River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1913-05-15

was watching the roofs as Lney Witt
ed past. Neither of us had spoken for
some time.
At last, / ceased my occupation of
idleness to turn to the little woman,
and found her staring absently ahead.
The little notebook was closed and
clasped in her hands.
"Well?" / asked at last.
Just thinking, that's ALL she an
swered. This is little anniversary
with US"
Birth, marriage or death?" TESTED.
"The last" came the answer. Its
he anniversary of my first murder
case. / don't have those very often,
you know. In fact, it's only when
stumble into a thing of that kind that
am allowed to take any interest in it.
But, then, in this case | could do as
pleased, for was not working on the
iorce under orders"
She glanced up at me with twinkle
her eyes. Sometimes it's good not
% be working under orders she said.
"A person can take any risks that are
10 be taken, and do just what seems
And it's really nice to know that"
Miss Clement looked rather hastily
around to see that no other passengers
were near us. Then, turning the lit
lie notebook playfully about in her
hands, she smiled to herself.
"A person never knows what's go
ing to ensue from the smallest kind of
happening" she began. "My case
came from waiting for a car. You
see that was in the days before went
on the police force regularly, and
was selling candy for a living. Every
evening | would take my car for home
from one of the corners in the loop
district, near the office of an after
noon paper. It would be just about
time for the last editions to come
out, and it was a favorite diversion
of mine to watch the circling, yelling
newsboys as they hurled On every di-
rection from the building, each in a.
contest of who could sell the first pa.
per- And watching this way one night
l stumbled onto my undiscovered
crime"
Your WHAT" interrupted.
"The undiscovered crime. Any big
city is full of them. Not that they re-
main undiscovered for all time, be-
cause they don't Some little thing
will always give the criminal away. 1t
may be even the crooking of finger
at the wrong time. In this case it
was the buying of a paper.
For three nights l had seen him,
short, shifty eyed, heavy browed man,
who seemed to Turk in the shadows of
the building in wait for the whirring
of the presses. At the first shout of
the newsboys he would dart forth
hand out his penny, buy his paper,
and then scan the first page Once in
while he would look inside; not
often 1t did not impress me so much
the first night, nor even the second.
But the third l began to wonder a lit
tie about the person, what his motive
was in being so anxious to get his pa
per, and why he should read only the
first page, then throw 1t away.
Il spent a night wondering about
that man, and then things began to
form themselves in my brain. I de-
of my business, | knew that. l had
no right to play detective and to take
chances-but l guess when the de-
sire to hunt persons gets into ones
heart there isn't anything that will
take it out. / like to discover things;
| was always a person to be finding
out finding out. and so-well, / start
ed in to learn what the gentleman with
the shaggy eyebrows had in mind
when he bought his paper every night
and then quickly threw 1t away
The next day l reported to the
candy company that was i'll, and that
| didn't believe l would be down to
work for several days. Then, that
night, there appeared at the newspa-
per corner a poor woman, dressed in
clothing that was out of date, a bit
lame, and not very good of sight. In
cidentally that same person was my
self l had started on my work of
finding out the message of the news
paper. l had hired a girl for a few
days to take care of my little kiddie
out at the fiat; l had kissed the child
a long goodby, in case my passion for
detective work should carry me away
from her forever, and now was ready
for anything.
The homegoing crowds began to
lam the street cars. Dusk had come,
then darkness. Fifteen minutes l wait
ed. twenty, and then from the base
ment | heard the whirring of the press
es. few moments later, there came
the shouting newsboys, and with their
first appeara nee my heart gave leap.
Seemingly from nowhere my man APP
peared pushed forth his penny, clutch
ed his paper, and was greedily scanning
the front page l watched him as he
threw the paper to the pavement and
turned down the street. Then l fel-
lowed
1T was a long road we travelled,
down Fifth Avenue, then turning and
crossing the river, past old commits
sion houses and into the tenement
district of the city. Sneaking along in
the shadows, l saw him enter a dark
stairway. l started to follow, then stop
ned. The building. on the upper floor,
/ had noticed, was occupied on one
side by a small manufacturing concern,
a sweatshop, probably. Then he must
have his room somewhere on the other
side. I hurried into the alley next to
the building and watched. Soon a
light appeared in window on the
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