Evening Star Newspaper, January 27, 1929, Page 85

F_amous Missteps of Justice—A Jolt to the Majesty of the L BY JOSEPH GOLLOMB, Author of “Master Man_ Hunters,” “Master Spies,” Etc. RITISH judges on the bench wear august wings. The symbol seems to say, “His Majesty, Justice, can ,do no wrong! In the main, British justice has worn its crown firmiy enough. But since the case of Adolf Beck the heads that wear those majestic wings wear them just a bit more uneasily than be- fore. And this is why: On an April morning some years back Louisa Leonard, a married woman who was not living with her husband, was strolling along the Strand near Char- ing Cross, London, when an exceeding- | ly well dressed, well mannered man stopped her, raised his high silk hat and_exclaimed: | “Don't you remember me, Lady| Cyde? I'm Lord Willoughby!” Louisa was flustered. She had on her best clothes, but to be mistaken for a titled lady by a gentleman of such stvllish appearance and high-sounding le was beyond dreaming. Louisa’s share of beauty was modest and her station in life not exalted; as a matter | of fact she was wondering where she | would get her bread and butter in the | near future. And now here was Prince Charming mistaking her for a member of the nobility! For a moment Louisa felt the glow of the implied compliment. sorry, sir, but I ain't Lady She was about to pass on, but the | gentleman would not let her. He stared in well bred astonishment at her. “If you're not Lady Clyde, then you're | her double. And I should know. “Only four years ago I had hoped to marry her. Lord Clyde was the fortunate one. May I know Who you are?” | Still blushing and flustered at the | bolt of romance out of the blue, Louisa gave her name and, at his insistence, her address. *“You must forget the liberty I take,” he pursued. “Remember what Lady Clyde has meant to me—one doesn't get over a love like mine in four years, and you will understand, perhaps, why I am bold enough to ask you to let me write to you.” Louisa understood and sympathized. She gave him her address. She did not expect him to make use of it and blushed when she thought of his look should he sce her shabby lodgings. But how could one refuse an address to & gentleman in such circumstances? “Thank you, Miss Leonard!” the gen- tleman said. raising his hat in farewcll.l “Au revoir.” LOUISA may have dreamed that night of the encounter, but when she awoke next morning she must have PR | a bit of string or a slip of paper,” he shops in London, was known to Louisa, but only as Buckingham Palace was known to her. “Very well,” said Lord Willoughby, taking out a gold pencil. “Let us make a list of the clothes you need at once. Let me see—" Louisa’s eyes took in fhe list he was | making out, dressing her from head to foot. Oppcsite: each item he put down how much she should spend for it. The total came to £13 10s. To Louisa the sum seemed indeed lordly to spend on but one change of clothing. EE l ORD WILLOUGHBY then wrote out < a check for £13 10s, made out to the London Bank, No. st 12 Lombard | ere, my dear,” he said, giving her | the check. “You'd better hurry to Lombard street and get it cashed before | the bank closes. Then you can go over to Howell & James and get yourself | clothed.” He seemed about to leave when his eyes took in the plain gold marriage | ring. The earrings she wore wers cheaper still and, obviously, not related to geld. “Will you think me presumptuous if | I ask you to put away your jewelry while in my house?” he asked gently. Louisa blushed for her jewelry. He | seemed touched at her embarrassment. | *“'Look here, do let me get other things | in place of these, won't you? It s0 hap- | pens that I am on my way to my jew- eler now. I should be only too happy to | get you new rings and.other earrings.” | Louisa was overwhelmed with " his | generosity; what could she do but stammer out thanks? “Do you know the size ring you wear?” he asked. Louisa did not know. Lord Wil- loughby looked disappointed and for the | first time a bit embarrassed. “I have my heart set on seeing you in my villa at once. You can get the dresses, but I should want to get the rings and’ earrings myself.” A heavy pause ensued. Louisa could almost read his thought. Were she al- ready dressed in Howell & James garb | he would have no hesitation in taking her to the jeweler's; as it was, he pre- | ferred to go there alone. “Perhaps we can get your size with | suggested finally. put the dream out of her mind; life had not encouraged her to indulge in | dreams. To her amazement, there was | & letter for her. I Quality spoke in the very stationery. On the envelope and letter were em- | bossed “Army and Navy Club.” “May I be accorded the pr calling on you next Thursday’ note, signed Lord Willoughby. Louisa debated with herself, but since | she had little enough in the world to | lose she shrugged defiance at the pros- | pect of losing that little. and wrote to Lord Willoughby at the Army and Navy | Club that he could call on Thursday, as he wished. | To her surprise, he came. She bad| invited a friend, Emily Ashton, to be | present. Even Emily’s heart beat faster | Wwhen the knock on Louisa’s door at the appointed hour was followed by the | entrance of the Prince Charmin; had told her about. | The gentieman must have been al-| ready warned of Louisa’s modest | place in life by the neighborhood in which he found himseif. for he did not