identification of a little girl from a description given

of her father, leads to the latter's arrest.

identification of criminals from descriptions is not always an easy task, for two reasons. first, there are but few men who can intelligently describe a person from memory. this is an art within itself. the second reason is, it takes so little to change the general appearance of a man to such a degree that it is hard to pick him up from a mere description, that is, unless the man wanted has some peculiar feature or form that is very noticeable. the ordinary man, to change his general appearance, has to do but little. a change of shape or style of hat or clothing, the cutting off or growing of a mustache, or even a haircut or shave will often serve the purpose. i have never claimed to have what is today called "a camera eye" but i did a piece of identification work while special agent of the allegheny valley railroad in the early '70s of which i have always been proud, for the reason that there has absolutely never been another case like it in the police annals of the entire country.

during the spring 1874, a man giving the name of joseph chalfont applied to mr. thomas m. king, the division superintendent of the allegheny valley railroad, at [pg 67]pittsburg, pa., for a situation as locomotive engineer. this man, chalfont, was a rather remarkable person, appearing to be about thirty-six years of age. he stood more than six feet in height, with extremely long arms and legs. his complexion was dark and sallow, and his hair coarse and black. his neck was very long, with a noticeable "adam's apple." his cheek-bones were high, and his nose straight and long. his eyes were beady and black, being set far back in his head and very close together; they were crowned with a bushy pair of eyebrows, which met above the ridge of his nose. then to make the picture more complete, his forehead was low, giving his head a small, bullet-like appearance. the reader can see that a description of this man, if given accurately and with any care could be almost as good as a photograph.

chalfont presented a letter of recommendation from the master mechanic of the lake shore & michigan southern ry., at buffalo, n. y. the letter was very good, and stated that chalfont had been in the employ of that company for a couple of years, and that he had left its service of his own accord, because he hoped to benefit himself by a change of climate. supt. king was a close observer, and a good judge of human nature. he was badly in need of men at the time, and being rather impressed with chalfont's appearance and manner, he examined him as to the rules governing the movement of trains. he stood a fair examination and was engaged. it is usual for an engineer who has not been promoted on a road, or who comes from another road, to spend several weeks in riding on the engines back and forth over the portion of the road on which he is expected to run. in this way a man could become familiar with all the grades, switches, side-tracks, curves, signals and so forth. chalfont was given a copy of the[pg 68] company's rules and an order to learn the road. when he had done this he was given freight engine no. 42 to haul freight between south oil city and pittsburg. one day he was given a train of empty oil tanks at pittsburg, and started for south oil city with them. he arrived there in due time and turned the cars in safely. the following evening he was given a train of forty-five full oil tanks with orders to take them to pittsburg. when he reached sarah's furnace, about half the distance to pittsburg, he received orders to run upon the side-track there and allow a north-bound freight to pass him. he took the siding as he had been ordered, and in due time the first section of the freight met and passed him there. the engine on this section carried two red lights, which is the warning to railroad men that another section is following the first one, and it has the same roadway privileges as the first section. it therefore became the duty of chalfont to remain upon the siding until the second section had passed him. instead of doing this, however, chalfont pulled out on the main line and started for pittsburg. about one and a half miles south of sarah's furnace there is a curve known as hard scrabble curve, which is one of the shortest and most dangerous curves on the road. here on this curve chalfont's train collided with the second section which was going north. both engines were about the same size and weight, so when they met the force of ninety-five empty cars going north and forty-five loaded cars going south caused the engines to rear up in front, crushing the machinery of both. the fire from the boilers immediately spread, and soon the oil tanks were a mass of flame. as the heat grew greater the tanks exploded, scattering the blazing oil over the surface of the allegheny river. the current was quite strong and it carried the blazing oil[pg 69] down-stream for miles, spreading destruction as it went. the heat from the oil changed the wreckage into a mass of molten metal. chalfont's fireman was crushed to death, as was his front brakeman. the same fate overtook the engineer, fireman and brakeman of the north-bound train. the bodies were cremated in the blazing oil.

at this time oil was worth from $7.00 to $8.00 per barrel. the amount of oil lost totals up to nearly $200,000 in value. the company's loss in property was not less than $500,000, besides being responsible for the loss of the five lives. all this destruction was caused by the incompetency of chalfont and the negligence of his conductor.

