Page:The web (1919).djvu/412

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property that had been left to him. The proper Olsen came into town, was arrested at once, and sent to Fort Snelling—the victim of several kinds of misplaced confidence.

There came into Duluth a rather pitiful story of a young girl of East Texas engaged to a U. S. soldier who was taken prisoner and sent to the interior of Germany. The prisoner sent out a letter to his sweetheart which stated that he was well treated. He also said that he was sending her his watch as a souvenir, lest she might never see him again. The girl took the watch to a jeweler. Inside of the works there was a note which said that everything the prisoner had written in the letter was not true, that his nose and ears had been cut off by the Germans, so that he felt himself unfit even to be seen by her again. The girl herself lived at Nacogdoches and had met her Northern sweetheart in a Southern camp.

From Ashland, Wisconsin, there was reported to the Duluth office the name of one J——, a deserter. He was traced out into the woods, found in the garret of a shack whose owner disclaimed all knowledge of him, hauled down and out and sent to Fort Snelling, all in jig time.

From Erie, Pennsylvania, there came to Duluth warning that there probably would be on a steamer due to land at that point a deserter from the service. The boat was met, the deserter was found, and within thirty-six hours he was on his way to Fort Snelling to repent at his leisure.

One O——, an Austrian or Russian, a mill hand, was found in bed when an operative went after him as a draft evader. He was so indiscreet as to say, "To hell with America." At that time the operative landed on him with a stiff right, and O—— went down for the count. The short and simple annals of Mr. O——'s case read: "He was dragged to jail with his toes up, put in a cell with his toes still up, and left alone with his toes up. The next day he was sent to Fort Snelling as a deserter."

All the way from Great Falls, Montana, came a deserter who thought he could hide himself in the North woods around Duluth. As a matter of fact, he succeeded in doing so for more than a month although he was traced here and there in the forest. He located on a river-drive where he worked for a time. This Mr. C—— always went armed