look wunduly surprised at the home of the woman he had mistaken tor Lady Clyde. There was a subtle change in his manners toward Louisa, but nothing to hul‘\ her feelings. In- deed. after he had ‘put before Louisa his reason for coming there she was more thrilled than ever. He had not been able to get her out of his mind, Lord Wiiloughby said. It was as if the past had come back to him. Now that he knew that Louisa was practically alone in the world he wanted to put to her a proposal dif- ficult to make discreetly. Lord Willoughby had St. John's Wood, he said—Alpha | Villa, Abbey rcad. He had recently| dismissed his housekeeper and had | been too moody to get another. “But now I propose to you that you come to take charge of Alpha Villa,” He said. “I would put at your dis- posal a carriage and pony, a page to help you with it and as many servants as you think necessary for your com- fort and mine. If the recompense should be generous, would you consider coming?” Louisa said she would. “Could you come at once?” Louisa thought it could be managed. “Then will you forgive me for seem- ing to be a snob—though I assure you I am not—at least as far as you are concerned. But I should want vou to | feel at home among the people you | will meet. Clothes make a difference to a woman's feelings. And to mine, I must confess. I want to see you well dressed. Do you know Howell & James?" Howell & James, one of the smartest ilege of | " ran the | | a house at g Louisa | |t | trust me with them for a few days?” They tried it, but without much suc- cess. “If a ring doesn't fit exactly it becomes a nuisance,” Lord Willoughby finally said. “And I can't trust these crude measurements of ours. But I have an idea. Does the ring you have fit you well?” “Then would you care to lend it to | me—or rather to my jeweler? It's per- fectly safe with him. you know!” Louisa was so dazzled with it all, the | glamour and munificence which had de- | scended upon her, that it was an actual | relief to be able to do something for the charming prince, if only to make it | casier to order the proper size of ring | for her. She gave him her wedding ring and | he put it into a pocket of that magnifi- cent white silk doubie-breasted waist- coat of his. “And your earrings are—not gold, are hey?” he asked. gain Louisa blushed. “No, but I like ‘e “Then you shall have. their exact replicas in gold! I'll have old Pen- ders himself copy them. Will you in- | Louisa took them fro: gave them to him. “Do you know the one-armed com- missionaire who delivers messages for the Army and Navy Club?” he went on. “He will return your ring and earrings _tomorrow morning at 10 | o'clock. By then you should have the clothing from Howell & James. I| m her ears and by 11 o'clock. Will you be ready then, | all packed?” Louisa was sure she would be ready. “Thank you. And now we must all h]urr.v. you to the bank, I to the jew- eler.” Lord Willoughby escorted Louisa and her friend to the street. Here a look of annoyance came into his face. “How stupid of my men! They must | have misunderstood me. I told them distinctly I should want my car. Now I shall have to travel in some shabby public_taxi!” He felt in his pockets, with a smile of amused dismay. “Bless my soul. if I'm not actually without a penny in my pockets!” The situation seemed to strike him as a good joke on himself. Then he looked at his impressive gold watch. “But | we must hurry! I say, Mrs. Leonard, for my cab?” Louisa showed him her purse with | 15 shillings in it. “May I take it?” he asked. “You can pay your cab when you cash your check at Lombard street.” Louisa gave him all she had and they parted. THE SUNDAY 'STAR, WASHINGTON ANUARY. 27. "1929—PART 1. An Amazing Case of Mistaken Identity in Which the Importance Placed by Courts on Identification by Eyewitnc Dealt a Blow—the Fourth of a Series of True Detective Stories. COUNTLESS WOMEN WHO HAD BEEN SWINDLED BY THE WELL DRESSED STRANGER WERE EAGER TO | IDENTIFY HIM. In the bank at Lombard street where she presented the check the looked sharply at it, asked her to wait, conferred with some superior, came back. Instead of money, handed her back the check. “You'd better take it to the police, madam.” he said unfeclingly. “It's worthless, and it's not the first of kind this man has made out! For a week poor Louisa’s life was even more drab than before. Her glam- he orous Prince Chraming, was a cheap, | James, only that this time :400 was to a mean thief, and tne only bit of orna- ment she owned had gone the way of her romance and her 15 shillings. Then on the eighth day as she was walking along Tottenham Court road she saw her gentleman. distinguished, debonair, but apparently without the least glimmer of recognition for the woman who was so strikingly like Lady Clyde. This time Louisa was not dazzled Planting herself in front cof him she demanded: “Where is my money and my jew- elry?” Lord Willoughby with truly lordly hauteur. “My good woman, I haven't slightest idea who you are nor interest in knowing. Be off or ask a police- man to take you into custody!" “That suits me!” Louisa said grimly | will send my carriage around for you |and looked about for a policeman her- | self. So far from helpihg her, Lord Wil- loughby jumped into a passing cab and ‘tried to leave the scene. Louisa raised loud and effective objections. John Cook, a passerby, seized the cab horse by the bridle. Lord Willoughby called