Show PIE I 1 el LONDON BOBBY israll yC scally ALLY Y TO THE NEW YORK POLICEMAN 1 an add d obliging sa s1 officer never i deiv Ie KOW Iv he caino came to 11 lie called Bobby 11 re an experience on om IV 1 wa vas a I 1 little cranky wit lah liaa first impression of the london is that he is an insignificant n cemAn forceman heine FoN mo fellow ia in fact one ls Is likely to looking this impression before reaching lon t for if he upend a few hours or a day or odon an fn lh it anything the police avro not of Liver liverpool poo i nrc are physically less imen 11 0 o than those of london one won artif 1 p if such men as these are the result of ders diet on oil the famous roast beef of old england a land I 1 comparison tho the broadway Broadw ny dot of new nelv york are literally out of 0 A visit of several leeral weeks in lo 10 lon 11 abt bt i don sig san will fail to reveal w decode one bluecoat to vie I 1 alth several hundred who stalwartness livar Sta ican n readily if be be eu on a single rl day in ill the I 1 metropolis of the new world what these nn en would do in an lin emergency requiring W streng strength 0 tl bravery and endurance can only 1 ht he imagined by the stranger the name commonly applied to a police nin wan an fn a this country is bobby A go good agny englishmen are doubtless familiar I 1 will alth the origin of this slang term though it may betoken betaken be taken for granted that the ma bority of the rising generation do not re ceide instruction on the tile point in auch such schools as they attend it may be explained neI in passing that it took its rise in ill ISA 10 when sir robert peel then home secretary star detary ser se ared the passage of a it bill reorganizing the london police force and arid in creasing its efficiency presumably lie was ivas known among the irreverent as bob at atall all events the members of the new p police force soon ca came me to be known by the diminutive of that contraction and the nord bobby has made a place for itself a certain r bort ort ef place in jn the english language the word acl peeler r as applied to 0 a P policeman Is le rived from the surname of I 1 t the he same statesman peeler singular y enough is heard in new york but bobby I 1 believe never it it ii safe j to gay 11 that not one in of those in new york ork who have used or heard pe peeler cler in I 1 this sense Is aubre aw ire of the highly interest ing of the tile term peeler by the tile iray wily hut has acquired such a position in the language as to be used by kingsley King in alton locke without apologetic or deprecatory dep r e batory quotation marks T the h e bobb hobby is ordinarily well informed and entirely willing to impart information to those in quest of it he is polite and obliging as a rule and extrom extremely ely respectful in n his h toile oue fit and id bearing there is nothing of that haughtiness and which arc are pronounced traits of the police men of new york in my experience I 1 have met only one specimen pec imen who n ho assumed a political air one rainy sunday evening e aning it had been raining during the greater part of the tile do 1 I 1 was wits taking a quiet stroll alone along high II lj olborn half a mile or so from my hodg ings in a part of london with which I 1 wa perfectly familiar when I 1 chanced to see a but bus going north through a street which I 1 had bad not before noticed to be a part of nn at omnibus route there was a bobby standing on the corner and to him I 1 applied r fur information as to where that particular bus ran to my surprise he was despos d to treat me rather cavalierly ho lie took the inquiring pedestrian for a stranger in search of a conveyance colv byance to carry him hini home this policeman was red mustached thed and as it proved ed of a not too amiable disposition dib position sherd do dooin you live was the rather arly response to the question regarding the destination of the omnibus I 1 told him though I 1 saw no particular rmon for doing ho he under the circum stances whereupon ho lie instantly began to tell me tile where w here the street i wag was and how to get et there I 1 interrupted him hini with w ith the re nark mark that I 1 knew perfectly well where w here my lodgings edgings were and where I 1 was and in hort short intimated that I 1 wn was about us as familiar anai liar with v ich that part of the tile big city as 10 he ie himself then I 1 hinted that I 1 lad had asked him about the bus which crossed Il olborn it at that point how do you expect me to know where ivery every bus tat wa was the decidedly nu in ivil civil answer to W a i perfectly civil inquiry I 1 was wai not to be rebuffed fied and proceeded to 0 o explain thit that I 1 had lind seen the bus going past last und arid never having been seen one thera there I 1 be fore ore felt a little curiosity regarding iland it and thought he would be able to give me in formation ornia tion on the tile subject ihen then he lie told medhat mev no w hat he might as well have mild said at the outset but by this time he be had bad become mollified and arid talkative expect us u to know everything I 1 he be raid said and tiny they ask us all 8 sorts t nf f foolish questions now it aln aint t reasonable I 1 e lo 10 expect a man to know all about every bus in 1 ondon london but ill tell yon you one thing I 1 do know and that I 1 mad up my mind to learn just aa w won soon as I 1 came on the tile force that I 1 hill ii I 1 know just when the last bm bus rans runs on oil every line and I 1 tell you tint that is i very er important lots of people dont know anat u hing about it and anti justas like as ax not kluy will A ill wait it long time for a certain bus when there aint been any 0 I 1 them bushes curnin rui mil for an hour or more so if it anybody cornes along and asks ine long this time ol 01 0 flight how soon awn therell be a lus bus for such a place I 1 can tell lern em in a it minute whether theres goin to be another or not now I 1 learned all that in the first two or three months I 1 was vas on the police and I 1 think every everyone one of us ought to know all nebout tit it hut but then there ther therease eare are lots lotzof of thin things gs about london that no one can know and arid iet yet there are unreasonable people who find faulta ith ye belf it ye dont know everything on the whole w hole the rather surly bobby proved to have a heart in him and the identical ident ial tone which he assumed indicated that when he lie once understood his questioner lie hewa was very avery eager to help ill him rn in many i any way o abble L hanking thanking him lihn 0 for o r his I 1 on when I 1 came caine back fifteen or twenty minutes minute 8 later he hewak was still standing nt at the saine corner hut but he did not na recognize me ml london cor new york tribune |