The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-08-16

patch on the sole. 1 followed them for
mile straight out into the country be-
fore they were lost.
1t was easy to figure that if the thief
was not selling any of his plumber he
was storing it somewhere, and that the
country offered a safer place than the
city. The idea now was to follow along
the road and spot off any likely looking
place l had my mind made Up that it
would be an old barn out about two
miles. 1 walked out on the road for
five miles, and found no one but farm
ers of honest standing. 1 took two
crossroads and followed them for dis
lance, 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 weather
changed, the ground froze, and all at
once the crimes ceased. 1 had secured
several clews, but they had led to moth
ing.
Then luck came again. 1 was buying
a pair of winter gloves in a store when
a farmer called and asked for pair of
mittens for woman. Some talk follow
ed, and it came out that she was a
widow who as 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 reporter
would have laughed me out of his room.
chewed over the thing for week,
and then something happened.
I had been sent on an errand directly
after breakfast, and I passed house
which had been burglarized the night
before. There were quite number of
pople about. and the owner was telling
them how entrance had been effected,
and what had been taken. What hunt
ers and farmers call a tracking snow
had fallen during the night, and the
first thing I 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 it were
some small threads of blue yarn. The
farmer had bought blue mittens for the
widow. Taking up the tracks. fol-
lowed them for two miles before they
were obliterated by travel. / kept On
to the house of the widow. and found
ii a small cottage. Between the gate
and the road the car tracks and the
footprints were as plain as day.
l had worked the case as far as I
could. and I now went to the police. I
was sneered at and warned not to med
sufferer by the last robbery, and as he
was man of influence and anxious to
get his property back he not only lis
tened but insisted that something be
done. A search warrant was procured,
a couple of detectives went out to the
widows farm, and from an outdoor
cellar enough stolen property was drag
ged to set several dealers up in BUSH
ness.
She had been stealing, off and on, for
three years. She had always dressed
as a man in her excursions. Until she
stole the pushcart she had used a
wheelbarrow. Stolen money she had
made use of, but not a stolen article
had been sold. She had passed for a
respectable, Woodworking woman. and
by her keeping the goods on hand her
lawyers made out that she was KEEP
tornaniac, and got her a sentence of two
years, when she might have otherwise
got Copyright, 1905, by P. c. East
mani.