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A WOMAN CONSTABLE
She Does her Work as a Man Does His
The Pet of the Force
[Welland Tribune, 2 April 1897]
The new woman has broken out in a new spot. This time it is the constabulary of the city of Alleghany, Pa., which she has invaded. Miss Florence Klotz can scarcely be called even a woman constable, though for she is only 18 years old. But she’s a constable all right. She serves warrants, summonses and subpoenas with all the authority and determination of a male minion of the law. Miss Klotz’s father is an alderman, whose regular constable was an old man who had an inconvenient way of being sick or invisible when he was wanted for duty. On one of these occasions, about two months ago, the despairing alderman pressed his daughter into service. That settled the matter. The girl constable proved to be the pluckiest, quickest, most reliable one in town. Her very first mission was to serve a subpoena on a farmer living four miles east of town. Miss Florence put on her bloomers, mounted her wheel and went after her man. When she came back, tired, muddy, but triumphant, she found a crowd in front of her father’s office to welcome her.
“I served them, papa,” she exclaimed, and then, womanlike, she cried, even though she was a constable.
She says she would rather deal with 100 men than with 10 women. The women think it is a joke, but the men think that the law must be obeyed even if it is embodied in an 18-year old girl. Before she went into the constabulary she wheeled through Alleghany county getting trade for her father’s candy factory. Next summer she and her sister will ride a tandem, geared to 68, on the same errand. She is described as slight and handsome, with raven black hair and snapping black eyes.
In one case Miss Klotz acted as councillor as well as constable. A butcher had kicked in the door when he found his hallway locked up by the baker who, with his family, occupied the rest of the house. The locking was by order of the landlord, who demanded that it be done at 10 p.m. The butcher was sued for malicious mischief. Miss Klotz brought subpoenas for witnesses, arranged the details of the hearing, cross examined the witnesses and finally had the case dismissed on her recommendation that each of the parties be furnished with keys. The costs were divided, and the young lawyer-constable smiled with delight as she counted over her share.
The only unruly case she has run across was a youngster of 14 who refused to go with her. She took the dilemma by the horns and the boy by the collar, tripped him up, and with a handy copy of “Pilgrim’s Progress” administered a series of businesslike blows where they would do the most good and led him weeping to court. A little jeweled revolver is her only weapon. It was presented to her by a big constable who was filled with admiration of her pluck. She says she doesn’t know what she would do if she ran against an ugly customer, but she declared, with a snap of her black eyes, that she would get him. She is the pet of the municipal force, and if she ever sent word for help the entire retinue of clerks, heads of departments and underlings would turn out to the rescue of Constable Florence. –St. Louis Globe-Democrat.
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