The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-04-10

 plumber of this city.
 His father was 8 veterinary sur geon, an expert in his calling, and the future police executive, from an early age; was keenly interested in. cattle and horse1esh His love of horses was one of his striking characteristics. and few were better judges of the merits of the equine. Though he had no aversion to motoring, he preferred the horse to the machine, and when he had his choice always took the for merS
 He spent some time in the black snithing trade as a young man. and spent a. season or two touring with a circus, the routes including all Eu- rope. There his knowledge of horses stood him in excellent stead. His de- pendatbility and rare gift of human in. sight into human nature, were devel- oped in the experiences of the circus life, which he often recalled in later years.
 The future superintendent became a, member of the Bridgeport police de- partment Nov. 25, 1872, being sworn in as a patrolman under the mayoralty> of the late Elpaphras B. GoodseI1. In those days the police department ros- ter showed a total of IS officers and men. There was none of the modern equipment, not even a horse-drawn
  Inent a vast deal more than the posi- tton, signifies nowadays. In those days there reigned in East Bridgeport a law1ess element known in police parlance as the chain gang, and their name was a. word of terror | to law-abiding citizens. Many po- liceman was worsted in rough and tumble encounters with it's members, for the arrest of one usually brought his associates to his rescue and in the delayed process of removing the cap tive to the police station, in the City Hall, the officer many times lost his quarry.
 l Birmingham had been a policeman several years when Chris Gould, a fel- How patrolman, in a desperate encoun@ ter with the chain gang, shot one Mar oney, a member of the gang, through the heart, and wounded another mem Der.
 So strong was the terror of the gang limbued into the citizenship of nearly 40 years ago that the head of the de- partment, fearing for Gould's life, l transferred him to another section of the city. Birmingham, r-puted to be
 the strongest and most agile member lof the department, was assigned 70 lthesspost that was vacated by the transfer of Gould.
 I The first5night he was on duty, Bir- ming gham was mistaken for Gould by
 
 with a penchant for rough and tumble tactics. Tibey, armed with a shotgun, asSaider him furiously and Birming- ham reta1iated. The two were in 1nor-
 tai conflict for nearly an hour before Birmingham triumphed, wrestling the weapon from Tibey in the encounter
 Tibey's fellow gangsters with innate
 love for fair play made Tibey admit
 he was vanquished, and as a. mark o1 Y respect for the victor. \ they escorted
 both the (poHceman and his prisoner to headquarters. Birming gham's game
 the passing of Tibey's laurels marked the beginning of the end of the reign
 Of terror of the chain gang.
 All the policemen of those days have ; gone before, save three. These art Capt. William Anderson, who becam, : a member of the department June 3 l1s73, several months after Birming ham; Detective Captain George H Arnold, the oldest in point of ,servic, : in the whole police department, wh, became a member of the force Dec 5
 1860; and John Fa1lon, retired pa u trolman, who became a policeman Dec. 19, 1869.
 5 Birmingham successivaly throL ugh tn grades of roundsman, May 12, 1883 second sergeant, June 3, 1887; cap 5 tain, June 25, 1892, and superintend
 lent, April 23, 1895, it may well b said that it was due to sheer merit l Not once in his more than two-scor /. of years in the police department wa = be under the cloud of suspicion. x ] For many years Superintendent s Birmingham was active in the hand Hing of big police cases, as we'll as i : the administration Of the department s affairs. Notable among these, i l which he and Capt George Arno1 ~ co11ab orated, were the memorabI T Nancy GuiIford ease and the Boinay 3 Weeks murder mystery.
 s The GuiIford case consisted in run g lining down clues furnished by Iaundr s marks on garments of underc1othin e upon the nautiIated corpse of a beauti e full girl found af1oat in Yellow Mi ] bond The fastening of the crim
 upon Mrs Guilford, the arrest of tn fugitive midwife in England, and he l. subsequent conviction and sentence t a Wethersfe1d for term of years fo c nnanslaughter, were happenings sti = fresh in the minds of the older Bridge = porters.
 y Perhaps more thrilling was the sc o E1ution of the murder mystery of Mar t GUS Wheeler, who was slain in a des { perate robbery in the Daniels Farm - section of <TrumbuI. The Bridgepot Q police and Pinkerton detectives work 2 ed for many weeks before the captur : of Boinay and Weeks was effected Boinay was hanged and Weeks ser
 fenced to life Imprisonment. In bot
 these cases Superintendent Birmine n ham and his associates displayed rar l- sagacity and resourcefulness, wI1il s the courage of Superintendent Bi1 is mingham was put to many a sever Z, test during the sensational man hur n for, Boinay and Weeks.
 ,- In his dealings with the crin1ins TQ4- h the faculty of inspiring in even tn e nneanest and most abject, a feeling C
 confidence and respect. and the super n intendent was scrupu1ously conscien n tious of the condolences that such me 8 and women inparted to him. He avoided ostentation as much a