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«' * i "'"s'" T-:a - ~ .VT •W^-^'-rTT- *>"*•; ,, -*."•*•.% ? r.,*, w%. v'\* * * A Pin for a Clew ijfiy an Ex-Operative of the Secret Service i?' Capt. Dickson Illustrates a De­ tective's "Nose for Details.'* w K-K" ' HAT do I consider the most important thing to notice when first investigating a crime? Capt. Dickson, a retired secret serv- ice officer, had re­ peated the words of my question. After some moments of thought, he replied: "Weil, from my own experience, it has become a fixed conviction with me that no Crime is ever committed where the criminal fails to leave be­ hind some clew that, if it is only found and its worth appreciated, will in­ variably lead to the detection of the culprit "I have a case in mind, a post-office robbery. It happened when 1 was con­ nected with that department, before I was transferred to the broader field of the secret service. I will never forget the village where it occurred. It was a town of some 300 or 400 souls in the <Jreen mountains. It had only one hotel, and in the three weeks that I was detained there, I almost de­ stroyed my digestion endeavoring to support life on its abominable fare. I believe that I felt a keener satisfac­ tion in the royal meal I secured at Boston, on my return to Washington, than I did in capturing the author of the robbery. "The post-office safe had been tapped for a large quantity of stamps, about $500 in money and a brand new money-order book. This last item gave importance to the case, because -a book of money-order blanks in the hands of a clever crook can cause the government more trouble than a ses­ sion of congress. "The safe was a crude iron affair 'which was fastened by means of a clumsy brass key. The key was foo large and too heavy to be lugged about, and after the safe was lockecf it was hid away in a corner of the cash- drawer. A peculiar circumstance of the robbery was that the m safe had been found locked and the key was in Its place of concealment. The cul­ prits had possessed an intimate knowledge of the habits of the post­ master and his assistant, Miss Lundy, a young lady of fine appearance and charming personality. "Mason, the postmaster, had a theory that two tramps had committed the theft. He said that two suspicious characters had come into the office the afternoon before the robbery and had bought five two-cent stamps. He con­ sidered this a suspicious circumstance, r^l^as he said that persons of their type always bought stamped envelopes--no more than they needed at the time-- and that they always mailed their let- inters before leaving the office, address­ ing them with the dilapidated pen maintained by the postmaster at all country offices for victims who have no alternative than to use it. At the back of the building, a window-glass had been broken out, and Mason espe­ cially directed my attention to it, as he said it must have been by this means that the robbers gained en­ trance to the building. All of the doors had been securely locked. * I made a minute examination of the premises, and the only thing I found was a small steel pin with a green- glass head. It was in a crack of the floor immediately in front of the rifled 4.^safe. Without attracting attention, I . , secured the pin and stuck it beneath Jr tbe lapel of my coat. I thought it might prove of value. It did. It was the key to the situation. "My examination showed that the , 'jobbers had entered the post-office they left the building; that these per- sons were a woman and a man and that they had taken the pains to ad­ vise me of what they had seen by means of the brief, unsigned notes. "The situation puzzled me more than ever and I didn't fall asleep until late that night, having tossed away many restless hours upon the instru­ ment of torture which did service for a bed to the stuffy room of the ho­ tel. Involuntarily, nejct morning, I as soon as my eyes opened. It was there, a third note, on the same pa­ per, in the same hand and of the same purport as that of the morning Lundy came Into the office. With a woman's intuition, She saw that some­ thing. ...Was wrong. A look-'.of terror, which smote me to the heart, swept over her face. She sprang forward and stepped between Mason aud me, who stood staring at each other like wooden images. " 'Oh, Capt Dickson,' she sobbed, 'don't you believe him. He didn't have a thing to dp with it. I did it myself. The money is in my trunk. I have burned the stamps and the money-or­ der book.' M 'She didn't do it, Capt Dickson,' ranted Mason like a man demented. 