out to the cabby to use his whip on the man. Cabby, loyal to his fare, struck Cook with the whip and Lord Willoughby tried to escape from the cab. The commotion brought Policeman Ellis Spurrell, who arrested the self-styled nobleman. Spurrell, who later rose in the ranks, had reason subsequently to remember his prisoner. Lord Willoughby made an effort to impress Policeman Spurrell. “You must see how embarrassing this scene is to me,” he said to the constable. “But if you will step into one of these e Ve il | houses where I can talk to you in pri- | have you any change with you, enough vate T will prove to jour satistaction my | innocence—" Policeman Spurrell promised his lord- ship a ghance to prove his innocence before his superiors. At the station house Inspector Officer William Red-! stone searched the prisoner and found five rings on his person. drew himself ur,‘ the | | | Louisa Howard. Miss Howard had a then | tale to tell that differed little from that | r of the other woman, except in unessen- ‘l\fll details. She. too, was mistaken for |Lady Clyde by the distinguished gen- | tleman: she, too, was offered the post its | of housekeeper in the villa in St. John's | g { Wood. The same glamorous gifts were promised her: the same list of gorgeous | apparel to be bought by her at Howell & | be spent on clothing. Again he bor- | rowed a ring—"just to get the proper size.” , It was this ring that Miss Howard | now identified among those which In- spector Redstone found in Lord Wil- | loughby's pocket. P | JHEN | the police authorities ar- raigned Lord Willoughby he gave his name as John Smith. Later he said | he was William Augustus Wyatt, | Englishman educated at the Univers | of Vienna, where he obtained two aca- demic dcgrees. At the trial for defrauding Louisa Leonard and Louisa Howard of their | jewelry, a third woman, Ada Wooding. | came forward with the same story that | the other two women told of Lord ‘Willoughby. A month later William Augustus Wyati, alias John Smith. alias Lord | Willoughby, was found guilty of larceny | and sentenced to five years penal servi- | tude. The letters and checks he had writ- | ten were kept as records of his case, |purely as a formality and of course | with no prevision of their importance in | time to come. John Smith—let us call him by the protest that his conviction was unjust. | His only petition addressed to the au- thorities was asking that the severity of his sentence be lessened. The au- thorities did not listen to his petition. | Five years after Lord Willoughy had dazzled Louisa Leonard and the other | women he came out of prison. no longer the plump, suave, elegantly dressed | “nobleman,” but now grown lean and | looking the laborer which his ticket of leave described him to be. He told his | parents in Germany. ‘Then he disappeared. Thirteen years later, in the early part of December, Fanny Nutt, the widow of a corporal major in the Li Guards, dressed in mourning, was ac | simplest of his aliases—never raised any | ed gentleman. wearing a silk top | hat. His hair was slightly gray, his skin his voice urbane. Aren't you rather young for a widow he asked, sympathetically. The ow admitted she was only 21 The gentleman was sympathetic in- eed. He asked what she was doing to support herself. The widow told him of her dependence on a meager pension and what she could earn as sort of genteel domestic. “Then you're just the woman I'm looking for!" He told her practically the same | story John Smith had told the women |although she had received gifts and | jeweiry from him to the value of 3,000, | he had met in times long past. He | had a villa in St. John's Wood: had Jjust sent his housekeeper away because, she proved to pe an untrustworth character. So he was without a hou | keeper now. and would Mrs. Nutt ac- cept the position? He asked her to consider the matter | for a day or two, after which he would 'call on her. | Mrs. Nutt had all the rigid respecta- 1 bility of the woman who has little more |than her good name to help | through life, As she put it, she was | “not in the habit of receiving gentle- !'men.” But in view of the distinguished appearance of this particular gentleman and the munificent offer he was mak- ing, she decided he should be made an | exception, and gave him her address. | She received a letter next day. the | stationery being that of the Grand | Hotel, London. It apprised her that | her new acquaintance would call on | Tuesdgry. between 1 and 2. Arid prompt- |1y on 'Tuesday he came. His manner was a blend of dignity and that friendly familiarity that seemed to forecast a successful rela- tion between a generous emplover and his housckeeper. He asked if (5 a | week would be fair pay, in her estima- | tion: if not. he was ready to consider | a raise, if she proved satisfactory. ‘ She was so taken with this generosity | that.he seemed prompted to show still i more of it. Then came the offer that | she go at once to the most stylish shop in London—this time Redfern's—and \ | | | | prison friends he was going to join his | buy at his expense clothes that would | station. | be worthy of the woman who should be—well, practically hestess at the villa in_St. John’s Wood. ’ The offer was accompanied -by a check “written out for 15 guineas on the Union Bank, Belgrade Mansions. her | Followed also the interest {n the lady's jewelry. Again the rings were not considered worthy of the