Year: 1874

Remarkable Cases How Persons
Have Disappeared I'm the Heart Of
the City.


From the New York Commercial Advertiser.


One peculiarly of the streets of this
city is that those that run along the
river front are infested by the danger
Gus classes, so that in case of murder
or highway robbery, the body can be
thrown into one of the docks. Some
most remarkable instances of missing
men are on record at the police stations.
There is one case of a grey-haired, dis
tinguished- looking man who disappear
ed IN the most astonishing way. Detec-
tives traced him easily at first, because
his personal appearance WAS so pecu-
liar. They traced him from one store
to another, where he had called on mat
ters of business. and they had the evi-
dence Of three witnesses that he was
seen to 90 around certain corner IN
busy street, but after he had passed
out of sight beyond that corner, be was
never seen again. This case viii ap-
pear all the more remarkable when we
remember that the dective sys-
TEN here is very effective, un-
less the person sought for
is hiding. When large reward is Of
fered for the recovery of a person, lIv-
ing or dead, and when that person has
no apparent motive for disappearing,
we naturally look for the detective
force to solve the mystery. In con-
sideration of this fact the following IN
stance of the prompt capture OF a
rather clumsy swindler may not be out
of place. A broker in the New York
Stock Exchange was accOsted by a man
who presumed upon a slight acquain-
tance in former years. Not knowing
that the man had fallen from grace
since he had last seen him several years
before), and feeling certain that all was
right. he cashed a check for him, which
proved 10 be forgery. The swindler,
who was not an "oid hand" seemed to
be under the mistaken impression that
he was safe-lost in the crowd. In
giving information of the swindler at
the central Office, the broker casually
mentioned a peculiar1ty IN the rascal S
dress, and by this means he was caught
before night. II seems that the swlnd-
Ter had on an overcoat that was too
short-the tail of his frock coat ex-
tended about two inches beyond the
tail of his OvercOat-a pecullar1ty that
will not be seen once IN ten thousand
persons. The police were simply IN
structed to look for n man with sup
Elementary coat tai.


Many of these disappearances are
owing to the extended water front,
bounded by a dense population. The
streets which line the wharyes average
three liquor shops to block, so that
the item giving an account of an IN
toxicated person who wandered out of
a saloon one night and was never heard
of afterward is quite common. Many
of these disappearances are undoubt-
edly due to accidental drowning. The
bodies Of some of these drunken men
undoubtedly drift out to sea when the
tide runs out. A body was found on
the beach at Rye, Westchester county,
n. Y, about twenty miles above the
city. 1t was thought to be the body of
A tailor, who had ''mysteriously disap-
peared in New York City" 1t was
impossible to determine beyond ques-
ton, because the body had become so
decomposed, by being in the water for
months, it was almost skeleton.


The following case was reported to
me by a family living in Laight street,
near the North river: A man named
Hicks, a dealer in stoves, went to a
house at the foot Of Duane street to put
uu a stove. After he had done so, he
told the family that he would send in
his bill the next dag. They wanted an
immediate estimate of the expense,
and there was some dispute about the
amount to be paid. He replied that he
would settle it next morning, and made
the excuse that he must hurry home to
supper. He left the house IN his work
ing dress TO 90 to supper, and has been
gone, at the present writing, about 20
years.


The number of bodies exposed for
Identification in the morgue will not
give us accurate statistics Of the num-
Der of people who disappear, for OBJ
scure persons may vanish without caus-
inc much comment. New York, IN
Dr0portion to its size, probably exceeds
London in the number of mysterious
disappearance. 1t IS owing to the IA
cihty with which you can walk off the
end of a pier or the side Of a dock.
Missing persons may be thus classified:
Those who are murdered and whose
bodies are thrown of the wharves;
those who are accidentally drowned
while intoxicated, and those who are
drowned while under alteration OF
mind. The tide, when it runs out, gen
aYallv carries away all traces of a dark
nights work. The recent disappear
ance OK j. A. Sweetser from the Union
Square house was undoubtedly caused
by alteration of mind; and it Will be.
found that nearly one-half of the miss
inc are thus afflicted. The number
who are murdered is probably small.
The number drowned while under the
influence of liquor would form large
proportion. The suicides can hardly
be classified separately, because self
destruction is generally the result OF a
morbid state Of mind, 50 like insanity
that it is difficult to draw the dividing