Police Desk Sergeant HasHardest Task of Them All

"TEXTS" TALBOT

APOL.ICE desk sergeant comes Incontatct with more different speci-

mens of humanity than perhaps

any one, bartenders or ticket sellersnot excepted, and has a better knowl-edge of human nature than most atu-donts of sociology. In the performanceof his daily duties he has dealingswith all classes, from the ragged"hobo" to the well dressed "best citi-zen," and the varied stories he ia com-pelled to listen to range from one ex-treme to the other.

He must he a diplomat in bearing andhave the patience of Job. He must bea quick thinker and resourceful; learnhow to greet wrathful and insulting in-quiries with a polite reply and smilingcountenance and exercise good judg-ment at all times.

The other day a close watch of thepersons making inquiries of the desksergeant and their conversation yield-ed the following situations:

He was tall and thin. His face was\u25a0unwashed and a beard of a week'sgrowth adorned his sun-browned feat-ures. He. wore a slouch hat that oncewas of a grayish color, but was sofaded and soiled that its color couldhardly be designated, and his clothing•was of well-worn khaki. A faded blue\u25a0woolen shirt, open at the neck, com-pleted his attire. He carried a roll ofblankets across his shoulders and abulky hunting bag hung from a strap

at his left side. He slouched up to thewindow arfd hailed the sergeant with a"Hello, pard; I want to ask you somequestions." He was told to proceed,and began a long story of hard luckprospecting in Nevada; of how he hadbeen "grub staked" and was to tryagain to unearth a bonanza, and saidhe had called at the station to learnthe best road to Old Grayback. Thesergeant, having but slight knowledgeof the trail, referred the man to theoffice of the forest rangers.

The searcher for precious metals hadhardly stepped out of the door whena large touring car halted before theentrance and a woman attired in ahandsome gown of silks and lacesalighted and walked majestically tothe window. The sergeant was busy atthe telephone, but the woman was ina hurry and did not care to be keptwaiting. Without caring whether ornot she was interrupting an Impor-

tant conversation she rapped smartlyon the glass, and when the officerhuner up the receiver and hurriedtoward her she muttered somethingabout the offlciousness of the police.

Wants Officer Discharged"I want to have a policeman dis-

charged," she angrily exclaimed. "HeInsulted my chauffeur, and I do not in-tend to remain silent and allow a com-mon low-browed policeman to humil-iate an employe of mine." She stampedher foot and glared at the guardianof the desk as If she also desired hisposition to become vacant. "Just step

into the captain's office and tell yourstory to htm," was the mild reply. "Heis the proper person to attend to thatmatter." Three drunks and two sus-pects had just been brought In, andthe wagon officer was in a hurry tosearch them, have them entered onthe police blotter and placed behindthe bars so that he could answer othercalls that had come in during his ab-sence. The sergeant also was inward-ly wishing that the woman wouldleave. He was greatly disappointed.

"I do not intend to run about thisbuilding locking for people," she re-plied. "I shall tell the story to youand then report both of you to thegovernor. We were driving in Broad-way and had to stop because of acongestion of traffic at an intersect-ing street. I told my driver to turnto the left and hurry by so we couldnot be delayed, and that horrid police-man stopped him and threatened toarrest hlnxXor noLJtee-pirtg ra the rightHide of the street. It was humiliatingand Iwant him discharged." She wastold that the officer was doing hisduty and her chauffeur was fortunate.to escape arrest. She stalked out, mut-tering threats against the entire de-partment.

The suspects and two of the drunkshad been searched, booked and lockedup and the last of the drunks hadfceen brought forward. As the wagonman was s°;:rohnig the wobbly one theeergeant asked the prisoner his name."Me nemesh Smzzzz-z-z-z," he replied,\u25a0winding up in an unintelligible utter-ance. AfUr much perseverance it wasfinally learned that the prisoner an-swered to the name of Smith.

The next visitor was a flashily

dressed woman. She wanted to knowwhy her son, aged 12, had boon arrest-ed for stealing a worthless bicycle froma messenger boy. Aftr-r expressing heropinion of the entire police system sheflounced out. declaring she would pre-fer to live in Turkey.

A young negro hurried to the win-dow and wanted to know why hisbrother had been arrested. "Ah see in

View of Human Life as It Appears to Man on

Duty at Central Station Is Kaleidoscopic—Must

Be a Diplomat and Have the Patience of Job

de papah dat he am charged widpetty lawsny. Ah jus' knows he didn'tdo dat," he declared.

"You can talk to the judge about It,"replied the sergeant. "Your brotherwill be arraigned In police court thismorning. Ifyou know anything aboutthe case they will want you as a wit-ness."

"Ah sho" do knows sum'pin 'bout decase, an" Ah ain't gwine see manbrother get hanged fo' dat lawsny busi-ness. All he do was to steal fo" olehens dat was so tuff dat dey mek manteeth hurt." He hurried out to pre-vent his brother from suffering direconsequences for petty larceny.

