The Washington times., 1926-02-26

Having seen q man once anu
hearing his name, the criminal
might as well attempt to negotiate
the proverbial eye of the needle as
try to slip past this official OF tie
District Jail without being recOg'
ni2ed.
Spots rs Repeaters
During the past week Captain
Ratherdale spotted Is repeaters.
That is men who have served other
terms and by changing their names
or appearance attempt to deceive
| the authorities by claiming to be
first offenders.
OF these Is, 10 were men on
short sentences who had been made
| ''trusties" and when allowed special
privileges had escaped without serv-
ing even half Of their time: five
had penitentiary records, and the
other 10 had records showing terms
in jail and the workhouse at
Occoquan.
In each one of these cases the
name had been changed and 1T
least 10 years had elapsed since
1t was Captain Ratherdale who
identified the escaped murderer,
Copeland, who was recaptured In
Chicago under the name Of Golden,
identified him SO thoroughly that
the convict gave up In hopeless de-
SPAR and admitted his identity.
In this instance Copeland held out
against the police for days stontly
denying he ever had been I'm Wash
ington. d, G. His name was Golden,
At this point Captain Ratherdale,
who had been standing in the back
ground, stepped up and placing q
finger on the right side Of Cope
lands stomach said. "just take his
shirt off, gentlemen, and you Will
find nay finger on a bullet burn,
right here" It was there and Golden
became Copeland and was hanged
for murder. In the District JAN
where he was kept awaiting his
dOomsday he declared that Rather
dale had no equal.
A few days ago some OF the
colored boys In the north wing OF
the Jail, held on minor charges such
as vagrancy and "intox," the jail
vernacular for intoxication. bcrEt
into song. Captain Ratherdale was
in the office at the time and gave
all the evidence of being enraptured
by the music.
He listened .attentively for mo-
nlent and then as IL to himself said:
THAT voice IS very familiar.
believe I heard It about 1912 COM
inG from the other wing and it be-
longed to q man named Brown.
Brown, by the way, had q very bad
memory and left US one day with
out tina forImality OF being dis
charged, still having about Is days
to do. II that is Brown--and win
know In q moment--he Is about TO
have those golden hours added to
his sentence = Brown now can be
heard to softly curse the fellow who
said that music hath charms. etc.
Ignorant Of jail Customs
One man arrested short time
ago on a minoz. charge entered the
jail blithly announcing that this
was the first time he ever had been
arrested and displayed an ail-dis-
arming ignorance of Jail customs
and modes. That night one may
imagine him. smiling In his bunk,
happy in the belief that "he had
gotten away with something" But
while he may have been smiling,
Captain RatherLiale's memory was
functioning in it's usual proficient
manner and the next day the
stranger. when confronted with the
evidence. recollected that he had
served some time in Leavenwortfl
penitentiary and that there was a
little matter OF a year to be settled
with the authorities.
These little matters do not con-
tribute to Captain Ratherdale's pop
ularity with the confirmed law
breaker and his mail Is often swelled
by letters In which the writer ex-
presses his extreme unfriendliness
in such a way as to make the Cap
tain a very bad risk for a life In
surance company, but the Captain
only laughs and passes the letter
around for the boys to see. II the
suspected individual again finds
himself in the custody of Superin-
tendent Peak and Captain Rather
dale he is surprised to find that
his letter instead of throwing the
jail into a paroxysm OF fear has
aroused considerable mirth and he
sneaks off to his cell.
"Man With Mirror Eyes"
1.-The man with the mirror eyes,"
he is called and his friends vow