Evening Star Newspaper, February 18, 1923, Page 73

WHAT HAPPENED TO FANNIE|AI THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, /D. ., FEBRUARY 18, iens and Narcotics Are Smuggled Trilby May Monkeys With Fate and Butts Into an Entertaining Little Romance Between the Comic Valen- tine From the Hills and Denny, the Chauffeur—The-Girl Is a Bit Slow in Starting on Fashions, But Once She Gets Under Way She Certainly Shows Speed—The Glad Reunion When BY SEWELL FORD. REMEMBER calling her Fannie, the forlorn, and being rather pleased with the phrase, when I passed it on to Inez she chuckled over the name. “1 guess you got her right, Trilby May,” says Inez. “Looks llke she'd been turned loose from an orphans’ home somewhere.” Perhaps Fannle wasn't quite 80 torlorn looking as all that, but very nearly. Much of it may have been due to the way her mud-colored hair straggled in stringy wisps over her cara and into her eyes. Something ad happened to that hair ot Fan- i but T could never guess just She may have started to bo: and quit the job when she was halt through, or it may have been nibbled by rats while she was asleep. Anywa was hardly a crowning glory. And there was no denying the fuct that Fannie was a sloppy dr er, on and off. Of course, com- ‘ng straight from the country, as ghe d, vou could hardly expect to have a snappy wardrobe; but even when T got sympathetic and gave her an almost perfectly good morning Gress she managed to wear 1t so much like a meal sack that I was almost ashamed of my gift. And yet, if Fannie had stood up stralght and could have lifted the slurap of her shoulders and held her chin up she wouldn't have been such a comic valentine, She had ‘Mrly good lines, her gray eyes could some- times liven up With expression and her features weren't so bad. True, > did have the sniffiing habit, she would shuffle around in cld shoes with runover heels and she had about the complesion of a pickled pig’s toot. Still, she could sweep and dust and make beds and wash windows, after a fashion, and it wasn't for dec- orative purposes that we had Fannie around the studio. % ¥ it WILL admit that when we came back from thne country last fall and Gecided that we needed a maid 1 had in mind some neat, rather emart appearing young persom Tn fact, T think T mentioned those quali- fications in the want ad. But Fannie was the first to respond. sile came almost before any of us was up, and waited until I could throw ou a kimono and let her in. There was a pleading look in her gray eyes, too, and when she an- nounced that she’d drifted in from a little New Hampshire town not o far from where we had been spend- ing the summer she rather cinched her cas . “] wisht you'd give me a chance, says she. “I—I'd try awful hard.” “How about it, Inez?" T asks. “Oh, maybe she'll do, So we put a cot bed in the little room at the end of tlie hall and sign- +d her on. She needed a lot of train- ing, but seemed to pick up our ways quick enough, and she didn't get lomesick. as I had expected. In fact, for a girl who had always lived in the hills and had never been away from home before, she was remark- ably contented. Finally T asked her ab vou Fnow any one =ll in v York Fannie?" says L She sareued the floor with one foot for a ute, ;‘nked up a little in the ears and then proceeded to spill her secret. “Sure!” says she. I know Denny Moran.” ~Oh!” says 1. “And who Moran? “He's workin' in a garage twi blocks down,” says she. “Car washe “I & says I. A beau of yours from your own home town. eh?” Part of that was correct. Only renny Moran wasn't a native son. He had .been imported into_ New Mampshire by one of the summer .ottagers as chauffeur and he'd met nnie at some of the village dances. rom early in July until late Septem- ber he'd been more or less of & steady for Fannle, until his boss had gotten wige to these moonlight joy rides Denny was taking all'on hie own and he'd been handed a ticket back to wn. But he'd been writing to nnie and promising to come back nest season it he could land another job up in that neighborhood. “But I kinda wanted to see Denny before that” she explained, “so T came along down.” Even as Ruth says I. ‘Hey? is Mr the Moabitess,” ys Fannie, gawping. “A case of whither thou gpest, there will 1 go also, eh?" says I “But you've been ‘here more than a week, Fannie, and I've seen no Mr. Moran showing up as ¥ How's that? “I ain't let him know I was here,” ve sl “I was gonna When 1 got ttled. Could—could I call him up ©n the 'phone?" : 1 know | gingham | a|Of being presented. Trilby May “IT WASN'T FOR DECORATIV “Sure!" says Fannie. And then she exhibited a cheap ring which