The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-13
DETECTIVE CATCHES
 4 CLEVER THIEF
John Ford Solves a Puzzling
 Mystery
PROFITS ARE DWlNDLlNG
Dishonest Manager Is Brought To Jus tice After Long and Clever Work.
 The Boy With the Din ner Pall.

From the Chicago Tribune.
 John Ford came Into the room where l sat smoking and threw his coat and hat upon the lounge with the exuberance Of a i boy returning home from a game of ball. Then, elamoring, loudly for his pipe and tobacco, and heaving a book at me ! when 1 reminded him that was not his servant, he swung himself Into his arm chair and began in the good. old. off, hand way.
 "The Comerford Yeast oompany's es- ! tablishment Is the scene of this little affair. Never heard of 'em? Naturally not You're not interested In yeast. "Comerford, an old ex-baker, is the owner. He'd started the business in the basement of his bakery shop about 70 years ago, and little by little he'd built it up. He was getting old and fat, and so he went to work and engaged general , manager
 sThe manager came in about a year ago. He came from big firm, giant corporation, if yeastmakers ever get big enough to deserve that title, and his name was Hutchinson.
 Hutchinson certainly was hustler. He hired new salesmen He reached out and got new business. He increased the pro- ducing capacity of the plant. He did all that Comerford should have done and didn't; and the old man took off his hat to him and trusted him like brother.
 Well, in spite of all this industry and effectiveness on the part of Hutchinson, when 1t came time to figure up the year s profits what did they find but decrease of $25OO from the profits of the year be- fore.
 Result Looked Bad.
 Naturally, it looked bad for Hutchin- sons management. Had old Comerford had less confidence in his new manager he probably would have gone after him with tin can. Hutchinson being in the old mans confidence as he was, they be- gan to hunt together for the leakage. What they found was that the raw ma terial was all used and used economically, but that when it was turned out of the manufacturing department and given over to the stock room it amounted to 5 per cent less than it had under the old re- gime And with Hutchinson's new system in operation 1t should have increased that much at least
 "Th zen they begot a horrible suspicion that somebody was stealing yeast!
 Hutchinson was convinced that there was a crook or a clique of crooks on the pay roll.
 For three days I worked in that unwholesome place with no more to show for 1t than If I'd been blind and deaf. There was no clique there. A single crook there might be, but no gang, and If a crook there was, he didn't show 1t plain enough for me to see.
 "On the morning of the fourth day Hutchinson called me into his office as I was about to go to my machine.
 Just as a suggestion he said, have you noticed that kid who goes out after coffee for the men at noon? He works on one of the packing tables, handles the finshe ed stuff I don't like his looks. I haven't been able to see any thing, but-merely suggestion, you understand-you might watch him.
 AS I watched I began to see that he did act suspiciously. I cant just de- fine it; it's more a matter of intuition than definite seeing, but the kid moved as if burdened with a troubled con science, that's all.
 The Lunch Boy.
 "At noon the boy went around and collected nickel each from six work men, picked up a notched stick with seven tin pails on 1t, and went out Pretending to go out for luncheon, I followed him. He went across the street to little restaurant and at the door a man who was waiting for him took one of the pails off the stick and walked away with 1t neither the boy nor he saying word.
 q managed to bump into the man so that the pail was knocked flying into the street and when I picked it up to hand 1t to it's owner I saw that 1t was filled with yeast-Comerford yeast without the labels. Now that man was a poor thief for the minute that he saw the cover fly off the pail, without knowing whether I was concerned about its contents or not, he took to his heels and ran. 1 didn't trouble to go after him, but went up to the restau- rant and got the kid and took him up to Comerfords private office.
 "He was blubbering when we got there. I told the old man what had developed, and the lad broke out with:
 "I never did it before, mister, but yesterday a guy comes up to me and offers me $25 for a pailful of yeast just as 1t comes from the molds. He gives me the s25 then, and it looks so big to me that I fell for 1t. He was going to give me another $25 tonight. All I do is to take the pail on the stick and he has a guy waiting across the street who takes it and ducks with it.. Honest, mister, l never did It before, and I won't do 1t again, and please don't send me to jail
 "All that sort of thing, tears, and 8 sick mother, and so on. Hutchinson came in, puffing.
 "Ah, hal Got the young thief, eh 9 he beloved. So that's where our de- ficiency has gone
 Comical Contrast.
 And then all of a sudden I choked up and wanted to laugh. The compari- son was so comical; Hutchinson, big and fat and red, the kid, small and thin and white; Hutchinson angry, the kid trembling, and the big man accusing the boy of stealing per cent of tho product of his factory. And in small tin pails I looked at Hutchinson's bull head and had a hard time from break ing out. He was so angry that the veins were swelling in his forehead, so angry that he was too angry for the situation.
 "'Son' l said, what kind of a man was it that gave you the $25?
 "The kid looked at Hutchinson and said: He was something like that man, only he was skinny
 Hutchinson turned on me savagely. You surely don't believe any of that cock and bull story?
 "'Why not? I said. You surely don't give this kid credit for engineering a theft of this size, do you? He must have been an instrument in somebody's hands. What we want to do now Is to find out who it was that furnished the i,Sptration and r,nopav,