The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-01-28
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
Morguo Is an Unsolvable .Eniana.

Dead Bodies Do Not Arrive at the
Morguo Is an UnsoIvable Enigma.
More than 4,50O 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 frOlD 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 Icing sent to the
officials. OF the remainder it is esti-
mated that at least One-half ultimately
arrive back nome 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 were 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 proportion Of their wages to
the family exchequer 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
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. Immi-
grants in transit from European coun-
tries to inland points in the United
States frequently wander off from the
parties to which they are attached
and have to be found through the me,
dunn of the police.
In the course of year the police
receive scores of letters from foreign
countries inquiring about friends or
relatives of the writer's who were last
heard from in New York. From Zan.
zibar and from India. from Australia
and from Egypt, from Europe. from
South America, come letters of inquiry.
The proportion of these nonresidents
| of New York never to be heard of
again aS estimated by the police is
about tbs same as in the case of New
York citizens. That is. something more
than onc-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 reach
their friends all right, it is estimated
the police not being notified. This
leaves approximately $50 visitors tC
New York who vanish yearly without
| anything whatever being known OF
their fate. With the $50 New Workers
who absolutely disappear, there is thus
total in round figures Of 1,100 per.
sons who every twelve months are lost
to sight as utterly as though they had
stepped behind magic curtain.
The bureau of unidentified dead has
made collection of the marks put or
clothing by all laundries in New York
When body is found which has nc
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 have
been Numbered in New York the laun
dry is visited, and from examination o.
it's books it is usually possible to trace
the identity Of the dead person.
Names of tailors and of clothing
manufacturers also lead to many iden
tificationS. Tattoo marks have in sew
eral instances meant identification. A
majority of the unidentified dead art
found in the water Most Of them arr
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 iden
tification In occasional instances iden
tification from photographs has result
ed even after burial in potter's field
New York Times.
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