The sun., 1919-06-01
CHIROPODIST SUES
Big BILL DEVERY
Demands Judgment for 81, 900
Alleging Sum Is Due
for Services.
EXCITEMENT IN QUEENS
Defendant Reported to Be on
His Yacht and Not
Accessible.

There are men living to-day who can
remember when william 8. Devery was
Chief of Police, but OF them all not one
could be found yesterday who could re-
call that at any time a foot doctor
named Heimerdinger had contriyed to
obtrude his personality upon the notice
of the great man. Yet 1t Ia a fact that
Or. Joseph NJ Heimerdinger a ehiropo-
dist with offices at 152 Broadway. fled
suit against William g. Devery in the
Supreme Court yesterday, demanding
Judgment for $1,000 and alleging that
the money was due for professional SER
vices rendered the defendant
Upon the ardent life Of the principal
borough OF the great city. II must be con-
coded In the interest of veracity. that the
news evoked only a languid interest.
This was especially noticeable in the re-
gion of the principal hotels, where, at
the tea hour. the subject was touched
upon briefly and then dismissed. while
men and women spoke OF the Peace
Council, OF the air fight TO Portugal, or
tennis or golf. But then It must be re-
membered that practically everybody
who Is anybody above Fourteenth street
left town for the country clubs on Thurs
day.
And perhaps It was the recent order
of Commissioner Enrisht to the effect
that lettering and gossip must disa3-
pear from the corridors OF Police Head
quarters which accounted for the total
lack OF discussion of the lawsuit in the
halls of that classic edifice. But In any
event no one spoke of 1t there through
all the long afternoon, while CONVERSE
tion-what there was OF it--drifted be-
tween the imminence OF July /. 1919,
and the baseball performances of this
and other years But in Queens, where
William s. Devery makes his abode and
where intellectual energy Is at Its brisk
est in the summer time, there were
those who discussed It with excitement.
Jimmie O'Brien. proprietor Of the
White House, at Arverne. sent boy out
to md Joe Powers as soon as the word
was flashed in TO him, and Powers, who
Is man OF resource, called up Editor
Donion in theteeming city, asking that in
the meanwhile. and until the scalpellike
mental faculties of his editorial friend
had dissected truth from falsity. public
opinion in Queens Borough suspend judy
ment and hold its peace. But he was a
serious faced man when he emerged
from the telephone booth.
Mike confirms the news" he said
calming hlms elf with difficulty, but
informs me that while 1t Is one thing to
bring a lawsuit 1t is quite another to
recover Judgment and still another to
collect 1t. The facts as ne gives them
to me are these:
when the first news bulletin reached
his desk he sent his i've brightest men
out on the story one OF them to Police
Headquarters: one tc the pump in
Twenty-eightS street which was Me.
Devery's headquarters during his Mayor
atty campaign; one to Mr.. Deverys city
club: one to DR.. Heimerdinger's office.
The nth. he tells me. is on his way
down here.
Reporters Are Barred.
1.-THE one who was sent to Police
Headquarters was very callow and Dom
Ion locked him n weeks pay when on
his return he stated that he had been
to headquarters and was unable to learn
that a person named Devery had ever
worked there. The journalist who went
to the pump found only that 1t had been
the one who went to Mr..
Devery's club was informed that re-
porters were neve4 admitted to it's pre-
cincts: the one who went to call upon
the doctor was informed that he was out
of town over the week end. and the one
who was sent down here, as you know.
has not arrived. And as you are aware
also. Mr.. Devery is on his yacht to-day
and is not accessible.
But il my own opinion Is worth any
thing possibly you will take my assur-
ance that the plaintiff will never re-
cover. will not stop TO explain that
an ordinary cop might easily in the
course of long service so fatigue and
damage his pedal extremities as to re-
quire the services OF a specialist and
the expenditure OF considerable money
to repair them But in the case of Mr..
Devery his fame rests upon achieve
ments so purely in the realm of the in
tellectual that the theory of surgery
falls to the ground. The logic OF the
thing is Irresistible; either the learned
doctor has mixed Mr.. Devery's name
with that of some other patient or else
there are two William S. Deverys, a
phenomenon which in twenty-five years
Of an active political life has never been
called to my notice before"