'She knows nothing about it I alone am guilty and she is merely trying to save me from prison; she is my af­ fianced brida* „ ** " 'Hold on there,' I cautioned, 'you are a pair of sentimental young inno­ cents, and while I am willing to give you my blessing, although it is a bit out of my line, I am not going to be­ lieve a word either of you say about this robbery and don't either of you dare to breathe a word of such absurd nonsense |o any one else. I know that neither of you robbed the safe and you couldn't convince me of it if you talked alone had caused their marriage to be so long postponed; he had seen her leave the post-office at an hour of night when she could have had no business there and at which,, even had she felt some necessity fof visiting the office, propriety would have presented her doing it; she had worn the very tube-rose blossom that he had „ found in the office. Although these circum­ stances seemed to fix guilt upon his assistant beyond a doubt, Mason had thought only of shielding her. He had endeavored to figure out some plan and had conceived the idea of the tramps and the broken window, im­ mediately he had smashed the glass of the back window with the stick that was employed in fastening it. Miss Lundy had arrived at this inoppor­ tune time and had seen Mason strike the blow. In her excitement over the robbery, the had forgotten the inci­ dent, nor did she remember It or at­ tach any importance to, it until Mason had showed it to me as the place where the tramps had gained en­ trance. Miss Lundy had heard me question certain village characters about the tramps and had heard them deny having seen them. She had heard Mason tell me of them and knew that HAVE MADE RECORD SPLENDID VtOflK Of AMERICAN ***** aiMUtoAisr BUILDEM, - ?•> f, * r R 1 6//f mxrw/r £ 4 \, Ibroken window tbe front door, and that the f- 'i o . 7 * -VfW telse st had been broken by accident. was merely a blind or -ir-3ftl f' w: ?• .?• - take much stock is this last ' C. - «$*keory, but put the window down as a deliberate effort to muddy the water. ' 'There were two doors, a front and a J&;^i>ack one. The rear one was kept 1 .locked and the key to it hung on a ' ^ 'n 'ke office. Only Mason and ,]& Miss Lundy had keys to the front door. "It was not so easy to trace Mason and the young lady on that evening. ilpAfter some considerable work I earned that neither of them had been t home the early part of that par- cular evening. No one knew where ey had been nor what they had done during this period. Mason had left his home and Miss Lundy her boarding house early after supper on that night on the pretext of taking a walk. Elation had returned sometime after midnight. /The hour of Miss Lundy's return was uncertain. "Already sorely puzzied over the evi­ dence which was accumulating, one morning, upon arising, I was more than ever mystified by finding a slip of paper under the door of my room. In a sprawling, unnatural hand, four words were written upon it Maeon robbed the safe. When I visited the postofflce, I no­ ticed that Mason was pale and hag* gard and he was aB nervous as a caged leopard. "When I went to the hotel at noon, ;i^found a tiny note on the table in my room. It was a dainty, perfumed bit of paper just the kind that refined young ladies employ in their polite correspondence. 1 jumped to the con­ clusion that it must be a furthur mes- sage of the same character as the morning s note. It was, but there wau a decided conflict in> the news it con­ tained. In a cramped, disguised writ­ ing, evidently a woman's, were five word#: Miss l.undy is the robber. I "Frankly, I didn't know what to } think, Suspicion and these mysteri­ ous notes pointed to the postmaster and hie handsome assistant. The let- h > - '•m '• I tiprjf Were written by different persons, and It was easy to imagine that Ma­ eon and the young lady had robbed the safe and that each of them had beensecnt'y a different person as before. The only change was in the wording of It Why don't you arrest Mason? He robbed the postofflce. Ask him if he didn't break the window-glass. He won't deny it. "I worried through the morning somehow, never trusting myself to show up at the post-office. At noon I was forced to go back to the hotel, aB it was the only place of public enter­ tainment in the village. I headed straight for my room, expecting to find a fourth note on the table. 1 was not disappointed, for there it was, as big as life, the exact counterpart of the day before: Mlas Lundy is the robber. "More than ever puzzled, I strolled over to the postofflce after lunch. Ma­ son was there and alone. Miss Lun­ dy had not returned from her dinner. The postmaster's face was piteous to behold. He shrank from me as I greet­ ed him and put his hands over his face. His hands shook like a man's with the palsy. Before I could find a seat he arose and went into his pri­ vate office, beckoning me to follow. "I seated myself and watched with patience while he strode back and forth across the limited space of the office. Suddenly he stopped squarely before me, and bracing himself with a painful effort, blurted out a jumble of words, confessing that he had robbed the safe. I was struck all of a heap, but never for an instant did I believe him. There was something about the very language of this inco­ herent confession and his manner in making it that told me that Mason was not the thief. " What more do *you want?