station she was to occupy, and the gentleman | | announced that he would that very | afternoon buy, for her other rings. | " And, of coufse, the lady's rings had [bo be jborrowed to get the proper size. | A one-armed commissionnaire would | return them, the gentleman said. | | “When the lady's back was turned, a | | brooch” worth about- a pound found | |its way into the gentleman’s pocket. i‘Tl’len he left. | | MRS. NUTT found the check worth- | less. She told her brother of the | | fraud, asking him to report it to the police. “No use!” he sald. get that fellow!” | But several weeks later he brought her a copy of the Evening Standard with an account in it of the arrest| of a man for just such a fraud as had been practiced on her. Various | | women—Evelyn Miller, Alice St. | | Clair, Juliette Kluth, an actress: Min- !nie Lewis. Kate Brakefield, Marion Taylor, Ethel Townsend, Daisy Grant ! and Ottille Meissonnier, had all met | | the affable, richly dressed, richly | promising gentleman who was so free with bogus checks but had to bor- row ladies' rings and other jewelry. His capture subsequently became his- torical. Miss Meissonnier was respon- | sible for it. | | she was a German who had lived {in PFrance, was now also thoroughly at home in England and was more intelligent and better situated than any of the other women who had been vic- | timized. She had enough means to keep & servant, | The stranger said he mistook her | for Lady Egerton. A friendly con- | ersation followed, and when she told | him that she had just come from the | Chrysanthemum Show he offered to match from his own gardens on his estate in Lincolnshire anything she had seen at the flower show. To prove it he begged to be allowed to send | her some of his chrysanthemums. | 'she gave him her address. The | * ok ok K chrysanthemums did not come but the | | genlleman did. Miss Meissonnier tes- | tified later how minutely she had ob- erved him. When she entered he reading a German newspaper. His hands, she noticed, had still creases in them left by the seams of | the tight gloves he had taken off. When he wrote out the check she saw One ring was identified by Louisa | costed in Bond street by an ciezantiy | that he held his pen between two fin- clerk | Leonard, another by another woman, | dres: | gers, and not as most people do be- | | tween forefinger and.thumb. | The usual fraud was perpetrated on | | Miss Meissonnier, with even a bolder | | bid. It was no longer the post of housekeeper that was In question, but would Ottilie Meissonnier share his | estate in Lincolnshire, a yacht, a villa on the Riviera and other delightful prospects with him? | Evidently Miss Meissonnicr found the prospects alluring. For the gentleman | at once proceeded to the now familiar list of lavish gowns and jewelry he | wanted her to get at once at his ex- pense. The borrowing of the lady's rings followed, with the sequel we have learned to expect. * N ISS MEISSONNIER reported the e swindle to the police,,but with an understandable lack of faith in men | decided 0 keep an eye open herself | for_the swindler. Three wecks later she was walking along Victoria street when she sud- | denly stopped before a familiar-look- ing, well dressed gentleman. “You are the man who swindled | me out of my jewelry!” she cried. "It was a cry that was destined to reverberate far beyond her expecta- tions. The man stared at her, came furious “It don't know you and I don't want to_know, you!" He walked angrily away from the scene. But_Ottilie Meissonnier was angry | t00. She followed him, accusing him repeatedly of fraud and t Near Vauxhall Bridge they saw a | policeman. The mon turned on her - u don't stop annoying me I'll have you arrested!" Miss Meissonnier did not stop an- noying him, but made it clear that she would speak to the policeman. ‘The other. hoping to head off her | charge, hurried forward and was_the | first to make a complaint. saying Miss | Meissonnier had accosted him and had refused to be shaken off. Miss Meissonnier in her turn charged the man with fraud and theft. The policeman took both to the Here the officer in charge ‘entered Miss Meissonnier's accusa- tion and. dismissing the man's, held {him for investigation and trial. The | prisoner gave his name as Adolf Beck. |~ The recurrent swindl: had been at- | | tracting attention in the newspapers * % W | then be- “Theyll never | ¥ | \] 55€8 48 and the arrest of Beck was read with wide interest. ‘That evening, Mary Harvey, servant to Ottilie Meissonnier, came to the police station and was asked if she had ever scen’Beck before. Without hesi- tation she said: “He is the man who swindled my mistress!” Daisy Grant, another victim of the same thief, whoever he was, also identified Beck as the guilty man. “But I should want to see him with his hat off before I could be sure.” She was asked to turn her back, and six other men were placed on line with Beck when he took his hat off. Daisy Grant identified Beck at o nce. 1lfl!;zck was then held without bail for The publicity brought a number of women forward who had been vic- timized and wanted to get a look at the arrested man. Minnie Lewis identified Beck as the man who had defrauded her A Mrs. Lester, another victim, also accused him. Fanny Nutt, Marion Taylor, Evelyn Miller, Alice St. Clair, Ethel Townsend. Juliette Kluth, Kate Brakefield—all these were so sure that Beck was the same man who had stolen