Strange Times 201: Policemen Weep
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Today’s issue is all about cops, baby—cops who are crying and cops who are hurt. Cops who are American and cops who are French. Cops who are running in terror and cops who just want to know if the stove thief is insane! Watch where you sit on…
July 20, 1921
As the Russian famine intensifies, millions are reported to be fleeing their farms and traveling west in search of food and an escape from what they perceive to be “divine wrath.”
The attack on the Spanish sloop Antonia Torres is said to be the work of “Moorish pirates” operating off the Moroccan coast.
After a devastating riot at Pittsburgh’s Western Penitentiary, the men and women who led the uprising are held in straitjackets while the rest of the prisoners are confined to their cells.
Visiting the deposed Kaiser, a German opera singer declares him cheerful but subdued, saying the former ruler greeted him with, “It’s very friendly of you to visit a lonely man.”
The Weather: Fair today and Thursday; mild temperature; fresh northwest winds.
To organize this tearful event, the police superintendent had to first sort the Philadelphia police from least husky to huskiest. From there it was a simple matter of blasting them with perfectly harmless tear gas.
PHILADELPHIA, July 19.—The effectiveness of tear gas as a mob dispeller received the emphatic endorsement of 200 stalwart Philadelphia policemen today after the gas had thrice sent them into hasty and wet-eyed retreat during an official test here.
Police Supt. Mills took a battalion of his huskiest men into a roped-off enclosure, with instructions to capture six men who were armed with 150 tear gas bombs. Three times they charged, but each time were driven back, weeping violently as they came within range of the charged vapor. Major Stephen Delanoy of the Chemical Warfare Division, United States Army, inventor of the gas, assured the men before they entered the mimic battle that the substance was “absolutely not dangerous.” “It is merely a tear-producing, choking, nauseating gas,” he said. “But be careful you don’t swallow too much.”
Police officials said the test had undoubtedly proved the value of tear gas in police work. Not only is it immensely effective in dispersing a mob, but it might be used to drive a fugitive from a barricaded building, they said. A container of the substance, placed in a bank vault in such a position that it would be released if the door were opened outside of banking hours, would also thwart burglaries, the authorities said. The gas leaves reddish-brown stains on clothing, which would aid in identifying those taking part in riots or crimes.
Victims who inhale the fumes become helpless for a short time, but are not endangered. Officials asserted it was likely the gas would replace means hitherto used to subdue mobs and criminals.
During the second attack a small dog joined the policemen with enthusiasm. As soon as he got a good swallow of the gas, however, he turned with his tongue hanging out and fled to a near-by pond and immersed himself.
The only mishap occurred when a rotund policeman spectator unintentionally sat down on a loaded grenade that had slipped into the side lines. His weight exploded the missile and the result sent him flying after the dog for a drink of water.
I just think it’s nice that the stove thief and his wife found something they could do together.
PARIS, July 19.—The man who owns a chateau in 200 acres of ground has a successful wine business and 1,000,000 francs for a fortune and who goes out at night as a burglar is such an unusual phenomenon that the Magistrate at Orleans who is trying Ernest Boitier has had to call in doctors to see if they have any theory. One of the most baffling sides to the question is just why Boitier chose to steal always and only copper stoves. In a shop which he robbed on July 13 were many other more valuable things and things much more easily removed. But the millionaire wine merchant seems to have had a passion for stoves.
And now the curious fact has been established that his wife was at least cognizant of his midnight activities if not an active participant. Owing to the state of her health she has not been arrested, but will appear in court with her husband. The whole collection of the couple’s stolen goods which the police found in the cellars of the chateau has been valued at only about 1,000 francs. So the theory that the burglaries were carried out for the purpose of gain has been definitely set aside. Now it remains to be settled whether Boitier is suffering from kleptomania or is even more seriously deranged.