* Mason breathed. 'I did it, I tell you, and I shall be convicted of it I can't re­ store the stamps and the money-ord^r book because I have destroyed them, but here is the money, every penny of it.' ; "He threw a roll of bills in my lap and continued: ;i " 'My confession is sufficient toT con­ vict upon. I will repeat it in court and I want you to arrest me and get me away from here Just as soon as you can.' "Just at this juncture .the depot- agent entered the office with a tele- gram for me. It was a cipher mes­ sage from the department. Taking out my code book, I translated it in a moment and the contents of it, in the light of Mason's confession, was noth­ ing less than unnerving. ' "Without a word I wrote the mes­ sage out and passed ft over to Mason: Money orders being pasaed Waco and other lexas towns. ( What does it mean?' he cried. "Before I could answer h<fn, Miss a thousand years and produced the charred remains of that money-order book itself. Dry your eyes, Miss Lundy; Bhake yourself together, Ma­ son, and let's get down to serious talk and clear this thing up. See here,' I continued, producing the four notes that had been left at my room, 'honor bright, now, you wrote these notes, didn't you?' "I didn't stay jto hear more but beat out of the office as if the furies were at ruy back instead of two lovers hap­ py beyond expression in the knowl­ edge that their doubts were unfounded and that there was happiness still re­ maining for them. I wasn't going to take chances on their being disturbed, so I took possession on the porch be­ fore the post-office door to head off any persona who might feel inclined to in­ trude upon their privacy. "After some time they called to me. Between the two of them they ex­ plained everything. They had long been lovers and. with the aversion that lovers have for the clattering of vil­ lage gossips' merciless tongues, they had succeeded In keeping their attach­ ment a secret. They had been en­ gaged for some time, and It was> their cuBtom to meet at the home of a kind­ ly old widow lady of an evening, she alone knowing of their engagement. On the night of the robbery they had spent the evening together at the wid­ ow's. "She and Mason had left the wid­ ow's about ten o'clock and Mason had left her at the gate. After leaving her, Mason had taken a long stroll and, about midnight, had passed the post- office in returnios to his home. _As he. approached the building he had seen a lady leaving it, closing and locking the door after her. He had stopped in bewilderment, as he knew that only Miss Lundy, besides himself, had a key to the office and, in the uncertain light, he thought that he recognized her. It never occurred to him to fol­ low the woman, but he had allowed her to turn the nearest corner and then ;he had let himself into the post­ offlce. His hasty examination failed to show anything amiss. On the floor, directly in front of the safe, he had found a tube-rose blosfeom. Miss Lun­ dy had worn such a bud that evening, and although he had importuned her for it she, with a woman's wayward' ness, perhaps Just to tease him, had refused to give him the flower. "Next morning, when he opened the safe he discovered the robbery. His suspicion of Miss Lundy had then come upon him. There were many facts against her, as he saw it. She had received a sum of money for which she had been waiting and which t m " -"'iS it was a fabrication. She had noticed the nervpus condition of Mason, at* tributable to his belief that she had been the thief, but she had attributed it to his guilt. She had desired to shield him and had written me the whole account herself. "It was a pretty tangle. The lovers had straightened it out to their own satisfaction and, while I knew that neither of them had any guilty knowl­ edge of the deed, I was far from being satisfied and felt that my w.ork had just begun. "With my suspicion of Mason set at rest, I could c^fide more fully in him, so i set out with two clews, the wom­ an visitor that Mason had seen and the pin with the glass head. There were many women In the village that fitted the description In a general way and that was a hard clew to follow, so I fell back upon the pin. There were none of the kind for sale in the village nor had there ever been, so I knew that the pin must be an Imported one. This was some progress, but I was still far from shore. "I don't know that I would ever have run the thief to earth if it. hadn't chanced that I met a lady one after­ noon who wore a flower pinned upon her breast. A glance showed me that the pin which held it was the twin brother to the one I liad found. The lady, I learned, had been in the vil­ lage some !four or five months, teach­ ing a dancing school with great suc­ cess. No one knew where she came from. "It was an easy matter