Mr. Parker fled, putting his head back through the
half-closed door to explain that he "only knew what that reporter
told" him. In the security of his room it must have occurred to
him, however, that he had another string to his bow; for at the
next session Commissioner Grant moved my expulsion because I had
"disturbed the Board meeting." But President Moss reminded him
curtly that I had done nothing of the kind, and that ended it.
One of the early and sensational results of reform in Mulberry
Street was the retirement of Superintendent Byrnes. There was not
one of us all who had known him long who did not regret it, though
I, for one, had to own the necessity of it; for Byrnes stood for
the old days that were bad. But, chained as he was in the meanness
and smallness of it all, he was yet cast in a different mould.
Compared with his successor, he was a giant every way. Byrnes was
a "big policeman." We shall not soon have another like him, and
that may be both good and bad. He was unscrupulous, he was for
Byrnes--he was a policeman, in short, with all the failings of
the trade.
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