Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 164, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 July 1911 — Page 2

Under the Rose

/ham dbe Qu*-Boo* of Inspector fitoostisotor

•mmbnk Of th* straighten ud I squarest men in the de- ■ ..IB I P*rt m « n t.” was th® un*nlI I “Ous verdict passed upon ■“JB""! Inspector Valentine during hlB conn ® < *tlon with New o*l York’s detective bureau. ' M I Yet when he retired to 1 I take up P rlvate Practice f II he was really a fairly S wealthy man—a condition wnasMnJ which resulted mainly through bia Intimacy with the great Wail Street operator, Shank lin Skene, whose friendship sent a good many tips on the market Vai •ntine's way. This association grew out of a remarkable set of occurrences in criminal annals, which developed Into one of the causes celebres of modern times.

First, a word as to Shanklin Skene. This man was one of the most unscrupulous stock gamblers, railroad wreckers and market manipulators in the Empire city. In his notorious attempt some years ago before to corner the visible supply of gold, the United States Itself was shaken to Its center. Only the firmness and adroitness of the national executive saved the country from widespread ruin. Possessed of enormous personal means, and controlling equally large resources through the banks and other sources of wealth in Wall street, ha was everywhere recognised a*s a cynical and merciless foe. In his vast schemes and crooked manipulations he had enriched himself and a group of cronies while ruining thousands of innocent investors. Consequently Shanklin Skene was one of the most cordially hated men of a peculiarly hateful speculative day and generation. His enemies were •verywhere; he trusted nobody, not •ven his own friends. - e Therefore it took little to throw him into a panic of cowardly fear.

On a certain autumn day In the •arly eighties Shanklin Skene's brokers received the following typewritten anonymous letter: “‘Shanklin Skene, Esq.—Take notice! "I hereby warn you that within six days from the date of this communeation your worthless carcass will by the hand of the writer be relegated to the dust from whence it came. Make your peace with God if you can. Mine is no wanton wish to shed the blood of such a scoundrel, but I am inspired by the living God to remove one who is a perpetual menace to the community at large." The writer, who was evidently an educated man, went on to say that on account of losses in the stock market and elsewhere he had come within an ace of shooting Skene on the .preceding Friday at the close of the day, “"but when about to press the trigger a voice bade him hold his hand in order to give the culprit time to repent •re he was plunged into perdition and overlasting torment" The letter was signed with the words “Your Victim." The brokers, Cummings & Cummings, at first paid no attention to this precious screed, regarding it as the work of a harmless crank. But -when several other letters of similar tenor followed, evidently emanating from a speculator who had been following the market “not wisely but too well." and was probably on the verge of black ruin, Messrs. Cummings & Cummings delivered the several missives to Shanklin Skene. So deeply did they alarm the speculator that he promptly called on Inspector Valentine for help.

Valentine*! first move was to ascertain from Skene’s* associates, books and papers the names of such men, customers or followers, who might have been sufficiently hard hit and rendered desperate enough to write such a series of letters. Certain of these were shadowed, but without result. The inspector's next move was through the “personal” columns of the newspapers. He\advertlsed that “if the person who sent an anonymous communication signed “Victim” to a certain Wall street financier would call at the operator’s office, or state where an interview could be arranged, matters would be satisfactorily adjusted. The very day tbe advertisement appeared Shanklin Skene received through his brokers another letter in the same handwriting and signed as before. It read as follows: “You must think me a fool or worse to imagine that I would put myself In your power by going to your office or agreeing to an interview with a policeman waiting outside with a warrant for my arrest! For the present I will communicate only through the newspaper. I have loot a fortune — my all-owing to your roguery. But I might agree to allow you a short respite from death in return for some reliable information concerning the tendencies of certain stocks.” This letter was signed "Texas Cor respondent”; the inspector replied i and accepted the terms through a sec end advertisement; this elicited another letter from the anonymous one Inquiring specifically whether a given Stock would rise or fall during the

THE ANONYMOUS LETTERS

By FREDERIC REDDALE

(Oopyrtsht by W. Q. Chapman)

