New-York tribune., 1919-06-22
Isaac Isaacs Hangs
Funeral Wreath on
Big Bills Pump
Man Who Was Devery's
Friend for 25 Years Deco.
rates Hydrant Which Was
Once EN-Chief's Throne

curious little group of men, women
and children watched Isaac Isaacs. fo,
twenty-five years a friend of Big Bill'
Devery the "best Chief of Police New
York ever had" wipe the dust from
the surface of the famous Deverv
pump, which stands in front of the
Original Pump Cafe, at the corner of
Twenty-eighth Street and Eighth Ave
nue., yesterday morning.
Just my last respects to Bill" ex-
planned lsaacs, who used to run the lit
tle hover shop across the street, as he
draped wide band of black creme
ABOUT the surface of the fire hydrant
ne surveyed his work, and then gently
lowered little wreath of red and
whlte paper flowers over the neck of
the hydrant.
81 don't suppose there's auy nar-
ticular thing that's more intimately
associated with the life of Bill than
this old fire plug" said Isaacs, as he
mopped his brow.
Hydrant big Bits" Throne
Inns used to be the centre of Big
5lo West Twenty-eighth Street. That
was before he got out of active noli.
tics and moved uptown. | was horn
across the street on the southwest cor
ner of Twenty-eighth Street and the
avenue ''Ae
When Bill was at the height of his
power they began calling this old fire.
plug 'Devery's Pump. The Chief used
to spend lot of his leisure time lean
ing against the plug or sitting on it.
and anybody who had business with
him after business hours was pretty
sure to find him at the hydrant.
Even when he was power in this
town he was mighty modest man. and
all the poor people of the neighborhoo cd
used to brace him at the old pump
whenever they needed help. Many a
handout they got from him, too.
, we used to guard the pump as
though it were a sacred shrine until
about seven or eight years ago, when
Bill moved away. On Saint Patrick
Day we used to paint the pump green.
On the Fourth of July we daubed it
with red, white and blue. On New
Years Day it was gold, and on Christ
mas we used to make it silver and
decorate it with holly and berries and
sometimes a bit of tinsel.
Official Pump Painter"
81 was the official pump painter, and
Big Bill used to take an interest in
the business of decoration, too. But
we haven't been doing that for a long
time now. It's still Devery's Pump,
though, and SO to-day I thought we
ought to fix it up in honor of the dead
Chief"
Isaacs retired to the express Office
which has taken the place of the flower
shop he used to run in Devery's hey
day. Patrolman Frank A. Gcntmore
Of the West Thirty-seventh Street sta
ton, kept a watchful eye on the draped
hydrant all day and warned away West
Side urchins, who did not know the
"Devery Pump" tradition and thought
that the paper flowers would be. nice
things to take home with them.
Will Hold Funeral Thursday
FAR ROCKAWAY, Long Island, June
21.-The funeral of William S. Devery,
formerly Chief of Police of New York,
who died yesterday at his home, on
Mott Avenue, Bayswater, will take
place next Tuesday, Funeral services
will be held at 10 o'clock in the morn
ing in the Church of St. Mary's Star
of the Sea here. A squad of New York
policemen will act as escort of honor
lnterment will take place in Calvary
Cemetery. The pail bearers have not
yet been chosen. Police Commissioner
Enrlght sent a message of coincidence
to the Devery family.