she sald Denny had given her. % % % . O I invented an errand out on 3d avenue to give Fannie a chance to break the glad news to him with- out an audience. And when I came back T found Fannie quite chirked up. “He was awful she. “He—he's comin’ around to- night. You don’t mind if we sit on the stairs a spell, do you?” I didn't. Who was I to ruin any fond reunfon or run a real romance on the rocks. I even planned that both Inez and I should be out until 10:30 that evening and warned Uncle Nels not to disturb the happy pair when he came in. “Perhaps, though,” I suggested, “he will want to take you out to the movies, or something. “Sure,” says Fanie. “He took around a lot last summer.” “It looks,” I remarks to Inez “as If Fannle was due Yor a pleasant evening.” “Huh!" says she. “That feller must have his taste all in his mouth. He can’t be much, him.” She was wrong, however. I hap- pened to be a little late going out for dinner, or élse Mr. Moran was ahead of his schedule. Anyway. he and Fannie were in the hallway as 1 left the studio and I had the honor And he was rather a husky, good looking young Irishman, quite spruce and smart in 2 neat chauffeur’s uniform. “Denny, he's got a new place,” ex- plains Fannie. “He's drivin’ a private car now."” s “Well, that's nice, fsn't it? says I, by way of easing myself out. Yet when I came in that night I was sure I could hear Fannie snif- filng and sobbing fn her little hall bedroom. After listening a minute I knocked, and it was & sorry-faced girl who let me in. Heaven knows she was plain enough at her best, but with her eyelids all red and her sallow cheeks tear-streaked and swollen she was a sight. “In the name of the seven sor- rows,” says I, “what's the trouble?’ We—we bust up—Denny and me, says Fannle, slumping on the cot. ‘What was {t all about? I de- manded. “I dunno.” surprised.” says me says Fannie. “I—I a thing. He was nice enough at first and we set here on the stairs talkin' over the good times we had last sum- mer, and I said how I hadn’t been to any picture show since I come to New York, and Denny eays why not go to one now. Well, we started. But after we'd gone a ways, and I'd stop- ped to look in a window, I found Denny givin' me the cold eye. Next thing I knew he was sayin’' how he couldn’t go to no movie tonight and he guessed I'd better go home. I asked him what was the matter so sudden, but he only acts grouchy, and when he gets as far as the downstairs door he turns and leaves me flat with- out so much a yin' good-night. 0-0-00h! I don’t know what the matter with him.” ‘here, there!” says 1. “Perhaps it {sn’t as bad as it seams. Now let see If we can't dope out this mystery. You say that you and Denny sat on I the stairs awhile?" She admits sniffly that this was the case. “Fairly dark out there” says I “And then you stopped in front of a didn’t do @ thing that I know of—not | Swears Off. E_PURPOSES WE HAD FANNY AROUND THE STUDIO.” “You were—er—wearing the same rig you have on now?" I gsked. “Why, sure,” says Fannie. “Well. then,” I goes on, “to be perfectly honest, Fannle, I don't know as I can blame Denny &o much. It isn’t quite the costume he would be proud to tow in through the bright lights of movie entrance.” “It's the same dress 1 wore to dances all last summer,” protests Fannie. - “Even £o," says I, “it'doesn’t look quite the =same on East 14th street as it did in Westmorland, Y. You should have guessed that. “It—it's the best I got,” sobs Fan- nie. * ok ok “ JELL, 1 said all the soothing words I could think of, and left her to sniffie herself to sleep with the final suggestion that per- haps Mr. Moran would forget his grouch in a few days and come around again But Mr. Moran did nothing of the ikind. Evidently he'd had a shock lthat he couldn't get over. and while Fannie migit have looked good to {him last August in the moonlight, or at a dance in Grange Hall, she didn't show up as well in New York. Anyway, he kept away. And for more than a week Fannie moped around weeping into the dishpan, sniffing over the broom handle, and registering woe on all occasions. “You're fully as cheering to have around,” T told her, “as the plumes on a hearse. “I can't help it wisht I was back home. I was dead.” Still, 1 moticed that she had her ear stretched every time the phone rang, and I suspected that she hadn't given uphope that Denny would come back. When I taxed her with it she admitted as much. So to end the agony I got her to tell me the street and number of the garage where Denny kept his car and when he was likely to be found there. “I think I'll have a few words with your Denny myselt,” says L. My notion was that I