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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (July 10, 1904)
..4 O'Keefe, Ahkoond of Swat: A Tale of Modern I r . f. I Methods and Luck of a Lucky Man By Win. H. Osborne tnitV MI ft-. TTf aw M ......... 5i (Copyright, MOI, br William Hamilton Osborne.) Note The, scene or thin narrative la laid In the mythical town of Monroe, on the Pnclt1o ccihmc One or two chapters are laid In the Inland of Swat In tbe Pacific ocen. The island, but not th name, la fictitious. There la a principality of Swat In the northeast corner of India, the rotor of which la known the A k Hound. The CVfitury dictionary describes this a belnfj a province of which little la known. I have made It an laiand instead of a part of the mainland, explaining;, of course, the discrepancy. The suggested derivation of the name of "Bwat" aa found la one of tbo latter chapter of the book. in. of course, purely fanciful. W. 1 1. O. CIIAPTKR L CtlttlmaJ Saaltk. lONSTlTUTIONAI SMITH "M ft atrong-arra man. That, and a bit of -a swindler, too. In (act. his an ocean aa a strong-arm mam was due to the finesse which made him, upon occasion, a successful swindler. But It was as a strong-arm man that he excelled, tie possessr-il the first essential Individual strength to a Terr , groat degree. It hi the lack of fine physical ability, the lack of strength, that has to often been the ruin of strong-arm men and. has brought the .profession Into disrepute. A strong-arm man who can neither suc cessfully cvado nor battle with the pollca department. Individually or collectively, Is something lens than a cipher. lie la mora than a knave he Is a fooL Hla place Is behind the ribbon counter In a dry goods store. lie Is, literally, no good. Constitutional Smith was none of the. Ilu had been too well brought up. H was a thoroughbred. His father waa the man who cracked the County National bank In New York In 71 and made th most suoceMBful snd sensational loot of the decade. His mother came of a family of well known and well recognised hotis breakers, and his grandfather waa one of the most accomplished horse thieves west of the Miaeiasippl. Th branches and tendrils of his family root had for genera tlon after generation received life and nourishment from many varied strata of the under-world! Constitutional 3fnlth had several virtues. He hnd no sweethearts, and no regular as sociates or pals. He had no entangling al liances. He worked alone. Beyond that, apparently, he luld no schemes and mad no plana; he left no track or trail behind him; there were no. earmarks, to his Jobs. Members of the force arriving at the scene of operations In any particular case could never sey, from evidence he left, "This is one of Constitutional's Jobs." Not by a Ions; ahot. And herein he was wine. For It Is the man who carefully lays plans who makes trouble for himself, the man who hangs around a Job before It la executed that Is Identified upon hie trial. It la the man who walks In snd does his Job and then walks out that goes scot tree. There are many instances of this. Up In Massa chusetts a few year ago some one who, u one knows to this day walked late a bowse, butchered Its occupants, executed a robbery, and then walked out. A hundred people might have seen this thing. As a matter of fact, no one saw It. A year later th same thing happened In Brooklyn, The whole countryside discussed each of these caste for e, year. Bach is still a mystery. How, Constitutional Smith was not a batcher. He had never killed even ta self defease. But his methods were Jtmt that. Suddenly he swooped down .upon his victim, be It house or bank or individual, did bis work aad left that was all.- He was too economical to leave his visiting card, lie walked awayand there was another little mystery to bis credit; and a new t&Cur chalked up against the sleuths. - . j Aad Constitutional Smith, had another Virtue he was close mouthed; he never talked. He never blabbed. He took good car that word of bis achievements never reached th dhres. No oae ever whispered la the hotee In the ground that Constftu tkmars made aaother haul. Te make con fidants of his fellow criminals was. as Con stitutional regarded It placing Just so mew material evidence m the hands of the police. The constitution guaranteed to Constitutional the right of free speech, but Conxtltatlonal Smith knew that In his ease freedom of speech meant the curtailment Of his liberty. Silence la golden, and time usually Is money: aad In this case speech meant Just the sort of time that Constitu tional preferred not to do; and silence was money In hla pocket. Bo be kept mum, did Constitutional SraJth, Constitutional bad another vlrtne h w. gentle. He had a giant's strength, but he rarely used It Tike a giant. ' Like a suc cessful and popular dentist, he could not always help hurting his victim, but he hurt no more than was necessary. But whereas the dentist hammers In the vicin ity of the skull to put gol. in. Constitu tional hammered for the purpose of taking go!d out. But his little taps were fatal. 