Inspector Valentine replied—per advertisement—that this method of communication was getting dangerous and was attracting too much attention. Some other scheme would have to be devised. Whereupon “Victim" or "Texas Correspondent" forwarded io Skene a cipher code for future use. There was one peculiar feature about the letters and this code; all were typewritten—which gave hope of a faint clue. The figures “3” and “S'* were peculiar in that, for distinctness' sake, they both ran below the line, like what printers at that time called Franklin type. Noticing that, Valentine at once called In a typewriter expert and showed him one of “Victim's” letters. “That's written on a Caxton machine,” was the immediate verdict. “It’s an old make, and the only one on the market with its figures cut that way. Find a person who uses an oldfashioned Caxton machine, and if he fulfills your other requirements, he's your man!” But of course, this sort of evidence could only be taken in a corroborative sense; there wer; probably scores of those old-time Caxton machines clicking away In New York at that moment The mere possession of that make of typewriter would not necessarily Indicate the man who wrote the letters threatening murder to Franklin Skene. After the code was received quite a lengthy correspondence ensued —letters on one side, advertisements on the other. Acting for Mr. Skene, and presumably in his name, Valentine gave some of the Information asked for But “Victim” complained that he was again being robbed; he had followed the supposed “tips” and was worse off than ever; unless something definite was done for him by Shanklin Skene he threatened to carry out bis original intention and kill the operator on sight! “We’ve fooled with him about long enough,” at length said the inspector to one of his staff, Bob Quade. “I’ll get him, but in a way he little suspects." To the head of the detective bureau, sworn to protect life and property, the doubtful character of ShankJin Skene counted as nothing. His duty it was to detect and arrest those who openly violated the laws, made alike for the unjust and the just. “What’s the next move then?” inquired Quade. r “We must watch the mall boxes, night and day,” was the grim answer. “Yes, I know it’s a pretty steep contract, but It can be done. Look you, Bob, all these letters, from first to last, were postmarked from Station Q, over on the West side, which proves that they were mailed somewhere in the district between Sixth and Eighth avenues, Thirty-second and Fortieth streets. Go up there and find out how many lamp-post boxes there are tributary to Station Q from which collections are regularly made." In an hour Quade was back with the report that there were a hundred and twelve boxes in all, not counting the various “drops" in the sub-station Itself. For two weeks a man in plain clothes from headquarters kept constant eyes on each of those hundred and twelve street boxes, with orders to report on or arrest any queer or suspicious characters seen approaching. But this plan brought no results —thq meshes of the net were too wide. During this time the correspondence with “Victim" was kept alive by judiciously “pollying him along”; also his letters continued to be mailed from somewhere in the postal district served by Station Q. Now Valentine prepared to strike and quickly. He requisitioned from the general postoffice for a single day a hundred and twelve letter carriers in regular uniform. With these he coupled as many detectives tn plain clothes. Carriers and detectives were stationed, two to each box and within sight of each other. Thus every one of the hundred and twelve boxes was watched by two men. Valentine’s ingenious instructions were as follows: Every time a person deposited a letter In a street box the* carrier on watch was to step up, unlock the box, and read the address on the letter just deposited, while the detective kept an eye on the departing person who had mailed the letter. If 1» was not addressed to Shanklin Skene the mail carrier was to snap a rubber band around it to distinguish It from later letters which might be mailed.

On the other hand, if the envelope was addressed to Skene, the 'mall carrier was to raise his cap as a sign to the watching detective, who was forthwith to place the suspect under arrest. » But on the night before this vast trap was baited, a decoy advertisement was left to be inserted in the Herald next morning which Inspector Valentine believed would elicit an immediate reply from “Victim” by mail tbe following day. If the vast and rather cumbrous machinery thus brought Into play seems like “gunning tor snipe with a gatling pa." It must be remembered that Valentine had to deal with a wily