Stamped for IdentificationThe next to occupy the sergeant's

attention was the arrival of the patrolwagon with two drunks, both of whomhad to be carried in. They could notstand up and were unable to talk.Afur trying for several minutes to se-cure their names the officer gave it up

in disgust and the offenders againstsobriety were booked as "John Doe No.1" and John Doe No. 2," and markedfor identification with rubber stamps

and the figures "1" and 2," the numer-als being stamped on their faces andhands.

A carpenter who had lacerated hishand with a saw came in for medicaltreatment, and an English tourist witha bull terrier sauntered up and wantedto buy a dog license. The man withthe bleeding hand was given a slipfor treatment and sent to the receiv-ing hospital, and the tourist was di-rected to secure the license at the city

hall.A Mexican woman with three dark-

eyed children wanted information con-cerning her husband. She wept as shetold how he had left their home to try

to secure employment End had not re-turned. She expressed a fear that hehad been foully dealt with. Just asshe started for the detectives' officeto give a description of the missingman he hurried in at the door. Therewas a joyful meeting and the littlefamily wended their way homeward,

the husband jubilant at having secureda position and found his family, andthe wif3 happy because her husbandhad not met with misfortune.

The telephone bell rang and '.he ser-geant removed the receiver and said"hello." His countenance took on alook of amazement, but toon changedto that of mirth. Then advising theperson on the other end of the line to\u25a0and for the dead-animal contractorhe hung up the receiver.

"I thought there was an accidentwhen I first answered that phone," hesaiil. "A woman began by denounc-ing the police and then said "his body

is still lying where he was killed.' Be-fore I could get in a word she said itwas a dog that had been struck by astreet car, and blamed the police fornot removing the carcass."

Tlie sergeant had finished working

on the book and was seated at hisdesk when a thin woman with featuresmolded after the pattern of razorsappeared. She wore glasses, a severelooking hat with a bunch of black rib-bon and a green band, and leti by thehand by a boy of 10, whose most dis-tinguishing mark was a mop cf carrotcolored hair. Before the officer had achance to inquire her business shesnapped, "I want you to send a police-man with me right away and nave herarrepted—she had no right to do it."

"What is th,e nature of your trou-ble?" asked the sergeant in the suavemanner acquired by long praciice.

"Mrs. Blank slapped my little boy

and I want her prosecuted. She hadno cause to strike James. He is a lit-tle darling, and even if he did say shewas ugly and looked like a feather bedtied In the middle and threw a fewstones at her, that is no reason whyshe should slap the sweet little fellow."She became quite angry when she wastold to tt II her Btory to the prosecutingattorney, and after srieeringly remark-ing that the police were without rea-son hurried out, dragging James by thehand.

The next visitor was a dyspeptic ap-pearing individual who wore a long

tailed coat two sizes too small for him,

light trousers and white canvas shoes.He approached the window in a con-fident manner. "I want to know if It

is against the law to distribute handbillb about the streets," he said. "Yousee I have discovered a hair tonic thatis a sure cure for baldness and wantto advertise it by scattering printedmatter about the streets." He wastold it would be a violation of the law.The hair tonic man vras in a goodhumor and before he started away heturned to the sergeant and said: "Iwould give you a bottle of my remedybut your hair is thick enough. Thatman over there needs some of thistonic and if he will allow me to makea demonstration here I will give him abottle." The person referred tojammed his cap over his ears and mut-tered that he had to answer a call andhurried out to the wagon, while thestranger slowly walked away.

HIS RETALIATION

AFTERa sickening period of

suspense that may havelasted two days, perhapslonger, my woret fears were

apparently confirmed. The blowfell; the hair parted and the Damo-cleslan ecimiter caught me in theneck. I experienced my first con-viction of woman's perfidy.

It wa« at least twelve day« sinceI had seen Sadie, excepting the timeat church, and honestly it seemedlike twelve months. It was nothingnut the fear of ridicule that had kept

me away from her house all that timeend I had resolved that 'even thatehou'.rt not keep me away anotherday. I would either take her foranother ride nr Just go to Bee her.

"Henry," said father, ac motherreplenished his plate with cakes,"don't you find that plowing getstort of tiresome?"

I looked at him suspiciously,"A lkle change won't hurt you,"

he said. "I reckon I'll let you takethe buckboard an' go to town an'get me a few pounds of spikes andIn the afternoon you nn' me willputup a few panels of fence an' give thehorses a rest. If you start rightout as soon as you've et you oughtto get back In tlmo to haul thelumber out before dinner."

My spirits began to rifle at thethought of the trip Bnd I acceptedmy father's proposal with alacrity,I could certainly be back an hourlinfor* noon. I agreed .

"All right," said father. "Getabout ten pounds of twelvepennies.That'll be more than we need rightnow, but we can use 'em. And you'dbetter get strap hinges for a gateout Into the road."

I hitched up and instde of the hourI was In town. I tied my horse infront of the hardware store and wentin and got the nails and hinges. ThenI started for the drug store fo* somescent I desire.

