Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-01-04
CIRcUMsTAN1AL EVIDENCE
1T HAS OFTEN OPER ATED TO WRONG
INNOCENT PERSONS.
In Some Cases Accidents Revealed
That the Accused Were Entirely
without Blame in the Case.

was CihpioyCu " sell tlCketS Ill TIE
of great outdoor exhibition. A magnifi
Gently shirt-fronted acting manager and his
second in command suspected this mans
| honesty.
They took no counsel with detectives. but
marked number of coins and sent people
with them to pay entrance money. At a
| little after 8 o'clock in the evening they
bounced upon the suspected man. They told
him that they thought he pocketed money,
and they dared him to be searched. Many
fellow servants heard the charge and were
present when the man not only consented
but demanded to be searched Two clum-
silly marked quarters were found him.
He protested his innocence and tried to ex-
plain how he might have got possession of
the coins but no one even listened to him.
A constable was called and the man was
taken to JAIL with hooking crowd of peo-
pie at his heels. Near his pay-box was an
other Among the silver paid over at this
second box and at the box of the man in
custody were found the remainder of the
coins that had been marked. The acting
manager also found that the money in both
tlls corresponded with the tickets sold.
This ought to have warned him that he
had made a mistake as also should the
fact that the second pay-box man tried, in
feeble fashion, to speak to him and eX-
plain how the accused man might be in
noCent.
Innocent Man in Jail.
The unhappy pensioner spent from Satur-
day night till Monday morning in Jail. his
poor wife and four young children suffering
agonies in the meanwhile. On the Monday
the man was charged before a magistrate,
who soon found that the money and the
tickets sold exactly tailed. He insisted
upon having the second pay-box man put up
as witness. Then it came out that dur
ing the course of duty two of the accused
m n
pay-bOX. He, in order to give them some
ccppers. went to his colleague and changed
81 of his own. For his coin he received
two separate quarters and five dimes-all
out of the till Of his colleague. He hap
pened to get two of the marked quarters.
The handsome nineteen-year-od daugh-
ter of a well-born but financially ruined
hopgrower being forced to earn living,
found place with a London florist. She
had, with other attractive girls, to sell bou-
quets at a celebrated West End shop. The
proprietor began to lose money. He and his
wife resorted to the clumsy marked money
device. One day, as the girl about to
take her tea-time tea rest, she was told
that she, with others, must be searched. She
was already dressed for going out, and the
marked money was found on her, wrapped
in bit of dress material of peculiar
kind.
Shop Girls Narrow Escape.
She was ordered into custody at once, and
a dozen customers were in the shop when a
policeman took herr away. She had suffi-
cient self-posse5sion left to declare that an
other girl in the same employ had given to
her both the money and The bit of stuff ma
terial. This second girl had, the accused
said asked ner to oblige. she was going
out, by matching the material at another
Shop and to pay for it with the money found
The second girl, when asked if this so,
denied the story entirely, and did so in the
most convincing way, so far as her master
was concerned.
Among the customers in the shop when the
accused was taken to jail was a man who
often bought flowers at the place. He was
much touched. and he saw the chief de-
tective inspector at the station to which the
accused had been sent. The Inspector said :
mo hope whatever. The case is as good as
over. Girls in her position always try to
put the offense on some one else"
But the gentleman thought that the girl
should at least have some one to speak for
her He put the case into the hands of a
lawyer, who, after seeing the accused, was
so far moved that he had stringent inquiries
made.
In few hours only it found that the
second girl was actually having a dress
made of the materials Of which the bit of
stuff formed part. An alteration in the
proposed style Of the dress demanded that
two more yards OF the expensive stuff should
be bought. 1t was found, too that this
second girl was spending large sums in
dress. and that the character she had come
to her master with was a forged one. She
admitted that she had really handed the
stolen money to the accused. The latter
and the man who had set the defense in
motion were married a few months after
ward.
SaIoOnkeeper Robbed Himself.
Superintendent Shore, late of the Scotland
Yard, says when he was at the YARD a
saloonkeeper missed sums Of money from
his till day after day. His house was one
that opened early in the morning. He was
never up himself, so he always left small
silver, to the amount Of several sovereigns,
for changing purposes. His losses each
morning began to amount to as much as a
couple of pounds. He worried a great deal
about the matter. He was a kindly genial
man, and he fretted quite as much about
the dishonesty of those about him-some of
them the children of old friends-as he did
about the money.
left out for change. When he came down
about in the forenoon one of the bar
maids asked that sum due her for wages
should be paid to her there and then, as
she was going out shopping. The money
was paid. and Immediately afterward the
landlord, before the girl went out, demand
ed that all those who had been in the bar
should be searched. The girl who was GO
ing out and who was the child of d former
partner of the landlords and his own god
daughter, was found to have a number of
the marked coins her. None of the
others had any.
Superintendent Shore knew the landlord
well and the latter asked him as a favor to
be present just after the search had taken
place The detective was impressed at once
by the manner of the accused. Although in
terrible distress. she said: The whole sum
you have found on me exactly amounts to
the total of my wages and copper II tive
over Since l was paid l have never been
out of the sight of the landlord If | have
| marked money on me he himself must have
| given it to me. There is nothing else to ac-
| count for It, Ask him if l ever left his
| sight
The mystery was soon solved. Asked &c
| turn out his own pockets, the landlord PRO-
| duced a considerable number Of the rest OF
| the marked coins. He had for some lime
| displayed many signs Of mental and bodily
! failure BY a test afterward made Il was
| found that he was in the habit of rising r
the dead of night in a semi-conscious state
| He would put trivial things to rights count
| over the money and even open the safe
| He had undoubtedly put the money into
his own pockets. Within a few days of Til:
charge spoken of herein he showed mani
fest signs of brain trouble. Within three
| months or so he died Of softening Of the
| brain. He left considerable legacies to sew.
eral of the employees he had suspected.
Post Officers Installed.
| The oflcers-elect of James A. Garfield
| po.t NJ n were d,lv