THE POLICEMAN’S RUSE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 14, 29 December 1911, Page 4

THE POLICEMAN’S RUSE.

America is a great country for new ideas, and some of them at least are

really worth something. Recently a now plan for clearing a crowded hall was ‘successfully tried hy a cool and

collected Chicago policeman. A fire had broken out in the rear of a theatre and was rapidly getting out of hand. This policeman spoke as follows:—“Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to sec one of the greatest fires for years go outside and look to the

south, half a mile array. Take it easy as you go out. Don’t break up the furniture, because the management

says you can come back when you’ve seen enough of the fire, and you’ll want to use your seats again.” Rapidly, hut without: disorder,' the; overwhelming i majority of the audience made their way into the street. There

remained' only twenty or thirty persons I v>;ko . were not curious enough; [about fires to -take so much trouble. 1 As soon as the others were out of hearing, the policeman spoke again, hut In a more peremptory tone: “Say, you fellows, boat it. There!s a big fire in the barn hack of this place, and you’ll all be burned to death if vou

stay a minute longer.” So the story is told—and if it is not quite true in every particular, it really ought to be.