21 bad another dentist's habit he used aa anaesthetic. Abstracting money from th person of an individual. Is always pain ful. He mercifully deadened the min as xaoch as possible. But he never carried tools or arms or chloroform save for about upon three bank messengers, each fully armed, and perpetrated In broad daylight In Wall street In the sight of half a thou sand men. To a moral certainty Constitu tional Smith did it, but to a legal certainty he did not He was acquitted at any rate. The man that did It got off with some J3Q.O0O In United States currency. Consti tutional Smith has never yet denied the perpetration of this crime. His second great alleged offense consisted In cracking the Atlantic and Pacific Trust company safe In 1891 This was done by means of setting up a false front to the afe. painted on canvas a complete fac slml! of the safe Itself. A member of th deal closed lata In the afternoon. He was held up on the highway by one or two persona, either Smith or another. This other, probably, was an accomplice, though Smith, as has been indicated, rarely worked with an accomplice. This man upon the trial waa claimed to be a stranger and was the principal witness against Smith. Smith, however, allowed conclusively that the stranger was covered with blood, presumably the victim's, while Smith wa Innocent of any evidence of the 'crime. The stranger's evidence was all th prosecution had. Smith was acquitted and the stranger was arrested. On his trial Smith swore that the blood upon th .1;' 2n Ail' MflF TO A MAN STANDING IN THS CfcNTKlt OK TUB KLOOR SHOWED A LIGHT KOR A BRIEF SPACE OK TIME. an hour before and an hour after each Job. He knew better. He was well up In the law of evidence. : Aa an earnest of the Bkill and Ingenuity of Mr. 8ml th. It Is only fair to mention here one or two of his achievements. The world knows about Home of them and has marveled at them, although In each case Constitutional Smith left the prisoners' dock a free man, with an unproved charge behind him. That was because Constitu tional Smith had prepared his defense be fore he had committed his crime a wise thing to do. An ounce of prevention Is worth a pound of.- cure. Theso cases merely have to be mentioned In order to be recalled. One of these was the famous bank mes senger cane. It was a robbery perpetrated force and a detailed watchman looked with complaisance upon this false front all through the night. Behind It was Consti tutional Smith and a dismantled safe. This coup d'etat resulted in another famous case of the People, etc., against Smith. It re sultod also in another - acquittal of th one-and-only Smith. To the trial of hla third case be owes hla peculiar name. In that case hla guilt of some crime at least was proven be yond a reasonable doubt. He was charged with larceny from the person of one W'll loughby O. Schnerk. The larceny waa ac companied with violence. The crime oc curred on the outskirts of a country town. Willoughby O. Schneck was driving home, and foolishly carried with him nearly K30, X In cash, the proceeds of a real estate stranger's clothes was obtained in a fight by which the stranger attempted to ar rest Smith at the time of the robbery. The circumstances were peculiar, but upon each trial the facts seemed to corroborate Smith. The alleged stranger was ac quitted. Smith was rearrested for th crime Immediately, but immediately" h claimed his constitutional privilege, that no man can be twice tried for the same offense, and the court ordered his im mediate release. On that occasion Smith argued his own case. . It . never occurred to the authorities at that time to take Wm into custody on the charge of per Jsry, and in the confusion. Smith, having an the nomadic tendencies of the Arab In the poem, walked down the center aisl the court room and silently stole away. When they looked for him be had wisely