Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-15
Room sss, double, with


Trunks to come later sir? Certainly,
air the bell captain VIZ send up ice. t..
Yes, sir Mr. Weems am his orchestra play
in the big dining room every evening from to
g." Everything was quite regulator reason
ably so.
It looked much less regular, though, five hours
later when an obviously excited man with a
tendency toward badness and a bay window
pushed through the swinging doors, and, almost
running to the desk, demanded to know If Mr..
X had registered there. The reception clerk,
whose polished hair rested above a brain grown
shrewd in detecting Situations" temporized.
He was registered here. Just wait a second,
sir and I'll find out whether or not he has
checked out"
In a little adjoining Office the clerk called the
house detective. Jim, hurry up to $685. Mr..
and Mrs. X There's baldheaded little man
down here with murder in his eye. Tell them"
Now shift the scene to room 1913. Its occu-
pants have dressed for dinner. He is calm, she
all a-1utter. There is a rap on the door 1t Is
Jim, the detective. Explanations Warming.
Assisted by Jim, hysterical lady and her pos
sessions are quickly transferred to another
room second or two later the slightly bald
headed man steps out of the elevator on the
eighth floor and hurries to room 833, now so
innocently masculine Except for a suggestion Of
Black Narcssus which cannot be removed.
The story that the by this time weeping lady
told the detective in the nearby suite sounded
more like the invention of a comic opera libret-
fist than anything out of real life but it bore
the unmistakabe glow of truth. Mrs. k
who, of course, was really Mrs. Y."-had re-
sided for several years and more or less raised
a small family in very small town in Ohio
"a place where simply nothing ever happens"
The only two diversions which life had to offer
were the furtive attentions of the married man
next door and the simply wonderful thrilling,
divine hours spent in listening, the RADIO
to the fascinating Fred Weems and his orches-
ira; hours in which the mellow voice OF Mr.
Weems announcing the musical numbers, came
TO sound like the voices of all the lovers OF the
world, and the imaginary figure of Mr.. Weems
behind the voice, took on the combined grace
of a thousand RomeoS.
Against the Weemsian spell, the urging Of
the married man next door could make no
progress-untl he hit on really brilliant idea.
He told the lady that if she would go away
with him he would take her to the hotel in
Cincinnati where Fred Wesms welded his baton.
There she could see, meet talk to her hero.
The bait suficed. The next act of this
drama, which took place in the hotel, has al
ready been described The last act, strange to
relate, ended happily The slightly bald nus
band was not deceived by the innocent looking
rom; perhaps his sense of smell was acute.
His anger, though, cooled before murder had
been committed, and he actually took his wife
back with him next day in the little Ohio
town (where something had, at last, happened).
Perhaps he realized that children, even when
grown up, are not entirely responsible Or,
perhaps, he was simply very clever, for before
they departed he took the runaway to dinner in
the big dining room and arranged for her to
meet Mr.. Weems.
THIS hotel drama had a happy ending
or, at least, happy as far as we know. The
ending to another story which I myself wit
messed brought plenty of laughter to the public,
but very little happiness to anybody, not even
to the sleuths Of the law who staged it; for
them 1t was just part of the days business. The
particular originality of this second plot lay in
the fact that one of its chief characters, like
Marjorie Daw, turned out to be non-existent.
One morning the cleaning maid came into
my hotel room visibly bursting with news.
There's six policemen in Apartment 1921"
she told me. I hurried to the door, opened it,
then, afraid of being detected in a display of
vulgar curiosity, closed it again; or, that is,
closed it except for just enough of a crack to
keep my eye on the door across the hall In
moment this opened and the majesty of the
law came FORTH eCcorting in its midst small,
fearful blonde female and a masculine noun
tain who must have weighed at least $50. The
expression on his face shattered forever the
myth that fat men are always jolly. My maid,
who hadn't had time yet to gossip downstairs,
could not explain the event, but the papers
next morning carried full details. A few
months previously colossal swindle had been
perpetrated on a real estate company that
had Offices on Broadway and was known to
carry large cash balances in the bank Two
forgers had organized a so-called agency, had
opened up handsome offices and engaged as
manager a New Jersey man with an impeccable
reputation. Then, gaining admittance at night
to the office of the first named firm and using
its check blanks and check protecting ma
chine, they forged two checks with a total
value of $4,000. These were then turned
over to the innocent office manager to de-
post to the account Of the fraudulent firm.
When he had done so the two crooks drew the
cash out of the bank and vanished
They were easily trailed to Florida, because
one was a Beau Brummel and carried around
so many large and heavy trunks that the