The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-06-24
POL lCEMEN
 OF THE PAST
Or the Oddities With Our
 Officers Tn Other Days
Beat One
(By Arthur W. French-o

(By Arthur w. French-1
 Once upon a tirne-sixty years ago or thereaIbouts, as the records runs when Bridgeport was a baby city in swaddling clothes, there were three regular policemen, or night Withrnen, ts they were then called. And just here, by the way of an interlude, there are some respectable and up-Hfted residents of the city alive now, to hark back and think of the various delightful run-ins they had as kids, with the aforesaid three cops; pranks. cltups and all the exuberance of ami maj spirits This number of watch men was deemed all sufficient in those days:
 .To watch the city's peace and
 On guard against bad boys to be-
 The cognomens of this police trio, were John CoggsweH, Reuben Green and Jacob Peabody. Bridgeport was a shut up place in those days, after midnight, so when all the stores even saloons-had closed, the watch men nosed about the center of the city. trying doors to see if they were locked and then took an amble to the "outskirts'' of town, up into tsBull's Head" the democratic rOld Gibraltar,'' down south, to Bone vile" over the bridge to the east side ssTigertown'' and tsThe Point-'' Westward, the beat stopped in the middle of Division street, now Park avenue. It was Fairfield then, on the west side of the street. Royster- CTS used to get on that side and even by word of mouth dare" a police man to come across and arrest them out of his bailiwick, or town A boolfuI of funny events culd be writ ten about this situation Just one here, the old cemetery was located on the Fairfield side, between where arc now, Cottage and Lewis streets. Late one night Officer Green heard laugh ter, talk and hammering of somethin g inside the cemetery fence. thinking that some vandalism was going on, he yelled Justify when several human forms made their escape from the cemetery in all directions, so the of hcer went on. The daylight of the next morning revealed something to l the first passer-by. For many years 1 just inside the burying ground front fence, three old headstones of a, res ident, marking the graves of his three deceased wives, all in row, the daylight showed that the sacrilegious interlopers had set up next to sai6 graves a very large board, and in huge letters, the word Next
 Omcer Peabody long rememb bered | and was never tired of telling how he once had a big mixup in a small riot l that waged for a while along the dock at the rear then of Writings fish mar i ket Water street at the foot o1 Bank. It happened this way. A country sport blew into town and l along the wharves from up New Mil ford way. Also in doing it for g week, he blew in 'steen dollars of his ] money, mostly, if not more so, at the l bar. Then he made much brag as tc
 his powers of endurance in doing al kinds of farm work. So the boys framed it up fir him, as he was broke | and wanted to earn some money tC
 get back home and again it was like this
 Off the dock in the rear of sait
 market was large fish can like a big crate-open on the bottom and load ed at the other sides-where fish were kept alive Well someone got an olt i working pump, attaching it to the toI of the ear. Then the strong country