Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-09-17

| the mistress Of the establishment and No
| 9uected TO know whether Mr.. Blank-men-
1 ttonin8 Ne manufacturers name-was in
was an intimate friend Of his and had an
engagement to meet him there. Getting Q
negative reply from the women, I would say that
ing her at the same time the picture in my
iocket No. was the reply In each instance;
! abe did not know the Northumberland the
ninety-hfth house was visited, where the land
lazy ut once recognized the portrait. he was not
IN the city, she explained. requested to know il
I MS lady friend was in, and was told to walk
right upstairs, where would find her. The
girl was the one sought. and she accompanied
me back to New York that afternoon. II was
always supposed by her friends that she had
married well since. Her abductor was never
punished, for fear Of scandal, and he still bears
as highly respectable o reputation as ever.
ANONYMOUS LETTERS
| Most decent people declare that anonymous
letters are unworthy Of attention, very COM
monty they destroy them and pay no regard to
them. knowing that they are most likely to be
/ inspired by motives Of cowardly malice. New
ertheiess my experience has shown that 90 per
| cent OF all such missives contain statements
which are true In the main. Persons who get
| tQ6
writer's. The first step in this kind Of work is
to get as complete as possible a list Of the
friends and known enemies Of the individual
addressed. Next, the guessing faculty must be
put In play to discover who could have a mo-
tive for writing the communications. It
business that the motive should be looked for
at the beginning; once found, it is most
| likely to point finger in the right direction.
Anonymous letters may be divided roughly
into several classes, namely: maliciously an
| noying, threatening, slandering others, appris-
ing secretly Of danger, advising merchants
that they are being robbed and by whom and
| warning husbands about their wives, or vice
versa.
MOTIVE AS A POINTER.
ITO illustrate the value of motive as pointer
/ will tell you a little story. merchant came
to me and complained that he had been greatly
annoyed by anonymous letters connecting his
name In the most offensive manner imagin-
able with that Of an esteemed young lady of
his acquaintance. He had shown the mildest
one Of them to her and she had been exceedingly
mortified. He could not think Of single enemy
that he had. Ny questions elected the fact
| that he was q bachelor and well to do, whereas
she was not well off and over thirty-an age at
winch many women are anxious to be married.
ventured to ask DO you not think it possible
that this lady has written these communications
| herselfY My client felt insulted and told me
pretty plainly that he did not think under
| stood my business. All right, replied. That
may be So He had no more facts to give,
except that the letters were never written twice
on the same kind of paper, scraps and half
| sheets being utilized.
| LIVE ADDRESSES.
| "In the detective business we are aided to a
great extent by chance and intuition. Acct
dent often reveals what all our ingenuity might
not have discovered. In this case felt in
stinctively that had hit upon the correct solu-
tlon-namely, that the woman herself had
| written the letters. She was employed in an
establishment which dealt in what are known
| commercially as live addresses man who
desires to push a specially Of any kind goes to
such a firm and says that he wants 200 names
In Ohio, 900 names in Pennsylvania, and SO
on He pays SO much per thousand for enve-
lopes addressed to these names. in which his
circulars are inclosed and sent broadcast Now,
the names must all Of them be those of live peo-
pie. 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 us q new patent washtub worth S25 to any
one who will write to the firm and agree to act
as Its agent Of course people by thousands re-
spond. each one hoping to obtain washtub for
nothing. They never get anything in return,
but the advertisers secure what they want
namely, Thousands on thousands of names and
auuresses 1nese are termed live addresses,
and. az has been said, they are worth money!
Now it was by such firm that the young
woman l suspected was employed. This fact
would satisfactorily account for the scraps and
half sheets of paper, no two of which were
alike. watched her, caught her in the act Of
posting other anonymous letters to the mer-
chant and obtained from her a confession. She
owned that she had written them for the pur-
pose Of inducing him to marry her.
LETTERS To THE pRosprcrrvr pArurp,x,w
THAT story reminds me Of another. Two
years ago young man in this city was engaged
to a charming girl. Her father received num-
Der Of anonymous letters, stating that his ex-
pected son-in-law was a roue, drunkard and a
gambler. He brought some Of the missives to
| me. They were all in the handwriting of a
| woman. and had been mailed in the same post
| office district. rs the postmarks showed got
| a map Of New York and drew line with blue
pencil on it, marking the boundaries Of that
district. Then l went to see the young man
who was accused, and said to hlnf: Il am
going to ask you some questions but you must
not ask me any What do you meant? he
asked. just what ! say 1 replied, adding
| L am your friend, and you will do yourself an
important service by acquiescing. Now, tell
me whether any lady Of your acquaintance lives
within the boundaries l have marked on this
| map"
FINDING THE WRITER.
swell, he wouldn't answer at all for some
time. Finally, being favorably prepossessed
with him, 1 went step further and told him
that certain charges had been made against him
to the effect that he was a gambler and q
libertine, &c. My visit to him, explained, was
for the purpose Of clearing him Of the accuse
| TONS but he must be content to have it done in
my own way. You see did not wish to let him
| know that / was detective employed BY his
father-in-law to be. reiterated my previous
query and he replied that he did know one lady
in the part Of the city had indicated mention
| ing her name. l showed him simply the hand
writing of one Of the anonymous letters. and.
without being aware Of its contents. he recog-
| nized 1t at once hers. Then, at my request,
We went and called upon the woman, who was
| young and well-connected.
:" Madam said I, on being introduced to
her, 4 have come to ask why you wrote these
| letters to Mr.. So-and-so.'
''She turned pale ghost, put her hand to
her bosom and tried to stammer denial but l
| gave her no time.
Madam, continued. pointing to the young
man, i wish to ask if this is the gambler you
| refer to in these letters? She made no answer
| and went on. is this the libertine and drulYk
| ard you have spoken Off
But it was not necessary to 60 any furthyr
She broke down entirely and confessed every
thing. 1t was a pitiful scene. She ackndEll
| edged that she had written the letters becadSe
she loved the young man and wanted to prevent