The Washington times., 1921-11-06
SSNIUMBER FOUR!"
IN Curious things

Number Four is the dark strand
in the warp and wo f Of the Ma
tons Capital that t";'"ts the fate
of crime diseased mis- into the
life of the worlds most beautiful
city. II stands for darksome deeds,
for the proving of the naked physi-
cal truth of mans inhumanity to
man. Number Four is large ter
ritory. Officially it is the fourth
of the city's police precincts. All
of 1t is not dark and crime infested.
Some Of it--much Of it's peopled
with happy. contented, law-abiding
citizens dwelling and doing lawful
business on brightly-lighted and
quite attractive streets.
There is only a part of it here
and there that has acquired the
right and title to be known as
the underworld Of Washington.
And this part of it makes up in its
enthusiasm for what the police call
pure cussedness what 1t lacks on
area and population. The center
of Number Four Is the police sta
tion. Situated. curiously enough,
in one Of the most highly respect
able of all the streets in the city:
surrounded by the residences of
happy, well-to-do. or fairly well.to-
do, citizens within half a block of
one of the largest and oldest
Catholic churches in the District,
Number Four yet presents to
anyone who will take the trouble
to visit 1t Of an evening, especially
of a Saturday evening, a cross sec
tion Of the underworld of the Ma
tion's Capital-and a cross section
of underworld sordidness and ac-
tivity not unlike that of every
other metropolitan center in the
world.
Desk Sergeant Baker leaned back
In his chair and blew a thick cloud
Of tobacco smoke toward the cell.
ing.
Things are bit slow yet
awhile" he muttered, but you just
stick around and there'll be some.
thing doing later on. Lieutenant
Bremerman and Sergeant Green
are scouting around in the shadows
and Detectives Mansfield and
Berry. disguised as rumhounds,
are floating around in the bottoms.
When these boys are in the field
you can look for action"
The hour was o'clock Of a Sat
urday night The scene was the
Fourth precinct on street south.
west. A Washington Times repre-.
sentative had drifted into the sta.
tion with the double purpose Of
watching the sordid little drama
that is enacted nightly, at Mum.
Der Four" and escaping the chill
winds that were romping around In
the vicinity. The soft strains of
sacred music from the organ in the
little church up on the corner
floated in through the half open
windows and mingled with the
wild yells of three drunks, back
in the cell rooms. who were calling
upon the universe to bear witness
that they had not done n blamed
thing to get ''pinched" for.
You should have been down
this way early this morning." and
Sergeant Baker sighed when
the bootleggers arose from their
innocent dreams at early dawn
and read of the big raids that
had been pulled off In Georgetown.
there was waillng and moaning.
There was wild scramble for
hatchets and hammers. There was
a darting to the dark places where
they kept their supplies and 900
quarts Of all kinds of whiskcy
were destroyed.
MAN alive, hut they were fright.
ened For blocks around the very
air was heavy with the smell OF
the stuff. Tho rumhounds stood
around and watched the proceed.
ings. They shifted the air with
blissf,h sighs and more than one
Of them went off with the first jag
he had ever inhaled into his sys.
tenn. have
The sergeant bit off the sen.
tence and sat upright in his chair.