No questions asked for return of instrument taken from residence of
Jean Bott March 31, 1894, 355 W. 31st St. Absolute safety and
secrecy guaranteed. Victor S. Flechter, No. 21 Union Square, violin
maker and dealer.
Mrs. Bott thanked him and took the notice away with her, but its
publication had no result. The old professor began to fail, he no longer
had an instrument upon which to teach his pupils, and those he could
avail himself of seemed harsh and discordant. He had no appetite, and
even found no solace in his pipe. Almost penniless they were forced to
give up their lodgings and move to Hoboken. Mrs. Bott still kept up the
search, but the professor could no longer tramp the streets looking for
his violin. He sat silent in his room, slowly, surely, dying of a broken
heart.
In course of time some one advised Mrs. Bott to lay her case before the
District Attorney, and accordingly, during the summer, she visited the
Criminal Courts Building and told her story to Colonel Allen, one of the
assistants, who became greatly interested. The overwrought old woman had
begun to suspect everybody, and even to accuse her husband's friend,
Flechter, of a lack of any real interest. She thought he ought to be
able to find the violin if he really made the effort. Allen began to
take notice. The sleuth in him pricked up its ears. Why, sure,
certainly, Flechter was the one man who knew what Bott's violin was
really worth--the one man who could sell it to advantage--and he had
been done out of five hundred dollars by the old musician's stupidity.
Allen thought he'd take a look into the thing. Now, there lived in the
same boarding-house with Allen a friend of his named Harry P. Durden,
and to Durden Allen recounted the story of the lost violin and voiced
his suspicions of Flechter. Durden entered enthusiastically into the
case, volunteering to play the part of an amateur detective. Accordingly
Durden, accompanied by a Central Office man named Baird, visited
Flechter's place of business and the two represented themselves as
connoisseurs in violins and anxious to procure a genuine Strad. for a
certain Mr. Wright in St. Paul. Flechter expressed entire confidence in
his ability to procure one, and did almost succeed in purchasing for
them the so-called "Jupiter Strad."
All this took time, and at last, on April 28th, 1895, poor old Bott died
in his boarding-house in Hoboken. After the funeral the widow settled up
her affairs, changing her boarding place temporarily, and, having no
ties in this country, determined to return to end her days in the
Fatherland. On May 21st she wrote to Flechter, who had lost all track of
her, that her husband had died, that she had moved to 306 River Street,
Hoboken, and that she thought seriously of going back to Germany. Two
days later Flechter wrote the following letter to the Central Office
man, who had given his name as Southan, an employe of the alleged Mr.
Wright:
MR. SOUTHAN, care of H. P. Durden.
_Dear Sir_: Write to inform you that I have a genuine Strad. to
offer you and would like to see you at your earliest convenience.
Very respectfully yours,