The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 28, 1901, Page 1

— N N 2 UN! ¥ere come the Fat Devil's Hide the beans of e men of the Fat n pursuit!” ealing, a screeching like ; & chattering like the a scurry of soft white blouse-clad figures ages and a huddling of and the Devil's men pen te. But these are few and they search each other's eyes anx- he Fat Devil's men Jearn the way t etreat before long?’ they that they have gone so far al- farther?” they reply. e of Chinatown, the fa- whom the Chinese has a quartét the lookouts in the gam- hudder at the warnings of e can no longer be found in the enjoyment of & soothing pipe,” sighs the smoker. 4 charms of the game are marred,” groans the gambler. “The time is fraught with danger,” com- lains all Chinatown. And all because this quartet of Ser- geant Conboy’s is as perfect a group of ctors as ever played in private off the ge. ce the latter part of June, when they were put on duty in the Chinese quarter, they have been offering a continuous per- formance in which they appeared as light- 1 Officer John Tillman ou know—has presto changed g drunk soldier into a door- Jerome Tyrrell—he’s as the calmest of Ce- me minute and the flercest of They have played of Chinamen, of that their roles are d—in fact, only begun t like other sctors they have nges of bill in store. Thelr cos- room proves it The co uous performance commenced when Sergeant Conboy took them up there a few weeks ago. He had ideas of his ow to how this Chinatown busi- be conducted. ve got to fight men with their own meet them on their own ground,” he argued. What is always the Chinaman’s weap- ° Strategy. Egery time, He never resorts to storm. r @oes Bergeant Conboy. ng as these people resort to cun- galn thelr ends, we have got to ng to overcome them,” he and he started his men upon their of ruse, of play-acting. At the e weeks had made half a lestials law enforcers the next. parts of soldiers, they sa tume upon opium dens, as many n ga and still as many tery hous They had arrested caused to be fined 112 Chinese; no one for less than $10. The 1d dreaded and pointed g from Broadway to Cali- t and from Kearny to Stock- em got © d see the new devils that you em,” said these people when ved. bout that all Chinatown, 0 who are summering out was on the corner of Washington ont st s on the day when the took up their headquarters there, and town returned home with the of those five indelibly impressed r minds for reference in emer- = e one is large, like a great moun- ey said. Big Jack,” who made his first special policeman at the Or- nd i a combination of serene and iron muscle, which is a ost excellent combination, especially in busi hem are tall and without flesh, v knit,” they said. “The one powerful arm and the other has a mouth are Tyrrell and Richter. he fourth is little higher than one of these cut in half, but as broad as the two balves put together.” > of ¢t Tnat one 1s R. M. Barry “The master of the four is a man with a ple nt smile, but an eye that be- tokens danger for us. He is the Fat Dew! That's the sergeant. And in spite of the fact that every man, woman and child .witkin those dozen blocks took notes on the personnel of the squad on the day of their arrival, never- theless they have succeeded in guist themselves so cleverly time and again that they have created a panic by their series of raids. Jerry Tyrrell made himself famous in the raid at §19% Washington street. He was disguised as a Chinaman, and the re- sult was eighteen prisoners marched off to the Hall of Justice. “You're too tzll for a Chinaman; you're too tall by far, Jerry,” said Barry. “And haven't you ever seen a tall Chi- naman?” put in the sergeant, who would listen to no croaking. “Your nose is too big.” objected Till- man, who perhaps envies Tyrrell’s Roman profile, “And what's the reason that noses can't grow big in the climate of China?"”-cried the sergeant. Tyrrell's nose, however, was a draw- back. Cenboy afterward told some one of the make-up in this wise: “We greased him and we painted him end we tailed him; we put him intc a smock and a skull cap and cork-soled shoes; and if it badn’t been for thc nose of him he’d have got past the second door without a murmur. “But his nose is too big. If he’d had one of those hit-in noses like a Chinaman, he'd have been all right. I asked one of the prisoners afterward how they knew him, end he says to me, ‘Nosey too big,’ he, and he hooked his fingers like that to show me.” Even so, Tyrrell did immensely clever work. His makeup was as perfect as it ecould be; his face was carefully painted to the right color, his _eyes were nar- rowed, his costume was correct. He sauntered down Washington street with his shoulders high, his feet shuf- fling. At 819% he turned in casually. It was 8:30 o'clock. Lights and shadows were baffling. Nobody noticed him. The lookout had no suspicions. He sgw a big Chinaman coming to the game, tfiat was all. The big Chinaman dropped in. The lookout bad merely given a glance through the wicket. This was evidentiy a friend. All was well. . 8o past the first door. Up the dark passage Tyrrell shuffied, and no alarm was given. At the second door he already felt him- self successful. As he reached it, though, a strong light struck his face. ° The guard gave him a sharp glance and halted in the act of letting him in. The face looks strange, was his quick thought. Without comprehending the ruse he sniffed trouble in the air. On the instant he gave his warning. There was a sound of confusion inside. Tyrrell took in the situation. He threw the guard aside and wrenched bis way in. There were the Chinamef. There, on the table, lay the evidence. It was beans, but it was evidence. The big man let his cap fall, he cast off his role. With a sweep of his arm he had the cowering, whimpering, chattering law-breakers covered with his revolver. One of them made an attempt to throw the evidence away, but Tyrrell warded off the attempt. He had