could patch matters up between them and have Fannie looking & little more pre- sentable when he called again. I'll admit that this was rather a delicate { mission to tackle, but something had ! to be done. Fannfe was getting more and more useless around the studio, land it seemed cruel to scnd her back to” New Hampshire with a broken iheart. So I looked up Mr. Moran land had him called out to the front of the storage garage. “Do you think,” I asked, “you're treating Fannie fairly? She'd hard- 1y had Ume to get herself fixed up.” “Huh!" says he. “Nobody could fix her up. She's too much of a hick," 5 Savs I | hopeless “Uh-huh” says he. “I must have been blind in both eyes last summer. Anyway, I'm off her for life, and you can tell her so.” “Very well, Mr. Moran,” says I It seemed fnal, and I broke it to Fannle as gently as I could. | Instead of indulging in a fresh fit of weeping, however, Fannie stared lat me with a cola giftter in her gray jeyes. Not a sob, not even a aniffi “I'm’ hopeless, am 17" “Denny Moran said that! Say, he must think a whole lot of himself. I i—I just wisht there was some way I could get back at him. I—I'd like to says she, *“I I—I wisht “Then you believe she's “I gee no reason why you shouldn‘t,” | show window; one that was brilliant. [show him once.” says 1. “Practically engaged, aren’t 1y lighted, I suppose?” Fannie nods. e} Really, I'd never dreamed the girl could show so much spirit.” “Would you?” L asked. “Like to show him, I mean?” “You bet I would,” says Fannie. “Well,” rays 1, “I don't know whether it could be done or not, but it would do no harm to try, and it might be more or fun. Now forget Denny, wipe him off the slate, and buck yourselt up while 1 plan out & scheme. * o ow % CTUALLY, though, it was Inez who sketched out the plot of the who sketched out the plot of the plece, when I consulted her about Fannie. “She’s & mess, all right,” says Inez, “and she don't know mo more about; what kinda clothes to wear or how to wear 'em than a hen does about usin’ & toothbrush. I tell you what: I she could eveF learn it would be to get & place in one of them swell shops where even the bundle girls get to lookin’ like they had a Paris label sewed on ‘em lomc~i where.” “Soak her “Well, it might work. feature Fannie as being very help- ful about one of those “Robes et Man- teaux’ joints, unless they took her on as floor scrubber, or something like that. “Huh!” says Inez. “You don’t know. They have all kinds of cheap help in the back rooms—sewin' on beads, buttonholin’ and such. I Bet if T went to the forelady up at that Mllncn' East Side b A in style, eh?” says But I can (i Nolr, where 1 was model once, I could got her In. But they wouldn't give her enough to live on.” “That'll be all right” says L “T11] finance her for & few months, just out of curiosity. I'd like to sec if Fannle really could bloom out. You 1and the job for her, Ines, and well let her keep her room hers and give | her her meals for what little she can do after hours. 1 need another maid anyway; a real one.” o, inside of forty-eight hours, Fan- nie found herself in one of the work- rooms of the Maison Noir, where the wives and daughters of the oily rich go to be stung four prices for Poiret tagged gowns that have never been nearer the customhouse than West 57th street. She was to rip bastings, run errands to the stockroom. sweep up and make herself generally use- ful. And she was allowed to come and go through the basement entrance only. After she had been there a week, with ne visible improvement, 1 asked her how she was getting cn. “Oh, il right,” says Fannie. “Only I don’t like ‘em much up there. All such snippy. girls. They treat me like T was dirt under their feet. They make jokes about me behind my back. Ang that woman boss—she's a terror. I think she cusses me in French. I don't know why i - * COULD guess, but I said not a word. If the plan was to work, Fannie must find out for herself. And jt wasn't until she was well along in her third week that she seemed to have a gleam of intelligence ‘ou ought to see the way them girls dress up there, Miss Dodge,” says she. “Say, they all got silk stockin's and silk things just like the customers. Even the ones that| do plain sewin’ in the shop. And when | they get ready to start for home— why, you can hardly tell ‘em from the young ladles that roll up in limou- Ssines out front. They ot fur coats and stylish hats and dresses like they was goin’ to a party. Nome of ‘em| will walk with me, not as far as the corner.” “Yes?” says 1. encouraging. here's one that talks to me some- times when we eat our lunch” she goes on. “She’s a fat girl, Rosa Blum. Know what she told me yesterday? “You poor sap,’ she says, ‘i I had your figure I'd be down in the model room, *stead of up here workin' at 2 bench.’ She asks me why I drees like I'd just been turned loose from Ellis Island. ‘ i i | “And what did You tell her, Fan- nie?" I asked. “Why,” says Fannie, “I said I was no rich girl and on $12 & week I couldn’t do no different. She says I'm a simp and that she knows a place down on Grand street where I could get some swell things and pay for ‘em s0 much every Saturday. She says she could make me look like something for $50.” H “Well?" says . “I wisht I had that much,” sighs! Fannfe. “I'm sick of havin’ ‘em alll look &t me the way they do. I—TI'd let her take me there if I had the price.” “Go with Miss Blum, then.” says I | “I'll stake you to fifty, or even twice that.” H “You—you will!" gasps Fannie. “Say, if you would maybe I could pay it back some time. I'll tell her to- morrow."” Evidently Miss Blum knew what she was talking about, for two days later there appeared from Fannie's room a y\ung person that Inez and! 1 hardly recognized; a slim, xrlcetul' young woman in. a clinging black | dress that brought out long, smooth | lines, which we never suspected Fln—l nie of having. For it was Fannie. | Oh, yes. There was still the mud- colored bobbed hair to identify her. But nearly all the slump had gone trom her shoulders, and there was animation In the gray eyes, “Is ft all right?” she asked. “It's almost & miracle,” says L “I bet I freeze when I go out,” says Fannle. “I—I ain’t got much on be- sides thi “Never mind,” says I. ‘1l let you bave that squirrel coat I wear so little. And you must let me know what the girls in the shop say to you.” She reported promptly. “Say, they're gettin’' kinda nice, after all,’ ys she. “One of 'em wants me to go to & triend of hers and have my halr fixed up. She says if I could buy some more it could be done up and I could have & permanent put in the front. But it would cost too much, I guess.” “Go the 1imit, Fannie,” says L “I'm backing this enterprise, remembe: ok w ‘A ND it's amazing what they can do at these beauty factories. By ~ Into Country on Coast of Flori 923—PART 5. - da | Underground Railway for Former Is Believed to Pass Through Virginia and Maryland. Schooners, Launches and Other Craft Engaged in Traffc Come From Cuba, Honduras and Other Gulf Points—Few Chinese Among Aliens Captured, But They \Are Believed to Have | Been Brought In—Some Who Seek to Enter Landed on Barren Keys—Business Well Organ- 1zed and Well Financed. TAMPA, Fla, Februsry 7. AKING the many bays, rivers and out-of-the-way harbors of the west coast of Florida their ports of entry, a thor- oughly organized, adequately financed jund shrewdly directed body of smug- glers is operating on a gigantic scale, according to agents of the United States bureau of immigration and of the federal narcotic squad making Tampa headquarters. Aliens seeking entrance fnto this country and morphine and cocaine are the “goods” handled by this or- ganization, which, according to the government agents, has ramifications throughout the north and east and in & number of foreign countries. At present the Hillsborough county jail houses nearly 150 allens captured while trying to make their way from the west coast spots where they were landed from achooners, launches |ana other veesels from Cuba, Hondu- ras and other gulf countries. These aliens ropresent at least thirty na- tionalities, a list of which reads like a geography of Europe. In the list of countries are Spain, Portug: Russia, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Lithuanfa, Syria, Bessarabia, India, Serbia, Croatia and nearly two-score other countries of the old world. Significance i« attached by govern- ment agents to the fact that not a single orlental—Chinese or Japanese— has been captured by federal. county or local officers anywhefe along the west coast of Florida in the last six months, while previous to that time the apprehension of smuggled Chinese was common in this section. It is known that at least three large par- ties of Chinese have been landed somewhere along the west coast within the last sixty days. Inci- “HAPLESS ALIENS HAVE BEEN LANDED ON BARREN KEYS.” dentally, it may be stated that the aliens now in the Hillsborough county jall, awaiting hearings before United States Commissioner J. W. Cone, have all been caught within the last sixty days. * % % % HAT Chinese are being smuggled in through west coast points of entry is the firm belfef of the federal agents, who, however, have not been successful in any recent attempts to intercept and arrest