HE DIES AT SERGEANT'S DESK.
Obscure Light Goes Out in Unsympa-
thetic Surroundings.
An old, ragged, homeless man dropped dead before the sergeant's desk at police headquarters last night. Who he was nobody at the station knew. Neglect, exposure, alcoholism, starvation, perhaps, was the cause. The last kindly hand extended to him was that of a broken-down old negro. His deathbed was a floor, and his attendants a crowd of policemen and reporters who wondered if he were drunk.
About 8 o'clock Andy, a one-armed negro who hangs around police headquarters, saw the old man stagger and fall upon the sidewalk just west of the station. Except old Andy, none of the crowd of men on North Main street at that hour seemed to know or care about the sick man's distress.
Old Andy ran to the prostrate man and lifted up his head. Then he notified the police. Two officers carried the ragged one inside the station. He died before Lieutenant Morris could learn his name.
Not a scrap of paper was found upon the body to identify it. The coroner and an undertaker were notified.
