The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-02-11
LUCK IN CATCHING CROOKS
MOVING PICTURES GET THIEF

An old story of the accidental finding
of missing American came out of
China the other day.
More than two years ago'a Washing
the jeweler made a sudden disappear
ance. He had been playing the races
at Saratoga and the horses he backed
had habit of losing. He quit Saratoga
be found of him. The papers printed
many conjectures as to his case at the
time. He was reported as having been
seen in North Dakota, Montana and
elsewhere, though none of these re-
ports was verified.
An examination of his affairs after
his disappearance showed that there
was need for his sudden self-oblitera-
ton. The jewelry store which he man.
aged was really owned by his father a
noted Baltimore dealer in precious
stones. The missing man was found to
be away behind in his accounts. 1t was
ascertained that he had fallen in with
a clique of crooked racing people and
that they had trimmed him. No charge
was ever preferred against him. His
father pocketed the loss. But the police
of the center world were asked to keep
an eye on him. His relatives wanted
to find him, and, besides, he had left
wife behind in Washington.
About three months ago a Washing
ton man waiting in San Francisco for
a steamer that was to take him to
China had his pocket picked of a watch.
He went to San Francisco police head
quarters and while there he saw the
police circular with a picture and de-
scription of the missing Washington
jeweler. He remembered the mans
face, and asked for copy of the circu-
lar to read at his leisure.
Six weeks later he was walking in an
out of the way quarter of Shanghai
when he came face to face with the
Washington jeweler. The jeweler had
an unusual countenance and there was
no chance for mistake to have been
made. The traveller addressed him by
by his Washington name. The jeweler
was plainly annoyed He denied his
name and walked away. On the fol-
lowing day the traveller, entering a
Shanghai jewelry establishment, came
upon the Washington jeweler again. He
was the assistant manager of the place,
one of the greatest jewelry houses in
the East. The traveller had no desire to
J. annoy theman, but he produced the cir
cular from his pocket in it's folded state
and pressed it into the hand of the
Washington jeweler.
For your information" he said. Il
got the circular in San Francisco. l
have nothing to do with your affairs
and don't care to appear intrusive But
the circular may interest you"
The Washington jeweler took the
circular and the traveller left the store.
A few days later the Washington man
resigned from the Shanghai jewelry
establishment for the purpose of taking
up a scheme in connection with the eX-
portation of Chinese coolies to work
on the Panama canal He was en-
gagged upon that scheme when the trav-
eler left Shanghai.
An old headquarters detective COM
mented upon this case.
THE high notch criminals. the fell
lows who pull off big jobs and have to
make big jumps. are complaining more
and more of how small the world is
growing" he said. Yet there are still
plenty of hiding places The element
| in no
prehension of wanted men. Only a
couple of weeks ago a badly wanted
Chicago stickup man was snagged at
Pasadena, Cal, through some moving
pictures.
1.-The stickup man put ball in the
shoulder of a Chicago merchant who
refused to be frisked with his eyes wide
open. This happened last winter. The
whole country was circulared and the
Chicago flies had been doing the drag
net thing to pick up the stickup mans
trail nearly year.
Three weeks ago the moving pictur-
es of the Jack O'Brien- Tommy Burns
fight, which took place at Los Angeles,
reached Chicago. A party of the Chi
cago flies went to the place where they
were shown to have a look. Before the
pictures showing the fight were thrown
on the the screen there were lot of
the moving films showing scenes in the
training camps of the two scrappers.
One of them represented O'Brien gal
Looping along the sea beach, taking his
daily five mile run, with knots of people
looking on at various points along the
route At the finish of the run big
crowd of men and women waiting for
the pug to come in was shown. And
at this stage of it one of the flies gave
his companion an elbow dig.
I'm the forefront of one of the films
stood the stickup man, perfectly unmis-
taxable The natural vanity of all
humans causes them to face moving
picture machines when the pictures
are being taken, and the stickup man
away in front, and magnified two or
three times in size, was grinning
straight at the detectives When the