Old Print Article: “He Was Taken Down Stairs,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1885)

September 11, 2010 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

The innocent victim of an Englishman.

An Englishman visits Brooklyn, gets drunk, claims to be a Lord, provokes a fight with a pig and is arrested. Just another day in the borough in the 19th-century. A report from an October 8, 1885 article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“Tuesday afternoon, while Sergeant Brophy sat behind the desk in the east New York Police Headquarters, Roundsman Ringheiser conducted a fine specimen of a real, live, Englishman. He was awfully English, awfully drunk, and looked as if he had been trying to absorb all the rain that was falling. His high silk hat had been carefully brushed the wrong way, and his collar was on its way down to meet the yellow tops of his shoes, while his broadcloth coat and lavender trousers would have been very much improved by being passed through a clothes wringer. The roundsman found him on Alabama avenue, disputing with a pig as to which of them were entitled to a choice spot under a leaky hay shed. With all the dignity accessible under such distressing circumstances, the prisoner described himself as Lord Caufield.

‘But, my Lord,’ submitted Sergeant Brophy, ‘you are very drunk; you will have to go on the blotter as being drunk and disorderly.’

‘I know, your Honor,’ hiccoughed the distinguished prisoner, ‘but what could I do, you know, I was so wet outside that I had to even it up. I’ll pay my fine, you know.’

At this point his lordship produced a large roll of bills. He was taken downstairs.”

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