The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-10-30
SMYTHF.
REYNOLDS.

REYNOLDS. SMYTHE.
l don't think Durrant ! have never been reg
knew my address, and 1larly employed IN this
I used to stop with / have been travelling
Emil Boisen when be considerably buying and
lived in Oakland, near selling cattle mining,
only stay in the City consider my present
dU ring the winter home in Tucson, AriZ,
months, If get work. where have a room on
have not talked with Congress street.
either Taylor or Harring- l don't know any wit
ton about our walk that nesses by the names of
night. Duggan and stewart.
II am paying all my expenses here" is
the way Reynolds endeavors to throw sus-
picion aside as to his needs of money. 81
pay all MY expenses here out of my own
funds" is the manner in which Smythe
describes his financial status for appar-
emily the same reason. Smythe says this
almost at the end of his story and Rey-
nolds soon after the beginning; but Rey-
nolds or his amanuensis had evidently for
gotten that he had already said so, and
Reynolds is therefore made to reiterate
toward the close: II am paying my own
expenses in this City" See the parallel
thus:
REYNOLDS. SMYTHE.
I paying my own I pay all my own ex-
expenses in this city. penses here out of my
Town funds.
There is this particular attempt at safe
guardedness in Reynolds statement, what
ever it might have anticipated, which has
no parallel in Smythe's statement:
don't know any of the attorneys in this case
or Detective Morse or the police.
Reynolds did not write like an illiterate
man who obtains his livelihood by work
ing on ranches. His spelling was correct,
and the simple style of his composition
was at least grammatical. His capitaliza-
ton was proper; that is, he used capitals
where they should be used, and did not
use any where they should not be used
His punctuation, so far as his style of
composition required punctuation, was all
right. His sentences being brief, and none
OF them worthy to be called complex in a
literary sense, only commas and periods
were needed, and REYNOLDS put them
where they belonged.
And what has been said of the literary
qualities of Reynolds diction can also be
repeated in describing Smythe's. Anyway
it would not have been difficult for one
man to have constructed both stories.
There is such lady as Mrs. Mary Rich
ardson in Oakland, whose personality has
been dragged into the matter by Smythe
but his use of her name is not at all borne
out by an interview had with her by THE
CALL yesterday. Witness the following:
OAKLAND, OcT. 29.-Mrs. M. E. Richardson
says she was approached over month ago re-
gardlng the man Smythe, but could give no
clews which led to clear up the mystery. She
cution to help out their case than the defense
There was Band of Hope in the Emmanuel
Church several years ago." said she tonight
(which l visited Easter Sunday two years ago,
put do not remember ever having seen
Blanche Lamont or Minnie Williams
GLOW my name became mixed up in the
plot cannot understand. 1t is done by some
one who knows me well evidently, because l
am called Mary. never was known by that
name, and never sign it, but it is my right
name. The whole thing is deep mystery to
me. L can recall who has
ferred with me about Band of Hope work
which could throw the least light on the mat
ter.''
Miss Mae E. Richardson, daughter of the
lady, however, gave slight clew by recalling
the fact that Mrs. Roberts who lives about
Elmhurst was superintendent of the Band of
Hope in Philadelphia, and that her husband
mas been working on a ranch near Haywards
Tor some time past She believed that it would
be well to investigate the whereabouts of the
man and his doings for several months past.
Mrs. Roberts, whose husband has been
working on ranch near Haywards'; she
former superintendent of a Band of
Hope IN Philadelphia"-that is all Flu
ture developments may throw some light
upon any possible connection which Mr..
Roberts might have had with the affair.
What Detective Morse Says
Detective Harry Morse is outspoken in
his opinion of the two statements which
have so suddenly become part of the
famous case. He believes, he says, that
they are the work of some insane meddler,