Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1913-06-07


into detective headquarters with hi.
little bundle of tissue paper. We heard
the story, and as the man talked | be
gan to finger the bogus bundle. AS
did so, there began to come a few in
SEPARATIONS into my mind. The tissue
paper was short and square and fold
ed. 1t struck me all of a sudden that
it was of the type used for shaving
paper in barber shops Suddenly as
started to crumple the paper in my
hand, stopped and looked at it. Some
of 1t bore the marks of pencil. | be,
| gan to examine the pieces, one by one
At last | grasped one close and held 1t
closer to the light. | read:
| Sunset and evening star
And one clear call for me,
And may there be no moaning of the
bar
When put out to SEAL
Il whirled. Something had flashed
through my head. Here on the evil
dence of thievery, someone had writ
ten a stanza of Tennyson's Crossing
the Bar | approached the captain,
for wild idea had come.
If you please, ! would like a little
expense money on this case told
him. I may be wrong in my belief,
but I've got little lead that may turn
out something.
Il received the money, and then
started out. The loop district looked
like the best chance for me and so
started around there. The first day |
made eight barbershops and"
Made them?" | interrupted. 81
don't believe | quite understand"
Why" Miss Clement answered, Il
simply covered them like a salesman
would cover line of stores. And IL
cidentally, l had become a salesman.
l had figured it out that my man would
be either poetic barber or a poetic
candy merchant of some kind. ! knew
someone who had something to do
with tissue paper of that size was
either a barber or a candy man. In
one place it would be used for the
shaving. In the other, it would be
used in putting the dressing in candy
boxes. And so, | got a job with a
candy manufacturer | knew and start
ed out to drum up trade
And you know" Miss Clement
added with a smile, lin walking around
Chicago, where the wind is always
blowing, ones face gets mighty grimy
and dusty. There is nothing that takes
the dust away like a massage. And
so, between every candy store, would
manage to become grimy enough to
need the assistance of barber. / al
ways did hate to go to these feminine
hairdressing establishments" she
smiled at me, land so just acted like
a man. walked into the barbershop,
sat down in the chair and ordered a
massage
When the night of the first day
came, my face was as sore as a boil.
The next day | decided that had bet
ter change my method until my face
got over the various rubbings it had
received the day before, and so found
that my hair was giving me head
ache and needed good combing.
Ten times that day went into barber
shops and had my hair combed, then
dressed by the manicurist. No luck.
Nor were the candy stores any
more enlightening. The men / saw
were sordid brutes. They had no more
poetry in their systems than block
of wood. began.to realize that / was
working on mighty slim clue, to be-
gin with, that it was wild in the ex-
IRENE and that there was little chance
of me winning out in my fight to catch
man simply through the fact that
there had been some poetry written |
on tissue paper. But / persisted Just
the same
And things steadily grew worse. |
The loop district was covered, | did |
every barbershop and every candy |
store in the radius of the confines of |
l. structures which go to make up the |
real business district of Chicago. In |
not one of them could I find a man |
whose face or whose personality at all |
tailed with that of the one | sought. !
After all, l had been foolish. / had !
spent a lot of good money on a quest
that l should have known, before I
started, would be fruitless. Yet some
thing impelled me to keep on.
L visited every shop in The tougher |
districts OF the city. Not an item of
evidence did l find. l went out into
the residence districts; and then, in a
small, two-man shop, l saw some
paper of exactly the kind of
which the fake money bundle had
been prepared. took hope-then lost
It again. The owner of the shop was
small and dull-eyed and a glance at
him showed that by no possibility
could he the man described by the
various victims. The other barber
was nearer the size I sought. but it
seemed that there was a plodding
characteristic about him
that never had been described. But
Just the same, determined to take a
chance. / got into his chair and called
FOR a massage.
"As he worked l tried to study his
face whenever could keep my eyes
OPEN to see II there could find the
lines that would depict the
kind Of man | sought; or If I could
find that softer something which
would show that he was the sort of a
man who could appreciate a poem of