El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-04-09

II T WAS a wholly Characteristic thing
that trooper of the Pennsylvania
state constabulary did in Bethle-
hem the other day when a striker flung
a barrel beneath the hoofs of his mount
and endorsed him. The trooper it may
be remembered, picked himself up with
smile, elbowed his way into the crowd
that had been devoutIy hoping he had
broken his neck. arrested his man.
locked him up, and then came back 20
his pony and his patrol Since the con-
stabulary was organized its service mas
been of just that debonair sort, and t
has compelled admiration. even friend
ship. in quarters that were distinctly
hostile IN the beginning.
An English stakeholder in the Pressed
Steel Car company CHANGED Jc be IN
Pittsburg during last summers strike
at Mckees Rocks One day he went
TO the stockaded plant to see for him
self what the situation was. He haa
no more than got off the street ca
when a trooper came cante-ng by and
the Englishman straightway forgot
everything else. He had held COM
mission once in a regimen CT milan
irregulars. and the SaunI little beast
the trooper rode was SO ike a polo
pony; the holster that carried his long
blue "A pistol. the sling IF MS carbine,
the solar toppee. the puttees, the khaki
blouse he wore. all worked into 4 pic
ture that left the Engl:shrnan blinking
Like British Troopers.
The Pennsylvania constabu,ary is
physically more like some part of the
British establishment than dnv organi- |
zation in America today. In the char
acter of its work it is really very like |
the northwest mounted police. for when
there is no such trouble as that at
Philadelphia and Bethlehem two of its |
four troops are stationed in the an
thracite coal fields OF the eastern end |
of the state, and two are IN the btu |
minous fields of the western. Detach- /.
ments are placed here and there until |
its fewer than 200 men cover an aston !
ishingly large territory. The men do |
patrol duty sometimes; sometimes they |
act in specific instances of law break !
ing; sometimes their work IS no more /
than moral. day in the Coustabu:ary j
could hardly be more like day n the /
r. n. NJ P
But in fact the constabul4ry is An,eri-
can in its every fibre. 1t was olga nized /
by man who is American in that pic
turesque way typifed bx the ,ougn !
riders. for Capt Groome IS still. an Off
Ger in the City troop Of Philadelphia.
and is quite as fond as he ever was or
the admixture of the socid. an5 the
military which that trooo represents.
The men themselves are. almost without
exception. veterans Of the regular army
and most of them are va-c-2rs of for
eign service Applicants VINO offer reg
ular army discharge papers asecreien-
tials have the preference i'll enIistins
and the discipline is strictly that of
the regular establishment
High State Of Efficiency.
New officers and new barracks dir
ferent uniforms and different t1u.o-
ment. are the only novelties to which
they have to accustOm themselves The
is four years old. but If il
was 40 it could not have been brournt
to a higher efficiency. The LOYALTY ami
ca gerness of the men have been the
chief factors in this. perhaps. AMI the
fact that these qualities exist in snita
of the curious circumstances which L
makes them practically soldier; with,u,i
a flag is the most American thing about
them.
For a generation Pennsylvania has II
had an odd institution known as Tho
coal and iron police. They were reaI1y
only watchmen, for they were zy,ojlv
under the control and the paw az tha
for which they worked
but under the law which created Them
they enjoyed every right, and every
privilege, belonging to municipal no.
lice
Industrial conditions seemed to inst
ify the establishment of such a body Of
men. but no disinterested stud,r. Ct
these conditions ever believed Them
good Abuses. even outrages. wee
practiced by them. as was t.
have been expected. perhaps, whea tn. !
broadness of the phrase protector or ;
is taken into consider me,
1t is probably not an exaggeration TO