Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-01-01

muCh surprised. Inc person VINO Hdu
avoided the service of papers, however. was
always very angry when circumvented.
and in that fact was Dicks greatest re-
ward. My office in those days was in Centre
street not far from the old Tombs, and
had a good many divorce and alimony cases
which were frequently difficult to handle
My clients were not from the upper circle
of society, but as l was not able to choose
1 took everything that came along. The
first case in which 1 employed Dick was
that of an actor whose wife had obtained
a divorce. who had not paid up his alimony
He had some property and l was anxious
to serve papers on him, but 1 never could
catch him. He made his headquarters in
New Jersey or Connecticut. suited his
purpose, and nearly every Sunday he came
to New York to visit friends. He took
mighty good care. however. to leave the
state before midnight, and 1. of course
couldn't serve my papers on Sunday. tried
every old dodge 1 could think of to detain
him in New York until Monday morning
but he was too clever to be caught by
them. This hide-and-seek game had been
going on for six months, when Slippery
Dick came into my office and asked for
work. He showed me letters from score
of lawyers commencing him for work done
and he asserted that he had never failed in
any case that had been given to him. l
considered this actors case as hopeless,
and turned the papers over to him.
." If you can serve these papers, said
!, you will accomplish something that has
you other work.
This is easy one. I'll serve your
man next Monday morning if he comes to
town., he sad.
II had forgotten the case when A mes
senger came to me early on the next Mon
day morning and asked me to come to the
Jefferson Market police court on important
business al O'Clock. When l reached the
court and looked over the line of prisoners
l was amazed to see among them my new
subpoena server and the actor on whom l
wanted to serve the papers. The servers
ia a1xoS Ncor tchn ND tha oil hoe
were torn. When they were brought before
the police magistrate each made charge
of assault against the other. The Justice
talked to them, and then they withdrew
their assault charges and got off with a fine
of 81 each for disorderly conduct. Dick fol-
lowed the actor out of court and served the
papers on him in the street. l never saw
man rage as that actor did. He may have
been quoting some old part, but he did it
well. The server looked as happy as his
vicious face would permit. He had met the
actor at o'clock the night before hurry
ing to get train at the Grand Central to
take him UP to Connecticut. Without any
warning the server pitched into him with
a swinging blow in the face, and in five
minutes the two men were surrounded by
crowd that filled the street. Each accused
the other of assault when the police ar
rived and both were arrested. The actor
could not get bail at that hour, and the
scheme to hold him over on a criminal
charge worked all right 1t was a simple
dodge, and has been worked since, but to
this process server is due the credit of de-
vising 1t. He did a lot of work for me at
time and another, and frequently he
would decline to tell me the methods of his
service.
"'They are my stock in trade he would
say proudly. and if | give them away some
other fellow would practice them
81 had lot of collection work for one of
the big Observation-Disclosures houses. and in
these cases Dick was invaluable Most of
these debts had been contracted by negro
servant girls for jewelry, and it was no.
toriously hard to collect them. If they
were employed in fiat houses they could
spot a server two floors below and decline
to let him in. My server, however, never
failed to reach them and 1 often speculat-
ed what his scheme was. 1t was
posed by an accident. One day, seven
years ago, messenger came to my office
and told me that my process server was
laid up in a New York hospital with two
broken legs. l went up to see him, and
he told me his story. He had found sue
cessful way of serving papers on colored
servant girls by going up in the dumb
waiter If they We're employed in a fiat He
would whistle up the tube about the time
the ice man was expected and when the
colored woman asked What is it,? he
would call out, Ice and then, getting
the dumb waiter. he would assist in pulling
it up. He had discovered that the average
colored woman would tug away at dumb
waiter without looking at it. His arrival
in the place where the ice ought to be oc-
casionally frightened some of them so that
they were willing to give up their jewelry
at once. 1t seems, however, that Dick had
worked this dumb waiter plan to reach a
colored woman employed in 2Sth street.
Just as the dumb waiter had reached the
fourth floor and he was ready to get out
the mistress of the fiat stuck her head
into the shaft, and, seeing a man on the
waiter. she screamed. Dick was so sur
prised that he let go of the rope and down
went the dumb waiter, coming to stop
In the cellar with jolt that broke both his
legs. That was the explanation of his be-
ing in the hospital. He never was able to
walk without crutches after that, and the
last heard of him he was in Chicago
living by his wits. That fellow was a
genius in his line, and it was fortunate for
society that he didn't select burglary in
stead of serving lawyers papers for his
field of work