THE STOLEN GAINSBOROUGH.

♦ THE MAN WHO STOLE THE FAMOUS PICTURE. TEE STORY OF TBE IWBBERY NOW TOLD FOR TBE FIBST TIME. (By WILLIAM A PINKERTON chief of the famous Pinkertou Detectives.) (Pearson's Weakly.) Adam Worth, in a life of crime covering \. almost half a century, looted nearly £600,000. There were three redeeming features in the life of this lost human) creature. He worshipped his family and regarded and treated his loved onea as something sacred. His wife never knew that he was a criminal. His children are living in the United States to-day, in complete ignorance of the faot that their father was the master thief of the civilised world. ■ In 1876, Adam Worth, then posing int London as a rich Amerioan, under the narira of Henry Raymond, was the head of _al great forgery syndicate. Charles Becker,, "The Dutchman," the greatest forger alive! to-day, was the chief worker, and associated withi the two were men only less dangerous than they, Joseph B. Chapman, Joe Reilly and Carlos Sesoovich, stars in crime. Their plans were well laad, but after they had succeeded in getting "about' £4000, one of che lesser members of the "band was caught in Paris, extradited, and imprisoned in) England. , Now, Adam Worth was confronted with a difficulty. The only hope for the prisoner was to get ont on bail and "jump" it. He could not stand trial, for it would have been equivalent to conviction, since hia guilt was clear. But a bondsman muJst bo a freeholder, furnish absolute real security and his repubation must not only be excellent—he must be well known. One day, soon after the arrest, Worth was walking through Bond Street with . Jack Phillips, alias " Juuka." a notorious burglar. They saw many carriages stopping before 'a picture galleaWj ond. crowd^ entering the door. It wall Angew's and the attraction was the Gainsborough portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire. It had been purchased a few days beiore by the Agnews, at Christie's, for £10,500, and Worth, who had a fad for art, remained in the gallery a long time admiring the painting. HOW THE PICTURE WAS STOLEN. There had, however, been something besides admiration in his mind. When he emerged from the gallery he told Phillips that he had a plan to steal the picture. Phillips objected vigorously. • He said that it would be absurd— that the thing would be a White elephant on their hands. Worth insis-^d. Phillips yielded. Joe Reilly waa taken into their confidence. The next night was xoggy. At the corner, near 4gne w's, stood joeßeiiiy, watching to see tliat no danger, threatened. Jack Pualiips, a great hulk of a man, stood under a sign that was dangling over the street, just below a window in tne portrait room. Worth suddenly emerged irom the fog*, leapt on Pniiiips's shoWer, wHo quickiy seized the agile little man, and raosed inuft nigh enougii over his head to enable him to reach tne swinging sign. In another instant, almost beiore one could have noted his movements, he had pulled himself over the sign and was raising tho window. In almost the- space of time tliat it takes to tell, Worth dropped to the pavement again with the portpit rolled up under bis arm; So completely had he thought out his plans during that first visit to tne gallery that he had even noted the position of a step ladder, and he wasted not an instant ia mounting to the picture and cutting it from the frame. On the next morning, May 27, 1876, London was in a. state of mind. So were Jack Phillips and Joe Reiily. Nobody in th« city, apparently, could talk of anything else except the startling discovery that had been made that morning when the Agnews opened their gallery. Posters offering a reward of £1000 for the recovery of tne picture flared everywhere, and before night the police had been sending photographs and descriptions of it to all quarters of tha globe. Worth's two accomplices saw all their forebodings fulfilled. Not only did the picture appear worthless to them, since any attempt to extort money for its return would have led to their capture, as they argued, but the chances were jfood also th&t they might be caught even as it was. They were full of bitter reproaches when Worth met them. WORTH'S UNIQUE PLOT. Worth, to their surprise, was jubilant. He rubbed his hands gleefully and told them that' everything was working beautifully. And then, and only then, did he divulge the real reason that he had