Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-03-05
HoW Sllrewd Detective Sought to Find
a Fortune in Dallas Real Estate.
Experience of ErEmpioyes Of the Farge
People, Who Claim that They are
begged by Snlde Detectives.
The GAZETTE BUREAU, }
S9S NATS- GrzrrT
DALLAS. Tx, March 4. 1880.


amount lost In the Wells Fargo money
chest is known by only the officials of the
company and the voiceless sphinx. Even
the man who got the money, provided
the negro indicted, and in jail for the
theft got it, does not know how much he
is worth. He Is assessed by some of the
newspapers at SIS 900, and by others at
$50 200. There are two reasons why he
would not know how much he got. He
is too ignorant to count the lucre
in the first place, and he
could hardly have succeeded iii opening
the chest and making count in the time
which elapsed before his arrest. This
was suggested by late mploye Of the
Wells Fargo company, who promptly
amended it by adding that other former
employees of the company had had about as
little opportunity TO count their Doodle
since the loss as the negro. He said that
every one OF the old force had been dis
pensed with by the company, and that
they were under the most vigilant sur
veillanoe of half dozen spoilers, or de-
tectives, who are intensely hungry for
the reward offered by the express people.
He declares that enc ex-empleye has lost
his mental balance because of such con-
slant watching, and explained that an
other bad told him he was afraid
TO leave Dallas and hunt
job elsewhere while he was an object of
such dangerous suspicion. He said he
would expect them to arrest him and
bring him back if he left Dallas. IN re-
ferring to the methods of the detectives,
he said they had visited his home so Of
ten that he had learned to he patient
with them. ''They send Is many as
half dozen messengers a day to inquire
tor me, and, on finding me st home,
they usually hand rne an insignificant
advertisement, d free pencil, or a dod-
ger. Sometimes a queer person in Cog
giles calls, and when | go to the door he
inquiries for some other family in the
neighborhood. When we hear the eau
tious step OF barefeet on the porch at the
solemn hour of midnight or the humping
Of something Under the floor, we do not
shout Burglar any more, We WINS
per spotter, and turn over and sleep
again. One man declares that he chased
q detective out of his wife's closet, but
let him &c after the detective had told
him that he was now satisfied that che
was good people, and would not bother
him again. -
Answering the question why he had not
taken steps TO protect his home against
such intrusion, he said that IL would
make him more liable to suspicion, and,
besides, the innocent ex-employes were
as anxious to have the thief captured as
the company, as it would vindicate them
and maze it possible for them to secure
employment with others as well as with
this company again. He stated also
that the providers were understood TO be
private detectives who worked for the re-
ward and were not employed or directed
in any way by the Wells Fargo people
so far as he knew and believed.
The lost chest of yellow gold has GER
tainly augmented the population of Dali
las and caused some OF the visitors to
inspect the wild lands in some of the
suburbs more carefully than they would
otherwise have done. No perfectly re-
liable description of this chest has ever
gone into print, and it is natural that its
shape and size should have caused some
confusion. But when a young, adyen-
turous greenhorn, with the brass badge
of Chicago five-dollar detective agency
on him, takes it upon himself to chase
every carpenter who essays to haul his
tool-chest from one suburb to another,
then we conclude it is time to ring off
Mr.. Swan is q contractor, and he
has a full set of tools. His tool
bushels Of gold dollars, and these would
weigh several tons. Think of would-be
detective VINO is goose enough to mistake
this for the chest of Doodle, and think
once again OF said detective in the act OF
trying to spirit away such q load OF
lucre. Mr.. Swan had job in one of the
various additions to Dallas, and, in
order to reach the place by suu-up he
babe his family farewell at midnight and
started off in q fast trot. He had his
tool chest in the wagon with him and
rations to last him until be could return
to his family. The addition is known as
''Goode 3 addition TO Paradise" and,
while the foxes have holes there,
the goo3ly land is beyond
the habitation OF all mankind.
s'Unto this brier-patch have we come, -
said Mr. Swan, as the jack rabbits
rustled from lot to lot, and three fire in
surance agents suddenly arose out of the
grass and, putting the tall weeds asunder
as if they were swimming in very deep
water, stood before the patient con-
tractor. His chest was deposited on lot
. D, block id, corner OF Wind street
and Loud avenue, and he proceeded to
take out his brier ak to cut the briers
and to keep of the insurance agents.
He had not cleared very long row when
he glanced back to see the head of a
gogzled detective dodge behind his chest.
MIR. swan is a patient man, and when
he asked the mysterious official what
in purgatoFy he was there for,
he did not mean to reflect either on pur-
gatory or the addition. Here tbs detec-
tive told MIR. Swan that he had him, but
had no disposition to hurt him, ''be-
cause, - said he, 81 believe you are
good people. Then he proposed to
Whaek up-he taking half the DOODLE
and Mr.. Swan the other half. The con-
tractor unlocked and opened wide his
tool chest at this jnncture, thus reveal
ing many implements of the hard work
ing man which were too much for the
detective. He tainted and fell outright
upon the ground. The reader must
guess whether the sight of the tools or
the absence of the Doodle floored him
-on the ground; but all will agree
that a detective who viii chase man
as he chased Swan ought to be drowned
In some way.
The mysterious chest has not been
fouud vet. and, In order 20 aid In the