PRAYING FOR HIS RECOVERY.
"Pat Must Get Well," Says the Wife
of Brave Sergeant Pat-
rick Clark.
SERGEANT PATRICK CLARK
Brave Officer Who May Die from Wounds
Received in Fight with Fanatics.
Upon the death of his father in England, twenty-seven years ago, Patrick Clark came to America. He was then but 15 years of age, and came directly to Kansas City, where some of his relatives had come before him. In England he had learned the trade of a stone mason, and for two or three years after his arrival in Kansas City he worked at that occupation. Later he became a stone contractor, and at that time constructed, or aided in the construction of several stone buildings in Kansas City. One of the contracts which he filled, and which he is most proud, is the First Presbyterian church at Marshall, Mo. That church was the first stone building to be erected in Saline county.
At an early age he married, and then went on the police force, giving up his chosen trade. Sergeant Clark delighted in telling of his struggles to make "both ends meet" during those first years of his married life. How he saved from his meager salary as a patrolman enough money to purchase his home.
Sergeant Clark is the father of four girls and two boys. There is no subject about which the sergeant would rather talk than his romps with his children after his day's work. It was this same love of home and domestic happiness which led the sergeant to be lenient at all times with persons brought before him, particularly young men and women.
One of Sergeant Clark's peculiar traits of character as a police officer was that he seldom thought of his weapons. He has been sent to make arrests of desperate characters while he himself was wholly unarmed.
To bear out his faithfulness to his duty and his valor, Sergeant Clark left the station yesterday afternoon without a weapon, coat or hat, to arrest a man who had already shot and wounded a patrolman. Sergeant Clark fought with him barehanded, against a knife and a revolver.
At Sergeant Clark's home, 538 Tracy avenue, his wife and six children were gathered in a room last night, praying for the recovery of the husband and father. There is nothing left for them to do but wait for news, and hope and pray. Word that the sergeant was holding his own set them all rejoicing, and now they confidently expect his recovery.
Mrs. Clark has seen her husband and talked with him. "Pat will get well; he must get well," said she last night. "He's only 42 years old and so big and strong that the doctors say he has a good chance. He must get well and back to his home that he loves so much, and that can't get along without him."
