Island very much distract and
peeyed. Wilhelmenus, 80 history tells
us, still hoped against hope to get q COW
for his pasture, and while he was hoping
word came to him that nightly the sea-
horses we're coming up onto his island
and feeding on the rich saw grass with
which the island then was lururiant-and
which, OF course. Wilhelmenus meant to
preserve to pasture his cow.
While cracking his whip at the seahorsee
to scare them back into the bay tie las
Of the long whip wrapped around Will
helmenus's tall hat unnotioed. Again he
snapped hi whip at a large dapple gray
seahorse gracefully. as a fisherman casts
a fly, and far out on the blue bay sailed
the plug hat.
Now, II tappened that the tide was ebb-
ing from Wilhelmenus at the time and the
hat was carried out into Sheepshead Bay.
Out and out it sailed until it reached q spot
over the floor of the bay at the point where
Plum now stands. The tide had ebbed
perceptibly, 80 much 50 in fact that the
hat caught on the floor Of the bay and re-
NAMED
Ere il could release itself a bit Of sane
was sifted onto the hat by the waters
that laughed rosily in the dying sun.
In oyster came and settled on the sand
and began to call. 1t was moonlight and
the call was heard. As the oysters mate
reached the bit Of sand about the hat of
Nilhslnenus barnacles settled upon both
oysters. More sand sifted gently upon
the barnacles. A turtle came. and then
another turtle. And then nature took its
course and there was Plum.
Perhaps these dry facts about the cause
q Plu m are tiresome, even annoying; but
Il one wishes thoroughly to understand
tie causes that led to Plum one must 60
into the reasons for its being. A casual
glance at flurn yesterday after the soldiers
q the Twelfth Infantry under Major ],
S. Mallory and Lieut.. F. H. Adams had
seized i would lead one to suspect that
there's no reason for Plum; but you see
there is.
Every year, as readers OF military
efairs well know, Plum partially goes to
wer against the United States. Why any
one should fight to live on Plum Beach Is
up to the hundred or SO squatters there
to explain. This year the Department
u the East has every reason to look for
ward TO a victory over the squatters be-
fore the snow flies again, although after
the camera squad debarked last evening
the hanging of the iashlight brigade's
weapons, added to the distant rattle Of
smaller arms over in the Brighton Beach
hopefully for aid toward the gloomy forts
that guard the Nafrows.
Major Mallory. Lieut.. Adams. Privates
Blondy Schwenn and Salvation Pete
Lrbham, Sergt. Sam Woodward. Musician
windy Pryor and the eighteen other
soldiers picked from Companies e, F, G
and Fl Of the Twelfth Infantry, Governors
Island, are SO confident Of winning this
year because they have all the hundred
or more s9uatters with them with the ex-
Ceptlon Of bout three followers OF ex-
Judge Winfield 0verton of Far Rockaway
Judge 0verton and his followers are the
other army.
when the Government took over Plum
from New York State to build that
battery long G Plum was known as
fllnb. One day a man who wanted to
raise bluetsh or something happened
along to Plumb much in the manner of
inc arrival Of the very earliest settler,
which was Wilhelmenus's human plug
nat This first settler discovered that he
could put a shack up on the sand and by
SAVING on the roof while the tide was in
c3Gld Keep from wetting mis- feet; and,
which was more TO the point, would have
10 pay no rent.
Other discoverers somehow happened
upon Plumb and up went more shacks,
,l IN the meantime the Government
never bull, the battery and it did no
usturh tho souatters. A few wears ago
eN'Judee Overton leased the sandspit
from the Government at a rental of s., 200
year. Soon after this an elaborate plan
"s- formed /? turn Plumb into one great
'r!,le ms and pull of scraps there
he state interfered with the prize
!. VaNnig plan. The ex-Judge soon after
Ins Gri7ehehting was knocked out sub
~, A. "a Plumb to F. j. Halliday OF
- Villain street. MIR. Halliday raised
'L,, rem on the squatters. Ever since
'.tt day the sauatters have been raising
,ntr things besides beds Of bluefsh.
~ every uDcr In a while word ooes o,,t