474 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



selves for any slight contumely by the reflection that theirs is not an 

 isolated case. Even to-day the young West Pointer on joining his regi- 

 ment finds himself often sadly at a loss in many practical ways of the 

 service, in vrhich the old sergeants of twenty years or more standing 

 are easily his superiors. So far as they dare and as army discipline 

 permits they will " put up jobs " on these commissioned youngsters. 

 When in the forties of the last century the naval academy was insti- 

 tuted at Annapolis, the old sea-dogs, ancient vikings who had worked 

 their laborious way upward to a commission, had no few or gentle Jibes 

 for midshipmen and ensigns who, as it was said, " had crawled into 

 the service through the cabin windows." All that sort of talk has long 

 ago been ended ; our navy is officered now by graduates, and the Deweys 

 and Schleys and Sampsons and Evanses have proved themselves no un- 

 worthy successors of the Decaturs and Perrys, the Porters and Farra- 

 guts. So I am confident the young graduated police officer will have 

 it in him to say : " Damn the torpedoes ! Go ahead ! " 



It is not, I think, difficult to forecast the nature of the results that 

 — though perhaps slowly — would modify and in the end entirely sub- 

 vert those evils that have smirched and defiled New York. There 

 would be abundant criticism; but it may be assumed that every good 

 citizen and the powers of the daily press would stand for fair play. 

 As class after class was added to the blue ranks it would not be long 

 before the influence of the increasing number of graduates would be- 

 gin to be felt. It would be seen and noted in rapidly decreasing num- 

 ber of charges, trials and dismissals, and in the lessening dispropor- 

 tion between arrests and convictions. 



Doubtless objection will be made on account of the extra cost of 

 the proposed school and the length of time that must elapse before any 

 very marked benefit could be perceived; but surely if the principle is 

 right a few years devoted to preparation ought not to prevent or post- 

 pone action. The prudent investor looks less to the pretty architecture 

 of the home that he proposes to purchase than to the conditions un- 

 seen or underground — the drains and sanitary plumbing. The effects 

 of education are in the end certain and salutary. Good habits ac- 

 quired at the proposed institution in youth will form character not 

 lightly to be flung away in manhood, the sort of character over which 

 the smirch and stain of temptation shall inevitably lose its power. The 

 roundsman's vocation should be dignified, his service compared with 

 that of the army officer, for both are keepers of peace. To the officers 

 of the regular army the Chepultepecs and El Caneys and Indian and 

 Malay ambuscades come seldom, and when they come bring glory 

 with them. But the policeman's duty is done in obscurity and the 

 dark. For him there is but trifling applause and never any brevets. 

 He is always on the firing line, always liable to lead a forlorn hope; 



