OCR Text |
Show " lfcfcL "efts of Distressing Terror Endured by Miss I .-X'n ZMxte Barrett; Pretty Young Art Student, I ..Following Her $200,000 Breach of Promise I " - ; - : ' Suit Against a New York Millionaire I '9 .', I "Sfte felt there X 'M n0 escape from those pursuing I 'ptKj, Awake or asleep, -: W they seemed alway:; ufon tier" ft It! 7. r.i r.t!" I J fllV(l-l ber everywhere eyes fM that never I. ft her, awake or 'JiJfulKp, eyt3 that invaded even the pri-fBb pri-fBb of her sleeping room and spie l on Eh- while sh? irir.:d or iindn scd-! 7bi; was the dreadful c?:pci eerily undergone bj Di rrett, rtSnetl, talented and pretty young i tk art student. At last the torturing 9 rftlnation that there was nu escape iUMlrca 'hi :.. mg eyes that wherever ik wsnt their Mn.-trr g.i-'' v. as upon ''b''-I''''1, , a co"i:''"'" ,,K",,:tai and 'i'tS he crumpled up in a dead faint on Bloorof the taxicab in which she had kp. making one last desperate efTorl to i; iB'P those pursuing eyes. When she kTj cor' 1 1 ' : :he was in a mJ3 evcn herc llcr nc'rv-'c' fnund littlL' Pef from the dread and suspicion that ;.'5ro ttb nvl kr.j.t them qulci ing At fiKtT f'Xp'"'::' ! t0 "' jH" so Ion- been continunllv ter elbow, peering at her To her Mfd imagination the doctors . "-J if V;ho h r I. ,r.,. :;fliX rJf'1 " t''-' .u..t in the ;:'JBarJrfr':-1'i "f "ien who kp ptrna hi r 'ftivth 3 Wlndow rhndo rat-tf-(i fit- SB'Ih X" '"aped U!' in '"'I. irv.ng J T. v."-' ;' : -I knew they would! ' "dX "f thm at lhe window no ifflL ' '"'-' things." soothed ,K;i;n.thenwalkedtothev Hk.l ? n Ut- "body's thcre-r.T-- " JIov d I there be? ;:hi:::.fire A?rousIy-tryin8hard SB'ii?i?-wind raulinp the crteViurse' ",,Ki'-U' Mrics fll U" iou' t0'"'- one', hew. thatay, ,!,,,,,, wvf,, i ork. jij. m?: anth ' out it." lbtcN- niv,n''Uf',! i,r' va BJ65'11 hvoddn't i 1 fcf lfS,s;e had feared. T, , ICrt hi " i torrent of tcars- f 1 -at Bo'rt of Vh0n lhe 1,ur- nod-iH?P:ercblS nod-iH?P:ercblS l00k,nS-very dark M;h: that sobbed .B ' Thats one of them. And hi.s eyes haunt me worse than any of the others." Her anxiety to leave the hospital before be-fore the arrival of the next day's visiting hour gave those eyes the chance to get close to her again at last enabled the girl to control her emotions. She obe- U1QU bljl WUIt bUE medicine the nurse brought, managed I to choke dexn n little nourishn.ent rind pretended to ' slumber peacefully peaceful-ly the whole night long. The next morn- ing she made such I u brave show of I ravenous appetite, strength of body and perfect calmness calm-ness of mind that the hospital authorities au-thorities felt justified justi-fied in letting her go to the home of friends on Madison Madi-son Avenue. Her trembling limbs carried her down the hospital steps a scant five minutes before the hour when visitors were admitted. When she stepped into a taxicab without seeing any of the eyes she dreaded she felt n deep sense of relief. re-lief. But before the cab had gone many blocks the old fear had her again in its clutches. In the hurrying traffic traf-fic she was continually con-tinually glimpsing mm : f .i y': kr - - ' sic X- ' ey !z - ' 4X ap: : ', sa "'' ' loo X X I. : : i -v ( . y the ; K Ut ' ' sav r - , '.jtf - mu like those which BMk. for six weeks had ui& been relentlessly following hcr. By the time she reached her destination she waa trembling from head to foot almost on the verge of collapse. These friends to whom Dixie Barrett was going knew nothing of the trouble she was in. She had bravely kept it a secret from all her acquaintances in Now York, as well as from her family in the West. But now ahe felt she must confide con-fide in some one, 'seek some one's advice and help or go crazy. When she tottered into her friends' home they were appalled to see how pale, haggard and shaken she was a mere shadow of the rosy-cheeked, bright-eyed girl they had known. It took hours of tender care before she was calm enough to tell a coherent story of her shocking experience. "It was just six weeks ago to-day," i fix y ' ; ' -..l- .' x ! '?' - ' '' ' ; , . V-' ', ' .-, "V.k 'jf? i 1 X X Two phcto7raphs o? Miss DLxie Carrett, now recovering from the mental and physical collapse that followed hcr long pursuit by the detectives' eyes said Dixie Barrett, "that I caught my firrt I sight of a pair of those horrid eyes. As I walked out of the apartment house where I live I saw a man a tall, dark, foreign-looking foreign-looking man, with piercing, black eyes watching me from across the street. I took a second glance at him for ho stared so hard I thought it must be some one I knew, but I saw it was not. "I dismissed the matter from my mind and started for the subway station. As I was going down the stairs I chnnccd to turn my head and saw the same mnn' He entered the train with me, left it when I did. All morning he followed me from one store to another. When I ate my luncheon he sat at the next table. And after my session at