and a elever so«. All otter means « detection had tatted. Unless the inspector or Ns mon could catch “Victim" red-handed tn the act of mailing one of the incriminating letters the case looked hopeless. However, nothing succeeds like*euocess, and Finney Valentino's elaborate and well-laid plot was justified by the result At about three o’clock In the afternoon of the fateful day an elderly, well-dressed man of military typo and bearing, white mustaohed and erect, carrying a tightly-rvlled umbrella, camo strolling along Thirty-sixth street between Seventh and Eighth avenues. The thoroughfare was almost deserted. It being a quiet residence street As the gentleman reached the corner ho drew from his overcoat pocket a letter, which he casually dropped in the lamppost box. In the act of doing so giving a quick glance around him. Then he leisurely continued on his way west on Thirty-sixth street The carrier on duty at that spot was named Charles King. As though in the line of duty he had the box open almost as soon as the man had passed on. Even had the latter turned his head to look back It is probable that he would have been unsuspicious, seeing merely a uniformed letter-car-rier collecting the mall. Carrier King glanced quickly at the topmost letter and gave the agreed signal. The address was that of Shanklin Skene! On the northwest corner diagonally opposite stood Riley Gannon from the Central office, while a second officer, Dan Williams, stood on the north side of the street. He also picked up the signal. Before he knew what was impending, the two detectives had the whitemustached man under arrest On the way to face Inspector Valentine at 300 Mulberry street the captive preserved a cool, jaunty demeanor and resolutely Wptrhls mouth shut But on being ushered Into that terrible room where so many criminals had practically convicted themselves, and which was decorated with the symbols and weapons of almost every known crime, the prisoner lost his nerve, broke down and confessed everything. His name he gave as Robert Jerdan, formerly a colonel in the Confederate service. He admitted that he had written all the letters signed “Victim" and “Texas Correspondent,” giving as reason and justification therefor the fact that Shanklin Skene, through one of his railroad wreckings, had almost completely ruined Colonel Jerdan and his family. These losses he had attempted to recoup by “coppering" what he supposed were Skene’s trades in the open market, with the result that he only got deeper into the mire. While he was being put through Valentine’s famous “third degree,” after obtaining his place of residence. Detective Bob Quade had made a hurried trip uptown and found in the prisoner’s rooms not only an old-fash-ioned Caxton typewriter, but a lot of stationery similar to that used in the Skene letters. • It was Inspector Valentine’s merciful opinion that Jordan’s mind was slightly unhinged. Now that the anonymous writer was caught and the flood of threatening letters stopped, Shanklin Skene lost his nerve, probably dreading the exposure and the scandal of a public trial, and declined to prosecute on condition that Colonel Jerdan gave his word to “go and sin no more" In that particular way. But he remained a firm friend to Inspector Valentine as long as he lived.

Her Belief.

s Police Judge Simon Hahn, while addressing a political meeting one night last week, related the following Incident In reference to telling the same tale over and over again. “You all know,” said the judge, “that the speeches made at political meetings are all very near alike, but to get something different is the proper thing nowadays. “It puts me In mind of a case of a woman who appeared before a certain magistrate and when asked her age said she was thirty years old. The judge looked at her and said: 'See here, madam, weren’t you here before me five years ago, and didn’t you tell me then that you were thirty years old?’ The woman said that was so, and the judge asked her what she meant by coming before him and telling an untruth. “The woman replied: 'Well, you see. your honor, I’m one of those kind of women who do not believe In saying one thing once and another thing another time.*" —Newark Star.

An Early Instinct.

After Morgiana, the maid servant of AU Baba, had poured the boiling oil into the 40 cans and destroyed the Forty Thieves, her master asked her what he cpuld do to show his gratitude. "I want two afternoons out -every week.” replied Morgiana. “with the privilege of entertaining my gentlemen friends in the parlor. Then you can hire a boy to clean the windows and the rugs, and the washing and ironing must be done out of the house. In addition to this you must raise my wages two sequlntettes a week.” All Baba gasped. “Why, we are paying you five soquintettes now.” he said. Morgiana tossed her head. "The wife of the cadi offered sag eight a week only yesterday.** So All Baba, realising how hard it was to get good help in Bagdad, came to terms. —Cleveland Plain Dealer. geek to Raise Rubber Tree. An effort is being made near Bow ton to raise a rubber tree, which has been imported from central Africa. <

POULTRY IN IRELAND

Great Wealth in Industry. Says Official Report Chlokons Supplied to England Excood In Amount That Which Cornea From AH Othor Countries of Europe Combined. Dublin, Ireland. —The opinions of experts given at a conference on the poultry Industry, held in Dublin recently, confirm the views expressed on the report of the department of agriculture and technical instruction for Ireland. Sir Horace Plunkett, a former vice-president of the department, declared that there was a mine of wealth In the poultry Industry awaiting development The present vice-president, T. W. Russell, gave figures showing the development of the industry in the last five years, and said that the export of butter alone almost equaled the export of whisky and porter combined, and that when eggs were added to butter the two combined almost doubled the alcoholic export; this in spite of the fact that the export, of whisky and porter is commonly believed almost to equal linen, which was of course easily first. The poultry supplied by Ireland at the present time to Great Britain exceeds In amount that which is being supplied by all the other countries of Europe. Diagrams and maps exhibited at the conference showed side by side the growth of the system of instruction and organization and the growth of the export of eggs and poultry. The correspondence between the two sets of charts was remarkable. The value of the export now amounts to $20,000,000 a year and a prophecy that in the near future the amount of money earned by Ireland from eggs and poultry would be nearer to $100,000,000 than to $20,000,000 was made by T. P. Gill, secretary of the department and formerly the nationalist member of parliament, who was on an Irish mission in the United States with Mr. John Dillon and the late Timothy Harrington when the Parnell crisis occurred. The wealth from this industry mainly goes to the small farmers and labor-

