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THE DISAPPEARANCE OF BBTANT CRANDALL By ORRIN E. DUNLAP, of Niagara Falls. A Strange Insurance Romance. Involving a MysteDous Disappearance and One of the Most Curious and Protracted Man Hunts on Record. Early in April, 1886, distressed relatives of Bryant B. Crandall, of Buffalo, New York, visited Niagara Falls in search of him. Mrs. Crandall and George E. Newman, Crandall’s brother (Crandall’s real name was Newman, but he was adopted in childhood by a family named Cran dall and given their name), had both received letters, postmarked Niagara Falls, in which Crandall intimated an intention of suicide. In the letter to his wife he wrote: “I am sick and tired of life; you will be bettef off with the insurance money than with me. Good-bye, and God bless you.” The letter to his brother was full of the same sentiments, and further requested that he, Newman, should assist the wife in securing the insur ance money. Naturally, when these letters reached the parties to whom they were addressed, there was a hur ried trip to Niagara Falls. There it was ascertained that Crandall had registered at the Western Hotel —a house that stood at the corner of Falls and Second streets, the site of the present Hotel Imperial—on April 1. Beyond this no trace of him could be found, until on April 3 Officers McMullen and Sims, of the State Reservation, found a hat held down by the feet of one of the park seats on the river bank above Goat Isl and bridge. Inside the hat they found Crandall’s name, giving the impression that the owner had sought death in fascinating, tumbling, cha otic waters of the upper rapids, which rush by the spot where the hat was found. From that day all search for the missing man was directed to the banks of the lower river, the expecta tion being that his lifeless body had been swept down the stream and over the American Fall by the relentless ■current. Crandall was a man of pre vious good character, so that his rela tives and friends did not for an in stant suspect any trickery; they felt convinced that he had taken his life by leaping into the river. This opin ion, however, was not shared by Nel son O. Tiffany, secretary of the Ma sonic Life Association of Western New York. Mr. Tiffany maintained that it was ridiculous to suppose that a man so desperate as to commit sui cide would feel enough concern for the welfare of his old hat to care fully fasten it to the ground. He be lieved Crandall’s disappearance was a trick designed to deceive, and that the hat had been purposely placed where it was discovered in order to lend color to the suicide theory. This conclusion on the insurance official’s part developed the greatest chase ev er known after a man who Tiffany believed was attempting to swindle the various companies that had is sued policies on his life. These, it was speedily discovered, were numer ous. It transpired that Crandall had two thousand dollars insurance in the Masonic Life Association of Western New York, represented by Mr. Tif fany; he was also insured in the North-Western Masonic Aid Associa tion for two thousand five hundred dollars;, in the Ancient. Order of United Workmen for two thousand dollars; and for similar amounts in the Royal Templars of Temperance and the Empire Order of Mutual Aid, making the respectable total of ten thousand five hundred dollars insur ance on the life which appeared to have been surrendered to the death dealing waters of Niagara. The family of the mising man ex pressed their unqualified belief in- Crandall’s death, citing his good character, his alleged depressed men tal condition before leaving home, the letters written from Niagara Falls, his great love of home and family, and the further fact that his home had always been a happy one. In time, such slight proofs of death as were available were sub mitted to the insurance companies, and the payment of the policies re quested. All the companies, however, refused to accept the proof offered. The next step was the offer of a reward of several hundred dollars for the recovery of the missing man’s body. On July 28th, 1886, one hun dred and nineteen days after Cran dall disappeared, a waterman named Pendergast found a man's leg, and later the remainder of the body, in the river between Lewiston and Queenston. The body was badly de composed, the face mangled. The corpse was viewed by Mrs. Crandall and other relatives, as well as by frr. Green, the family physician, and the opinion expressed that it was that of Crandall. They claimed that Crandall had a scar on his r*ght foot, the result of an axe-cut, and those w'ho saw the corpse were con fident they could detect this sc;*-. The body was accepted by the family as that of Crandall and taken to Buffalo, where it was interred in the family burial plot iu the old Indian cemetery on Seneca Street. Affidavits were made and submitted to the in surance companies, demanding the paj ment of the policies. It seemed that if a doubt had previously ex isted as to the death of Crandall, it had now been finally removed by the' finding of the mutilated body and the scar. The new proofs of Crandall's death were at once accepted by all the insurance companies interested, and payment of the insurance wrs ordered. Up to this time the com panies had believed