the art school I found him waiting outsido to trail me on my way home. "I had my dinner sent to my apartment apart-ment and cancelled an engagement for the theater because I was in no mood to expose myself again to those eyes that had followed me all day. But I noon found out that I was little safer locked in my home than outside. "Repeatedly I heard stealthy footsteps foot-steps coming to a halt outsido my door. Once I rlun;' the door open in time to catch a man in the act of peering through the keyhole. He fled too quickly for me to identify him positively, but I felt sure it waa the same man who had been following fol-lowing me ell day. "While I was preparing for bed I heard one of the window shades rustle - n. ; V--; ; ' : -X " X XVf - ;X; - ' 'rf'' 'r I 'XX' X ; v ' XX-" 'X". ' X ' :r ; I?VVi5XXXi I ''XX W'ri-f ' . :XX X'XXXXX4X:-i km ' " ; . XX' Ay:- :t:v::-K'X;' 'ill I I I I Lr '- V - : 5 1 11 X 'X- v- 'ts&V 11(1 . ' ' -l i ' '' ' r J ifl v: - i- .' ; " 'iff? 1 - , USH I .,,;.' B ;X: X;;- i H suspiciously. Turning my head, I saw a man's hand reaching in through the hall open window to lift the shade enough to give him a better view of me. When I screamed he went scampering down the fire escape. "The next day, and the next, and every day until I fainted away and was carried car-ried to the hospital those eyes kept on following me everywhere I went. Instead In-stead of only one man, as on the first day, I was coon able to identify five who teemed to have nothing to do except trail me about. Sometimes as many as three of them would be pursuing me at once. "But this was not the worst of it. The knowledge that my every move was being spied on worked on my nerves so that I got to believing that every one with whom I came in contact had a part in this cruel plot. "In several cases I am positive this wus not all imagination. Every time I entered or left the npartment house the elevator boys would pull out little memorandum memo-randum books, look at their watches and scribble something. Evidently they were noting the time of my arrival or departure, de-parture, who was with me, etc. 1 am sure the girl? at the telephone switchboard switch-board made notes of my calls. "Two or three days of being spiel on like this were enough to wreck my health, it became hard work to eat enough to keep me alive. I could not ;loe;). When I went to bed I would pull the clothes over my head like a frightened fright-ened child, but still I felt sure that even thQUgh I could not see them those cyea were lurking somewhere in the darkness. "The day I was taken to the hospital I was completely unstrung. I actually thought I was going eia.y. I took a taxicab and drove for hours here, there and everywhere, in the hope of eluding my pursuers. It was no use one or another an-other pair of those hateful eyes was always al-ways cl"se behind me. The cab driver saw what was up and when he said, 'Miss, I suppose you know some men are following you,' I fainted dead away.' While some of Miss Barrett's friends helped her into bed and sent for a physician, phy-sician, others made investigations that quickly proved the truth of her story. On guard outside the house they saw ono of the very men she had described. A few days later, when the girl was able to leave her bed, her friends arranged ar-ranged a trap for the detective. She sot cut for a walk, apparently unprotected Behhd her the detective trailed along, as usual. And behind him, although he never suspected it, trailed som? of Miss Barrett's friends, As she halted at a busy corner the detective de-tective came alongside hcr. laid a familiar hand on her arm and leered in'.o her pale &CC. "Well, kid," he began, insinuatingly. But he got no further with his insolence, for Miss Barrett's friends came rushing up with a policeman, who arrested him. When Dixie Barrett appeared against. him in court the judge was stirred with MM indignation by the story she told He MM lined the prisoner for disorderly conduct M rnd started a searching investigation of the detective agency that employed him. Why should pretty Dixie Barrett have been hounded as she was? For a long M time she could not imagine. She is a young woman of good family and blameless blame-less life, absorbed 'in her art studies. Since coming to New York she has done little in a social way, and then only in a most refined eircle. Since last spring sli has kept more than ever to herself, owing to her sadness over the unhappy MM outcome of her first and only love affair. Soon after her arrival in the East she fell in love with Kobert Beck, a million-iii. million-iii. contractor, and thought him as mad-ly mad-ly in love with her. She alleges he prom-i-el to marry her, but that when the time came to redeem his promise ho -i scornfully repudiated it She sued him ' for 200.000 for breach of premise. The only explanation Dixie Barrett has to nuggest for the ordeal she has M b en through is that tho detectives wero |