chalfont luckily, or rather unluckily, escaped with his life by springing from his engine cab out upon the bluff side of the track. here he climbed an almost perpendicular cliff about 400 feet high. the blaze from the oil had burned nearly all the clothing from his back, and had singed the back of his head and neck into a blister. he escaped into the hills.

the officers of the company at pittsburg were notified immediately by wire, and a wrecking train and crew were sent to the scene post haste, in charge of supt. king. they arrived at the wreck early the following morning. here supt. king learned what facts he could as to the cause of the wreck. he then wired to me to come to the wreck on the first train. i was at oil city at the time, and left immediately, arriving at the wreck about noon. on my arrival mr. king walked a little distance down the track, out of earshot from the noise of the wrecking crew, and sat down upon a log. he then told me what he had learned and as to the cause of the wreck. he also proceeded to describe chalfont to me. he was so deliberate and careful in this description that it took him nearly[pg 70] an hour to do it. he had that rare faculty of being able to describe one person to another with accuracy. he then said, "tom, do you think you could recognize this man from the description i have given you?" i answered, "yes, i believe i could. the description you have given me reminds me very much of 'morg' erwin, a passenger engineer on the road." at this mr. king, usually very quiet and sedate, grew very excited and clapped his hands as if in joy, exclaiming, "why didn't i think of that before? he looks like 'morg' erwin."

i then said, "no, mr. king, he looks very much like erwin, but not exactly like him. he is very much like him in some respects, though, being taller than erwin. chalfont's neck is longer and his 'adam's apple' is much larger and more prominent. his eyes are not so large and are set back farther in his head than erwin's. chalfont's cheek-bones are much higher, while his hair is more coarse and much like horse hair. in short, erwin is a more refined man than chalfont."

to this mr. king replied, "tom, i feel sure that you will be able to identify that man on sight, and i want you to get him at all hazards. spare no time or trouble, but 'get him.' take him to katanning (the county seat of westmoreland co., pa., where this wreck occurred) and lodge him in jail."

mr. king then told me that i would find the letter of recommendation chalfont had given him on file in his office at pittsburg. i took the first train for pittsburg, where i applied to mr. joe reinhart, mr. king's chief clerk, who was later president of the great atchison, topeka and santa fe system, and he turned the letter over to me. i then concluded to go to buffalo and see the master mechanic of the lake shore, from whose office the letter [pg 71]purported to come. at buffalo i found the master mechanic and showed him chalfont's letter. after reading the letter he told me that the letter head was genuine, but the letter itself, with stamp, seal and signature, were forgeries. he had neither written the letter nor authorized it, but he identified chalfont's hand-writing. i learned that chalfont had been a country school teacher earlier in his life, and that he received such small pay as such that he could not support his wife and children. he came to buffalo, where he applied for work in the round-house of the lake shore shops there. he was given a position at wiping engines in the round-house. here also his salary was too small to support his family and pay rent at the same time, so he was forced to move once a month to avoid paying rent. one day he got into the master mechanic's office and stole a part of a block of the official letter heads of the company. he then wrote himself a letter of recommendation which he had shown to mr. king, and when the chance offered he stamped and sealed the letter, after stealing the stamp one night from the office. about this time he became so lazy and indolent that he was reprimanded by the master mechanic.

the master mechanic told me that he had discharged chalfont, previous to his going to pittsburg, because of failure to pay his grocery bills and his rent. the grocers and landlords were garnisheeing his wages, and as the company did not tolerate such things, he was discharged. he also said that chalfont's family was somewhere in buffalo, but he did not know their whereabouts because they had moved so often. i thanked him for this information and then decided to see the superintendent of police.