them. Detailed statements of men operating auto service and filling stations on the roads in this part of Florida are too circumstantial, the federal agents say, to admit of doubt on this point. Only last week the proprietor of a filling station on the Memorial high- way reported that the night before three big automobiles containing twenty-six Chinese stopped at his place, about nine miles from Tampa, for gas and water. While the ma- chines stood in the light in front of the filling station, this man sald, he counted twenty-six Chinese. As soon as they had gone on telephone mes- sages were sent to county officers here and to the police department, but the three machines with their loads of orientals did not pass through this city. This occurred about 2 o'clock on the morning of Tuesday, January 9, at an hour when it was impossible to reach the fed- eral agents at the government build- ing. As these agents keep them- selves well concealed, except when at the United States marshal's office, the filling station man did not know where to reach them These Chinese probabiy were taken over the same route as that which was followed by a party late last patesacssit amaSi e e e e e the end of the week Fannie the for- lorn had disappeared, and in her place we had a zippy young person who held her chin up and looked confident- Iy at the world through smiling gray eves, “What do you know?" she asked. “T've had a raise. Uh-huh! I'm gonna be a helper in the fittin' department. The forelady told me today.” But why go into all the details of Fannie's progress? She was a bit slow in getting started, I'll admit; but once she got under way she cer- tainly sho -d speed. The next thing we knew I'apnie was spending two evenings a week and half her salary at the cut-rate beauty shop which her friend had discovered. “I'm having a course of full fa- cials,” she explains. “They wrsp me up in some hot. sticky stuff, so only my nose is out, and I hafta stay like that for an ‘hour. JBut my cheeks don't look =o much like they was made of putty, do they?” “Then that color isn’t rubbed in?” says 1. “What's next on the pro- gram, Fannie?” “Oh, I'm savin’ up to have my eye- brows plucked,” says she. “Nearly all the girls have had that done, ex- cept Rosa Blum, and she says what's the use.” . That was the final touch. and when Fannie appeared with those thin, straight lines above her eyes and a delicate flush on her cheeks and a more decided tint on her lips and a pair of long jet danglers in her ears —well, she got a gasp out of us, all right. ‘Afn’t she swell, though?" demands Inez. ‘A regular knockout,” says L “Now if we could only spring her on that hard-boiled chauffeur, Mr, Denny Moran, I think we could hand him a joit.” “Huh!” says Inez. “She don’t need to bother with cheap skates like him. Don’t you know where she was last nignt?” . I didn’t, 5o Inez spills the new “To @ cabaret dinner with some out- of-town buyer she met at one of them dance places,” says Ines. ‘“She's got a date with him to go on & party Saturday night up to a place on the Post road. She told me about it.” “Not really!” says I “See here, Ines, this is more than I'd planned for Fannie. It ms we've monkeyed with fate without thinking of the re- sponsibility. Denny Moran ought to know about this.” - A fat lot of good that would do now,” says In “She’s way out of his class, “I suppose so,” says L “Still the plot of the piece calls for Denny to know what a mistake he made and for Fannle to teach him the lesson herself. He wouldn't believe it un- less he saw her, in some way they've got to meet. £ * % ¥ It wasn't so difficult. I simply got Denny on the phone and told him I had some news about Fannie. “Have you?” says he, careless. “Something that will surprise you,” says L “No, I'm not going to tell you now. If you want to know what it is you'll have to come around at 7 o'clock Saturday evening; and you may come or stay away, just as you please.” “Huh! up. “I bet he don't come near here, says Inez. “You'll lose, then,” says I. are just as curious as women. And at 6:45 Denny was on hand. “What's happened to her, any way?” he demanded. “Lots,” says I. “She's getting ready to go on a party just now, but per- haps she'll have a minute or two to see you. I'll find out.” I had the satisfaction, too, of watching Denny’s mouth come open as the gorgeous Fannie, all dolled in an evening dress, came through the studio door. He had no more speech left in him than as if he'd been hit over the head with a club. He simply stared at her, stunned. And then' I turned to Fannie to see how she would give him what was coming to him. But you never can tell, can