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Show BLACKHAND STARTLES THE MOTHER OF A LITTLE GIRL AND OFFICERS ARE CALLED All men remember (he days of boyhood boy-hood not all happy days, by any means When the mystery of sex was stirring in the soul, when the boy's whole being, jo ; earth and hopo of heaven, were centered nn the golden- halred blue-eyed angel, of whom ho whispered, awake or sleeping, "my honey, my love, my heart's delight," and that's the kind of boy, eleven years old. whose eyes glow with tho fire of the first grand passion, or gloom with the anguish of discovery and despair, whoso cunningly hidden trail tho pollco and sheriff's departments depart-ments have been following three or four days, resulting today in a complete com-plete solution, by Deputy Sheriff Charles Pincock. of a mystery which puzzled and alarmed one of Ogden's well known families the parents of the golden-haired angel First, Poetry of Boyhood. Week In and woek out. tho boy, a pupil In ono of the public schools, feasted his eyes upon the angelic vision and composed poems to relieve his feollngs, while she was unaware, as is uaual In such caes, of the love that overwhelmed the heart of her schoolmate. For oxamplo, ho wrote: Where the blue-bird spreads her wings, Soar, my soul, my spirit sings ' etc. Other boys gazed yearningly at tho sv. eet little lassie, and in the soul of the boy In this case there rose the fierce and wrathful spirit of Jealousy. He gloomed and grieved when In solitude His mind was obsessed of despondency He stumbled stum-bled through his eiass-work and joined in the gleeful sports, but his thoughts were elsewhere his heart wasn't there. He Plans Master Stroke, i dc uoy s nuna cvoivea etanorate plans, to the end that he might have and hold and forever keep the undivided undi-vided friendship of his loved one. Ho determined to evoke fear, as his allv. At odd moments of solitude, day and night he penned, laboriously, the following fol-lowing letter, whieh ho induced a corner grocer to deliver to the mother of his adored one: (Note tho mysti-CSJ mysti-CSJ methods of the boy-mind): "Miss : I want to inform you that the motto of your daugnter will not be misunderstood by me and no harm will come to her If she does what the following message says. 1 am a friend of tho murderous band of blackmailers and I would not like to see your family in trouble. And so I warn you. "The rule is that if she never speaks to the following persons they (the blackmailers) will not bother your family, but If she does do what I warn her not to do. 1 cannot do anything else, for I have done all that is in my power to do. and I love your daueh tor as my own child. Burn this letter as soon as read by you. and do not tell anyone but L . your daughter, and no harm will come to her, which I will manage. Ever your friend, "THE PURPLE SASH." Underneath was a postscript, giving the names of the boys of whom he was so jealous, together with several cabalistic "Purple Sash" symbols. He named four or five boys, classmates in school, all little men of his own ago. In the letter ho enclosed a purple pur-ple ribbon, or sash, about fourteen Inches long, the symbol of the deadly society which was born of his jealous dream. The Second Warning. The mother of the little girl was alarmed and mystified. She thought of kidnapers and blackmailers. The father studied the epistle lon? and, earnestly A slow smile o'erypread his faro it looked to him. ho said, like a kid's work a jealous kid, he thought for he had been a kid himself him-self at the same age. The mother-reported mother-reported the incident to th.. s, IO(l) principal But soon came a second warning letter, this time through the mails, it follows: "I want to lot you know that what you thought was done is not done by no means, and that this is no faltering matter, and that I want to be OBEYED. And you had better do it, for good or bad. Instead of obeying me you had to try to dr. a In He pollro work, thinking that It was a boy's fault. But you found you was mistaken, mis-taken, for if was no one but me i He had evidently observed the mother m consultation with the teacher (Signed) THE PURPLE SSH." After pondering long, no doubt, he added the following postscript: "If not Obeyed at once, there will be trouble. Maybe your friend. THE PURPLE SASH." Officers Tackle Mystery. The little girl's mother was now genuinely alarmed. Despito the gentle gen-tle protests of the husband, she asked the police to solve the mystery. After a day or two the polir. turned the case over to Sheriff Herbert C. Peterson, Pet-erson, who assigned it to Deputy Sheriff Sher-iff Charles Pincock, who helped in catching Martin, the blackmailer, and is an expert on handwriting. Using his own methods, Mr.' Pincock Pin-cock soon had sampleH of boy's handwriting hand-writing from several places. At the start he smiled and exclaimed: 'The amazing things a boy can do, when he is in love" for to him the letters let-ters and the ideas which they conveyed convey-ed bore the small boy's sign-manual. Finally ho Sintrled OUt at fhn cnhnrJ a pensive appearing boy with soulful eyes, whoso thoughts seemed of . terday's Joys, today's griefs and tomorrow's to-morrow's calamities. Mystery Is Solved The officer talked with the boy, man fashion. He becamea boy himself, in spirit. Sympathy was the key that unlocked the sullen heart. The boy's tears fell like rain. He sobbed, heartbroken. heart-broken. At this stage he felt exactly like the boy who. feeling unsolved, wont out Into the garden and ate worms two woolly ones, a flshlng-worm flshlng-worm and a grub. He finally broko down and admitted everything, the burden bur-den of his plaint being- "I love her." In stern reproof, the oflleor pictured what becomes of boys who work such mischief, warning him of the wrath of the public and the penalties of the courts The boy was overwhelmed with remorse and pleaded for clemency clem-ency He is not a bad boy, as badness is commonly definied. Juvenile Judge Volney C. Gunnell will supply the closing scene of the incident. |
