The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-26
He WANTS TO co HOME
Is Heartily Disguised With the
United States.
CAUGHT IN THE DRAGNET
Arrested for Buying Stolen Property.
Jones' Pursuit of a Faithless Wife
and Her Paramour Over an
Ocean and Continent.

William o. Jones thinks America is
| such poor country that he is going
back to England just as soon as he gets
out of a scrape he got into yesterday
| by buying a lot of copper wire from
some boys who had stolen it. Whether
! that time is very indefinite or not can
not be told till he has had preliminary
hearing and Justice Nichols has decid-
! ed whether or not there is reason for
| holding him for trial to the district
court on a charge of receiving stolen
property, knowing it to have been
| stolen.
| Jones story is an interesting one, and
if his statements are entirely correct
| he is a very unfortunate individual, to
say the least. 1t is the story of hus-
band following a recreant wife and
her paramour over sea and continent
and finally bringing up in the hands of
the law to answer a charge of having
committed d penitentiary offense. The
personal part of Jones story became
public property during the doings of a
gang of youthful thieves. For some
time the Street Railway company and
the Electric Light company have been
the victims of young depredators who
steal copper wire and sel\ it to the buy
ers of junk Yesterday morning the po-
| lice We're notified that $3.50 worth of
copper trolley wire had been stolen
from Columbia gardens, being a part
| of the wire that was being used in the
new street car line to the gardens. The
police We're also notified that a large
| quantity of copper wire had been stolen
from the Electric Light company. De-
tectives Murphy and Ray went to work
on the case, and in Goldwater's junk
yard in the southern part of town they
found big coil of copper wire and a
barrel filled with short pieces of the
same kind of wire, which had evidently
been cut up in short pieces both for con-
venience in handling and to prevent
identification. The officers were conf
dent the wire was a part of the stolen
property and confiscated the whole lot.
On inquiring of the head of the Gold
water junk-buying concern who had
bought the wire they We're informed
that Jones, an employe, had made the
purchase, and he was arrested.
During the day complaint charg-
ing Jones with receiving stolen property
knowing it to have been stolen was filed
in Justice Nichols court and he was
arraigned and released on $3.50 bonds.
Jones regarded himself as a much
abused person and in accounting to
Deputy County Attorney Alley for his
having gotten into the predicament,
told the story of his misfortunes. He
said he had formerly been a salesman
in a big hardware house in England,
and was contented and happy till his
wife proved faithless. One day she
appropriated G450 of his money and
eloped to America with man named
Montague. He learned of their flight
across the sea and followed He traced
the couple across the continent and fin
ally located them in Bannock. Idaho,
but before he arrived there they had
taken flight and he again took up the
trail. After a time he learned they
We're in Helena. He went to Helena
hoping to overtake the couple, only to
find they had again eluded him. By
this time his money was gone and he
was forced to abandon the search, so
he came to Butte to look for work. He
found employment with the Goldwater
Junk company. He acknowledged that
he had bought the wire, but said he was
entirely innocent of any wrong, as he
had no idea it was stolen. Jones felt
very sore over his i'll luck. This is
- of a country" he said; las quick
as I get out of this I'm going to let my
wife go to the devil and go back to
England"
While Jones acknowledged to Mr.
Alley he had bought the wire but did
not know it was stolen, he told a diff
ferent story while al the city Jail. To
Jaier Boyle he said he had been Or
dered by his employers to weigh the
wire when it was offered for sale, and
had done so. but insisted that he did not
make the purchase and that he knew
nothing about who did.
The traffic of young thieves in steal
ing copper wire, brass pipes, etc, and
selling them to junk dealers has grown
to such proportions that it was an
nounced yesterday that a strong effort
would be made to put stop to it by
Furnishing the junk dealers who encour-
age the practice since no one knows
better than they that such property is
not likely to be offered to junk shop
for sale unless it has been stolen. 1t is
reported that the young thieves even
steal the bind wires from the street car
tracks and that the company has found
1t necessary to employ track walkers to
keep the boulevard line in operation.
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