their rings that their accusations were the charges on which Beck was tried, together with those by Daisy Grant and Ottilie Meis- sonnier. In the course of the trial some news. paper reader wrote to the police point- ing out that the crimes with which Beck was charged were identical haracter with those for which “John Smith” nearly a score of vears before was given five years' penal servitude. Whereupon the police, becoming in- terested, brought out from retirement fcrmer Policeman Ellis Spurrell, who hid arrested Jonn Smith, and Inspec- ter Redstone, who took charge of the prisoner at the police station. Both the former policemen now took a look at Beck and declared on oath that he was “John Smith.” Summing up briefly the evidence in the case against Adolf Beck, we find 11 women, victims of the later series of frau estifying that Beck was the man who had swindled them. Two former police officers identified Beck as the John Smith who years before had been convicted of the same kind of trick. In the face of all this, what other alternative had the jury but to convict Adolf Beck for misdemeanor on counts? In vain he protested and tried to prove that on the earlier date involved he was in Peru; that he knew nothing of either set of frauds: that until the day of his arrest he had never set eyes on any of the women who charged him with theft. Disregarding his protestations of in- nocence as the feeble resistance to be expected of anyv guilty man, the judge centenced Adolf Beck to seven years' penal servitude. He was assigned the lotter and num- ber D. W. 523. the W indicating that he was being committed as the John Smith who had been previously con- victed. Still strenuously protesting that he was neither John Smith nor the man who had defrauded the women who testified against him. Beck was sent to Wormwood Scrubs and later to Port- | Jand Prison, where he began his lonz term. h R. T. D. DUTTON, who had de- fended Beck at the trifl, sent a petition to the government protesting that an innocent man had been con- victed. The petition was not answered. Beck himself sent a petition, with no Detter result. Mr. Dutton than applied to the com- missioner of police, asking leave to in- spect the records of John Smith. His application was refused. He applied to the home office of the British government for an interview wherein to explain certain aspects of the Beck case that would tend to.clear e him. This application, too, wes refused. | Finaily at the insistence of a growing group of people who believed Beck to | be innocent the prison authorities were moved to do a little investigating. They were startled to learn something which the complacence of the authorities had |hn}r‘|eno prevented from coming to light. From the prison record of John Smith it was ascertained that there was an ineradicable body mark on John Smith | which could not be fourd on Adolf Beck. The governor of Portland Prison thought this discovery important enough to communicate it to the home office. The Lome offize communicated it to the judge who had tried Adolf Beck. Mr. Dutton was sure now that he saw justice dawning for his client. home secretary, however, wrote him saying that he could do nothing to interfere with Mr. Beck’s sentence. One thing could be done, and was done. The letter W which indicated in | 10 | The | ‘H.hn Beck was in prison for a second offenss was removed from his identi- | cation number. With only this change in the verdict of justice to console him, Beck spent {ihe rest of his term in prison, ever | clamoring that he was innocent. But from the moment of his arrest to the time he came out of prison there were no more frauds perpetrated of the ‘kmd for which he and John Smith | Ead been convicted » | Immediaiely after Adolf Beck was released on lizense from. Peatonville Prison he and his friends began an | agitation in the press and elsewhere to | establish his innocence of the crimes for which he had suffered. The agita- tion attracted some notice, but had no definite result, and after a year or two the ripple it caused died cut. » 5w | | | | } 'HEN, two years after Beck left | prison, Rose Resce, a housekeeper ,out of work, was accosted in Bond | street by the well dressed stranger we have met in our account, and the stere- | otyped story was re-enacted. The villa | in St. Johns Wood, the offer of the nost of housekeeper, the generous arait ot | a bank to pay the cost of a stylish fem= inine outfit, the business of the rin=— | all these were repeated. And, like her si‘ter victims of former years, Rose Reece believed and was deceived. The following March the same old | fraud was repeatec. with Pauline Scott, | a servant, as the victim. Miss Scott went to the police with | her story. They took her to Store | street, Tottenham Court road, near | Adolf Beck's new lodgings in South | Crescent. After several hour§’ waiting { Adolf Beck, resplendent in high silk | hat, correct in dress to the vety tips of | his shoes, came out of his house. | At once Miss Scott identified him as he man who had stolen her jewelry | and money. And cnce more Adolf Beck was ar- | rested for the old familiar fraud. Once again the newspapers recorced the ar- rest, and still other victims came to look at Beck. Rose Reece identified him. and so testified at the trial. Lily King. another victim, identified him. So did | Caroline Singer and Grace Campbell | With a verdict compelled by these | identifications, Beck was once more found guilty. But now the clamor of innocence raised by Beck and his friends became 5o formidable that Judge Grantham, before whom Beck was tried and found | guilty, felt there still must be some- | thing bczhind the whole business that | needed looking into. He suspended | sentence in the case of Besk. It was the utmost he could do. For im- | mediately on Beck's arrest theie pe- culiar frauds ceased. 