"An Expanse of Flesh Colored Stocking"

Man, Disguised as Woman, Fools Cop Until Hat Falls Off; Then Arrest Follows

((Special to The Eagle.)

     Long Island City, L.I., March 6—Patrolman Stewart Donnelly was nervous. He fingered his club and studied it intently. He almost refused to glance across the aisle of the Steinway ave. trolley car in Long Island City in which he was riding. But he did glance once in a while at an expanse of flesh colored-stocking and at its neatly dressed, heavily veiled owner. Patrolman Donnelly admitted that in court yesterday to Magistrate Harry Miller. But what made the patrolman’s jaw drop and beads of perspiration stand out on his brow was when he dared another sly glance he saw the young lady hastily retrieving her hat and veil which had rolled into the center of the aisle, and the young lady’s head was decidedly scarce of hair.
     Patrolman Donnelly was nervous and he fingered his club in a different manner.
     “Was it or was it not?” he thought.
     Thinking of bob-haired bandits and rewards and medals, the patrolman followed the object of his now intense stare out of the trolley car, and as soon as he had set both feet on the street, snatched the hat from the young lady’s head. A gruff voice called out.
     “Hey, what’s the idea?”
     When Joseph Angelo of 33 North Washington ave. Astoria, was arraigned in Long Island City court yesterday he admitted that he was the person who had interested the patrolman in many ways. He offered the explanation that he was off on the way to a masquerade ball, when the man next to him stood up quickly and knocked his hat off.
     “Until then, I was making a grand success of being a woman, eh, officer?”
     The officer blushed as the magistrate suspended the sentence.

[Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 6, 1924, L.I. section, p. 1]