The New York herald., 1921-02-06

said Capt. Ayers, was the young man who
lost his life in the great Wall street dis
aster. He lay in the city morgue for four
days unidentified, and it was unprecedented
that in a case of so much notoriety no rel
atve came to tell of a missing son or
brother None did come until after the time
/ mention had elapsed
Then it came out that the dead mans
parents had no idea athat he would be i'm
the vicinity of Wall street that day. He had
started from home on a search for work and
expected TO be gone three four days. He
happened to meet friend who was going
to look for a job on Dey street and went
along on the chance of getting one, too.
Therefore his people felt>no anxiety until the
time arrived when he was expected back
home.
"A case with happier ending was the
disappearance in 1919 of a sixteen year old
10y who had failed in his examinations. He
disappeared from the city If the earth
had opened and swallowed him. For over
a year we were looking for him. and regu-
larly every month his mother on the verge
of hysteria came to me. I cheered her
as best ! could by telling her each time that
we were sure to find him and that only
patience must be her part. But had given
him up in my own mind He had hot joined
either navy or army and there was no clue
except very general description.
over year Hdu elapsed Wnen we gOt
word of him in New Orleans He was re-
ported to be working for the United Fruit
Company. But when our agent there got
after him he was too late by six days The
boy had gone 10 Havana. From there he
went to Vera Cruz and down the South
American coast. Finally we located him in
the central part of Mexico. AS soon as he
knew that his folks would not punish him
for his escapade he was glad to come home
Has oil .ierht n
took him out of the boy class and did him
good
"A stranger case than this one of the
boy" said Capt Ayers turned up in New
Jersey last year. 1t was the mysterious dis
appearance of a man who had the conf
dence of all his neishbors in his home town.
where he was considered model of deport-
ment and fine character, as well as that of
the bank where he was assistant cashier
This bank Is in New York.
At Last the Girl in the Case
Figures in the Investigation
When we started on this case we wrote
our unusually fine marks on the d. d. 13
form. Never had there been a man so uni
versally respected. He was a pronounced
family man-never went anywhere without
his wife, &C., &c. How about his associates
in New York; / asked intimating that per-
hapS we could get line on his secret life
through them. These questions We're re-
PEELED with anger. The man, 1t seemed, was
just as good in New York as he was in New
Jersey.
Just the same, we got to work and by
digging right we found that one of his
friends was an attractive showgirl and oc-
casonally-say, once week-he used to
visit her in her apartment. We also learned
after an investigation of his books at the
bank, that there were several things on
record that didn't agree with his superla-
tive reputation. At last we had material
enough to thoroughly discount the stories
Of foul play that had been rife and we To-
Gated the gentleman at Santa Barbara, Cal
He is cleared off the missing slate and the
bank is willing to have him come back for
he valuable clerk, and the officers all
liked him. / don't know how his wife would
receive him."
An increase in the labors of the bureau
was caused by innumerable requests for in.
formation about persons lost sight of dur.
ing the war. These came from almost every
foreign country, and the applicants took
advantage soon as they could of the bet
ter mailing facilities that followed the armis-
tce. The bureau able to clear up a .
great number of these international disap-
pearances.