8w AND there the matter would have {2 perhaps rested to the end of time |had not a bit of human carelessness come to rectify the series of er-rmous | blunders which justice had olindly committed. the W :est of About the time that swindles was being_ perpetrated, the Nellie O'Neil and Evelyn Edwards were added to the now long list of women defraudsd by a well dressed stranger who promised them opulence and stole | their rings. They did not lear of Beck’'s arrest and _trial Then on Juiy 7 Violet an{ Beulah ‘Turner. actresses out of werk, were also swindled of eir rings in the same way. Later that day a pawnbroker by the name of Lawley quietly sent a clerk out for a policeman. “Thers’s a man pawning some rings in my master’s shop.” the man said, “and Mr. Lawley would like to have you come and look him over. There's been a lot in the newspapers about ladies’ rings of late, you know.” The policeman went with the clerk and questioned the elderly well dressed man who was trying to pawn several rings such as only wemen wear. The ‘man gave his name as William Thomas. His explanation did not satisfy the policeman. who arrested him. The Turner sisters came and identi- fied the rings as theirs and the man as the thief. Nellie O'Neill and Evelyn Edwards also identified him as the man who had defrauded them. On th2 basis of their charges and evidence William Thomas was tried and | convicted. . He was sentenced to five years' penal servitude. Then h> confessed that he was the John Smith who had per- petrated the bygone frauds and crimes of which Adolf Beck had twice been found guilty. And among the spactators at the trial and sentence was Adolf Beck himself! Then it was that the Beck case demonstrated to the eyes of all present what a heavy blow had bsen dealt to the importance which courts of law have placed upon identification by eye- witnesses. Although almost a score of men and women have identified Beck | 85 Wyatt, alias Smith, alias Thomas, | there was nothing in common bstween the guilty man and the innocent except a bit of stoutness in their apparance. The government granted free pardons to Beck for his two convictions. But the august crown on the head of British justice, as I have said, sits a bit less easily than before his mishap (The End). “Murder Parties,” a New Game Based on Solving Mystery Stories Y WEARE HOLBROOK. MUST haVe good detective [ stories,” said Secretary Kellogg, as he boarded the Leviathan, | homeward bound from his peace | triumphs in Paris. What would | have happened if there had been no good detective stories on board the ship, one trembles to think. | It is a national tradition that every | man of affairs—political affairs, at least —relaxes his mind by devouring the latest mystery thrillers. Presidents, diplomats and even members of the State Legislature seek relief from the cares of ofice by puzzling over the dis- appearance of Mrs. de Peyster's dia- mond necklace. As soon as the day's work 1s over they demand the sleuth, the oid sieuth, and nothing but the sleuth. Some of them may not enjoy readirg tnese expanded ‘“‘movie” scenarios, but they feel obliged to live up to the tradition. In most cases the fondness of peace- ful, law-abiding citizens for tales of crime and violence is genuine. A mere child-psychologist could explain it. It dates back to the days of the woodshed, when the homespun breeches of future statesmen were warmed by irate parents | who disapproved of Beadle & Adams’ 10-cent classics. years ago dime novels had a glamour like that of Gordon gin toda) | Ancient Pearls. EARLS are believed to have been among the earliest gems known to man, because the ancient dwellers by the sea probably fed upon the shell- fish that produced them. A Chinese book of great antiquity, the Shu King, states that in the twenty-third century BC. the Emperor Yu, last of three “ancient Kings of great virtue,” re- ceived as tribute certain pearls from the River Hwai. The Egyptians used mother-of-pearl as early as 3200 B.C. Apparently they did not come to regard the pearl as being particularly valuable until much Jater in history. ‘The famous pearl fisheries of Ceylon, India and the Persian Gulf date far ‘back into history, but nothing is known of their origins. It is probable that the They were fascinating becausa they were forbidden. In order to read them you had to maneuver as stealthily as Old Sleuth himself. It was easy to identify yourself with the leading character. You tiptoed across the creaky floor of the attic, slipped the yellow-covered book from its hiding place and sat down on the old leather trunk beside the window. “Old Sleuth and the Phantom Fiend: or, Tried by Blood and Fire.” The double- barreled title was eye-filling and gen- erous; if you didn't like one, you could take the other. A moment later and you were groping your way through pages of fine print, skipping the solid paragraphs of "de- scription—tor every minute was pre- cious-—and whispering the conversation to yourself to enhance