St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-21
STRANGE DISCREPANCIES.
Some Queer Cases Chief Speers
Has Encountered.

Has Encountered.
What becomes of all the cases of myS-
ferrous disappearance reported IN the
newspapers? and the number reported
in the newspapers is not One-half of
those reported to the police, asks the
Kansas City Times. What becomes of
them. all? Almost any police official of
experience will readily answer: There
is nothing in them,'' he will tell you.
"Ninety-nine out of hundred of them
are eases of disappearance which have
not disappeared"
Chief Speers, during the fourteen
Years which he has been chief of police,
has come to be somewhat Of a Skeptic
about mysterious disappearance cases,
and he seldom reports one to the news
papers, because, he says, ii he should
give the reporters all the cases which
are given to him the papers would have
to start a mysterious disappearance
column. Besides, it might create I'M
pleasant complications when the mys-
teriouSly disappeared reappeared to his
family and friends.
When a case of mysterious diSap-
pearance is reported at police headquar-
tiers the habits of the lost man are care
fully inquired into, and the peculiarl-
ties of the answers is that they are all
alike in one reSpcct-he was always a
man of good morals, and never touched
liquor. Well, the description is taken,
and in nine cases out Of ten that is the
last ever heard of the case. In few
DAYS the lost man turns up, and tells a
fairy story to his wife. Maybe she will
call at the central station to inform the
officers that they need not look for her
husband any longer; that he was uneX-
pectedly called away on business and
did not have a chance to inform her OF
his whereabouts The officer will listen
diferenhally, and probably congratu-
late the lady on her good luck. He has
had dozens of such cases, and would not
for the world explain the true cause of
the husbands absence.
s.Men of ordinarily good habits will
get off occasionally and stay away from
home for a couple of days." said Chief
Spears, speaking of cases of mysterious
disappearance, "and their families be-
come alarmed and report to me. Some
times they insist thatI shall give the case
to the papers, and they are always sure
the missing man has met with foul
play. Now | would play hob giving all
the cases that are reported to me to the
papers. Some pretty good citizens
would have lot of explaining to do
occasionally. If there is anything in a
case we soon find it out, but the cases OF
genuine disappearance are so few that
we look upon them all with suspicion. Z"
kansas is great state for mySterl-
Gus disappearance" continued the
chief. "The minute a good. StalWart
Kansas prohibitionist strikes Kansas
City he makes for saloon, and he is not
heard FROM until he turns up
at the police station without
nickel. In the meantime his
friends become alarmed at his
absence and flood me with letters. lie
low. for l know that it is only ques-
ton Of how long his money lasts before
we catch him. Why, last fall l had halt
the citizens of Southern Kansas town
telegraphing to me about an old deacon
who was Just like the rest of them. He
had come here, got drunk and over
STAYED his time, and his wife and family
were scared to death about him. They
thought he had been killed sure"
There is a class of mysterious dlsap
pearanceS, however, which the police &C
not pretend to account for. Men VIII
occasionally wander off i'll fits OF tempo
rary insanity. When they recover there
is blank in their lives. 10 the WorlC
they are apparently sane. Ihelr actlons
are rational. but they do the most ira
tional things for persons in their station
of life. Chief Speers remembers goo(
many curious cases of this kind.
1.-The case of Mrs. DR.. Smith, O
Alton, ILL.,, was a curious one," he said
Her husband was wealthy, loved hel
deyotedly, and she returned his eftec
tions, In short, she had everything tt
make her life a happy one. Suddenly
she disappeared, and where do yot
think she was found? Down in a COW
boy camp in Southern Kansas looking
for a lot of cowboys. When she re