gical appliances at hand--this is the divisional
surgeon's room. He lives close by and can be on the spot in three
minutes, if necessary, but on busy nights he is at the station.

On the first and second floors are the offices of the superintendent
(for this is the chief station of the division) and the C.I.D. The
detective force is a strong one, composed of men, specially picked--men
of good appearance and address, who have never-ending work in the
district.

Below the ground floor there are open pillared halls with asphalted
floors where the men assemble for parade, and, before they are marched
off under the command of their section-sergeants, have orders and
information read to them. There is a drying-room through which a current
of hot air continually passes, where an officer may place his sodden
clothes after a wet day or night in the street, and a room where the
instruction of young constables is continued under the supervision of a
sergeant after they have been drafted from Peel House.

The personnel of the station is interesting. Apart from the
superintendent and the chief-inspector, who are in control of the whole
division, it is in charge of a sub-divisional inspector, with a dozen or
more other inspectors under him and over three hundred sergeants and
constables.

The bulk of the men are single--it is an expensive district for married
men to find quarters in--and live, not at the station itself, but at a
couple of section-houses some little distance away. There they have
cubicles, where they sleep, big reception rooms, sitting-rooms,
dining-rooms, a canteen, and all the comforts of a club.

With these men a complex game of chess has to be played, varying
according to the ever-changing conditions of the West End, where one day
may see a Suffragette window-smashing campaign, and the next a royal
procession, and the following a riot in a park. To deal with these
occasions a number of depots are available--private houses, garages, and
other places where bodies of police may remain out of sight, but
instantly available.

There have been many fantastic stories told, to which the public lend a
sometimes too ready ear, of what occurs in police stations. Always one
can find some person to assert positively that the police as a body are
bribed by bookmakers or prostitutes--that, in fact, there exists a
practical blackmail. These things were investigated and disproved at a
Royal Commission some years ago. They ar