Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 297, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1918 — SUSPICION LEADS TO NEAR ARREST [ARTICLE]

SUSPICION LEADS TO NEAR ARREST

RENSSELAER RAILROAD MEN HAVE UNPLEASANT CHICAGO EXPERIENCE. John Adair and Elmer Wilcox went to Chicago on the Wednesday afternoon tram and expected to attend a show find have an enjoyable evening and" to return home on the train which leaves Chicago about midnight. The trip to the city was a very pleasant one and these two good fellows were in a happy mood, anticipating a most enjoyable evening away from the strenuous toil of railroading. What should be the surprise of these two young men when they had walked but a block or two from the Polk street depot when they were halted by a plain clothes detective who a very cdreful examination of both men. While the officer of the law was going through Wilcox’s clothes, Adair stood by with his hat setting upon his hair, which was standing perpendicular upon his head, and thoughtlessly thrust his hand into his pocket. This called forth from the officer a command to Adair, “Take your hand out of your pocket.” Sure, Johnny took his hand out of his pocket and he did it mighty quick. The two fellows passed through an ordeal which they claim would have made being captured by the Huns feel like a real delight. They were searched from head to foot and, of course, nothing incriminating could be found upon their person. But their guilty looks and their excessive fright made the alert? officer believe that they were in the city for some purpose contrary to the best interests of the country, and they were questioned as to who they were, where they lived, and what their business in the city was. To these questions both, for a while, were speechless, and this made the officer more suspicious than ever. He started for a nearby city police telephone and the boys knew at once that they were just about to have a ride in a “hoopoodoo” wagon and

would land in quarters for the eelect only. This additional fright brought Wilcox’s speech back to him and he | told the officer that, they worked for I the Monon and that they lived at | Rensselaer, Ind., but he could not for I the life of ham tell why they were in Chicago, and that they sure wished that they were home. Well, said the officer, you go straight back to the station and remain until the first train on, what’s the name of that road, and leave for your Indiana hamlet, and get out of here at your very first opportunity. The fellows were glad to go back to the station and anxiously awaited the opportunity to leave the big city. The conductor bn the train on which the boys returned said that they ducked down in their seat and were frightened white every time a stranger entered the coach in which they were fleeing from the moat exciting experience of their lives. What a Chicago police could see about our townsman that would make him suspicious of them is beyond our comprehension. Both are men who never depart from the straight and narrow way and undoubtedly their mission to the big city was to attend a high class opera or hear some eminent divine.