THREE KILL A TIGER

Village of Nan, Siam, Rejoices at Death of Beast. Bangkok Paper Gives Graphic Account of Slaying of Ferocious Bengal Tiger by Three Americans— Woman Watched Battle. 2. Minneapolis, Minn.—How a Minneapolis young man, well known socially, helped to bring down a Bengal tiger in Siam, is told in a Bangkok newspaper, a copy of which was received by John S. Bradstreet Ray Peoples Is the man. The account of the hunt as it appears in the Nan correspondence of the Bangkok paper, follows: “The quiet city of Nan was stirred up last Saturday by the news that a large Bengal tiger was in our midst He had killed a large bullock in the morning and was hiding under cover in an old deserted wat across the river from Dr. Taylor’s compound. The wat was grown over with dense thorns so thick that a man had to cut his way through. It did not seem possible that a tiger could'be so near us, not a quarter of a mile from Dr. Taylor’s house. “Siamese dwellings were within 300 yards of the spot where he was hiding. Word was sent to Dr.'Peoples. who had a good gun. He sent for Captain Springer, who is at the head of the gendarmerie force, to assist Ray Peoples was here visiting his parents. Each of these three had guns. The plan was to station the men with guns in trees and have beaters drive the tiger out He came out once and was shot at, and returned. “All efforts by the beaters and men with guns could not drive him out The

1,500 Miles on Horseback

Mis* Virginia Vance, Young School Teacher, Starts on Vacation Trip From Washington Town. Spokane, Wash. —Fifteen hundred miles on horseback is the summer vacation trip to terminate at Phoenix. Ari*., on which Miss Virginia Vance, * young school teacher, has started from Kennewick, Wash. Her father and brothers accompany her in a covered wagon and carry supplies and camp equipment, and Mrs. Vance and two younger children are to travel by water and rail to Fresno, Cal., to remain there until next fall, when they will join the restof the family at Phoenix. Miss Vance has selected a route to the southwest through Oregon, Nevada and Arizona by way of Pendleton to Lakeview, thence to Crater lake and into Nevada, keeping near the California line and following the canyon of the Colorado river In Arizona. No effort will be made to establish a record, nor will Miss Vance offer souvenirs or photographs for sale to cover the expenses of the trip. Traveling overland through picturesque scenery tn almost the same style as the early settlers came into the western country will, she be-

AIRMAN SEEKS ADDED LAURELS

PIERRE VEDRINE, the French aviator who recently won the Paris to Madrid aeroplane race, with, its $40,000 prize, is now trying to capture the >IOO,OOO offered in the Paris-Rome-Turin air race. He was one pt the last of the contestants to start and then was delayed by an accident to his machine.

ers and their wives. Therterjs no form of wealth that can be more thoroughly or more minutely distributed in a rural population than this, it is said that in-many cases the receipts from eggs are sufficient to pay the rent The industry gives employment to farmers’ wives and daughters, yielding returns on small farms of from SIOO to S3OO per annum. The conference was attended by officials and representatives of the Irish county committees which work the poultry schemes, and by experts and public representatives from England and Scotland. The practical manner In which the business was conducted made a deep impression on the visitors. One delegate, from Bristol, gave a

afternoon was spent, darkness came on and still the tiger held the fort. After the men left and all was quiet, the three men decided to watch for him. Everything was in their favor. The tiger would want to finish the meal he had commenced in the morning. The full moon was shining in all its tropical brightness across the rich fields and upon the spot where the tiger would come out. “They did not have to wait long before the tiger made his appearance, cautiously creeping out. After his head and shoulders were in view, Dr. Peoples fired, striking him in the neck. The tiger gave a terrible growl and a spring forward. Ray Peoples shot him in the chest. Captain Springer sent a well-directed bullet, striking him un-