you? For just a moment Fannie gazed at him, hesltating, and then she called out, with a pleased break in her voice: “Why, Denny! Denny Moran! Oh, I'm so glad you came! So glad! And the next I knew they'd gone to a clinch, Half an hour later Ines comes in and reports that there's a lively bunch waiting in & touring car down at the front door and asking for Fan- ni ‘She’s out on the back fire escape holding hands with Denny Moran,” says 1. “You'd better tell her. 1 suppose Ines did. Anyway, she came in looking blank and pussle “She says to tell them fresh they can go chase themselv nounces Ines. “Ssys she and Denny are gonna sit on the sfairs for a while. Now what do you know about that, Trilby May?" “Not much,” says I, “except that I'm through monkeying with any. body's fate sxcept my own. It's too ‘wearing' on the nerves.” (Copyright, by Sewell Ford.) : 4 says Mr. Moran as I hung “Men summer, when the smuggled Chinese were captured near Petersburg, Va. The route leads over well paved high- ways up through the central part of Florida, through or near Valdosta, Ga., and on through the Carolinas to Virginia, the destination being Balti- more, Philadelphia or New York. Captains of schooners, and other craft engaged in the busi- ness of smuggling allens into the United States have in some instances been captured. One captain, an Eng- lishman, landed a crowd of thirty- nine Spaniards and Italians a few days ago near Naples, a remote re- sort in the lower part of Lee county, Fla, forty miles from Fort Myers, the nearest railroad point. The aliens as well as the schooner cap- tain were caught by the Lee county sheriff and a deputy and have been placed {n jail here to await & hearing before the United' States commis- sioner. = From these men it was learned that the captain of the schooner, named the Etta Mildred, received $100 each for bringing the allens from a Cuban port and landing them on United States soil. Other aliens In the county jail here assert that they pald all the way from $100 to $300 each for passage from Cuba, British Honduras and other ports on the gulf or the Caribbean to & landing point on the west coast of Florida. While it is agreed before the smug. gling vessels start that the allens will be landed in a safe place and that they will be met by men who will convey them to some point in the north or east for a certain addi- tional sum, in many cases no effort is made to carry out the terms of the agreement, and in numerous in- stances the hapless aliens have been landed on barren keys several miles from the mainland and with no means of getting ashore. Here they have been compelled to remain until taken off by sheriff’s officers or federal agents. ) * ¥ % % T least six agents of the bureau of immigration are known to be making Tampa headquarters at pres- ent, and it is thought that several others are operating from this city. These agents are working in double shifts—that is, night and day—but they declare that the aliens captured probably do not constitute even a minor fraction of thoss who are land- ed on this coast and are successful in eluaing the federal agents and reach- ing safety in the north and east. “Maybe as many as 5 per cent are being caughi,” sald one of these fed- eral agents, “but I am doubtful if the proportion is that high. The business is too well organized, too well financed and the west coast of Florida offers too many secluded landing places for the small number of men available for combatting the illegal entrance of these people. Besides, Florida's road system is too good and its ramifications too many to make successful pursuit possible. So it is probable that at least twenty aliens gain entrance to the country and elude all officials for every one that 1s captured and held for deportation.” Men who used to be engaged in the lucrative business of running liquor from Havana, Guantanamo, Bimini, Jamaica, Nassau and other ports have recently turned their at- tention to the smuggling of narcotics, such as opium, morphine and cocaine. Not long ago a federal agent at Key West wired agents here to be on the lookout for a man due to arrive on a passenger steamer from Havana. According to the telegram, the sus- pected man was believed to have with him a suit case full of narcotics. ‘When the steamship arrived at Port Tampa federal agents went on board, located their man and searched him and the stateroom he had occupied, but found nothing. A few days later boys playing along the shore of Tampa bay found a sult case floating in the water. Retrieving it, they found on opening it that the suit case was full of one-eighth-ounce bottles of morphine, worth, at