Crandall to be alive, but the identification of the body rescued from the lower river swept away their defense. Even with the corpse found and buried, however, it was hard for Mr. Tiffany to believe that Crandall was dead. He was still unconvinced, and he managed to persuade the board 1 directors of his company to delay the acceptance of the proofs offered and the payment of the money, the result being that he was granted a month’s time in which to make fur ther investigation. Ostensibly bound on a fishing trip, he visited the vicin ity of Queenston and talked with the fishermen who had found the body. He discovered nothing to confirm his opinion that Crandall was living, and yet nothing to make him believe he was dead. At the expiration of the month referred to the Masonic Life Association of Western New York paid its policy on Crandall’s life. This might well have been the final chapter in the history of the Crandall .case, but it was not. After the in surance money was paid, it was gen erally accepted that Crandall had died at Niagara, and that his body had been reclaimed from the river and had received burial. For months the case had practically been forgotten, until William B. Sirrett, of Buffalo, a well-known business man, who had met Crandall many times in Buffalo and knew him well, was visiting in Los Angeles, Califor nia. There he saw a man he be lieved to be Crandall in the street, and tried to greet him. The man evaded him, however, walked rapidly away, and was soon lost to sight. Be ing convinced that the man he had seen was no other than the missing Crandall, Mr. Sirrett telegraphed his suspicions to Buffalo, and this re sulted in a reoponing of the search for the man who was supposed to have lost his life at Niagara. “At last I have a clue!” said Sec retary Tiffany, “ and I am deter mined to follow it for all it is worth.” A meeting of representatives of interested insurance societies was ar ranged, and an executive committee of three appointed for the purpose of making a systematic effort to find Crandall. This committee consist ed of John H. Meech, at that time Grand Master of the A.O.U.W. for the State of New York; John Lythe, Supreme Treasurer of the Royal Templars of Temperance; and Nelson O. Tiffany, of the Masonic Life Asso ciation of Western New York. One hundred thousand circulars bearing Crandall’s picture were printed. They described the man accurately, and a reward of a thousand dollars (after wards increased to two thousand) was offered for information as to his whereabouts. These circulars were sent to every Masonic, A.0.U.W., and Royal Templar Lodge on the Pacific Coast, including the British posses sions and the Hawaiian Islands. They were also sent to the police of the entire Pacific Coast and other sec tions. Perhaps there never was a man-hunt gone about more system atically, for, in addition to the circu larizing detective papers took the matter up and published Crandall’s picture. The effect of it all was surprising. Immediately after the circulars had been sent out Secretary Tiffany was flooded with letters and telegrams concerning Crandall. Not only was he launched in the detective field, but he was fairly overwhelmed with busi ness. A Crandall was found in al most every hamlet from the Isthmus to Vancouver. In the dead of night Secretary Tiffany received r. telegram stating that Crandall had been cap tured in Portland, Oregon. There could be no mistake, the officials thought, and so Detective Thomas Curtin was sent flying afte.- him, when requisition papers had been hurriedly obtained from the Gov ernor at Albany. The fear was that he w ould be released on habeas cor pus proceedings. When he reached Oregon, Detective Curtin found the man was not Crandall, but a worn out circus performer, having no re semblance to the man sought. For six years episodes of this kind occurred, but never for an instant did Secretary Tiffany relax his interest in the case or lose his firm belief that Crandall was alive. Away out in Bear Lake, Utah, a man confessed to being Crandall, but the authorities released him, keeping him shadowed by detectives. It was necessary to act quickly, and so Secretaary Tif fany himself hurried West to see the man. For more than a hundred miles he had to travel on horseback over the Western “divides.” At Ogden, Utah, he secured the services of two deputies, and on arrival at the domicile of the supposed Crandall surrounded the house, armed for a contest, if necessary. The man was not Crandall, and Secretary Tiffany made him happy by calling off the watchers. In the winter of IS9I, so sure were a party of self-constituted detectives in the lumber woods of Vermont that they had discovered Crandall, that they forwarded the money necessary to defray the expenses of an officer to that point. Detective Curtin made the trip, but it only resulted in another disappointment. In all, about twenty different men were ar rested as Crandall. In some cases law-suits followed against the offi cers, and in one case no less than fifty thousand dollars’ damages were claimed. This was by a man who had been kept in a Texas prison for three weeks before he proved lie was not the elusive Crandall. While this protracted search was going on Mrs. Crandall, having no desire to profit by the insurance money