The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1901-05-17
THE WIRE TAPPER'S ERROR.
Miscarriage of IN Attack on .
Big Roll.


nTHE corraIling here the other day
of that rea o and glossy
boy. Chappie Moran. the phony wire
Taper. on n charge of extracting
1000 bucks. actual currency. from the
apparel of a moonface who ached TO
get rich right quick, he didn't care
how-the mailing of the Chappie
makes me think Of n wire Taper ]
once knew who made n heart-break-
ing failure Of one of his jobs" re-
marked an old-time Headquarters de-
~tcctiye. now retired. Il refer 10
Iamplighter Barrett. who quit plough
ing these fruitful fields about five
years ago and died in Frisco from an
excessive use Of the hop tot in '99.
..The main difference between Mo-
ran and Barrett lies in this. that Mo-
ran. although an expert telegrapher.
never really tapped a race wire in his
whole money-making career. whereas
Barrett. in the old days when wire
tapping was possible-which il dis
tinctlv is not now-actuall- turned
that trick once in n while when he
found the coin hard TO gain on the
mere %pretense of wire tapping. But
Lamplighter Barrett worked the imi-
tation tapping dodge with enough
skill 10 keep him in Turk cigarettes.
the best hop made in Chink land and
choice raiment. for a good many years
around these and ne~ighboring parts
that is. he stamped between New
York and Chicago and tool in such
intermediary points az Baltimore.
Philadelphia. Washington. Detroit.
Buffalo and other unassuming little
places like those.
Although, az ! say, he really knew
how TO wire-tap and 10 do it right.
and pulled Oft n number of those
tricks. he preferred the easier phony
method. and he was one of the pion-
GERS at 1.-THE simple scheme of TAX
Ing the come-on 10 4 quiet room, show
ing him n lot of wires and clicking
keys. putting up the talk that it was
all fixed to take the results right off
the main wire. and thus coaxing the
dough out of the comeAon's clothes.
The little incident hat I'm going
"a tell you about. however. so proved
upon Barrctt's mind-he was dubbed
Lamplighter. by the way. because he
once achieved a hog-killing on that
rood animal-and touched his pride
20 hard that he never lifted up his
head any more around here after
ward. and il wasn't long before he
streaked for the Pacific.
Barrett was standing in the bar
room of one of the Broadway hotels
much pa~tronized by grafters and
sure-thing men on n fine forenoon in
June, '95, waiting for a good one TO
come his way. His pal, Ed Fellows,
was with him.
barroom from the hotel lobby. a tall.
lanky man who looked uncomfortable
in his store clothes. BY the looks of
him he was obviously from Painted
Post. or Three Forks. or Ipswich. or
some place like that, and il was the
easiest thing in life to put him down
as n of 'em on his honeymoon tour.
lie looked like a new husband from
h woods who had excused himself
from the new wife for o minute and
had just sneaked down to the bar to
throw n in FOL the purpose of reviv-
ing his tagging spirits. He wore a
dead new black sack suit, new black
derby hat Of the up-country block.
new and squeaky shoes and a white
string tie. He walked like he was
stepping over burrows.
Barrett and his pal exchanged
grins when they saw him walk up to
the bar. but, of course, they had no
idea that he was good enough for
them. Simply out Of habit they
watched him when he paid for his
drink. just to see what he had. When
they observed him pull out Of his
right trousers pocket q wad Of the
yellow kind that would've clogged a
four-inch waste pipe they exchanged
glances of a different sort.
SECT next Ed, said Barrett, giving
his pal n dig. Dye think there's a
ball Of yarn or . turnir inside Of that
bunchY'
"'Not in . Million replied Fellows.
~ the goods Go after IT,
The tall, lanky man in the store
clothes peeled of q fifty and hurled
1t on the bar, remarking that that
WINS his smallest, md then he leaned
on one prop and gnzed dreamily NJ
hin reflection in the bar mirror while
the barkeeper was making change.
swell, Fellows was sure there when
at came to butting in. and two min
vtcs later he was purchasing q drink