True Stories of Crime From the District Attorneys Office | Page 2

bank they will certify it, and to-morrow I will send for the
suit and the balance of the money."
"Certainly, Mr. Lang," replied the salesman. "I will hold the suit and
the money to await your orders."
The customer thanked him and took his departure. The check was sent
to the bank, the bank certified it, then cancelled its certification and
returned the check to Rogers, Peet & Company, and the store detectives,
having communicated with Police Headquarters, anxiously awaited the
arrival of Mr. Lang's messenger.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Envelope on the back of which Parker's forged
order was written.]
Their efforts were rewarded a couple of days later by the appearance at
the store of a lad who presented a written order (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2)
inscribed upon the back of an envelope bearing a cancelled stamp and
addressed to Geo. B. Lang, No. 13 West Twenty-sixth Street, New

York City, which read as follows:
ROGERS, PEET & Co.
Please give to bearer the clothes I purchased on Tuesday--suit--pants--S.
coat, and also kindly put change in envelope in inside coat pocket.
Trusting the alterations are satisfactory, and thanking you in advance
for the favor and for past courtesies, I am,
Resp. yours,
GEO. B. LANG.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Parker's order on Rogers, Peet & Company, in the
name of Lang.]
The boy was immediately placed under arrest, and after proclaiming his
own innocence and vociferating that he was only doing an errand for a
"gent," who was waiting close by, was directed to return with his
bundle as if nothing had occurred. This he did, and Mr. George B. Lang
was soon in the clutches of the law.
Interrogated by his captors, the supposed Lang admitted that his real
name was James Parker, that he lived at 110 West Thirty-eighth Street,
and only requested that his wife be immediately notified of what had
happened. At Headquarters the prisoner was identified as a gentleman
who had been very actively engaged during the preceding months in
passing bad checks throughout the city, his more recent operations
having consisted in cashing a check on the Lincoln National Bank for
$160 on July 20th, one for $290 on the same bank on July 30th, still
another for $510.50 on August 4th, and one for $440.50 on the
National Shoe and Leather Bank, "to bearer," on August 8th. This last,
in some inexplicable way, had been cashed at the very bank itself.
Believing that the forger had at last been caught, the precinct detectives
later on, during the evening of Parker's arrest, visited no West
Thirty-eighth Street, and on inquiring for "Mrs. Parker," were
introduced to a young girl of attractive appearance to whom they

delivered their unwelcome message. Mrs. Parker seemed overwhelmed
at the news and strongly asserted her confidence in her husband's
innocence of any wrong-doing. Having performed their errand the
officers departed.
A certain ineradicable jealousy has always existed between the
plain-clothes men of the various precincts and the sleuths attached to
the Central Office, and in this instance the precinct men, having gained
the credit for the arrest, it did not occur to them as necessary to
communicate the knowledge of their acquaintance with Mrs. Parker to
Detective Sergeants Peabody and Clark, originally assigned at
Headquarters to investigate the case.
It seemed, however, to Peabody very unlikely that Parker had
conducted his operations alone, and he therefore at once inquired at the
Tombs what character of visitors came to see the prisoner. The gateman
replied that as yet none had arrived. At that very instant a young girl
stepped to the wicket and asked if she could be allowed to see Mr.
James Parker. It took the detective but a moment to run across to the
Criminal Courts Building and to telephone the warden to detain her
temporarily and then to refuse her request. Five minutes later the girl
emerged disconsolately from the Tombs and boarded a car going
uptown. Peabody followed her to 110 West Thirty-eighth Street, not for
an instant supposing that the girl herself could be the forger, but
believing that possibly through her he might learn of other members of
the gang and secure additional evidence against Parker himself.
Of course, no intelligent person to-day supposes that, outside of Sir
Conan Doyle's interesting novels, detectives seek the baffling criminal
by means of analyzing cigar butts, magnifying thumb marks or
specializing in the various perfumes in favor among the fair sex, or by
any of those complicated, brain fatiguing processes of ratiocination
indulged in by our old friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes. There are still,
however, genuine detectives, and some of them are to be found upon
the New York police force. The magnifying glass is not one of the
ordinary tools of the professional sleuth, and if he carries a