to clear up the robbery after this. She was an old timer in criminal deeds and as slick a crook as ever wore petticoats. She had easily* learned the careless methods t of the post-office and, when she deemed the occasion ripe, had se­ lected a skeleton key from her stock and pulled off the robbery, a neat job except for Mason's untimely appear­ ance upon the scene. She had most of the stamps in her possession, but she had sent the money-order book to her husband, who was then operat­ ing in the profitably field of theaouth- west , , "How about the lover*, did you say? They were married in due time and I had the pleasure^ of officiating as best man." (Copyright, 1909, by W. G. Chap (Copyright in Great Britain.) . , -- Wj. China's Chief Port. Nearly 45 per cent, of all tha im­ ports to China last year paid dujf at • Shanghai.; ; Some tropical daisies measure a foot In circumference. / •v' hlk -W fA> A-iaf Comprehensive System of Lines Now Exists in the Philippine Group-- Much for F»roSfM#tC? '• of Islands. Two years ago a party of engineers sailed from Seattle,, their destination being thfe' principal islands of the Philippine groilp; their object, the con­ struction of the comprehensive system of railroads outlined in the early days of the Taft regime, writes P. E. Pans­ ier in Van Norden Magazine. These young American college men--for nearly all are graduates of Purdue, Cornell, Wisconsin, Boston "Tech" and other engineering schools, and the average age of the entire party is barely 30--have succeeded even be­ yond their enthusiastic hopes. They have settled beyond a doubt one .of tha most vital questions that confronted the American administration--wheth­ er or not the Filipino can be directed from his wild and unsettled ways into the paths of industry, thrift and prog­ ress. And they have accomplished the im­ mediate object of the expedition, for to-day there are several sections of the railroads in operation, and those re­ maining wili be opened within the next few months. The work has been done under unusually adverse condi­ tions; it has been well done, and it is probable that the standard of con­ struction is higher than that of any of the pioneer American lines. All of the bridges, culverts and drains-- and fully three per cent, of the entire length of the system is made up Of theses-are of concrete or steel or both. The roadbed has been carefully graded and the track well ballasted. The rolling stock is of American manufacture^ the best pf its kind that can be produced. The cars have steel frames and are finished in teak, a wood that is immune from the attacks of the ever-hungry white ant * American money, to the extent of 20 to 30 millions, will be invested in this project, and it is expected, bas­ ing estimates on the balance sheete of a steam railroad now tin operation, and of lines in China, that the returns will amply repay those who havt had the courage to go into an untried and most unpromising field. •> Little can be learned of the part of the system that is laid out on the Island of Luzon. The concession for this island was awarded to interests almost entirely British, although it was the intention of-the United States government to restrict the conces­ sions to American capital. The ex­ isting road from Manila to Dagupan will be extended northward, through the • rich Lepanto-Bontok province, while another trunk line will strike into the rich Cagayan valley, where is produced some of the finest to­ bacco in the far east. Another line will run southward to Bantagas, and yet another into Albay and Sorsogon, the fertile provinces in the extreme south. The freight cars, too, are consider­ ably smaller than standard box cars in this country, as the Filipino farmer ships in small quantities. The ques­ tion of equipment has been carefully considered by a technical board, which has studied the practice of the Natal government railway, Le Chemin du Fer du Kongo, the Sudan Government Military railway, the" Great Indian Peninsular railway and other tropical properties. No expense will be spared in the initial equipment and extensive shops will be built in which all repairs can be made. It is even possible that such rolling stock as may be needed in the future may be entirely built by native workmen. Experience in the shops of the elec­ tric railway at Manila has .shown this to be feasible. '4- % •&$- " f ' A Pioneer Engineman. Now that tho movements of every railway train ure regulated by tele­ graph, one sometimes wonders how railroads were managed when the tele­ graph was unknown. A well-known official answers the question by fur­ nishing certain of the rules in foreo 55 years ago on a southern road. Time was not so precious then as now. The "engineman" was permit­ ted, even ordered, to be leisurely and careful, as is indicated by these speci­ men rules: "Should any Stock be killed which would be likely to endanger the safety of the next train passing, the