The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-21
THREATENED SPEAKER REED.
Anonymous Letter Writer Tried to
Sell Stories About His EpistIes.
Washington Post.

washington Post.
Although it is not generally known,
who are not the victims of anony-
nous letters, threatening them with
death unless they comply with the
is considered one of the best detectives in
the District. carries much weight. Con
tinuing, he said: 1T Is, moreover, curious
how, by merest accident or suspicious cir
cumstance, we are at times enabled TO dis
cover the sender of these letters, after all
regular means have been exhausted. The
most strikig case OF this sort that ever
came under my observation was the one in
which Speaker Reed was the victim. and
which, strange to relate, never got into the
newspapers.
Just before the declaration of war with
Spain, Speaker Reed had made himself un-
popular in the eyes of a good many people
on account of the stand he took in opposing
the war, and several months before the con-
fict began he received anonymous letters
abusing him for his position in the matter
and threatening him with death unless he
desisted. The first letter of this sort that
reached him was, of course, Immediately
turned in to the department, and l was de-
tailed to guard and protect the person of
the distinguished statesman from Maine:
SReaHe I reeorteS for e, dntv Sema ar ai to
him that / thought that he was better able
to take care of me than l of him.
Everything went along quietly for sew
eral weeks. The letters continued to ar
rive. and each one was a little more violent
than the other, but, aside from this, we
saw nothing on the horizon that BODIED ill
for the speaker.
Zone day, however, nearly a month after
he received the first of these anonymous
messages, Speaker Reed was walking UP
Fourteenth street to the Shoreham, where
he lived, and / was following at some little
distance In his rear. For some reason or
other that i do not now recollect / turned
about several times on my way up the
street. and in so doing noticed each time 1
turned that a certain person, a young man,
apparently, was either following the speak
er, or at any rate his actions gave that
impression. To make sure of this L stopped,
and just as he approached within about one
hundred and fifty feet Of me the Speaker
turned a corner, going toward the Shore
ham, and as he did so the fellow. who by
this time 1 was convinced was following the
statesman, quickened his pace and was
on the point of passing me almost on a
run.
by a quick movement I grasped him by
the arm and brought him to an abrupt halt.
AS / did so 1 began questioning him. but
he flew into a towering passion, became
very indignant, and refused to answer any
of my questions. He demanded what right
/ had to stop or detain him, and became so
unruly that / told him that / would take
him to the detention station. and you bet
/ took him there. / do not think that l
ever so so many developments from a thing
that had so mall and meager a beginning.
Reaching the station, 1 searched his
person and found in his pockets some letter
paper that correspondent exactly with that
on which the anonymous letters had been
written. To make a long story short, he
turned out to be the author of the threat
ening letters to Speaker Reed. He had been
an employe of the War Department. had
been discharged, had taken to drink and had
fallen into very hard luck. The result was
that he became something of a crank and a
hater of society. and in this state of mind
was ready for anything. At the same time
that he was writing these threatening let
tiers to the Speaker he was also trying his
best to sell to the New York papers a num-
Der of stories that he had written about
Speaker Reed receiving letters threatening
him with death unless he changed his atti-
tude on the Spanish war question"