Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1901-03-28

ever NET On half Il ,.ozen occasions
he invited me to drop into his work.
rooms in case l fourd myself near
them, and admit took quite a liking
to him. His wife was more reserved
and less to he seen. but vet the four of
us went to the theatcr occasionally in
company. aud she was agreeable III not
laxative. Hadan was II fair sized
man. who always shaved smooth His
reddish hair was scant, one OF his front
teeth broken. and he limpeu little,
from an old accident. Any policeman
could have picked him out OF Il crowd
ON Il description. Saunders was q
larger man. with hair turning gray,
perfect teeth and side whiskers. Dayi-
son was Il smaller man than the other
two, With black hair black mus
tache and Il prominent wart on his
check. Hadan had the voice of a
woman; Saunders spoke slowly and
with Il growl: Dawson had what might
be termed fair voice.
| Now, then, for six years knew these
three men, and two of them were I'M
der espionage. l talked with them, ate
| with them, drank with them and never
imbibed the faintest idea that | was
the biggest fool in the world One day
q man who was in n machine shop not
| far from detective headquarters was
killed by accident. happened to be
| almost the first one on hand | recog-
nlZed him at once as the tailor. and the
body was taken home. While doing
his work the undertaken found that the
black hair and mustache and wart
( We're all false. This was n revelation
even to the wife. The affair was pub
llshed in the papers and in less than
two days it was found that Hadan.
Saunders and Dawson were one and
the same man. He had padded his body
10 increase his size and apparent
weight and false tooth, whiskers,
mustcEe and a wart had done the rest.
You Will say | ought to have detected
'he che:lt by the voice. In an ordinary
case, YES, but this man had made a
study OF disgusting his voice and was
doubtless natural mimic to begin
With. never caught tone to make
me suspect
You will say that good detective
ought to penetrate such shallow dis
gulses as false whiskers. In answer
10 That let me say that whiskers OF
mustache can be made to look so genl-
Inc mat no living man can detect the
cheat. The wart was Il new dodge and
one was not up to- 1t was SO well
zone that l had seen the man prick II
With pin and cringe little as he did
1T. l should have felt bad enough at
Dclng fooled even had there been no
case III 1T, but there was q case. The
sllNersmith was a fence" for thieves
inc Dflc-a-brac man was another, and
the tailor was Il third. He was mar
RED to three different women; he lived
III thfee different parts of the city; he
carried ON three occupations; he repre-.
sented three different men. All this
he did successfully for six or seven
years ana but for the fatal accident
might have gone on for years more.
during his career he had made n for
tune, and never person had suspect
ed the DISCUSSES. 1t seems as if a wife
should have detected them, but the
/ N-AS
three did not, or at least so claimed
He divided his time between them
passed as Il respectable member of so.
clety, and they accepted his excuses for
MS absence without question. In each
case he told his wives that he Travelled
so many days per week. and in each
case he left the house and returned to
1T with hand baggage. Yes; was made
a fool of; but, fortunately, l was the
only one who knew it, and may give
the fact away now without my identity
being suspected. 1t would have added
more glory to my record to have caught
up the SLY rascal, but now and then
the sllarpest of our profession are out
witted, and IL made stupid blunder
in the one case ! have offset it a dozen
times over in making success of 9th.
| prS