its dramatic ef- fect. Suddenly there was the sound of a Jootstep on the attic stairs. (“Hist!” breathes Old Sleuth, with a warning gesture to Inez. “We are being fol- lowed!”) The footsteps on the stairs grew louder. Instinctively you closed the yellow-covered book and slipped it behind the trunk. (Old Sleuth lifts the blind cautiously and then draws back | with_an exclamation of horror. “It is the Phantom Fiend!” he cries. “Quick, we have no time to lose!”) In desperate haste you rummaged among the dusty books beside the trunk, drew forth a volume and opened it at random. It was the despised Henty —desnised because he tried to teach you history on the side. from his pocket and adjusts it to his handsome face). The attic door opened. “Elmer,” in- you're reading?” “I'm =~ reading ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie,” you replied virtuously, with a faint shade of impatience at having been interrupted in that improving- pastime. . And -when the door closed and the footsteps on the stairs died away, you heaved a sigh of relief and reached again for the = yellow-covered book. (“Fear not, Inez” says Old Sleuth re- asesuringly. “The Phantom Fiend can never penetrate my disguise!”) Old Sleuth and his false whiskers weculd seem pretty tame to the young- (With_lightning speed, Old Sleuth produces a false beard | could, if she wanted to, make a fortune very act of wiping the tears from her eyes as she inspects the meat-ax by which her lover has been decapitated. The older generation, however, pre- fers crimes of fiction rather than of fact. Elegant, complicated murders committed in distant mansions by Oriental servants are pleasanter read- ing than the actual homicides which occur with disturbing frequency in one'’s own neighborhood. ‘The average man feels cnly a stimulating sense of. ar- tificial apprehension as he reads these fantastic tragedies which are being turnéd out by Scotland Yard—for he has no East Indian' valet, the family jewels are in a safe deposit box and he has never received any cryptic mes- sages except from the income tax col- lector. Then, too, there is a belief in the back of every man’s mind that if Fate hadn't made him a bank president or a Senator or a corporation official, he would have been a first-rate detective— just as every woman believes that she as an interior decorator. After a lifetime of repression, these 1 amateur detectives are corning into their quired ,a suspicious voice, “what's that | own. . A popular form of entertainment this Winter is the “murder party.” This is not, as the name might imply, a jolly get-together of Chicago gunmen for the purpose of eliminating superfluous Voters. It is 8 highly decorous 3 in which our best people participate. The hostess gives: her guests a description ‘of an imaginary crime, with certain impor- tant details omitted. The guests are by process of deduction. It is almost as much fun as mid-year exams in Pol. Econ. D32 (3 points). Some of the crimes are just too baffiing. =Take, for example, “The Blake ster of today who knows his tabloids. The fair Inez was the pale figment of fishing was carried on 2,000 years ago a_ hack-writer’s imagination, but Mrs. Affair,” with which Mrs. Challis agitated the master minds of the East Teabone Literary and Sunday Afternoon Hiking in all three localities in much the same " Teskie Lopkowsky of 3198 First street Society: 'flnflufc way as today. is a real person photographed. in the ® At midnight John Blake, & wealthy bachelor, was found dead in the library of his Park avenue home. There were no marks of violence on his body, but near him lay a paper-knife in the form of a Florentine dagger, and on the sleevc of his black velvet dressing gown was a sprinkling of fine white powder. The bookshelves were in unaccustomed dis- order, as if they had been ransacked i a hasty search for some hidden object; dozens of handsomely bound volume: had been pulled from their places and scattered over the floor. Conspicuous | among the heaps of books was a copy o! 2 magazine, folded open at an article ox | “American Kultur,” by H. L. Mencken. | then asked to A:xply the missing details | ' “THEY If You Can Solve a Hypothetical Murder Mystery Better Than Your‘ Neighbor. Society Is Likely to Beat a Path to Your Door—A New Peak of Popularity for the Modern Detective Story. The police thought nothing of this at the time, and they don't think much of it even now. On the morning following the dis- covery of Blake's body, a detective from headquarters found a mysterious note thrust into the neck of an empty milk bottle which was standing just outside the door of a Bronx apartment occupied by Blake's dissolute nephew, yril Maltravers. It read: “Please leave 2 qts. grade A hereafter instead of 1 qt. grade B. Also 1 qt. cream every other morning. Anxious.” When confronted with this note, Mal- travers broke down and confessed that - | books with their leaves still uncut. A 'H AND NOTHING he had written it; but he denied any knowledge of the circumstances of his uncle’s death. Suspicion was directed toward him, however, for it was known that he was John Blake’s heir, and the nature of the note indicated that the | writer was planning to live on a more | layish scale than he had in the past. | . Reconstructing the scene in the library on the night of Blake's death, | the police arrived at the conclusion | that Maltravers had called on his uncle | to