if her husband was alive, had turned over about eight thousand five hundred dollars to a trustee, who kept it three years. Then, Crandall not having been found alive, it was returned to her. Shortly after Mr. Sirrett claimed to have seen Crandall an indictment was obtained against the missing man on a charge of an attempt to defraud. In the spring of 1892 Secretary Tiffany received a telegram from Los Angeles, signed by a Mrs. M. Roland. The message inquired whether Crandall was still wanted, and if the reward held good. She was informed that the offer was still open, and this led to the arrest of a man in Los Angeles. The fact that “there was a women in the case” at once convinced Mr. Tiffany that success was about to crown his years of effort, for he felt Crandall had at last been betrayed. Detectives Diehl and Lynch, of the Buffalo De partment, were sent to California and on June 3d, 1892, returned with their prisoner, who was fully identi fied as Bryant B. Crandall, the sup posed dead man. An effort was made to punish him for the fraud, but the court failed ti convict. Shortly afterwards the district attor ney who prosecuted the case was seized with softening of the brain, and the case collapsed. Crandall’s relatives paid his fare back to Cali fornia, where he entered a soldiers’ home. Thus was it shown that the waters of Niagara were wholly innocent of robbing this man of his life. The expenses of the search amounted to about fifteen hundred dollars, but the insurance companies had about seven thousand dollars returned to them, which was distributed pro rata, so that Mr. Tiffany’s dogged persistence was amply justified.—The Wide World Magazine. j. WISE WORDS. Never forget that when God takes away the sunlight. He always puts stars in the sky.—Rose Porter. There is nothing so great as to be capable of happiness, to pluck it out of every moment and whatever hap pens.—Anna Gilchrist. Who shall despair while the fields of earth are sown with flowers and the fields of heaven blossom with stars?—Hamilton Wright Mabi. Some people are always finding fault with Nature for putting thorns on roses; I always thank her for put ting roses on thorns.—Alphone Karr. This world is only a place of pil grimage, but, after ail, there is a good deal of cheer in the journey, if it is made with a contented heart.— Henry Van Dyke. It is a selfish religion that grows querulous at its own coldness, and cannot stir the will till it attains a rapture. Our sole business is to abide and serve, to keep our assigned place and grow.—James Martineau. All the beauty of the sky and the earth is like the smile of God, and a smile shows us the disposition of the person just as certainly as any words he can use. One cannot sit down in the midst of this loveliness without being conscious that it is a Divine Presence that makes it lovely.— Henry Ware, Jr. i used to think it was great to dis regard happiness, to press to a high goal, careless, disdainful of it. But now I see that there is nothing so great as to he capable of happiness— to pluck it out of each moment, and whatrver happens, to find that one can ride as gay and buoyant on the angry, menacing, tumultuous waves of life as on those that glide and glit ter under a clear sky; that It is not defeat and wretchedness which come out of the storms of adversity, but strength and calmness. —Anne Gil enrist. WORKING FORCE IS CURTAILED Southern Lays Off 150 M:a in Its Shops at Atlanta* LEGISLATION THE CAUSE Order of Suspension Was Indefinite as to Time, and Came as Surprise to Many. A., B. & A. Also Cuts Down Force. One hundred and fifty men, four fifths of whom are trained workers, men who have served a long appren ticeship and who are earning an ex cellent grade of pay every day, walked out of the Southern shops in South Atlanta Thursday afternoon, carrying with them an order of suspension for —how long none of them can even conjecture. Not one of the men had the slight est thought of a cessation of labor. Since the season of vacations and rests had passed and the men trained to their several trades were anticipat ing a long winter of money-making work. But, as the men entered the shops Thursday morning, there was a fresh sheet of paper on the bulletin board. Its brightness attracted the attention of every man with his dinner pail upon his arm. All stopped to read the board and to every one it was a surprise. It was brief, but it was plain and unmistakable. It simply announced that when the day euded there would be no work the next day for some of those who read the bul letin. While short and plain, the order indicated those upon whom idleness came. It apprised twenty-three ma chinists, whose average pay is $23 to $25 a week; one coppersmith who makes $3 and more a day; three boilernutkes whose scale Is $3.10 a day; fifteen helpers at $1.30 a day; two blacksmiths, who without trouble earn $3.20 a day, and one hundred carpenters and car builders, out of a force of 500 men and who earn $2 every day, that when the day’s work was over they might call at their fore man’s office for their time, as their services would not be needed the next day—B'riday. No reason was given the men for the order, but it didn’t take them long to figure out a reason. One of the number —he has been with the South ern shops since Pittsburg, as