I bad got as far as the postoffleewhen I saw something that made myheart Jump. It was Coolldge'eteam of blacks with both spring seatsIn the wagon outside Bodenhamer'sstore. Two seats. That, meant, un-doubtedly, that the women folks•were In with Sam. I should not haveto wait until evening to see Sadie.I would probably see her In a fewminutes right here. Then I couldcasually remark that I might bealong In the evening and she wouldprobably say. "Why, yes, do, Henry."

It required time to consider, so I

crossed the street and ctood in theFarmers' bank doorway, instead of

eolng Into the Btore, aa I had at firstIntended. As I watched I saw SamCoolldgo ooma out, take a crock ofbutter from the wagon and carry Itinside. That meant, of course, thatthe price the storekeeper offered hadbeen satisfactory and that Sadie 'and

her mother would be safe for somelittle time trading. I was mightyglad they traded at Bodenhamer's'nstead of Brainard'a. where Jay

Peabody worked.In a little while Sam Coolldge

came out again and crossed thestreet. I was about t slouch oft,but I knew he would see me anywayand I wasn't much afraid of old Sam.He never had much to say about any-thing—kept his thoughts to himself,like a sensible man.

minutes later I again passed them,and this time she did not look at meat all. I felt injured then, natur-ally.

"Howdy, Henry?" he said, as Imoved to one side to let him pass.

"How's all the folks7""Middlin* well," I answered, after

the usual form. "Your folks all well,Mr. Coolldge?" I think I colored alittle as I made the inquiry.

He smiled and answered "Yess,"and went on into the bank. I walkedaway, but luckily I saw Bill Cowertoomlng out of the hardware Btore,and I stopped him. Billwas always

ready to talk, I knew, and it wouldgive me an excuse for loitering on

the sidewalk. So we stood there. Hetalked and I kept an eye on Boden-hamer's and said "Yes" and "No"'and "Is that so?" at intervals, untilat last Sadie and her mother cameout.

They had to pass me, I knew, butI stood my ground and nodded andreturned Mrs. Coolldge's pleasant"Howdy, Henry?" But—oh, youngidiot that Iwas:—when Sadie smiledat me, though the Joy I felt was sim-ply inexpressible, I returned her alook so stolidly unresponsive, a nodso curt and indifferent, that the

smile was shocked out of her faceand aim turned away her bead. Ten

Still I lingered, though I knewthat time was. flying and that Iwouldnever gpt back in time to haul thatlumber. I slung in and out of stores,half expecting, half fearing to seeher again, and when I did see herI promptly backed out. At last sheand her mother returned to Boden-hamer's and after a few minutesSadie came out alone and walkedbriskly down the street, lookingneither to the right nor to the left,until she came to Bralnard's. Shewent in there. Instantly I becamealmost sick with the suspicion thatI knew I had entertained all along.Of course Bralnard himself mightwait on her, but Jay Peabody wouldbe there, as she no doubt was onlytoo well aware, and if he got achance he wouldn't let It go by.Trust him for that! I stood there forsome time, hesitating whether to goto the store and see for myself whatwas going on. Then thoughts ofwhat I might Bee made me sick, asI have Bald. Yet I wag drawn ir-resistibly.

Yes, he was waiting on her; ornot waiting on her, but talking toher across the counter, whereon wasspread some sort of dry goods—ablind, of course. He was grinningas he spoke and she, seated on thelittle stool, was looking at him withan excretion of Interest that set me

wild with Jealous rage. Unable tcbear the sight of It I retreated, un-observed, and strode down the streetwith my fists clinched and my bloodfairly boiling. I took a side streetand walked until I had got clear of

formed. I walked straight Into Brain-ard's store and there encounteredJay Peabody carrying a pile of starchpackages to the counter to add toan arched edifice he was erecting.That was my opportunity—my glori-

the town and a good way beyond, ous opportunity. I pushed against

My mind was in a turmoil, but I him and scattered his packages ongradually grew calmer and t>egan to the floor. There waa no pretense ofform a settled purpose. accident about it. Nor did he pre-

By the time I had sot back It waa tend to regard It ag .such. He waa

prompt; I'll give him credit for that.The blow I got in the face sent mastaggering backward almost Btun-ned, and I tripped over a package olth« starch and fell.

I was up In an instant, however, '

and hitting out at him furiously. On«or two of my blows landed, and 1believe with some effect, for he wentstaggering back In hifl turn againsta pile of sacked flour, which toppledover and nearly tripped me again.I got another stinging cuff on theside of the head, but it did not checkmy furious onslaught for a moment.I lunged viciously for his nose andreached It, at . the same time re-ceiving his fist In my eye. That wa«his last, however, for I swung heav-ily to his eye, as the technical termis, and he went down, I on '»p ofhim. How I did enjoy myself.

It was Brainard who gulled me off,and I was for licking him, too. Iwould hove tackled the tov.-n con-stable by that time. It was luckyfor me that there were some (.tout

friends of my father's in the crowdthat invaded the store to take maaway before Igot badly damaged andput me In my buckboard and startme home.

I removed most of the traces otthe 'conflict from my face when Icame to the creek, but m7 eye waspainfully apparent by the time Ireached home. And I had left thespikes and hinges In the hardwarestore.

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