for stealing the Gainsborough. He told them that he knew of a solicitor of shady reputation who was,, to an i extent in his power, and that through him he proposed to send a small bit of canvas from the Gainsborough to the prisoner (his captured confederate whom he wished out on bail) at Newgate Prison, who wonld be ; told to secrete ifc. The solicitor waa then to go to the Agnews and tell them that he had a client in gaol who could give them information that would lead to the recovery of the portrait. The prisoner thereupon, when the Agncvs approached him, was to show them the piece of canvas, and, to assure them that he was telling the truth, he was to tell tbe Agnews to take it and see if it would not fib exactly into a jigged piece that Worth had left in the frame for just this purpose. Once they felt sure that the man could bring about the return of tbe portrait, it was fair to assume that the Agnews could be forced to go on the prisoner's bail bond. He could fiee the country at once and the picture would be returned as soon as he was safe from British liny. There is little doubt that the unique scheme would have ended as planned, had it not been for a happening as unexpected as it was welcome to the gang. With money furnished by Worth, the prisoner had retained one of the best solicitors in

London then, and now a Judge on English Bench. He discovered that tl^^H had been a vital technical error in^^H extradition papers, and the Court annor^^H ed tbat it could not hold the man, would have to liberate him until new ceedings could be taken. It is needlesi^^H say that he left England as fast as t.^^H and ship could take him. A WHITE ELEPHANT. Thus the Gainsborough did actually come a white elephant— or even worse, not only did Worth not dare to try^H win the reward, but his accomplices b**^^| to blackmail him enthusiastically.' j^^l sibly they would have squeezed him e^H harder than they did had it not been^^H the fact that Worth, with his usual ast^H ness, had secreted the picture immedia^^H after the theft so that none of the g^H knew where it was any more than Agnews or the police did. ~*^^H Once Phillips demanded that should produce the picture and then^^J posit it somewhere whence it coiild no^^H taken without the consent of both pari^^| He made an appointment to meet W^^H in the Criterion bar, and, expecting Worth would appear 'with the pictttre,^^^ went there with two detectives. But W^^H had suspected Phillips and had seen with his companions. So Worth did -^H appear in the Criterion bar on that d^^f but he appeared next day, and then^^H there the little man gave the giant P^^| lips so terrible a thrashing tiiat the po^H had tp be called in to drag him «^H irom his enemy. Thus ended all attempts on the pai^^H any of his "pals" to gain possession of picture, and it remained with Worth i^^| he returned it voluntarily. RETURN OF THE GAINSBOROU<^B Twenty-six years later Worth came of prison broken in health, and before I^^| was a financial wreck as well, for his tune went as illrgotten goods always g>*^^| the end. He fell las he "h&O. risen. • His old " P^^| forsook him. Criminals feared him more, and thrust him aside. In thia j^^| ture he met Pat Sheedy. And She^^J who had always believed that Worth the Gainsborough portrait, broached subject to him. Worth expressed fidence in Sheedy, and said that, if I my word also, he would make a trip^^J America. One stormy morning tin January, l^^J shortly after arriving at my office in **.^^| cago, I received a telegram, dated at No^^| Western Depot, Chicago, and re»di^^B " Letter awaiting you *t home. Send^H it. — Roy." Over the telephone J. h^^M that just after leaviug home a stranger called and left a letter, requesting tha*.^H should be delivered only to myself per^H I had thej letter brought to me at O^H and, on opening it, found that it was f^H Adam Worth, whom I had not seen seventeen or eighteen years. Ihe said that he had come at the requeet^H Sheedy to see me confidentially, and th^^J I could assure him that no harm w-^H come to him, and would say so in an ad^H tisement in one of the Chicago evening^H pers, he would consider that he had word of honour, and would respond. I TELEPHONE ADAM WORTH. ■ The advertisement was published, about eleven o'clock the following morn^H on responding to a telephone call, I fc-^H myself in- conversation with Adam Wo^H On my assuring him that he could call -***^H perfect safety, within five minutes he di^H Worth detailed all the facts, not about tho Stealing of the picture, but about his past lite, with tne understau^H that I was not, under any circunutauce^H make use of any of the information du^| Worth's life'ttme. He left it optional me to do as I saw fit about publishing^B name as the perpetrator of the theft am^H other details after his death* I expia^H the friendly relations existing beti^H myself and the Scotland Yard authorr^H and said that under no circumstances w^H Ido anything tnat they did not aoqui^H in. The only stipulation nipdo by Mr Sh^| was that- no one was to be punished oi^H jured. He said that he was interes^l lumself in the restoration of the picture a^B ly as a matter of friendship^ and in o^H that the lost treasure mignt be resto^H Worth, who was in need of the money^B lieved that the reward offered for the^| turn of the picture amounted to consi^H ably more than was stated by the Ag^H in che circular. The facts were sent v^H brother, Bobert A. Pinkerton, in _^H York, who, in turn, submitted them to^| perintendent Donald Swanson, oitbe&^| nai Investigation Department in 2^| Scotland Yard. My brother's le^| brought back a reply from Lewis and Le^M prominent solicitors of London, who -J^M acting for the Agnews. . But the ma^| hung fire, and at last waa abandoned oi^H count of the amount desired for the re^| of the picture. The attorneys also that the. picture did not exist, and that was a scheme by sharp Americans to s^H die the Agnews. _ Mr Sheedy thereupon made a prop*^| tion to the Agnews to return tbe pic^| i without cost to them, providing tbey w^H allow him' the privilege of exhibiting it^H j four months. A month afterwards Sbe^| ! proposed that if the Agnewe would ]H mit him to. make a steel engraving of^H picture -.and control the plate the pidH would be' restored. This must have • vinced the owners that the picture really in existence, for on Jan. 16, l^M I we received a cable despatch from Su^H intendent Swanson, of Scotland Yard,^H structing ua to negotiate the return of H stolen portrait, and saying that the te^fl asked by Worth were accepted. H I MB AGNEW GOES TO AMERIO_M I We communicated with Mr Sheedy, ' he cabled to Worth, who had in the m^H time returned to England. Worth t^| graphed to Sheedy the name of the ste^f er 4te would leave on, and when it known he had sailed, we cabled to Lon^| to send a party to identify the picture^B the United States. In response, Supe^f tendent Swanson cabled that C. Morel^H Agnew had left for America on Saturd^B March 15, 1901, on the Etruria. At iH York Mr Agnew was met by our represH tative, who requested him to continue^! Chicago, where he arrived on the evenH of March 27, 1901. I m!et him and told fl that I would be in a position to da^M the picture the next morning. ''H As arranged, Mr Agnew called at H office about 10 a.m. the following day, al the financial end of the matter being H ranged, we /immediately returned to H Agnew's hotel, where, while Mr AgoH and his wife and I were sitting in H room, a rap caqne to the door. Qn H being opened, a man handed Mr AgneiM large parcel, and left immediately. H Agnew hesitating, I suggested that H open the parcel, and the famous paintH of the Duchess of Devonshire came light f oif the first time in twenty-six 7*iH in ai perfect state of preservation. I sitting alongside Mr Agnew, watching H features closely, when I saw his eyes H up for a moment, and then rising to ■ feet, he took me by the hand, cougrattH ted me, and said that he bad at last foiH the picture. Mrs Agnew did likewise. ■ urged him to make no mistake, and to B every possible test amd measurement^! the picture before finally deciding. AfH doing this, with all the different tests ■ tell the genuine pictures, he said: H "I am positive the picture is the *<H ginal picture — the one stolen from H father's gallery twenty-six years ago.*' H I accompanied Mr Agnew and his vH to the train, and placed the picture in M drawing-room of the Limited Express H New York, where we were met _H agents from my office, who took the ]H ture and kept it under guard all nightH the office, and the following morning M livered it to Mr Agnew in his state-roorH Nothing was said about the recttvexyH the picture until it was known tbat M Etruria had arrived at an English pportt t H

that the Custom officers would demand duty be paid on it.