engine- man will stop his train until the track Is cleared. "In connecting and starting the en­ gineman will be exceedingly careful in the management of his throttle,, so the cars may not be injured or the passengers annoyed by the vio­ lence of the start. "When a train is approaching a stopping place, It is the £uty of the engineman to see that the fire is so regulated that it will be unnecessary to blow off Bteam while the engine remains stationary. "All engines running at night must keep the dampers open so as to show a light*--Illustrated Sunday zlne. Improved Danger Signal. A new railroad signal has been in­ troduced Into France. The purpose of the new invention is to bring di rectly before the eyes of the engineer during a fog the warning that in a short time a signal may be expected. At a fixed distance from the signal post two parallel Iron bars, with n small space between them, are mounted along the lines for several yards. There is attached to the loco­ motive an arm which carries a bristly broom made of pliable copper wires. The passage of this broor^ between the iron bars produces a contact. An electrical action follows, a bell sounds on the engine, and a white slide re­ places a red. The sign remaiuBjplata- ly visible to the eye until the engineer presses a button. He knows definitely that a signal is to be expected, and, V he cannot clearly make out the order Intended will stop the train. ' • .• v< •T , ** r r 'A < r ' ••?- *' Take a map of North America, place the needle of your compasses half-way across Lake Michigan nearly iliue east of the Wlsconstn-IIilnols line, and describe a half circle to the left from Milwaukee to South Bend. It looks like a small bit of territory, but that strip of land as it curves around the end of Lake Michigan, some 25 miles wide and 200 miles long, is destined to become the manufacturing center of the world. This assertion is not imaginative, but is based on solid facts and figures, and its truth­ fulness Is rapidly forcing itself on the minds of the country's-leaders in in­ dustry and finance. Conditions there to-day more than foreshadow the fu­ ture. Look again at the map and note the cities that are included in your semi-circle. Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, Elgin, Aurora, Chicago, South Chicago, Pullman, Kensington, Chicago Heights^ .Sheffield, Whiting, Haihmond, East Chicago, Gary, La Porte, Michigan City, South Bend and a score of lesser note. Ie every one great maiiujacturiijg establishments future status of the district as th# great manufacturing and distributing center, ,ln three years it ereated a city of 30,000 people centered about its mighty mills. The Olivers, thf Studebakers, the Deeres, - the Me- Cormicks, the Deerlngs and all th£ Other manufacturers are alive to this * opportunities of the future. They ra» joice in the approaching completion of the Panama canal and are deter­ mined that false economy and polltlr cal scheming shall not delay th* building of the Lakes-to-Guif deept^ waterway, even if they have to pay for it themselves. .. .... , The commanding position of industrial district is well Indicated the trademark of the M. Rumel; Company of La Porte, Ind., repro­ duced herewith. This company, in Its spirit and achievement, is typical dt the manufacturers of the district. Within the last three years it has doubled the size of its plant, and still it is unable to supply the demand for its goods. Nevertheless it does no| rest satisfied, but is already plannis# ."i tneljr r: 3^^ B Record Hard to The death record of the railroads in New South Waies is erne in sevec years. are roaring day and night, all the year round, turning out products for the world. The smoke from the myr­ iad chimneys lies like a pall over the land by day, and by night tho glare i of their furnaces lights up the sky like a chain of conflagrations. Hun­ dreds of thousands of railway trains and thousands of vessels pour into these cities an endless stream of raw material--Iron, steel, lumber, grain, coal--and depart again laden with manufactures that are sold In nearly every land on the globe. So it is to-day. What will it be to­ morrow, when the deep waterway from the Great Lakes to the Gulf is opened up, as it must be, and the Panama canal is completed? The'ac­ complishment of those mighty enter­ prises means that tjie entire South American continent will be reached from this manufacturing district at the foot of Lake Michigan more di­ rectly and economically than from any other in the world. And the manufacturers there are alive to, the opportunity and prepared to accept it. The wonderful farming lands of western Canada are only beginning to be known, but already thousands of alert progressive American farmers are there, and they ar© calling for American-made farm machinery. Mex­ ico is demanding our manufactures more and more insistently each year. American ' threshers, harvesters, plows, buggies, wagons, windmills