Imperial Valley press., 1913-09-29


is for a hard winter. "Bilr Snyder,
head keeper of the Central park zoo,
says SO too, and "Bill" knows, for
he got the information from the gray
squirrels of the park. He says that
he has been taking the gray squirrel
weather representations for twenty
years, and they never fail, beating
Uncle Sans weather sharks often.
When the gray squirrels begin to
build their nests, it is sure sign that
winter is on the way, and when they
begin early and build unusually SUBJ
stantial nests, it is an indication Of
long, severe cold season. Snyder says
the squirrels got busy four weeks
ahead of schedule this year.
The coming of cold weather cuts
off peculiar source of revenue in the
case of the policemen who are on duty
on Riverside drive. About dawn every
summer morning, policemen may
be seen walking rapidly down the
walks that inter-lace the slopes
alongside the drive. Carefully he
peers under every one of the benches
that Father Knickerbocker has put
there for the crowds. Under many of
the benches the policeman may be
seen to stoop and pick up something.
An elderly visitor to New York who
could not shake his home habit of
arising at daybreak, saw the police
man make his rounds of benches Oh
several mornings, and finally unable
to restrain his curiosity, asked the
officer what he was doing. The police
man explained that the benches were
! occupied far into the night by men
and women, boys and girls. Lots OF
them, especially the "spooners," lose
money and valuables, which roll under
the benches. Jewelry and articles of
great value were turned over to the
police headquarters to be held for
| Identification, but loose change was
pocketed by the policeman who some
times collected several dollars in that
way.
Greater New York, with its hun
dreds of miles of streets and its
nearly six millions of people, is big
city and one in which it is easy to
get lost. Every day men, women and
children disappear and their relatives
and friends see them no more. Their
disappearance is reported to the po-
lice, and that ends it.
big Tim" Sullivan, congressman,
theatrical man, philanthropist, poll
tician and millionaire, was killed by
railroad train and his body lay on
slab alongside of half a dozen other
unidentified persons, men and women,
for thirteen days, in three different
morgues without being recognized.
The face was unmarried and the
morgue keepers, policemen, coroner's
assistants who perfunctorily looked
at the body were, some of them, per-
sonal acquaintances and political
henchmen ofe the former east side
boss, yet they did not know him.
During all those thirteen days Big
Tim" was known to be missing, from
the home Of his brother in East Ches-
ter, where he escaped from his nurse
at four o'clock in the morning, and
there was a statewide hue and cry,
but still none identified the body.
1t was sent to Bellevue and pre-
pared for burial in the potter's field
before, Identification was made, and
then it was newspaper men who rec
ognized the body. 1t is a natural
question, therefore, if many of the
mysteriously missing New York men,
women and children do not find their
way to the potter's field through ig-
norance, negligence or stupidity of
the police and the coroners.
Sullivan was known, perhaps, PEI
sonally by sight to more people than
any other New Yorker, and besides
that his linen bore his initials and
his hat and suit had the label of an
exclusive halter and widely known
tailor who makes clothes for all of
the Tammany leaders, but the police
and coroners and morgue keepers
could not or did not establish his
identity. What chance, then, has a
more obscure citizen. if he drops dead
of heart disease or is killed by a
street car, automobile or subway
train, outside his immediate neighbor-
hood?