prices charged by dope peddlers, at least $5,000. Immersion in the water had soaked off labels the suit case had borne and it was impossible to identify it as the property of the suspect who ar- rived on the boat from Havana, so there was nothing to do but dis- charge the man when he came up for & hearing. The morphine was sent to Washington for disposition ac- cording to law. This was the single instance where launches | !l consignment of nartotic drugs was captured before it got into the coun- | try. Not another consignment of any | kind of marcotic has been taken at any point along the west coast of Florida in the last vear, vet cocaine and morphine are sold by dope ped- dlers in Tampa and other Florida cities every day and every night, and almost openly. On Wednesday afternoon, January 24, Leo Day, one of the best known taxicab proprietors in the state, was arrested by federal agents and Tampa detectives on a charge of selling nar- cotice, in violation of the Harrison anti-narcotic act. Day operates a fleet of touring cars in Tampa and through a large part of Florida. Day is alleged to have sold, personally, a small package of cocaine to & mem ber of the federal narcotic squad op- erating here, receiving $15 in marked bills. Shortly afterward, it is alleged, Day learned the identity of his cus- tomer; whereupon, with two of h drivers, it {s charged, he called at the agent’s room in a big Tampa hotel and attempted forcibly to take thel package of cocalne from him. It was while there that Day was arrested. He s now under $3,500 bond for ap- pearance before the United States commissioner. This is one illustra- tion of the boldness with which the eellers of narcotics operate in this section and shows as well the large supplies of narcotics available to these sellers, who in many instances are importers of the drugs. * ¥ % % EDERAL agents declare that il widespread conspiracy to smug aliens, narcotics and liquor into this part of the country could not exist without the connivance of county and local authorities in many parts of the west coast region. Neither could the business continue without almost unlimited finances. Existence of a conspiracy extending far beyond the borders of FloriZa, and of an “under- ground railway” superior to any that existed for the passing on of fugitive slaves preceding the war between the states, is declared by these agents of the government to be proven beyond possibility of doubt by hundreds of bits of beattered evidence, but evi- dence such as could not be accepted {n any court in the prosecution of suspects. Not a day passes but that the cperatives of the bureau of im- migration and the deputy United States marshals, as well as prohibi- tion enforcement officers attached to the Tampa office, receive reporte of mysterious automoblles speeding along Florida roads, curtains drawn close and lights out or dimmed, to- ward destinations in north Florida or across the Georgia line. Sometimes these machines are out of luck, as was one that skidded into an iron post at Lakeland a few weeks ago. Investigation of the wreck by the Lakeland police disclosed the presence in the tonneau of the big touring car of eighteen cases of a well known brand of Scotch whisky. Incidentally, it might be stated that this lquor, deposited in what was Delieved to be a safe place until time for its production as evidence before the United States commissioner, dis- appeared a night or 5o later and never has been relocated. The same thing happened here in Tampa a few weeks ago, when a large quantity of “evi- dence,” captured ir raids by the police on a number of cafes and lunchrooms, mysteriously disappeared from the locker room at police headquarters the followIng day, with no trace as to its later whereabouts or the man- ner in which it vanished. Tampa and St. Petersburg made it too hot for northern wiretappers and operators of similar games a couple of winters ago and none of those who used to operate these devices for getting rich quickly have appeared here in more than a year. But liquor- running and the smuggling of aliens and of narcotic drugs goes right ahead, and Increases from week to week, if one may credit the state- ments of federal agents. “Make your money here and keep it here” seems to be the slogan of Florida’s west coast country these days, and the frequency with which men hitherto able to earn only a meager living at some trade are pur. chasing costly and speedy autos, garb- ing selves like the lilles of the fleld, and toiling about as much as those same lilles do, indicates that the slogan is being adopted rhore and more generally day by day. ~N