ask for money, that a violent quarrel had ensued, and that Maltravers had |threatened his uncle with the Floren- tine dagger, causing him to suffer a | fatal heart attack. | The questions to be answered are: | | | | (1) Were the police correct in their theory? (2) Who was responsible for the death of John Blake? (If you are unable to solve this prob- |lem in less than 5 minutes, turn this | page upside down. Then turn it right i side up again, and relax, allowing the { weight to rest evenly on the balls of the | feet. The correct answers are given below). (1) Of course not. (2) H. L. Mancken. In his article on “American Kultur” | Mr. Mencken states that you can go | into the library of the average boobus | Americanus and find nine-tenths of the | magazine containing this article was |lying among the books near John | Blake's body. It was evident that Blake, 4 reading it, h"l‘fl lr‘emembererl that most of e the books in brary had uncut . Stung by Mencken’s -ccmmg.' Rhgz | seized the Florentine dagger paper i knife and set out to remedy the defect. He worked unceasingly for many hours, | painstakingly cutting the pages of vol- ‘ume after volume. And shortly before | midnight, as he was finishing Vol. 1 XXXIV of “Masterpieces of the World's Literature,” he died of exhaustion. The white powder on the sleeve of his i black velvet dressing gown was paper dusi. Cyril Maltravers was exonerated. Since the appearance of murder par- ties on the social calendar, family con- versation has assumed a morbid tone, for all the problems concerned the tak- | ing of human life. Be it ever so hum- drum, there’s no plot like homicide, and | the secrets of the Borgias are now | items of common domestic knowledge, | like the recipes of Marion Harland. Stool pigeon, “strangulation™ and “rigor mortis” are household words. We are no longer alarmed when grandma puts down her knitting and says gently, “If I shot you in the back as you were running up- stairs, would your body fall backward or forward?” We know that she is merely pondering over last night's mur- der problem. Perhaps murder problems are a pass- ing enthusiasm, like crossword puzzles and hooked rugs. But as long as the pilots of the Ship of State cry out for good detective stories, the market for mystery tarillers will be active. And this brings us to the unaccount- able reticencé of Mr. Hoover. Mr. Hoo- ver's public and private utterances have been thoroughly broadcast; his opinions on farm relief, Pan-American relations, “hydro-cyanic acid,” | | water power control, the lmiiation o1 armaments and the nobility of experi- ments, his preference in dogs, his taste in cigars, and what he eats for break- | fast—all these are subjects of front | page gossip. The country as a whole feels that he is well fitted for the office of Chief Executive. But there is one question which re- mains unanswered: Does Mr. Hoover read detective stories? As yet he has said nothing which would indicate his position in the matter. This silence can be taken to mean only one of two | things: either Mr. Hoover reads detec- tive stories and is ashamed of it, or | he does not read detective stories at all. If the latter is true he should come out frankly and say, “No, I do not read detective stories; they bore me.” In do- ing so he would upset a carefully fos- tered tradition, but his words would go ringing down the corridors of history and take their place among the “Fa- | mous Sayings of Great Men": in time they probably would be attributed to Lincoln. But until ‘we know how Mr. Hoover stands on the question of detective stories, his caliber as a statesman can- not definitely be gauged. Children’s Party f(g Adults For an informal sort of dance noth- ing is more amusing than a children’s party. To be with a group of good friends with the men all dressed in rompers and the girls in simple little gingham frocks with big ribbon bows in the hair, flat-heeled strap pumps and socks is enough-to make one forget all one’s adult responsibilities. If you are quite modern and have become accustomed to bare legs you may choose to wear your socks as chil- dren do. Twise you may wear thin flesh-colored silk stockings with a pair of short children's socks drawn over them. The costume is so com- fortable that you will not feel like sitting out a single dance. The hostess at an informal party of this sort the other evening distributed fancy garters among the guests as they came in—one garter to each. Then when time came for supper the men found their partners by matching garters. Then by presenting the gir's with the garters they had worn during | the evening they enabled each girl ‘o acquire a pretty pair as a favor. At a party of this sort one ehould, of course, have balloons and snapping crackers. Jumping ropes add to the general merriment, and of course there must be lollypops. Lo AT Chariot Racing Revived. As a successor to dog racing, chariot | racing is being introduced in Glasgow, Scotland. The opening events were held at a greyhound racing track, which had been converted into a Roman amphithe- ater. There were six events, in two of which tne race was between two char- iots drawn by four horses each, while the remaining races were of four char- iots drawn by two horses each. There were many thrills and the crowds weze enthusiastic over the events. There was betting as at ordinary race meet- ings, and the horses’ names appeared in the programs. . !