i called at the office of superintendent phillips, and asked him to give me an officer who was more familiar with the haunts[pg 72] and dwellings of railroad men in buffalo than i was. he gladly assented and assigned detective tony collins to assist me. we started out by canvassing the grocers, butchers and milkmen in the neighborhood where the lake shore railway men resided. during the forenoon we found many who knew of chalfont's family, but did not know where they were at present. about 3:00 p. m., as collins and i were going down a side street called hayward st., i noticed a group of six or eight children playing before a row of wooden cottages, or more properly, shacks. one little girl in a dirty blue dress attracted my attention because of the likeness she bore to chalfont, according to my description of him. i also noticed a grocery on the corner below us. when we got to the grocery i told the man with me, detective collins, to go back to the group and ask the little girl in the blue dress to deliver a package to his wife. he was to tell her that he lived in the large white house down the street. i then told him to return to the grocery with the girl so that i could get a chance to speak to her without exciting her. he returned in a few moments with the little girl, who looked uncommonly like a little indian squaw, and who proved to be the living image of her father. while collins was inside the store examining the vegetables i said to the girl, "why, hello, sis, where is your uncle charlie now?" she smiled and said, "oh, do you know uncle charlie?" i said, "oh, sure; i know him well." she then said, "he is down in pennsylvania firing on a railroad." (uncle charlie was chalfont's brother-in-law, and had gotten a position as fireman at the same time chalfont got his job as engineer.) i then said to her, "is your father home now?" she looked up and said, "yes, he got home a couple of days ago, but he is sick, and—oh, he said [pg 74]i mustn't tell any one." i said, "that's all right, but tell me which one of those houses do you live in?" she said, "we live in that middle one, with the bunch of rags stuffed in the window."

[pg 73]

oh, do you know uncle charlie?

"oh, do you know uncle charlie?"

i attracted collins' attention, and told him to send the girl away on some pretext. we then went up to the house the girl had pointed out. i sent collins around to the back door and i went to the front door and knocked. mrs. chalfont opened the door, and when i asked for joe chalfont she attempted to slam the door in my face. i pushed the door open and entered the house. seeing no one in the front room i walked through it to the door of the back room. here i saw chalfont seated before a window with his head and neck all swathed in bandages. as i entered the room he said, without moving, "well, mr. furlong, you have got me." i answered, "yes, joe, i am sorry to say i have." this showed conclusively that i had been pointed out to him while he was on the road without my knowledge. here i will state that up to the time i entered that room i had never seen joe chalfont himself, nor a picture or photograph of him. he had seen me and had heard me speaking so that he knew my voice. i had suspected from the first that chalfont might know me, so when i saw the little girl, whom i believed was his daughter, i did not stop in front of the houses in which i supposed the children lived, but kept on to the grocery store.

this is the only case of its kind on record in which an officer picked out a child from a group of children and recognized her from a description of her father, whom the officer had never seen.

i arrested chalfont and took him to katanning, as mr. king had ordered. i then went to pittsburg and reported[pg 75] in detail to general superintendent j. j. lawrence. meanwhile it dawned upon me that i had done a rather commendable thing in arresting this man chalfont, and i was expecting a little praise from the general superintendent. imagine my surprise, upon being ushered into his office, at his beginning to reprimand me for arresting chalfont. he said, "furlong, you have gotten this company into a lot of trouble by arresting this man."

to this i replied, "why sir, mr. king ordered me to get him at all hazards, and i simply carried out his orders."

he then went on, in a most bitter tone, "well, you should not have done it. i think i shall be forced to discharge you for so doing. from your reports from buffalo i see that chalfont was not an engineer, and, therefore, an incompetent employe. that makes this company liable to damages for the lives lost, and for all the property destroyed in that wreck. don't you see what you have done?"

i was angered at his words, and said, "col. lawrence, if you did not want that man arrested mr. king should not have ordered me to get him. i believe i am entitled to some little credit for the capture of this man, in view of the fact that the feat is so far unparalleled. so far as discharging me goes, that will be unnecessary, for i have already quit the service of a company which does not approve of my work."

to this col. lawrence replied, "furlong, i beg your pardon, and want to compliment you on your good work on this and other cases, but when this case comes to trial all the facts of chalfont's incompetency will be laid bare, and it will cost us a lot of money."

i then said, "oh, i can fix that."

"what can you suggest?" he asked me.

"i will get some prominent lawyer," i said, "to sign his bond; he will be released, and as the quarterly session is nearly three months away it will be hard to find him in three months."

col. lawrence said, "see that that is done and i will greatly appreciate it."

a few days later a prominent lawyer of katanning signed a bond for chalfont's appearance in court. he was released and at once set out for parts unknown. of course, he did not appear for trial and the bond was declared forfeited. through professional courtesy the bond was never collected.

chalfont was not heard from until the railroad strike at pittsburg in 1877, when he again appeared in pittsburg under an alias, and got a job on the panhandle ry., running a passenger engine on the macdonald accommodation. he got partly over the road on his first trip, and failing to get the proper amount of water in the boiler the crown-sheet blew out of the locomotive, scalding his fireman badly. he again took to the woods and disappeared, and to my knowledge has not been heard of since.