Our Pronunciation Is Bad

London Elocution Teacher Especially Complains of Nasal Twang of the American Women. London.—English teachers of elocution are shocked by the American pronunciation of English. One of the cult, speaking to an English newspaper reporter, said: “To cure the American nasal twang completely after it has become habitual is impossible. That curious rising inflection to nearly every word which is characteristic of Americans from the northern states and is of Indian •origin, may be modified. But the hardest part of my task with American women is to to speak more softly. Their high-pitched voices are not welcome in European

lives, be an Interesting and valuable experience. The little party will sleep in the open, cooking at camp fires and stopping occasionally to hunt and fish. It Is also planned to make detours into the surrounding country along the California border. **l have been planning this trip for a long time,” Miss Vance said, "but the opportunity to make it was not offered until my parents decided to make their future home in Arizona.”

Thirteen Monkeys Left.

Pittsburg, Pa.—Only thirteen monkeys are left of a “poison squad" of sixty, which Dr. Frederick Prgpscher, pathologist of the Allegheny general hospital, has been experimenting with in an effort to discover the germ of infantile paralysis. These are taking the rest cure at the Riverview park zoo. The monkeys already show a marked Improvement, and by fall. It Is thought, will be ready for further experiment*.

Cossacks Strike for Their Pay.

Warsaw.—A battalion of Amur Cossacks. whose pay had fallen into arrears, have succeeded in obtaining their money by declaring a strike.

PIERRE VEDRING

dramatic touch to the proceedings just before the close. He stood up In his place and said: “I was all my life an anti-home ruler, but the way this conference has been conducted may lead me to alter my views.” A delegate from Armagh protested against this observation, but he was quickly answered by Mr. O’Conner, a delegate from Cork, who said: "And as representing Cork, I applaud it" The incident passed off with this observation. Slight as it was, it summed up the Irish situation admirably. The proceedings of this conference opened the eyes of the 'visitors from England and Scotland by showing what Irishmen could do to develop this country if they were permitted to do so.

der the eye. A few more shots ended the battle. “There was great rejoicing on the part of all over the fact that* there was one fewer Bengal tiger in Nan. His body was seven feet long, tail three feet, height three and one-half feet, with head, shoulders, teeth, paws to match. Thousands called to See him the following day. Great credit is due to the three men that stood so bravely to their post and also to the beaters who took their share In the hunt This was a great treat that many enjoyed, it being so near that ladies could sit on Dr. Taylor’s upper piazza and look over the river and rice fields and see the battle go on all the afternoon and could hear the men directing the fight Tigers have been troubling the people much in this vicinity the last six months. They have killed a number of cattle and dogs. Matty people have been killed by them, too, in the villages."

drawing rooms, and I find the best method is to keep them whispering for ten minutes together.** It appears that Americans emphasize the Saint in Saint Paul too much, say “I guess’* and Indulge in slang which is incomprehensible to the keen English intellect So when you" come over here don’t forget that the American “lobster” in England is a “silly awss,” that “hot air** is translated into “bally rot,” and that instead of saying “Here’s luck,” it is your duty to shout “Cheer oh." If you wish to inform your English friends that you are in business for yourself, tell them that you are “on your own,” and in explaining to him that the - food at yous hotel is excellent, don’t forget to .say “They do me very well at the Savoy.” If you will take these substitutions, call casual acquaintances “dear old chaps” and refrain from boasting, which in this country is termed “swanking,” you may be able to get along, but you will still have to pay American prices in the shops. However, cheer up, the worst is still to come. Our English elocutionist concludes his criticism with this: “One of the most irritating accent* of all 1* the Canadian, which is the nearest thing there is to utter negation of accent There are types of Canadians who talk very fast and very insistently on one monotonous note, which to a sensitive ear is simply maddening.”

Polar Bears Go A-Summering

New York.—Passengers of the Carmania, which has finished her trip from Liverpool, were at religious service in the main dining saloon during the voyage when a large iceburg was sighted eleven mile* to the northward, off the banks. Imaginative passengers who were not at the service counted as many as seven polar bear* shuffling around on the berg.

Boy Find Maharajah’s Gem.

London.—The diamond lost from the turban of the maharajah of Bikaner, for which all London searched three days and nights, was found kr a boy in the strest.