the At lanta shops are designated, was start ed —spoke for the crowd who are laid off: “When I say that the order was a surprise to the men, I tell you the exact facts in the case. Still, among those who are in charge it lias not been a surprise recently. We have ascertained that some of these fore men have been working for this or der for more than a week. If they knew any reason lor it, however, they have not given it out. But among the men who are touched by the order, as well as among their companions, v,ho still remain in, there is now an understanding. Recent legislation is the cause. And do you know there is not a man not bit by the order at today who feels that he has a certainty of a day’s work. That order which came today may come again tomorrow —It may come at any time and when it does come we will then know, and not before who is next to be let out.” At the regular meeting of the mar cbiulsts of Atlanta 'ihutsday night, it was announced, aot in an official way, but in a manner wholly reliable that at Fitzgerald one hundred men, $3.40 a day on the wage scale, had been let out by the Atlanta, Miming ham and Atlantic railroad. No reasons were assigned for that let-out. L. & N. SELLS REBATE TICKETS. Plan of Road to Technically Comply With Alabama Rate Laws. The Louisville and Nashville rail road, in seeking to comply with tho new 2 1-2 cent passenger rate law in Alabama, has begun the sale of tick ets within the state with coupons at tached which entitle the passenger to a rebate of half a cent a mile in case the suit which the railroad has brought against the state railroad com mission to prevent the enforcement ol the new law is decided against It. STOP AT THE ZBTTLER HOUSE The best SI.OO a day house in the c:ty. C 53 FOURTH ST„ MACON. G*.. Mr3. A. L. Zettler, Proprietress. HEAVY DECLINE IN COTTON. A Sensational Break Brings October Option Under Eleven Cents. A sensational decline in the price of cotton took place amid excited trad ing on the New York cotton exchange Monday afternoon. Asa result the October option sold under 11 cents a pound for the first time since last June, when prices were advanced on a bad crop report. Declines in the trad ing late hi the afternoon reached 52 to 55 points, or about $2.50 below the closing prices of Saturday night and $7.50 a bale below the high Septem ber. The leading factor in the decline was heavy speculative liquidation sell ing In apprehension of weaker mar kets for spot cotton in the south. The market was very activo and traders were greatly excited during the de cline. At the lowest the October op tion sold at 10.97 and January at 11.14. At the close October rallied to 11.02 and January 11.25 and the mar ket steadied. Sales wero estimated at 600,000 bales. HONOR PAID GATE CITY GUARDS. Company Gets Exclusive Invitation to At tend McKinley Memorial Exercise*. Tho Gate City Guard's, of Atlanta, one of the oldest military organisa tions in the United States, having been organized during the civil war. has had the distinction of being the only company of troops outside of th national guard of Ohio and the Uni ted States army, to be invited to at tend the unveiling of a monument to the late President William McKinley, at Canton, Ohio, September 30. Whether or not tho company can represent Atlanta at the unveiling de pends upon whether a sufficient dona tion can be secured from Atiuuta cit izens. Six years ago this company was the only organization outside of the Ohio and federal troops that weer invited to attend the funeral of the late pres ident. GOVERNOR’S WIFE A TARGET. Angry Farmer Fires at Auto Wherein Mrs. Beckham Was Riding. Dan Iluxtcr, a farmer, has been In dicted at Owensboro, Ky., on the charge of having discharged a pistol at an automobile containing Mrs. J. C. Beckham, wife of the governor of the state, and a party of friends. Mrs. Beckham, who was an Owens boro girl, was visiting friends. Tho far mers in the vicinity have been com plaining of the spaed of the machines on the highways, and when the motor containing Mrs. Beckham reached a bridge on a much coveted thorough fare, a man on horseback demanded that the chauffeur stop. The horseman flourished a pistol over the horse, "for the driver or the automobile to wait several minutes,” while lie denounced automobilists in bitter terms. When the machine started he fired several shots and Mrs. Beckham and the other women dropped to the bot tom of the car in a paroxysm of fright. FOR MEMORIAL TO DEAD SON. Mrs. Oliver Donates $150,000 to Yale for Purpose of Erecting Hall. Professor Russell M. urßtendeu, di rector of the Sheffield Scientific school of Yale university, announces a gift of $150,000 from Mrs. James U. Oli ver of Pittsburg, Pa. This gift Is for the erection of anew recitation or lecture hall as a memorial to hor son, Daniel Leet Oliver, formerly a student in the Sheffield Scientific school, class of 1008, who died last Juae. FRIGHTFUL SLAUGHTER OF MOORS. Franco-Spanish Army Made Sudden and Successfu. Move Againr-t Fanatics. The allied Franco-Spanish army on Thursday made a sudden and success ful move on Taddert, Morocco, where the Moors were massed in force. The camp of the latter was destroyed and the enemy was put to flight, leaving many dear on the field. The French lost one man killed and six men wounded.