The evening world. Newspaper, August 4, 1922, Page 15

Story of Early Life Reads Like “Dime Novel’’—Is Crack Shot, Linguist, Wireless Experimenter, Poet and Author. Copyright by’ Pr World) ny ROM cowboy to teach er of Greek, from tele- graph operator to practising physician, from train despatch- er to expert instruc- tor in the sign language of the deaf of the steps in the widely diversified career of Lieut. the Police and dumb—these aie some George Healy Quackenbos of Department of this city, who has applied for retirement after twenty-six years of honorable service. But this enumeration does not in- clude all Lieut. Quac! shot with pistol the accomplishments of nbos. He is a crack and rifle, he speaks, reads and writes French, Itallan, Spanish, Portuguese, Mexican and the languages of the Comanche, Ogalala, Brule and Blackfoot Indians; he is an accomplished writer of verse und ’ prose, at one t.me taught cor. .efcial law in a business college and at an- other was manager of a summer hotel at the And seashore. of these ac- tivities and interests have been crowd- ed into a life which has now just come to its fifty-fifth milestone. It was his belief that his mind was too activ and his body not enough, @o that had much to do with his en- thi trance into the Police Department. teoncluded that I must make my living $vith my feet instead of my head," be ‘éaid to-day to a representative of The Evening World. ‘So I became a pa- trolman. Now I haye demonstrated my ability to work with my feet and I'm going buck to the first condition, T am going to make my living writing Fortunately, I had several at- tractive offers vzinc citals of my similar to those which have already appeared in print.” have from m: Western for re- experiences. What served to take Quackenbos into the Police Department w n appeal made by Theodore Roc it $o 1896, when he was Pi-partisan Police President of the Board, He sent THE Back to Headwork Lieut. George Quackenbos Joined ‘“‘The Force’’ Because | || Brain Was Too Active, Body Not Active Enough —Now Wants to Rest and Write, So at 55 Applies for Retirement. out asking meh, clerks, salesmen and the to enlist in the department. At that time Quackenbos was practising medicine at No. 35 West 61st Street He was also lecturing and teaching the sign language, learned from the Indians, to the inmates of the deat- mute asylum at 68th Street and Lex- ington Avenue. So he talked over the police proposition with his wife, went to see Theodore Roosevelt at Headquarters, and on Oct. 1, 1896, be- came a patrolman. His first assignment was to the West 126th Street Station, Bill Dev- ery being the Captain of the precinct Quackenbos acquaintance with Roosevelt gave the impression In cer- tain parts of the department that he was a spy for the Commissioner. This may have brought about his detail to a ‘punishment post’ on Eighth Ave- cireulars college bookkeepers, like nue, from 122d to 126th Streets. Pa- trollg this beat, Quackenbos was subjected to what the police called three ‘sees? by roundsmen every h so they could know his every activdty. There was a roundsman at each end of the post and a “grand rounds” in the middle. But as time went on, Quackenbos many creditable arrests and so deported himself that the ‘spy’ idea forgotten and he most popular department. He made was quite became men fn the rose to Sergeant in one of the Quack the Cor Feb., 1909, and got his Lieutenant's bar in March, 1914 Quackenbos's enlistment on the force caused much surprise among his friends, but none of them was, per- haps, so startled as Magistrate Cor+ rigan, before whom the pol{ceman ars raigned a prisoner in Jefférson Mar- ket Court one day. The Magistrate looked long and earnestly at the ar- raigning policeman and then satd to him, “This tsn't Prof. Quackenbos, ts itr’ “This is what was Prof. Quacken- bos,"* the policeman replied, ‘at the time Magistrate Corrig a pupil san wa: DEAF & DUMB INSTRUCTOR ne of Prof. Quackenbe who ichieved distineti " © also fonel and John tut to leave for a € back to t days, it may be aid that there was evet 1 for bent, H born in ) Latin Harvard. 