Evening star., 1927-03-13


comings and goings of men in the
dark carrying boxes. as well as the
vanishing of an automobile truck,
which had been carefully guarded
| from Bryn Mawr Pa, to the District,
and which subsequently was found
burned near a lonely stretch of wood
| land on Maryland country road. was
enacted right under the eyes of Wash
! ington last week. Only the denoue
ment at the climax lacked making ii
4 a perfect tale.
For, departing from orthodox pro-
| cedure in explaining away all the Inys-
terious details solved during this de-
tective drama of real life, the detec-
tives absolutely refrained from letting
| ''Dr. Watson" in on it at all. The de-
sire to bask in the warmth Of an ap-
| preciative and awe-struck public, usu
| ally noticeable to some extent among
| members of the Washington police
force-is lacking. Instead, they have
adopted the outlook on life of the
! clam. They don't want any praise.
| They don't want any of the glory of
an achievement heralded to the public
at large. Somebody has sealed their
| lips and they make no secret of the
fact that their lips are tightly sealed,
Influence Is Widespread.
Similarly, this influence has worked
| wonders in other directions. Three
| American citizens, held in police cells
from Tuesday night until Friday morn
| ing without charges preferred, while
the investigators pursued their de-
vious and mysterious ways, decided
| that they had no comments to make
about the deprivation of their liber-
| ties in this respect: that they did not
wish to condemn any one In general
or particular. Their lips also had been
sealed. One of them said he was
about to get bigger and better job
Technically, the investigation has
not closed. The mystery has been
solved. The days of probing in the
dark are at an end-for the police.
But for the public remains the
! mystery as to whose influence was
| concerned i'm the affair and as to
| whose liquor created all this melo-
drama in Washington since last
Tuesday.
Technically, an Investigation" is
still on the books regarding the
4 mystery of who stole the truck. But
since the finding of 10 wooden boxes,
the contents OF which police officially
state are mystery to them. the
police show little interest in finding
| cases were called ''the legation
| liquor" The detectives maintain they
| do not know what was In the cases.
They never opened them.
II An Started Simply.
The transaction which ended in all
| this secrecy and mystery started
simply enough. A contract was made
with a local firm to transport an ex-
~Fxw .I.sa HI TrAv 2TsNyr1
Mawr, Pa, to Washington. This
contract, in turn, was assigned to
the Big Four Transfer Co, of which
J. F. Anderson is general manager.
Under the agreement. the Big Four
Co. sent to Bryn Mawr, Pa, one OF
| it's trucks with three or four men.
one OF whom was George Reed of
| Balistcn, Va, who. with two others,
| was held inccmmunicado by police
for three days last week.
1 On the way hack and travelling
under Government permit for the
| transportation of liquor, the truck
was met at Laurel, Nd. by Mr.. An
/ derson, the manager Of the firm, and
| was brought safely into Washington.
| The truck was run to a point on
Twenty-ninth street below l.. where
the Big Four Transfer Co. has it's
wards, and then the fve attendants
went to q restaurant not far away.
JTpon their return three-QuaTters OF
an hour later, or about o'clock last
Tuesday morning, the truck and It's
precious but secret cargo had van
| ished.
A feverish search started. Police
man Dave Crouch, at the foot or
Good Hope Hill, was aroused by an
excited person In an automobile
| looking for a truck" The cars oc-
cupants failed to inform Crouch that
the truck was stolen and he thought
no more about It.
Mystery Scene Shifts.
The next chapter In this nov of
every day life moves to the Marlboro
nike beyond centerville and this side
| az Meadows. Md. Honest farmers, up
and about. around $50 o'clock in the
morning last Tuesday saw sudden
| burst Of fame on the road near
| Frye's woods. When they arrived on
the scene 1t was the automobile
truck, burning from hood to rear
tires. The mysterious, stolen truck
| was being destroyed.
ITnacuuair1ted with the previous
| happenines of this trucks existence
1 A. did not occur to them that here was
| a high spot in the melodrama. Ine
| farmers only noticed that there was
| nobody around, that the truck had
evidently been driven there and
-hurned: that 1t had been abandoned
| and left. And while they Were puz-
| zIing over this feature and wondering
IL the road would be badly damaged
uu drove Mr.. Anderson In an auto
mobile; announced that ne was Lne
| owner of the truck and began max
ine injuries concerning the fire. he
| learned that the truck, when burned,
was empty.
That day he reported to police that
the truck had been stolen after II had
arrived from Bryn Mawr, and the
police very calmly entered up this re-
| mort on the Official books. But that
! was all they entered. They did not
enter a report given them to the
effect that hijackers had stolen 1T
after binding its crew.
The next phase Of the investiga-
tion was the arrest of three men for
Investigation. Reed. who accompanied
| the truck to Washington; Clarence
| Allen Barber, the chauffer Of the
truck. living at 1925 Thirty-first street,
and Rush w. Chamberlain, as his
name was registered OF Ballston. Va.
were gracing police cells while the
investigation continued.
Then Comes Break"
The break" came Thursday night.
Quietly, secretly. boxes were taken to
the Tenth Precinct and put into a
cell. Strict orders about them were
! issued. And there they remained
over night. The very next morning,
without any other Official explanation
than that the investigation had failed
TO develop suficient information to
keep the three men longer in custody,
they were released. And following on
the heels of their release Detectives
| urou,lAr ond Fiaherfy went TO the