Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-11-10
ANONYMOUS LETTERS.

How a Young Woman by Means oi
Them Tried to Get a Husband.
"Most decent people," said a detec.
tive, ''declare that anonymous letters
are unworthy of attentions; very com.
monty they destroy them and pay no
regard to them. knowing that hey are
most likely to be inspired by motives
of cowardly malice. Nevertheless, my
experience has shown that 80 per cent
OF all such mlssives contain statements
that are true in the main. Persons
who get them often employ de-
tectives to ferret out the writer's. The
first step in this kind of work is to get
as complete as possible list of the
friends and known enemies of the in
dividual addressed. Next, the guess
ing faculty must be put in play to dis
cover who could have O motive for
writing the communications. 1t is q
prime axiom in the detective business
that the motive should be looked tor at
the beginning; once found, it Is most
likely to point finger in the right di-
rection. Anonymous letters may be
divided roughly into several classes,
namely: Maliclously annoying, threat
ening, slandering others, apprlsing Sc
cretly OF danger, advising merchants
that they are being robbed and by
whom, etc.
"To show the value of motive as an il.
lustration, will tell you a little story
A merchant came to me and CON-
planned that he had been greatly an.
noyed by anonymous letters connecting
his name with that of an esteemed
young lady of his acquaintance. He
had shown the mildest one to her, and
she had been exceedingly mortified.
He could not think of . single enemy
that he had. My questions elected the
fact that he was u bachelor and we'll
to do, whereas she was not well off and
over 80, an age at which many women
are anxious TO be married. l ventured
to ask, DO you think this lady has
written these communications herself?
My client felt lnsulted, and told me
pretty plainly that he did not think |
understood my business. All right l
replied, that may be so.' He had no
more facts to give, except that the let
tiers were never written twice on the
same kind of paper, scraps and half
sheets being utilized.
"In the detective business We are
aided to great extent by chance and
intuition. Accident often reveals what
all our ingenuity might not have dis
covered. In this case felt instinct
lively that l had hit upon the correct
aolution-nsmely, that the woman her,
self mad written the letters. She was
employed in an establishment which
dealt In what are known commercially
as Give addresses A man who desires
t. push q speciality of any kind goes TO
900 names In Ohio, 1000 names in
Pennsylvania ana SO on. lie paws so
much per thousand for envelopes
addressed TO these names, IN which
his circulars are enclosed aud sent
broadcast. Now, the names of all of
them must be live people-who may
buy what the circulars offer for sale.
The way in which they are got Is very
curious. Advertisements are widely
published in newspapers. offering some
valuable article, such as new patent
wash tub worth s25 TO anyone VINO
will write to the firm and agree to act
as its agent. OF course people by the
thousands respond, each Que hoping to
obtain a wash tub for nothing. They
never get anything In return, but the
advertisers secure what thew want
namely, thousand. on Thousands of
names and addresses. These are
termed live addresses aud, "a has
been said, they are worth money.
"Now II was by such firm that the
young woman / suspected was en-
ployed. This fact would satisfactorily
account for the scraps and half sheets
of paper, 20 two of whieh were alike.
| watched her. caught her in the act Of
posting other aaony s1ous letters TO the
merchant. and obtained from her
confession. she owHed that she hsd
written them for the purpose of Undue
ing him to marry ner. Boston Tran
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