Policemen

In most sizable U. S. cities, the policemen at traffic stops or walking their beats in residential districts make a practice of accosting peaceful citizens several times a year and shoving forward a printed ticket in a purposeful way. The ticket often resembles, in color and size, the card that one gets for speeding, parking without lights or committing a nuisance. The citizen's relief is great when he finds that he has not been arrested, that the ticket is merely an admission to the next policemen's ball or euchre-fest or field day. The citizen now exhibits his nonchalance in the presence of the Law, also his good-fellowship and good-citizenship, by buying the ticket, or several tickets. Not infrequently the citizen caps his gesture by telling the officer to keep the tickets, pass 'em around to his friends and "kiddies." The policeman, if not an imbecile, soon peddles the same tickets over again. Policemen being what they so often are, Manhattanites were not surprised last week to see the chief social body of the local force, the Police Glee Club, exposed as follows: For two concerts, in halls with a capacity of some 1,000 persons, 40,000 tickets were printed and sold, the bulk of them in night clubs, restaurants, speakeasies. Manhattan's policemen were not vastly surprised, either, to learn that the Police Glee Club's accounts, handled by two officers of rank, were $22,000 short.