Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1909-03-26

Queer Hiding Place.

master named Booth had in his en-
ploy as clerk a young man named The
odore Cushman, says a writer in the
Detroit Free Press, a good-looking, in
tell1gent fellow, whose parents lived
IN small town in Ohio. Booth had
taken the young man on the recon-
mendat1on Of Congressman, and was
much pleased with him. About the
middle Of May, when Cushman had
been employed about six weeks, he
suddenly disappeared, and with him
went the sum of $4,000, taken from
the paymaster's safe. His getting the
money was a very bold thing. The
safe stood open, and in the office sat
the paymaster and a friend, and there
were two other clerks besides Cush
man. The young man put on his hat
and coat to go out, placed the package
of money in his pocket unseen, and
had two hours start when it was
missed
When | was placed on the case |
soon learned that Cushman, honest
and respectable as he appeared to his
friends, was really the cOnSort of
many bad people. He drank and gam
| bled, and was a general favorite with
| several female Adventures. Indeed, l
even discovered that he had left
| Washington in the company of Wom-
| an named Bell Grover. He must have
| been planning a raid on the paymas-
| ter's safe, and felt reasonably sure Of
making a haul, for the woman was
| packed up ready to leave, and both
were on their way to Baltimore with
| ing an hour from the time that the
money was taken. They had two days
the start Of me, but 1 traced them to
| Philadelphia, from there to Trenton,
from Trenton to Jersey City, and they
crossed to New York only two hours
ahead of me- In Philadelphia Cush-
man bought the woman $500 worth of
| diamonds. l had an idea that they
would plan to take a steamer for Eu-
rope, and I had to telegraph to Wash
| ington for help in the case. We
watched the ship offices, Overhauled
the hotels, and five days slipped away
and we had not been able to pick up
| the trail again. 1t was a question
whether they had not left the city al
most as soon as they had entered it.
| After the first day there were four Of
us on the case direct while the police
were rendering us all the assistance
possible. We had none Of us met
| Cushman or the woman face to face,
hni1s nh "a
We were trailing them from descrip-
lions, and faulty ones at that.
Towards night on the afternoon of
the fifth day I was crossing Union
Square when I encountered a young
fellow whom l at once spotted for
tache. changed his style Of collar and
put on new suit Of clothes, but | had
a feeling that he was the man l want
ed. | turned and followed him, and
| after q bit he looked about him in
such a way as to prove that he was a
criminal Of some sort. He went to a
hotel and wrote q letter and inclosed
a $50 bill in it. From there he went
to a hardware store and bought re-
yolyer. Then he started out like one
going home, and | followed him to a
boarding house on Lexington avenue.
Ten minutes after Cushman entered
the house l rang the bell, and it did
J not take over five more to explain my
errand to the landlady. She yolun-
teered to lead me to Cushman's room,
which was up two flights, but she at
the same time Informed me that Mrs.
| Cushman had left the house few
minutes before his arrival. When l
knocked on the door | heard some one
moving inside, but no answer was re
turned to my summons. | waited five
minutes and then broke the door in,
but Cushman was nowhere to be
found. It was an elegantly furnished
room, and the pair had gone straight
to the house from the foot of De-
brosses street 1 looked out of the
various windows, under the bed and
behind the sofa. but Cushman was
not to be found. He could not have
descended to the ground, and l made
ND nv mind that when he came up
stairs he entered some other room, al
though l thought 1 heard him move
about after l knocked.
was about to leave the room to
make a search of the house when /
heard a great suffering and sneez-
ing. and the wooden mantel was push
cd back and Cushman came out of the
firenlace. 1t was a mock tire-grate
but so nicely arranged that l was de-
ceiyed, His quarters were terribly
cramped and the time and dust had
filed his eyes and set him to sneezing.
He was a terribly chagrined and
crestfalIen over his capture, but a
still worse thing was in store for him
The woman for whom he had ruined
himself had been entrusted to carry
the bulk of the ''swag," and she had
taken advantage of his absence to run
AWAY with it. We did our best to find
her. but she got away to Europe with
Of least $4,000 of the stolen money.