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During this period Billy neglected the box cars on Kinzie Street, partially because he felt that he was fitted for nified employment, and as well for the fact that the railroad company had doubled the number of watchmen in the yards; but there were ti for excitement and adventure These times were usually coincident with an acute financial depression in Billy's change pocket, and then he would fare forth in the still watches of the night, with a couple of boon companions and roll a souse, or stick up a saloon

It was upon an occasion of this nature that an event occurred which was fated later to change the entire course of Billy Byrne's life Upon the West Side the older gangs are jealous of the sanctity of their own territory Outsiders do not trespass with impunity From Halsted to Robey, and fro, to which Billy had been alht say Kelly owned the feed-store back of which the gang had loafed for years, and though himself a respectable businessman his name had been attached to the pack of hoodlums who held forth at his back door as the easiestits reat territory were the natural enes of old protected the deer of their great forests fro felt it incuuard the lives and property which they considered theirs by divine right It is doubtful that they thought of the matter in just this way, but the effect was the same

And so it was that as Billy Byrne wended ho the cash drawer of old Schneider's saloon and locking the weeping Schneider in his own ice box, he was deeply grieved and angered to see three rank outsiders fro Patrolman Stanley Lasky with his own baton, the while they simultaneously strove to kick in his ribs with their heavy boots

Now Lasky was no friend of Billy Byrne; but the officer had been born and raised in the district and was attached to the Twenty-eighth Precinct Station on Lake Street near Ashland Avenue, and so was part and parcel of the natural possession of the gang Billy felt that it was entirely ethical to beat up a cop, provided you confined your efforts to those of your own district; but for a bunch of yaps from south of Twelfth Street to attempt to pull off any such coarse work in his bailiwick--why it was unthinkable