and mining machinery are used in every civilized country on earth. And our own broad land, rich and prosperous, steadily demands almost as much as the manufacturers have been able to supply. That is the niarket of the present and near future. ^ The laws of trade are that it must be supplied by a district so located that the raw ma­ terial can be brought in and tbe fin­ ished product sent out most expedi­ tiously and most cheaply; a district with ample transportation facilities by land and water; a district with a plentiful supply of skilled labor and a climate in which the laborer can work to best advantage; a district with capitalists of brains and energy, who are not afraid to spend money In order to accomplish results. In a word, such a district as is found around the southern and southwest­ ern shore of Lake Michigan--and found nowhere else on earth. Wise Americans of affairs are well aware of this fact, as Is shown by the action of the United States Steel Corpora­ tion in building Gary, Ind. The steel trust did not locate its giant plant there by chance or for any fanciful reason. Recognizing the present and The Country's Rainfall. The total rainfall of this country, In­ cluding snow and that on water areas, was given as 215,000,000,000,000 cubic feet a year. Half or more is evapo­ rated. About one-third flows into the sea. The remaining one-sixth 1b eith­ er consumed or absorbed. Of the 70,- 000,000,000,000 cubic feet flowing an­ nually Into the sea less than five per cent, is used for power. It is estimated that 85 per cent, to 96 per cent N of the volume is wasted in freshets or de­ structive floods. There are in (be United States proper 232 streams navigated for an aggregate of 26,115 miles, and as much more is navigable fcy improvement , v f 'H , more new buildings and, as its trademark indicates,, is reaching out for yet broader markets. Five hundred workmen are employed in ma­ king the threshers, plowing engines, and other agricultural implements which It turns out and 13 branch of­ fices and a hundred' traveling sales­ men distribute them. The witfe^ awake officers of the company have had their eyes on the Canadian mar­ ket for some time, but only recently felt justified in entering it. Their first salesman sent there met with extraordinary success. Now the Rume- lys are turning toward South Ameri­ ca with the certain knowledge that, given equal transportation facilities, their goods will soon replace t{iose of European manufacture. During the financial depression of last year the Rumely Company stood in a class al­ most by itself. While other manu­ facturers were closing down their plants, discharging their salesmen and in every way checking expendi­ tures, the Rumely Company kept right on turning out machinery and selling * it. The demand for its goods last year was greater than ever before. Tlie reason why, the Rumely goods sell so well is not far to seek. Meinrad Rumely, frho established the business in 1853, also established the policy of making every machine he turned out a little better than it had to be. His sons and grandsons have never de­ viated from that policy for a mo­ ment. The success of the products of their immense plant lies in correct design, highest quality of materials and thorough workmanship. The ma­ chines they turn out are always the best that can be built The Rumelys have attacked a new problem that has become actual duf* ltig the last two years. Their achieve ment in the manufacture of success­ ful steam plowing engines and of mechanical tractors, will mark an era, as did the plows of John Deere and Oliver, and the binder of McCormlcK. To-day, for the first time in the his­ tory of the world, Is it possible to produce power by mechanical trao tors more economically than by the use of the animal body. Out of every hundred pounds of fuel or food more pull can be obtained from an engine than a horse or a mule. Twenty-eight million horses are engaged on the farms of the United States alone far plowing purposes. The motors per­ fected by the Rumely inventors are supplanting the horses wherever thejr are put into use. They have reduced the cost of plowing from $1.50 to 60 cents per acre. Although operated almost continuously, the factory ca» not produce engines enough. 1 Baby "Helped" Mother." « - "The child is mother to the woman" may be an apt paraphrase to describe the significance of the following inci­ dent: A Perth Amboy (N. J.) matron recently, in honor of a visiting friend, baked an imposing chocolate layer cake. Chocolate frosting covered the entire outside of the cake, which was left on a kitchen table to cool. To the mother, entertaining the friend, her daughter called, explairjng her ab­ sence: "Muvver, I'se keenin' up for oo." Presently the mother went to the kitchen. "See," said her daughter, ex­ hibiting the cake, taken apart and scraped of all its Chocolate. Tan Qleahed this nassy eaka.*^. »i,