The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-09-17
dips" ARE BUSY
PickpOckets Have Been Swarm
ing to Topeka.
Police Have Been Able to Place
Many in Jail.
OFFICERS And THUGS Fight
Special Performance Not on
Program, Is Staged.
Tales of UnfOrtunateS Who
Have Lost ValuableS.

Dips have been busy in the crowds
at the fair this week. Several per-
sons have reported to the police That
their pocketbooks have been stolen
and two negroes, Bill Smith and VIII
liam Davis, have been arrested by the
police and are held on a charge OIL
picking pockets. Smith was caught
in the act of nipping the pocketpooK
of John Ludgren of Dwight, han.' at
the fair grounds. Oficers Aipa anu
Woodward got Smith just as he was
relieving Ludgren of $3.S1- The arrest
was made at the east entrance to the
grounds
Davis was caught Will attempting
TO lift the pocketboOk of L. j. Har-
bour who is staying with his daugh-
ter, Mrs. J. E. Maynard, at $40 East
Sixth street Both men are now IN
the city Jail.
ing at the Topeka hotel, corner of
sixth and jackson streets, for a year,
reported to the police his morning
that he had lost $26 in a peculiar way
Lost His Pants, Too.
81 went to bed and hung my trous-
ers on a chair next to the bed, he
told the police. II didn't think TO lock
the door to my room and when L got
up the next morning the pants and
money were gone. l thought perhaps
YOU might have found tn person VINO
got them"
A Kansas City girl who is visiting
friends in Topeka this week was tell
ing a friend on the street car TINS
morning how easily she lost $40 last
night when she went TO atteno d me
alter.
Il was standing talking to Fred on
the street corner waiting tor street
car and had my pocketbook IN my
hand" she said to her friend. we
hadn't been there but a few minutes
when Fred told me that my pocket
book was open. / didn't thlnk any
thing about it; thought that it just
look for my money 1 found that the
SO was gone. 1 had to phone TO the
folks in Kansas City to get more
money"
This case has not been reported %
the police. Chief Harvey Parsons said
this morning that his force was doing
the best it could considering the fact
that there are not enough policemen.
Thrilling Fight.
A number of persons in the big
crowd at the fair ground Thursday
afternoon got a thrill that they did
not know they were getting
w. ]. Schneck. a deputy sheriff
from Lawrence, Kan, and Joe Hol-
man, a local deputy, caught two nigh
waymen right before the eyes of the
crowd and the people didn't dream
that the two officers were having a
IlSnL WIFI lWO beio men
Schneck had come to Topeka with
Lewis (Skunk) Wisdom, the bootleg
ger, and while here he thought he
would look up the two men wanted in
his county. So he and Holman went
to the fair grounds. They had no
more than stepped inside the ground
when they spied the two men.
Then They Ran.
II want you," said Schneck to the
men.
This was a signal for both to run.
Schneck went after one and Holman
after the other. Schneck's man run
into a telephone pole and knocked
himself unconscious. Holman ran
after his man. tore a perfectly good
SIS silk shirt off his back, and finally
captured him after a chase through
the crowd.
Schneck took the two men back 10
Lawrence.