The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-05-03
EOening Story
In the Traffic.
BY WILL n. AMES,


parts. Between a brace of ample
thorofares lies a long, slender park
way, string of narrow parallelograms
of fenced greensward, scored across
at regular intervals by the traverse
streets.
Down the westerly side of this dou-
BILE street fits. each morning an amaz-
ing horde of motor vehicles-privately
owned cars of all degrees save that of
shabbiness. and squadron upon squad
ron of taxicabs; whilI up the easterly
side hurries somewhat smaller
stream, largely consisting of taxis
whose drivers are hustling for their
share of the going down" business.
For here are passing on their way
to the days affairs, tens of thou
sands of those who scorn to battle
their way downtown by subway or L,
and whose time is worth far TOO much
in dollars and cents to be spent on
dawdling surface cars
To the humble citizen who cools
his heels beside the parkway railing at
one of the cross streets, awaiting per-
haps one of the very occasional troll
leys cars which, lower down, sheer off
to penetrate the squalid Tenth avenue
| region, there is a Haunting arrogance
about that rushing river of automo-
| biles that arouses envy, vicarious
pride, cyGicism or the blues, according
to his temperament.
Patrolman Dan Travers, trim, slim
| and clean-eyed, loved, better than any
| other duty that fell to his lot, the oc-
casional detail from s to o'clock, at
the Eighty-second street crossing. For
| it filled with joy the breast Of the
amiable Dan to raise his gloved hand
I against the progress of dozen gran
diose limousineS or breathleSs taXis
and bring them to an impatient halt
while some skinny legged little girl
| of nine led her siX-year-old brother
| over the crossing to the west side
walk, on their way TO school.
! AS there are many hundreds of
these children who must daily cross
the Broadway vehicular torrent to
| reach the big public school over tow
ard 1.-The Drive" Dan had plenty of
opportunity to interpose that inexor-
| able limb of the law, his own good
| right arm, between the wheeled Mo-
Ioch and its potential sacrificians.
And, as he privately confessed to his
mother. it "tickled him blue"
! Yet no traffic officer in New York,
regular or detailed, better knew the
drivers rights nor more minutely re-
| spected them than this serenely digni-
| fled young copper.
Eighteen months on the force was
| Dan, and his record was perfect. To
| his work he brought all the sense of
| responsibility, the understanding OF
discipline, the dauntless will to serv-
| ice that had developed over There in
the A. E. F. And ne loved it and was
proud of his uniform.
| Came a time when a shift in the
system brought Dan to the Eighty
| second street traffic post every morn
! ing instead of now and then. 1t was
at the beginning of this period that he
| first noticed the girl in the thin coat.
The morning was keenly cold and the
coat was very thin indeed; the girl
shivered a bit as she waited for sur
| face car. 1t struck Dan as odd that in
| X
| ing should be unfitly clad, for luxuri-
| Gus coats and furs are as common as
the very taxis themselves. Dan saw
| the girl every morning for week, and
noticed that she always took car of
| the same line. Once when she glanced
at him he caught himself on the very
point of nedding to her, out of the
friendlinessN he had felt toward her
| from the first, and he turned quite red
and stopped the next squad of cars
| with an even more auStere gesture
than usual when he realized it.
| But when he saw the girl next day
! absent-mindedly preparing to board a
Broadway-F orty-second street car, he
ventured to suggest, That one doesn't
go down Tenth, lady" And when the
girl bestowed on him fairly bewil-
dering smile and said, "Oh. thank
youi" in voice of vocal velvet, Dams
heart gave a jump such as no German
shell had gotten out of it in the Ar
gonne.
After that the girls thin coat be-
| came a positive personal worry to
| Dan. He wasn't sure, but he had a
! shrewd notion that a policeman's wife
| could dress better than that, even tho
he did keep his fingers clean from all
the graft. And when the girl, each
day for three, greeted him with a cor
dial Good morning, officer" Dan al
most, but not quite, lost his head, be-
tween the Riddles and the automo-
biles.
1t was on the fourth morning that
| things broke badly for Officer Travers.
He had held the traffic at the moment
when the girls car stopped just above
the crossing. The girl was making for
the rear platform; a bevy of children
We're being herded across the street
by Dan. From behind the ruck of
halted cars came charging an AFRO
CANT blue automobile, whose fat, red
faced driver was recklessly and def
antly seeking to gain time thru the
| narrow space next to the car track.
Boring and crowdinE truculently, it
| came up-and from the impact of it's
mudguard the girl was flung against
the standing car.
Casting half an eye, so to speak, to-
ward the girl-whom he would see no
more till tomorrow-Dan was Just in
time to glimpse the thing in its hap
pening. In the twinkling of an eye all
his policemanhood fell from him. He
was no longer an exponent of disci-
pline, a figure of the law. He was
mere man-and wild with anger. In
six jumps he was beside the blue road
ster. In three seconds more he had
hauled the driver out upon the pave
ment and smashed him twice in the
face with his fist.
The man in the blue car was Big
Bill Burtis. district leader of 1.-The
party" Three-quarters of an hour
later Patrolman Travers was out of
his uniform, under suspension, and
quite sure OF being dismissed from the
force And the girl, unhurt after all,
had boarded the car and gone about
her business.
Officer" said the commissioner to
Dan. Il have sent for you to substi-
tute a reprimand for dismissal. You
conducted yourself in that affair with
| Assembly Burtis in an extraordinary