1 his father t he of hi yeation However, bookishn from the youngste inc ) at that time, be nt th he ran awa hou Osage “ wh at job as timeke in It His arents cau, m, t him mm 1 sent hin St Yet t A be " \ for you 1 were EVENING WORLD, FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1929, The same hand that drilled nineteen holes in the bullseye out of twenty shots at the rritory general There was casional rst-class dime pated In the exe » of fourteen natives ted murder, Ish tribes New York poem printed at the right. cution by dyna who had « At this the with the I and beg of their The ludian + hed cattle and ‘ did 4 t Kan t n and what was then rik There he learned the us cume when Q rifle, the pistol and lariat the rugged of the W y everything ther and enough excitement in b ‘ life at this time to suit the most ex t & st ' young man. There were fig Louis. 1 ain rob! horse thieves and 1 becar b other bad men of those days and 1 in Chica. ' brushes with hosti In rked profi in fact, all the ingredients of a es from novel were mixed for delectation, In New Mexteo he be at Vir atin and Greek icy College in West 164 © manager of ginia Beach, Va nh again Englisi: branch night in his home tually he beca three years studied me 8 a doctor fre above target, with a .22-calibre automatic pistol, at a range of thirty-five yards, penned the he was t m New after 26 Year's’ on ODE TO THE NEW YEAR By George Healy Quackenbos. The Future glows eternal with the Star of Hope The Past, it lies behind, and we rush on, Unmind/sul of the lessons it has taught, By untried ways to unknown fields beyond, d leave another milestone on the road of Time New Year, we welcome thee, thou comest as a child, and alt vet tn thy ufant hand— New born unknow) The hand that holds the secrets of @ world, Who knows what destinies are held, the wh To seatter, in their season, o'er the land What Destiny of vate hast thou What witt thou do the old wear left undone? What friends restore? What dear ones take away Fre thaw hast spanned tha of thy cour ua on How wi parting day thy Ai, only Time Time Grim Reape ather, Time—who led And bade thee. Of Destinies Things to and unknown lore Till the last page is turned and thou art old Then Time wit into the BP HEN WE SHALL day by day, uw Come lead thee back KNOW © {ou 1 his record, He wa, attacked by an Italian at the Battery, and thougt man wns armed wit he policer n ' 1 his man Aer The stopping of run t € mo bo one be had already ree QUACKENBOS a ooff in the crowd Devery once thought to Quackenbos for his police abilities reward di detailed him to the baseball games at the Grounds every afternoon But this was nothing short of punish - ment to the patrolman, He despised ball games and had his detail changed as soon as he could Assignments to posts in Hell's Kitchen, the Tenderloin and some of the tougher east side precincts fol- of which Quackenbos able name for himself. of language caused his Barge Office and to the Bureau of lowed, in all made His knowledge an ew transfer to the in 1906, Information at v eventually, Police Headquarters. most of his police ser- ere he gave being in cb of all communi- all, that which is not known re cations in foreign languages, save German, to him In recent ye he has studied wire- leas and has at his home, No. 6% Du- bois Street, West Brighton, Staten Island, a powerful radio set install comes of an old and ‘The late Quackenbos distinguished family. Prot Jolin D, Quackenbos of Columbia Uni versity, a scientist of wide repute, was his cousin. ‘The family was original! Dutch, and called itself Van Qual kenboseh, Pieter Gerretzoon Van Quakkenbosch being a Burgomaster of Leyden, Members of the famtly came to the United States in 1659, There wa time when the family owned large tracts of land in this city about Hook, the lower part of s Drive and in 122d'and 1284 tre east of Third Avenue. Much t for non-payment of tax Several of Lieut. Quackenbor'’s an- ed rank, Ry cen olution, 3 ho is @ member American Revolu- jocloty he nying photo: g him in police uniform, a f life and a Qunckenvos paid \dgo of which the accomp going to tnke m quict rest and devote mysclf to writing, Tye lots yet tow West, and now my foct rest und my mind @ Aide diteront exerci, ete an me 1 ee