Los Angeles herald., 1907-03-28


Claude is in as bad as I am.
I'VE haven't thought Of the $1,000 re-
ward. Just to lock Raffles up would
be enough for me-"
When shown photographs Of the mys-
terious Mr. Raffles Sheriff Hammel
said the identification was almost com
plete.
II think that's our man.-and he
slipped through our hands," and the
handsome, good-natured Billy laughed
heartily at the Joke which he insists
is on the whole force at the jail.
Deputy Describes RafHes
I'm willing to take a chance with a
| fellow when it's a matter of straight
out and out capture or n matter Of
get to your gun first" said Deputy
| Sheriff Claude Mathewson, who has
made a remarkable record as a thief
catcher In the past few months.
But when 1t comes to a game of
| having your man come up to you and
take you by the hand and then leave
you before you know what's happened
then count me out. I was sitting i'm
the sheriffs office yesterday afternoon
working at some special work I had
when a smart-looking young man came
into the office. He did not spend any
time standing about, but stepped up
| briskly and introduced himself and
said he wanted to see the Jail. He
said he was an easterner and knew
| q lot about jails and penltentiaries, and
he was a peach, all right, when It
came to the details Of Jail work.
| 1.-THE sheriff has a soft spot for
clean Jail and he was willing to let
the easterner have a good look. He
| called me up and introduced me, but
didn't quite catch the strangers
name then. I walked inside and swung
the heavy Barred doors behind us and
shot the bolt back. Think what had
right at the end of fork and didn't
think to puncture the pie!
| "I walked down the first corridor
and the stranger sauntered along be-
| hind me. He was as cool and collected
as a cucumber and he looked at and
examined everything. He began telling
me things about the details of iail
work before I had gotten him ten feet
inside the Jail. He walked along to
the inner tiers and the Chinese await
ing deportation in the heavy tanks on
the first floor came up and peered out
at him.
Talks of Capture of Criminals
HE looked them over slowly and
carefully and remarked that 1t must
be funny to have man capture you
and put you behind the bars. I re-
marked that it certainly must be.
Then we went upstairs to tank e. The
desperadoes are kept there and he
looked them over. Stackpole came out
and seemed tempted to sneer at the
visitor. But the man didn't seem to
mind the fact that murderers and
criminals were looking at him.
"He had a rather sleepy look in his
eyes and he nodded to Besold, the muir
derer, under life sentence for the Te-
mescal canyon crime, and rendered him
a cigarette. Stackpole also under life
sentence, reached out for one and got
it. AS we walked along the stranger
eyed each man, quietly making re-
mark here or a suggestion there. He
examined the locks on the door and
admired the mechanism.
From murderers row we went
around by the pen where the men on
short terms were stationed. They all
had remarks to make about the east
erner and he returned their remarks
IN quiet easy style that was good
to listen to. He shook hands here or
! there and jollied the men along.
J And to think that a few minutes
, before I had been reading Raffles
, head lines in The Herald! Well, we
( went upstairs and saw Delfin Albitre
, in the death cell. The Mexican greeted
| us with a surly grunt and the stranger
looked him over and smiled thought
fully. He don't look as If his meals
agreed with him. said the visitor and
we went on.
Thinks Descriptions Useless
l HE asked If we had trouble getting
( some of the men and I remarked we
did. He said that he thought it would
be hard to pick up man by descrip-
tion In crowd, especially If we had
never seen him before and I agreed.
Then he suggested that IL man
changed his clothing once in a while
he might keep away from the Officers
for long time. and I suggested that
he might. He asked If many men from
the east who were wantetd here man
aged to evade the officers and I said
that I didn't know how many of them
got away. but that the police and
county officers managed to get most
of the men they started after This
stranger smiled and then we went into
the kitchen. There he stopped a good
while to compliment everything. I
kept looking at him, and I guess I
looked pretty closely, for he was the
kind of bright young fellow that i'm
presses you favorably He said that
the Kitchen of the Jail was cleaner
than any restaurant kitchen he had
ever seen, and he named few in
New York and Chicago and New Or
leans and said that he expected to
get look at Los Angeles restaurants
later
"After that we went downstairs and
I introduced him to Martin Aguirre.
Aguirre, as every one knows, is an
old-timer at the game, and l explained
with touch of pride that Aguirre had
served a term as warden of the state
penitentiary and another term as sher-
iff of Los Angeles county and that he
was an old-time desperate catcher and
trailer.
"I had forgotten the mans name and
1 asked him what his name was and
he looked at me in a sort of peculiar
manner and I guess he was thinking
I was getting wise. but he never even
batted an eye, and he told me his
name over again.
Raffles Given a Scare
"When we walked over to the Jail
door Loving, the man on guard, came
in for his share of jail talk and banter
and we stepped through the first door
and ii was locked behind u.s. We then
stopped in the little cage-like place
hetWaar that dOnr an6 tho n11fa,, iro,,