The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1914-05-28
LOST IN A BIC CITY
In New York Thousands Of Per.
sons Vanish Every Year.
MYSTERY OF THE MISSING.
What May BE the Fate Of the Many
the Police Fail to Find and Whose
Dead Bodies Do Not Arrive at the
Morgus Is an UnsolVable Enigma.

Dead Bodies Do Not Arrive at the
Morsus Is an UnsoIvabIe Enigma.
More than $500 persons are reported
to the New York police every year as
missing. OF these about $500 are res
idents of the city, while the remainder
are visitors
The New Workers who vanish from
their homes are reported to the police
stations in the local precincts. and
those cases are handled by the pre-
cinct authorities. But the reports of
missing visitors. regardless Of where
made originally, ultimately go to the
bureau of missing persons at police
headquarters.
information from official sources
shows that minors constitute approx
mately two-thirds of the New York
residents stated to be missing annu-
ally. The remaining one-third is COM
posed chiefly of men.
1t Is estimated that more than one
half OF the $500 are located by the po-
lice, dead or alive, or return to their
homes soon after disappearance, noti-
fication of the return being sent to the
officials. OF the remainder it is esti-
mated that at least one-half ultimately
arrive back home in safety, but no no.
tification of the fact is sent to the po-
lice
This leaves about $50 persons per
year who utterly vanish. What be-
comes of them is one of the mysteries
of the metropolis. They disappear as
though they We're SO many bubbles.
Some Of them doubtless kill themselves
or are killed their bodies never being
discovered Some of them, it may be
set down for certain, run away from
their matrimonial mates. But what the
fate is of the great mass of them no
man can say.
OF the large number of minors who
figure each year as missing, police
officials state that the big majority
are youths and girls between the ages
of fifteen and twenty. They are often
wage eiAners, disgruntled with con-
ditions at home, either because they
have to give what they consider too
large a proportion of their wages to
the family exchcquer or because they
think their parents too strict with
them in the matter of pleasure seek
ing.
OF the 1000 residents of other places
for whom the police are annually ask
ed to look, a considerable percentage
are men who have come to New York
to find relaxation from the workaday
grind in the gayeties of Broadway.
They get into the whirl of things
rather more than they intended and
are lost to their friends view for a
few days Ultimately most of these
wanderers in the fields of frivolity
turn up all right, with bit of head.
ache, perhaps, and determination
not to seek relaxation quite so per
Sistently on the next New York visit.
Other strangers to the city get sepa
rated from their friends in the sub
way or on the elevated or get lost In
the streets, and then the police are
asked to find the missing ones. lmmi
grants in transit from European coun
States frequently wander off from thu
parties to which they are attached
and have to be found through the me
dium of the police.
In the course of year the police
receive scores Of letters from foreign
countries inquiring about friends O.
relatives Of the writer's who were las
heard from in New York. From Zan
Zibar and from India, from Australi;
and from Egypt, from Europe, from
South America, come letters Of inquiry
The proportion of these nonresident!
of New York never to be heard o.
again as estimated by the police il
about th9 same as in the case of New
York citizens. That is, something mor'
than One-half Of the 1000 are located
by the police or return to their friends
the police being so notified About one
half Of the remainder finally reacl
their friends all right, it is estimated
the police not being notified. Thi
leaves approximately 250 visitors t
New York who vanish yearly withou
anything whatever being known o
their fate. With the $50 New Yorker
who absolutely disappear, there Is thu
a total in round figures Of 1,1O0 per
sons who every twelve months are los
to sight as utterly as though they ha'
stepped behind magic curtain.
The bureau Of unidentified dead ha
made a collection Of the marks put o.
clothing by all laundries in New Yorl
When body is found which has n
means of identification except through
laundry marks the marks are com
pared with those on file in the bureau
If the victims clothes prove to hav
been laundered in New York the laun
dry is visited, and from examination o
its books it is usually possible to trac
the identity Of the dead person
Names of tailors and of clothin
manufacturers also lead to many iden
tifications. Tattoo marks have in sev
eral instances meant identification.
majority of the unidentified dead ar
found in the water. Most Of them ar
doubtless suicides. Others of the uni
Identified cases are due to street car &C
cidents, suicide by gas and suddel
death in the street from natural causes
Photographs are taken Of all bodie
and prove of much aid in making ider
tification. In occasional instances ideI
tifcation from photographs has result
ed even after burial in potter's field
New York Times.
Labor is preferable to tdleness Q
An-AA IN, nr,A lnA IN