The morning times., 1896-04-04
HAD | RARE TASTE FOR lRT
Two CoIored Men Charged With
the Portrait Theft.
BUT DETECTIVES LOOK WISE
Agent Mckenney Repudiates Any Hint
of Family Connection, and Says
Three of the Carroll Pictures Have
Been ecovered-IgnOrant Negroes
Left Valuables and Took Paintings.

The bones OF the CAROLS have ceased to
rattle. No skeleton toe stubs itself against
it's coffn-lid; no skeleton finger mocks a
living Carroll; no sepulchral voice cries
in midnight tones Hang mp them pictures ~
Order is restored in the graveyard OF tue
CAROLS.
Carroll dignity is vindicated.
Those Carroll portraits have been found :.
In the expressive language OF the central
bureau, in the picturesque tongue OF Tue
detective, those Carroll portraits nave been
'coughed up"
Those portraits were actually taken Dy
somebody not a Carroll. Those PORTRAITS
would be a priceless DoOn TO any meiLber
OF the Carroli family, proud as tuitl Taihily
is OF what it has been anu Wiat IL LliShI
be- But priceless boon as those portraits
would be 10 any Carroll, not single Car,
roll severed the ssilken cords that bound
those time -tinged pictures TO their rusty
rastenings on the moidy walls or tne ueso-
Olate Carroll mansion.
BOTH ART CRITICS.
Those portraits were truly stolen by
outsiders They We're sWiped by TWO
poor colored men who work IN stable
whose conception OF art is somewhat ele-
mentary, whose reverence Tor deao Gar
rolls is not us great as IL cOuld be ana
whose peculiar appreciation or rare olu
family portraits mad not hitherto been
suspected by the police.
pieces OF art, these two poor co.orcd men
who work in "a stable, are charged Win
having given the pictures 10 ihe Ilrst
man they met.
work i'll a stable and who make Speciality
of stealing rare old family portraits, are
Jpfferie Jefferson and William Thompson.
These men were arrested yesterday on
va rrants sworn TO by F. ID. McKcnney at
torney tor the Carroll estate. Three OF the
pictures are said to have been yielded up
py one Harry foweil, 10 whom Inc co.orcn
men gave them. The men were not only
arrested on the charge of having stolen the
portraits, but it is said they are to be
prosecuted for having stolen them.
MR. M'KENNEY FELT BAD.
Attorney Mckinney aud a Times re-
porter mad chat yesterday about the Car
roll portraits. Mr.. McKenney said that
there is not the slightest foundation for the
suspicion that any member OF the Carroll
family sought To get possession or those
portraits by having them taken Off the walls.
| There was no logic in The inference. III did
great injustice 10 some worthy citizens
! ii was cruel. The family had been misrepre
sented. The portraits, that is three OF them,
had been recovered.
The case is one OF the most delicate with
which central office detectives have been
| called upon to deal. The Art Mystery. as
! 1t is called by the police, is referred to II
| suppressed tones. All the detectives talB
| about 1t with the sort-pedal on, and De
! teCtive WeedUn, who was assigned to the
! case, always SWetlcnS DIS DreatD WIN
! Glove before prOnOunCiDa that reyereut word
| "Carrull.'
The men charged with crime could moi
! be seen by members or the pIeSs. IL was
said by some that they had confessed, but
this could not he proved.
HE CHANGED HIS MIND.
If ali the agitation which has been going
on among the CAROLS had occurred in the
! reservoir Potomac water would be muddy
| for month.
When Mr.. Mckinney reported to the
| police that the pictures had been stolen, and
| Detective WeedOu intimated that he thought
| he could turn 'em up the blue blood
| OF the Carrolis boiled and their white h ands
! shook. Detective Weedon couldn't See whal
| thieves would want with family portraits
! of people they didn't know. He took of
! his shirt and was about 10 raid the houses
! OF several fashionable people, when Mr.
| MCkcnney concluded that he could work out
| the case and that the detective office had
| best let IL alone.
1t was then that the detectives began to
! think so hard that the thoughts made Il ,fcnt
! In the forehead.
gas fixtures in the house had not been mo-
/ leSted. Only the works OF art had beeI
| TOUCHED. The men who are charged Will
/ selecting the works of art i'll preference 20
/ the gas fixtures are employed in stable
| Bill thompson, one OF the art critics some
! times Sati2teS the cravings OF his artistic
nature by driving coal cart for j Maury
| Dove.