REASONS WHY PEOPLE DISAPPEAR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2299, 24 March 1898, Page 55

REASONS WHY PEOPLE DISAPPEAR.

The Silly Side of Some Mysteries,

People who disappear generally have very good reasons for doing so, but at the same time there are yearly hundreds who voluntarily disappear £or the mo3t abanrd reasons, to the pain, anxiety, and often great expanse of relations and friend?. The books of private detective agencies contain numberless cases of this kind. TOOK OFFENCE AT A CHANCE REMARK. The sou of an officer of high rank in the army disappeared in a most perplexing man- • ner. The family were at dinner when the lad, ] a youth of 17, suddenly rose and left the j room. The mother, tbinkiDg be was unwell, quickly followed him. H« was nowhere to be seen. He was not in the house, nor did he return to it. The police were communicated with, and private detectives set, to woik. It was not till eight months later, and after £400 had been spent on the job, that be was discovered at Brooklyn, New York, where he was employed as a clerk at Bdol a week. He declared that hss sole reason for disappearing was a remark of bi3 mother's, made at the dinner tabl«, in praise of s ycuuger brother. NOT A QUESTION CF ACCOUNTS An extraordinary case was that of & gentleman in the north, whose disappearance created an enormous sensation, as he was secretary to several societies. His flight naturally gave rise to suspicion that the funds entrusted to him were not all right, and a hasty and imperfect ioquiry seamed j to fnrnish grounds sufficient to allow of a i warrant beiag issued. It was, and the i gentleman was quickly captured at a York- ! shire watering place. His explanation waa that he had quarrelled with his wife at dinner as to the cooking of a leg of mutton. It; | was true. Subsequent investigation proved I that there was not a penny missing, of the i money confided to" him. THROUGH LITTLE MATRIMONIAL " TIFF 3 " It is a sad fact that wives frequently take j ifc into their heads, as the constquance of a I " tiff." to disappear as a means ot revengug themselves on their distracted husbands. i These disappearances are usually very shortj lived ones, the wifa 'generally leaving " a ! very gGod trail " behind her, and, indeed, in her heart intending that her husband shall not be very long in finding her again. Two days as a rule suffice to discover the lady who disappears in these circumstances. She is usually found very lonely and miserable in her sitting room of the lodgings she has taken, veiy white through want of sleep, very red- eyed through crying, and with an untouched meal upon the table. After a great deal of kissing and crying the two go lovingly home in ,a four-wheeler.

A FLIGHT WITH A TRAGIC SEQUEL.

The game is a silly and rash one. Very oftan terrible unexpected misery has followed. The writer knows a yoncg lady who iv now confined in a lunatic asylum as the result of such a thoughtless flight. She expected her husband to seek and find her. Hs shot himself instead. And when the news was brought to her, her mind gave way altogether.

A rich and eccentric gentleman, who, thougtrhe had a host of relatives in London and elsewhere, lived by himself at Hampstead, disappeared in circumstances which suggested a ghastly crime. He had drawn a large sum of money from the bank, was seen upon the Underground railway, and then vanished. Inquiry and search revealed not a trace of him. About two months later, however, he turned np as oddly as he had disappeared, coolly walking into the shop of a humble relative of bis at Birmingham.

"I ese, John," said the returned one, " you're the only one of my relations who's had the decency to put on black for me. Yon shall have no cause to regret ifc, I tell yon." With that he walked out. He died two years later, leaving all he possessed to the shopkeeper. The chcumstanees became known through other relatives opposing the will on the ground of the old gentleman

beiag out of his mind, and the shopkeeper obtaining tha money by fraud. The biack he so luckily wore that day when his relative called had in reality been donned for a lately-deceased aunt. But he got the fortune !