ARTHUR.T Stories ----A Finder of Missing Heirs ----VIII---Page 42

The professional prosecutor is continually surprised at the

insignificant amount of crime existing in comparison with the

extraordinary scope of criminal opportunity. To be sure, the number of
crimes actually detected is infinitesimal as contrasted with those
committed, but even so the conviction constantly grows that the world is
astonishingly honest when one considers the unlikelihood that any
specific prospective offence will be discovered. How few dishonest
servants there are, for example, out of the million or so composing that
class of persons who have an unlimited opportunity to snap up not only
unconsidered trifles, but personal property of great value. The actual
honesty of the servants is probably greater than that of the masters--in
the final analysis.

Men are not only "presumed to be innocent" in the eyes of the law, but
are found to be so, as a matter of daily experience, so far as honesty
in the ordinary affairs of life is concerned, and the fact that we rely
so implicitly upon the truthfulness and integrity of our fellows is the
principal reason why violations of this imperative social law should be
severely dealt with. If it were possible adequately to determine or deal
with any such issue mere lying should be made a crime.

It is matter of constant wonder that shrewd business men will put

through all sorts of deals, when thousands of dollars are at stake,

relying entirely upon the word of some single person, whom they do not
in fact know. John Smith is looking for a house. He finds one he likes
with an old lady, who says her name is Sarah Jones, living in it, and
offers her forty thousand dollars for her real estate. She accepts. His
lawyer searches the title and finds that Sarah Jones is the owner of
record. The old lady is invited to the lawyer's office, executes a
warranty deed, and goes off with the forty thousand dollars. Now in a
great number of instances no one really knows whether the aged dame is
Sarah Jones or not; and she perhaps may be, and sometimes is, only the

caretaker's second cousin, who is looking after the house in the latter's absence.

There are thousands of acres of land and hundreds of millions of money
waiting at compound interest to be claimed by unknown heirs or next of
kin. Even if the real ones cannot be found one would think that this
defect could be easily supplied by some properly ingenious person.

"My Uncle Bill went to sea in '45 and was never heard from again. Will
you find out if he left any money?" wrote a client to the author.
Careful search failed to reveal any money. But if the money had been
found _first_ how easy it would have been to turn up a nephew! Yet the
industry of producing properly authenticated nephews, heirs, legatees,
next of kin and claimants of all sorts has never been adequately
developed. There are plenty of "agents" who for a moderate fee will
inform you whether or not there is a fortune waiting for you, but there
is no agency within the writer's knowledge which will supply an heir for
every fortune. From a business point of view the idea seems to have
possibilities.

Some few years after the Civil War a Swede named Ebbe Petersen emigrated to this country to better his condition. Fortune smiled upon him and he
amassed a modest bank account, which, with considerable foresight, he
invested in a large tract of unimproved land in the region known as "The
Bronx," New York City.

In the summer of 1888 Petersen determined to take a vacation and revisit
Sweden, and accordingly deeded all his real estate to his wife. Just
before starting he decided to take his wife and only child, a little
girl of ten or twelve, with him. Accordingly they set sail from Hoboken
Saturday, August 11, upon the steamer _Geiser_, of the Thingvalla Line,
bound for Copenhagen. At four o'clock Tuesday morning, at a point thirty
miles south of Sable Island and two hundred miles out of Halifax, the
_Geiser_, in the midst of a thick fog, crashed suddenly into a sister
ship, the _Thingvalla_, of the same line, and sank. The _Thingvalla_ was
herself badly crippled, but, after picking up thirty-one survivors,
managed to limp into Halifax, from which port the rescued were brought
to New York. Only fourteen of the _Geiser's_ passengers had been saved
and the Petersens were not among them. They were never heard of again,
and no relatives came forward to claim their property, which, happening
to be in the direct line of the city's development, was in course of
time mapped out into streets and house lots and became exceedingly
valuable. Gradually houses were built upon it, various people bought it
for investment, and it took on the look of other semi-developed suburban
property.