Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-03-17
A BILKED BARBER.

One Who PlayS the commence Uamo anu
FORCES United States Bonds Brought Ur
With a Round Turn in st. PAULA Mys-
terious Detective and More Mysterious
Prisoner.
Early yesterday morning when Aurora was
breaking the cobwebs of night from the fur
thermost windows of the east, when lazy do
mestics were vexing their drowsy eyes over
the matutinal coffee, and when the good news
paper man was refreshing his perturbed spirit
in the dews of balmy sleep, small man in
gray ulster, midnight beard and small, keen
black eyes, might have been seen going up
Robert street. He walked as if he had mis-
sion and as though he was afraid of getting
left Finally he paused at the corner of Sixth
and Robert streets, studied the signs on the
doors, and, as though he had just resolved to
do something awful, he bolted into Kennedy's
barber shop.
The gentle reader will opine that it was the
most natural thing in the world for gentle
man just off the train to HE him the first
thing to barber shop. But soft; it would
behoovethe reader to put on the brakes of
conjecture and not venture too rashly on the
motives of the small man with the black beard
aud the keen, dark eye. He had other bus
iness than getting shaved to perform that
morning and besides fellow doesn't travel a
thousand miles to meet barber.
The funny little and very ssfy'' young man
cast his optics about that barber shop and the
organ of sight lit on the only individual in
the room-a man of all sorts who was scrub
bing out the shop. The latter observed the
stranger and calculated, "Little early sir, none
bout O'Clock, sir On hearing which the
little man dryly replied, "Humph." After /,
the latter asked if barber worked there named
P. P. Parker. The man stopped scrubbing,
replied that there was and pointed out his
chair. The pert little fellow seemed reassursd
and said that he guessed he would wait.
At Z o'clock young man in genteel attire
entered the shop and was about to take off his
coat preparatory to business. This young
man was fair complexioned, full faced, with
light mustache and q sinister looking eye. A
man of the world would have looked at the
expression in his eye twice. It was piercing
sharp and served as perfect mask
to shield the real character of the
owner. % Still the man looked crooked.
He was about to take off his coat when the
man with the black beard and gimlet eyes
seemed to raise an inch in his boots as he
stepped,up and put his hand softly on the
barber's shoulder. The latter, who is as good
a barberas anything else, was as much shock
gers of the other man had been tipped with
electricity. He looked around, trembled very
perceptably and didn't say anything particular
ly. The man kept his hand on the others
shoulder, spoke quietly for moment,
and the barber changed his
mind about taking off bis coat.
He tumbled to the fact that getting down to
business in that shape again, SO far as he was
concerned, was played out. The reader will
have conjectured by this time that the man
with dark eye was one of those leeches Of the
mission had been accomplished.
The news of the arrest got up town about
10 o'clock, and was the talk at police head
quarters. However, the detective, or pseudo
detective, kept his mouth shut, and the
wherefore of his mission was kept q pro-
found secret
After while the fellows who do the penny.
a-line business for the twilight papers got a
pointer on the thing and started to look the
man up. The twain were found In the wait
ing room of the Jackson street depot, from
which they were to take the noon train for
the East. They beat around the bush, and
got the grand bluff. The man with the black
beard said he was from Hastings, and that it
was only woman scrape, and as such they
wrote it up.
About this time the man and prisoner, who
didn't banker after notoriety, thought that the
depot was getting too warm for them. They
hied them up town and secreted themselves in
a restaurant.
After The GLOBE detective had disposed of
his foreign correspondence, he obtained a de-
scription of the men and started out with the
view of getting on to their racket. A glance
into several public resorts followed and Mont
restaurant was finally reached.
Among others, two men sat eating dinner at a
table.
The knight of the note book selected the men
as the ones he had been in quest of. he ap-
preached, apologizcd for the intrusion, stated
his business, and was met with an emphatic
bluff. They really thought the reporter was
"merely taking dinner, me boy"
said the man with the black whiskers, "and
don't know anything about the parties you
are AFTER" The GLOBE man excused himself,
took walk around the block, marvelled at
the extent to which men are given to lying,
and dropped into the restaurant again.
This time there was no foolshness. plain,
plump question was asked and the man with
the "ay'' eye said, "Young fellow, you're ker-
rect; have seat"
The detective (?) commenced by saying he
wouldn't talk. After some buzzing he said
that he had arrested the barber, P. P. Parker,
at Kennedy's shop on the charge of forging
United States securities; there were about
5000 worth of the forged bonds uttered.
The forgery took place in Chicago, and the
bonds were passed on bank in Illinois. The
detective gave the name of Charles Hamilton,
said he was from Chicago and that he had
turned up several tricks of the same nature
Being accustomed to ''taffy," the GLOBE
man took the prisoner to one side and got his
story. He said that he had been arrested in
Cincinnati on the charge of forging bonds;
that he had got out on bail and that he had
jumped the town. They got track of him at
Omaha, and traced him to this city.
The real name of the prisoner is supposed
to be King; his racket is the icon" game, at
which he is professional expert. He has
been working for Kennedy almost a week and
took this means of averting suspicion until
the danger of his capture was past. They left
for the East on the noon train.
ST. PATRICK'S DAY.