already given his signal. The rest of the squad broke in. On the way to the prison with the eight- een men arrested, even the sergeant got mixed up now and then. *“Stand back, there!” he shouted to his own officer. And the elevator man who takes Tyrrell up and down, to and from the prison ev- ery day, also cried: *“Stand back, there!” when he moved away from the prisoners. ‘When I asked him if he didn’t risk his life in the act of breaking in he disclaimed any bravery. They all do that. I don't know whether there is risk or not. They claim that the Chinese never draw a ‘weapon on an officer. “They are half asleep all the time,” Tillman said. “They don’t know whether they're dreaming or not when they're ar- rested. They're so full of their oplum that they don’t pay much attention to enything.” In the prison they upheld his words. I went over there to see them after he made his great rald on the Jackson street lot- tery and they were sitting in a drowsy row on the bench, the seven of them, calmly, stolcally submitting to the situa- tion as they might to a dull day in busi- i By Jarah Comsiock. ness. They were prepared to charge ur their §10 fine to profit and loss. These seven were taken when Big Jack played the drunken soldier. I was going ;pont street when 1 saw him rolling v the color that comes jn boxes. He wore a broad hat and a swashing blue overcoat and he had to all appearances a beautiful, . He followed the capricious t led him to a door a few feet sh alley and there he stopped and tumbled half way into the entrance. It was the door of a lottery house. The lookout was off his guard at the common- n soldler. a shame to take ners, it was so easy. He had the lookout silenced by a blow from a sober fist and the rest was as smooth as butter. ck on his heels followed the sergeant. the street appeared Tyrreil and Richter. Barry, who has a genius for appearing where he is needed, sprang up out of the ground They had come quietly from different points so as_not to attract attention. It was on the dot of 3 that they all reached the door of the den. The loitering Chinese gathered. “What's the matter?” seller indifferently. i [ stopped. More asked the fruit a rald!” squealed the old man whoe~ gells brass thimbles and cotton handker- hiefs chiefs and two-oit spectacles. “It's a rald on a lotter * And he ran as fast as his creaking legs would take him, and I could have walked off with all the thim- bles and handkerchiefs and specticles. “It's a 1aid!” shouted everybody who shouted in English, and the Chinese chat- tered excited monosyllables, that meant the same thing. A few seconds later the squad emerged with seven captives. Every one of the seven helc a Iottery ticket. Those tickets were the evidence. The sergeant carried a sledge-hammer, It was the onlv weapon he had left, for he had broken his stick on somebody. The whole five of them were mopping their foreheads, and looked as I imagine prize- fighters do after several rounds. “We got 'em,” they said. They were satisfled. Judge Conlan, who has seen “Big Jack’ in court every day this so long, met him in the hail. “How are you?”’ he said, shaking hands. (Aside—““Who on earth is he? I know the face all right. but who is he?”) And aloud, “Well, how did you leave Manfia?” He was still ‘groping. It was not until next day that he placed him. “The drinks are on me,” he said. Barry's favorite role is that of a tramp. Richter, too, has made his fame in that line. They gained entrance to a gambling den’in that guise. Then, taking advantage of a commotion made for the purpose, Barry slipped vnder the bed, and when the game was again in full swing pounced upon the Chinese. “This subterfuge must never again suc- ceed,” they warned each other solemnly, and now the first step in a game is to look under the bed. Once they found big Barry there. He lay as tightly squeezed as Barry ever was, wondering what moment was to be the last of his suffocation, when a yellow face peeped through the slit of light against the floor. ““Wha foh?’ came in excited tones. “Wha foh? Wha foh?” and the bed was_surrounded by a curious and excited band, who dared not drag out and bat- ter the intruder. The members of the uguad have all suc- ceeded in the Tole of soldier. One of them caught a binch of smokers all, by means of his khaki uniform. The lot of them Were curled up in their bunks, and they were anywhere from the fifth to the twentieth pipe. There were resent some of the most precious pipe Powls of all Chinatown-bowls that had risen in value from the two-bits of new- ness up to $30 ¢f years’' old staining, and had gone even beyond this to priceless- ness. The crowd was a Prosperous and a happy one. . TAON. _nN SR Some or them roused faintly, dully, at the commotion outside. “T call p'liceman,” they heard. The man at the door was having trou- ble. A drunken soldier in khaki was tumbling against the door. The soldier was persistent, troublesome and heavy. The Chinaman started for help. Ssaev SERGEANT Y 7 CONBOY = 283 ? RS 3'\\ WO 70 THE MY SN ST NS 7L FAT o DSt Trpa e TS IR DIV AR o) 4-:4’0‘ \s‘ AHE A TTE L SMAR T A FA 7L S ‘But it was the soldler who gave the sig- nal for officers, and at the sound of it up sprang _the squad. The door -was un- guarded and they broke in. The raild was a beautiful one. The squad has come to think that raids are even easy, so long as they concern fantan, opium or lotteries. But Py gow BN L — TS S I “{-‘fzf‘f’ 18 still a problem to them. Finding the gow card on the table is not sufficient or conviction; they must catch the money there, too, to satisfy the law; &nd the money slides by magic into vanishing pockets. But it_may come to rass that at some chow chow time. when the atches change, even a py gow game may be Quped by one of the masqueraders of the Fat_Devil's squad. And it will be good work when it is done, for the heathen Chinee i{s a wily fox, and, as Sergeant Conboy says. centu “he has made it a quarter s study how to beat the white