The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1905-12-01
I'll O1y


iTF'iltre had been no less an TIL =
~ tiaeffs and burgiaries 81 the-eastern
suburb OF file city All evidently bST the
same hand. and yet the police had
not found the culprit
know tiiat the police worked haEu
on this case. ard that every seeming
,elew was carefully followed. and that
4I,,.y, let I, boy fifteen years old take al
tbs credit away from them was not
fIlelr furfts was that boy. and tlilt
solved the mystery was owing g
Euck. The crimes began about ths
middle OF September. and / gave tnelE
no attention until about the .1st OF 40 -.
vember Then Unopened to pe t4llN-
ing with n man who had had MS push
cart stolen. This, IN fact, was at the
beginning OF the therts. he ment1olAetl
that the tire OF one OF the wheels had
heen wrapped with wire to tighten IT.
ON the night Of the talk another
house was robbed. 1t was only two
blocks from my fathers house, and
went there, with others. The police re-
fused all information, but during the
day was told by a son of the house
holder that they had found tracks un-
| der window. 1t was an open fall,
and the ground had not yet frozen
| The tracks were those OF boot, and
the sole of one had been mended-
went up and down the alley in the rear
Of the house with this boy, and in
the dust we found the impress OF what
looked to be buggy tires. They We're
something else, however-they were the
Impress of the tires OF that pusncarL
| At every revolution one of the wheels
! left a sort of smudge, and was JUS
! titled in believing that it was the tire
that did it.
NV theory was that all the stolen
goods had been taken away in the
/ pushcart, but the cnse was blocked
right there. Where had they been
taken? Had 1 gone to the police with
| my theory 1 should have been ridicul-
| ed. The detective who can't ind
| ;.Iew himself doesn't want any one else
! to find one. When had lain awake
dozen nights trying to figure things
out luck helped me. The streets were
| still dusty a barn had been broken
open and a lot of bedding temporarily
stored therein had been taken.
| happened to be passing the place
when the discovery was made and the
| police telephoned for. There were the
| tracks of the pusbcart again. In the
| dusty road following the cart were
boot tracks, and one of them had
patch on the sole. l followed them Tor
| n mile straight out into Cne country
before they were lost.
It was easy to figure that If the thief
was not selling any of his plumber he
was storing 1t somewhere and that the
country offered a safer place than the
city, The idea now was to follow
along the road and spot or any likely
looking place had my mind made up
that it would be an old barn out about
two miles. I walked out on the road
for i've miles and found no one but
Farmers of honest standing. l took
| two crossroads and followed them for
a distance, but with the same result.
! The thief had gone out that road with
the pushcart and the bedding. but
where had he brought up? The wealth
er changed, the ground froze, and
all Mt once the crimes ceased.
Then luck came again. I was buy
| ing pair of winter gloves in store
when a farmer called and asked for
| pair of Inittens for n woman. Some
| talk followed, and it came out that
she was a widow who was living next
| to him, three miles out of town. He
also asked where he could get pair
of rubber boots for her.
1 got the idea right then and there
| that the widow was the criminal. 1t
seemed absurd, but yet the idea chung.
A detective would have told me to go
home and soak my head, and report
er would lave laughed me out OF his
room. chewed over the thing for
week. and then something happened
had been sent on an errand directly
after breakfast, and I passed house
which had been burgIarized the night
before. There were quite number of
people about, and the owner was tell
| ing them how entrance had been eject
ed and what had been taken. What
hunters and farmers call a tracking
snow had fallen during the night, and
the first thing 1 looked for was the
| track of that pushcart.
| An alley ran alongside the house, and
there they were. There were also
prints of rubber boots. The alley gate
! opened rather hard, and sticking to 1t
! were some small threads of blue yarn.
The farmer had bought blue mittens
| Tor the widow. Taking up the tracks,
| followed them for two miles before
| they were obliterated by travel. kept
on to the house OF the widow ana
| found 1t small cottage. Between the
| gate and the road the cart tracks and
the footprints were as plain as day.
| 1 had worked the case as far as
could and l now went to the police.
was sneered at and warned not to
NEEDLE with their business. went to
| the sufferer by the last robbery, and as
ne was n man of influence and anxious
to get his property back he not ONLY
listened, but insisted that sotnethins
be done. y search warrant was pro