The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-02-18

read the rare accounts of mysterious
disappearance that get into the
newspapers, you are likely TO say,
Very few people disappear. Anybo-
dy who does is an heiress, whose fam
lily is there with the proof that she
never saw a man in her life, but who,
in course of time, turns out to have
corresponded clandestinely with ev-
erybody she had ever known from
Florence to Paris"
1t is a mistake says a writer in the
Times. Nothing more common is
known 10 the police or the detective
agencies. II is commoner than peck
ct picking and not much more excep-
tional than intoxication. So common
is it that at police headquarters there
is squad. working the usual number
of hours a day, known as the "disap-
pearance squad" and headed by a
police lieutenant. II consists of about
eight men. who work daily on the cas-
es of mysterious disappearance report
ed to Center street. They are head
ed by an expert on disappearance.
The explanation of disappearance
is usually the simplest thing in the
world The fascination attaching to
such stories is not in their solution,
but in the long standing mystery.
A case of this sort was that of a
well-to-do Irishman in Brooklyn, who
vanished about fifteen years ago. 1t
was summer evening and he was
sitting out on the stoop of his house
with his wife and children. He had
no hat on and was in his shirt sleeves
and smoking clay pipe. About 1880
he arose, stretched himself and said:
81 guess I'll go down to Casey's and
get a drink" From that day he has
never been seen alive by anybody in
America.
The solution was found when. a
month later, cable message said that
he was dying in little country town
in Ireland. What had happened was
this: Unknown to his family. he had
been drinking a good deal, and, at the
saloon to which he went, he met a
friend who was thoroughly intoxicated
and was going to Ireland in the morn
ing After having had enough drinks
to get him in a similar state, nothin
seemed more reasonable TO him than
to 20 with his friend to Ireland. The
friend bought him a coat and hat and
they went aboard the steamer togeth-
err
Policeman Swallowed Up.
The strangest case in the annals of
the police department is that of po-
liceman Judge. Every detective will
tell you that nothing like it was ever
known.
James J. Judge. of the Bronx park
precinct disappeared the night of
December 2. 1910 He was in full uni
form; he had just drawn his pay: he
was a sober and respectable man. The
last seen of him was in saloon in
Third avenue, where he took two
drinks of whisky. He left there to
go home and was never seen again.
He was married man with a fam
lily One of the theories on which the
detectives worked was that. as the
taXicab strike was on at the time,
some sympathizer might have way
laid Judge. He had been on duty dur
ing the strike along East Twenty-sev-
enth street. The practical impossible
ity of killing big policeman in full I'M
form without some trace of the crime
being left put an end to that theory.
If Judge had voluntarily gone away it
was practical impossibility for him
to do it in uniform. The hospitals and
rivers were searched. without result.
On March 10, 1907. Albion Davis
Pike disappeared from Harvard uni
versity He came from Lubec, Me-,
and was twenty-one years of age. He
was agood looking boy and well dress
ed. There was no mystery about the
cause of his disappearance, which
was that his professors had made I'M
favorable criticisms on his class work.
and that these had preyed on the
young mans mind. The police theory
was suicide. Nevertheless, no trace of
him was ever found. He did not
smoke. drink or associate with disso-
lutte characters. The best guess as to
what became of him that any detec-
tive can give today is that he may
have changed his identity and buried
himself in some southern or western
town.
Case Of Adele Boas.
The most famous disappearance
case in recent years, before that of
Dorothy Arnold, was that of Adele
Boas, April 23, 1909. this thirteen
year-old girl vanished. She was tall
for her age and looked almost like a
young woman. She was pupil in a
fashionable school in West Eighth
street, and a niece of Emil l.. Boas,
general passenger agent of the Ham
burg-American steamship company
Miss Boas disappeared while on a
shopping excursion with her mother
The mystery of the case was deepened
by the fact that the police were told
she had no hobbies and was quiet.
home staying sort of child Unknown
to her parents and schoolfellows.
Miss Boas had cherished a restless
disposition to get out in the world and
do something for herself Il was tir-
ed of being mammals baby" she said
when she came back. She was found
serving as a waitress in a cheap eat