The San Francisco call., 1909-01-10

"a
the underworld Thousands practice it. Its
- revenues are enormous And in New York
CITY alone its victims each year are numbered
by the thousand Therefore if had only simple
story concerning this common crime ! should not
tell IL But the narrative | shall relate has not its
counterpart in all the years OF my professional expe
rionce nor in anything l have ever read 1t stands
alone
On April IS. 1898. prominent attorney of New
York called at my Office lie said he had wealthy
client who was in great trouble He had met beau
uful young woman in a fashionable restaurant They
became acquainted He asked permission TO call at
her home She said he might do the following
Thursday at o'clock.
The wealthy merchant kept the appointment The
woman lived in a brownstone house in West Eighty
third street servant with red hair opened the door
gray haired woman. apparently than 20 sat by
window in the sitting patiently plying
needle The young woman whom he had called TO see
was in another room. She was dark, pink checked
Trim figured Her gown was of the same black-unre
Ieved by touch or color-that she had when
he her dining in the place down town.
The man remained in the house an hour. In two
weeks he came again by appointment and remained
another hour the same servant letting him in, the
same aged woman sitting quietly sewing And then
he went no more to see Mary Schmidt, the young
German girl-for such were her and her
tionalty, respectively, according her story.
In seven months he astonshed to receive at
his office a letter from the young woman. First. he
was amazed that She should know his and his
place OF business, he had told her neither Next
he was astonshed at the contents of the note itself
She must see him without fail the next afternoon
Thursday, at ) o'clock
He was there at the minute As he drew near the
door he the red haired servant dusting the win
dows Once inside the house he saw the older woman
in her accustomed place engaged at her accustomed
task The woman in blaok'-for l shall henceforth
refer to her as such-was in the same in which
she had received him the other occasions.
But this time she was in black. She said she
must have $500 immediately And, womanlike, She
then asked when she could have If.
The wealthy man happened TO have brought with
him just that amount and gave to her the spot
But want you to tell me something" he said
~HIow did you learn my and my place of bus-
ness"
BY the merest accident. She replied. "A short
time after you called here was walking down Broad
way with gentleman We met you and he stopped
TO talk with you while I went on a few steps and
looked into a shop window. When he left you said
to him: The face of the gentleman whom you
spoke seems strangely familiar to Isn't he Mr..
So-and-S OF Fulton street,? oh, no, he replied he
is =.' and he told me your name and address
The merchants curiosity this point apparently
satisfied, he took his departure
Two months later another imperative letter to
the merchants Office from the woman in black Like
the first letter, said she him the next
afternoon Thursday at O'Clock
And again he obeyed her. The same red haired
servant let him III. The same woman sewing.
Only the merchants young friend had
changed She no longer wore light, loose fitting
gown trimmed with pink. Again she the woman
In black
She must have $4,000 before noon OF the next day.
For herself: Not penny of it. For another. She
would depart at once for her old home in Germany,
where d0et her aged parents, who believed her hus-
band had just died And the money she would deposit
in a bank and expend only for the support and edu-
cation of the individual for whom She not requested
It, but demanded it.
All this the merchant heard, and more More be-
cause when he said he did believe he could raise
penny in excess OF $4,000 in 50 short a time as "a
hours the white haired turned upon him with
such volley Of rebuke and denunciation as he had
never heard. He should be ashamed to poor
young German girl He He was
a villain, a rascal
The III black vehement She was
only firm. To the merchants first statement that he
did not have $4,000 in cash she told him to sell
some of his stocks and get And when he said the
most he could give her the next day was $4,000 she
firmly refused take anything less than the sum
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