The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1908-10-10
|6he Cute Mr.. Davis

self out and create a new character
II was a matter requiring a good dea
OF consideration. One slip In the pro
gramme and the whole machinery
would be thrown out OF gear. When
taking his position he had fine mus.
tache and pair of whlskers. lie cul-
tivated them and let them grow al
length. He had prominent ears, and
he made them more prominent by
comblng his hair In n new way. His
speech was naturally brisk and con.
tanned slight lisp He cultivated the
briskness and the lisp, He had bushy
eyebrows that met in the middle. He
called special attention TO them as a
heritage from strong race.
In the two years and half that the
cute Mr.. Davis was getting ready for
his grand coup he learned to speak
the German language Of a professor.
He gave wrong name, lied about his
occupation and let 1t be understood
that he was going to Germany as
agent for an American machinery
house. He managed in one way and
another to become better acquainted
with the country for fifty miles around
than any drover or peddler Through
a second party he bought log house
and few acres of land in poor
farming district where settlers were
far between and let 1t be understood
that n German professor was to oc-
cupy II in time TO make experiments
In chemistry of the soils and in geol.
ogy. In his own room he donned GER
tain garments and posed before his
mirror. His brisk speech In English
became sort of drawl in German.
In place of his perfect gait he cult.
waited slight limp. He learned some.
thing of tie rudIments of chemistry
and geology. He knew what chem.
icals to buy to stain his face and hands
and give him O swarthy look. He
knew what change would come about
when his whiskers and mustache dis
appeared.
Mr.. Davis would have to ride fifty
miles to his retreat when his coup
NoAN Ghs LIZ %oAuh 6O ". any OhN Va
dozen trains. but he shook his head
Before the event was ready he had
bought horse and buggy and knew
every foot of the road. He had hired
a room under another name in a differ
ent part of the city, and what he need
ed for the metamorphosis was there
days In advance of the event. The
programme was gone over again and
again. There was no flaw in it, The
cute Mr.. Davis would disappear off
the face of the earth some day, and
how the smart detectives were to con-
meet Professor Schmidt with the late !
cashier was more than he could give
them credit for. He tried hard enough, |
because that was his destruction or |
salvation, but be had to pronounce his
programme simply perfection.
The great day came at last. The
cashier went to the bank with the lar
gest deposit for years-that is, a coupe
set him down at the bank, but ten
minutes later he was out on the walk
and hurrying away. He reached his
rooms, changed into his disguise and
then shaved himself Then his eye.
brows were thinned out, his hair comb
ed according to programme, and the
cute Mr.. Davis drew long breath and
said 70 himself that he defied all the
detectives on earth to identify him.
The rest was dead easy. A German
who spoke broken English drove out of
town behind gentle horse, and no
one gave him any attention or cared
whittier he went. At the country inns
where he put up no one had any curl.
osity about him. When he reached his
house he found that his nearest neigh
Dor was two miles distant and a Rus
sian Jew at that
The cute Mr.. Davis had figured that
his dropping out of sight would create
a sensation. He was right. For the
first twenty-four hours it was thought
he might be the victim of foul play.
Then the bonding company began to
hustle for other clews. The regular Il
police were called in, and the reward
offered brought scores of private de-
tectives into the game. Inside of three
days everybody had settled down to
the belief that it was a case of skip"
and all work being done was based on
that theory. Never was there a hotter
hunt for an embezZler. If Mr.. Davis
had committed murder the chase would
not have been half as vigorous. With
In week the whole United States was
on the watch for him, and copies Of
that photograph with the whiskers
were flying about like leaves in gale.
At the end of month the army of de-
tectives had to turn in their reports
with the words mo clew" attached.
1t was believed that the criminal had
to foreign country.
The cute Mr.. Davis, alias Professor
Schmidt, figured on making use of his
retreat for number of months and
then assuming some other guise in
some other part Of the country All ,
went well with him for a number OF
weeks, aud then one day rough-head
Of boy who was hunting for a lost {
calf approached the house TO ask for
and heard a man singing
1 song in good old fashioned Eng
ish. He had been told that the occu- :
pant was a German. He went away
Ind reported his find" and 1t got to /,
he ears of a constable, and from thence
10 the sheriff and the detectives, and a I
week later the cute Mr.. Davis was Y
ragged out Of his burrow, identified
liter awhile and is today serving the 4
Itste on ten year sentence. He was
,ver two years building up a pro-