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The police department had a lot of Irish cops then and they did some unusual police work. Two cops by the names of Pat O'Shea and John Morrissey followed a suspicious looking fellow into a rooming house on "O" street one night. O'Shea took his dark lantern and climbed up to look through a [transom?] into a room where they thought the fellow had gone. The bottom of the dark lantern fell out and falling into the room it set fire to the carpet. O'Shea got excited and yelled to Morrissey "come on ye damned fool; the rooms' caught fire." They hurried out on the street and turned in an alarm then staid away till the fire engine and wagons came. Then they joined the crowd, demanding to know where the fire was.
One [time?] the soap works out at West Lincoln caught fire and Bob Malone who was Fire Chief, went out with his crew to fight the blaze. When they got there, Malone rushed into the building and across toward the stairs. He never got there. The soap vats were sunk in the floor and were about floor level. They were filled at the time with soft soap and Malone promptly fell into one. He couldn't get out and they had to pull him out with a pole.
Jim Malone, brother to Bob, was chief of police for years. he arrested Charley Tracy who was hack driver in Lincoln and pretty well known character elsewhere by a different name. It seemed that this Tracy had a fare one night and the fellow, about half-drunk, flashed a [$5.00?] bill. Tracy grabbed at it and it tore in two. Each had half. The fellow got out and called Malone and Tracy eventually got seven years in the pen for stealing half of a five dollar bill. There were three desperadoes who hung out around Lincoln some. John Stopher and the 'Two Johns' they were known as. The two were brothers by the name of Johns . One day they showed up in a barroom at 15th and "O" Street and somebody called Malone. He came pretty soon driving a buckskin pony and buck board. Stopher and the two Johns ran out and started east down "O" Street. Malone chased them and they turned north toward the fair grounds. They got into a dead end trap and Malone closed in. But they faced him and shot his horse and got away. Later a city detective shot one of the "two Johns" from [Keeps?] barroom on North 12th. Stopher came back to Lincoln and one day walked up to Malone and offered to buy some lots he owned out on the north side on 14th Street. Malone sold them to him and Stopher settled down. He had turned Mormon.
When telephones came into general use, people used to think the wires were hollow and one fellow offered to bet me they were. In 1908 I began to see that it would be better if I had a place and business to settle down in and as the jewelry business seemed naturally fitted to me I started to work into it as fast as was possible.
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