Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1897 — SAVED TWENTY-NINE LIVES. [ARTICLE]

SAVED TWENTY-NINE LIVES.

A New York Policeman Promoted for Signal Gallantry. In the October Century there is an article by the Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, entiled “The Roll of Honor of the New York Police.” In speaking of promotions for gallantry, Mr. Roosevelt says: Among the first promotions we made were two which Illustrated the attitude of the board toward cases of this kind, acd which also Incidentally illustrated exactly what we mean by ‘‘taking the force out of politics”—that is, by administering It on principles of decency, and appointing and promoting men on their merits, without regard to their political backing. The first case was that of an old fellow, a veteran of the civil war, who was at the time a roundsman. I happened to notice one day that he had saved a woman from drowning, and had Idm summoned so that I might look into the matter. The did fellow brought up his record before me, and showed not a little nervousness and agitation; for it appeared that be had grown gray in the service, had performed feat after feat of heroism, but had no political backing of any account. He w r as a Grand Army man, but not one of the “political” type, and so had not received any attention from the former police boards; and now, at last, he thought there was a chance for him. He had been twenty-two years on the force, and during that time had saved some twenty-five persons from death by drowning, varying the performance once or twice by saving persons from burning buildings. Twice Congress bad passed laws especially to empower the then Secretary of the Treasury, John Sherman, to give him a medal for distinguished gallantry in saving life. T)>e Life-Saving Society had also given him its medal, and so had the Police Department. On examining into his record carefully, we found that it was wholly free from complaints of any infraction of duty, and that he was sober and trustworthy. AA 7 e felt that he was entitled to his promtlon, and he got it. AA’e did not know his politics, nor did we care about them. It is very unlikely that the woman whom he last saved, as he swam out toward her, felt any special interest as to whether he had voted for Cleveland or Harrison; nor did we. He had risked his life freely again and again in the performance of his duty; he had conducted himself so as to be a credit to the department, and a credit to the city; and we felt that he was entitled to his reward. It is worth while mentioning that he kept on saving life after he was promoted to a sergeantcy. On Oct. 21,1896, he again saved a man from drowning. It was at night, nobody else was in the neighborhood, and the slip from which he jumped was in absolute darkness, and he was about ten minutes in the water, which was very cold. The captain of the precinct, in reporting the case, said: “The sergeant was off the bulkhead and into the water after his man quicker than it takes to say ‘Jack Robinson.’ ” There was no way in which the board could, reward him for this, except by telling him that he wgs an honor to the department; for he had been given all the medals, and bars to , tbe medals, that he could be given. It was the twenty-ninth person whose life he had saved during Ills twenty-throe years’ service in the department, and he was 55 years old when he saved him. A whale recently captured in arctic waters was found to have imbedded in its side a harpoon belonging to a whaling vessel that had been out of. service nearly half a century.