The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-08-17

IL Olu aGaS6 WHICH says tAat dp-
pearances are often deceivng
holds good, think. among Grim
inals even more than among honest men
and women.
Mark Shinburn owed his remarkable
success in eluding the police to the fact
that in verything-dress, speech. man
nerS and refined habits OF living-he al
ways looked and acted the prosperous,
upright man OF affairs. And SO it was
with the dapper Harry Raymond, with the
sik-hatted Langdon Moore and with
scores of other notorious criminals
nave known. They looked anything but
the thieves they were. On more than
one occasion detectives who had been
trailing them for months thought them.
selves victims of a sorry mistake in iden.
tity when the saw these clever men
dressed in the height of fashion and rub
bling shoulders on terms OF equality with
the members of some well-known club or
the guests Of fashionable hotel
when you're the crookedest, Sophie,
try to look and act as If you were as
straight as the road to heaven"
That was the advice given me back In
the days when / was graduating from my
girlhood trade of picking pockets into
more ambitious lines OF crime. 1t was
Jimmie Hope. the Manhattan Bank rob-
Der, If remember right. who told me
that His words made deep impression
on me and my escape from arrest scores
OF times was due solely 10 following this
terse bit OF advice.
But please don't think for minute
that | am gloating over all my evasions
of the laws OF God and man. The mem.
DRY of them brings me only remorse-not
only for my own sake and my children's
sake, but because many of my escapes
were achieved at the expense OF humilia-
ton and in some cases actual suffering to
perfectly innocent men and women.
have only regret for the way l de-
ceived these kind-hearted. well-meaning
people into believing me an innocent
woman who was being prosecuted by the
police. 1t was all wrong-I know that
aow, but l can't undo the harm All
can do is hope that by telling you some
of these experiences | may help prevent
other innocent people from becoming
dupes Of criminals who seek in this way
to conceal their wrongdoing and escape
its consequences.
Just listen to the trouble made for a
young kentuckian once and you will be
more wary than perhaps you now are
about cutivating chance acquaintance.
II was in Lexington, Ky, this hap.
pened. I had been down in Tennessee
with a party of bank sneaks." We had
had the worst OF luck ever since we left
New York--just missing arrest several
times and never once making haul large
enough to moro than pay our expenses.
To cap the climax, when we were conf
pleting our plans for what looked sure to
be a very profitable robbery in Memphis,
the leader Of the party was taken sud-
denly and dangerously i'll. 1t took almost
all the money we had left to arrange for
his care in hospital. and when this was
done the rest of us scattered In four d.
rections to await his recovery and, Incl
dentally, to raise some ready money.
took a train for Kentucky, accom-
panied by the boy of the party-a young
man barely twenty-one-who within the
last two years had travelled the road
from honesty to crime by way of the
gambling hells.
We stopped off at Lexington from
necessity, not choice. For some reason
or other my kilograms to New York and
Chicago for funds brought no response
and we had between us barely enough to
pay expenses for day or SO at second
rate hotel.
A big race meet was In progress at Lex
hgton and the town was crowded. AL
though l was still young woman, it had