N&W in 1912--Pullman search

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
February 25, 1912

TAKEN FROM PULLMAN
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Man With Red Moustache and Silver Headed Cane Accused of Beating Board Bill
    "Arrest William McGrath, who has a red moustache and a silver-headed cane," was the wording of a message received last night by Chief Postlethwaite, from Chief of Police Dyer, at Roanoke.  The chief and Officer Stafford started to look for the sporty guy with a silver-headed cane, and as such sports are seldom seen in this section, as the mollycoddles are few and far between, search for the man was confined to a Pullman car in train No. 3.  Peering in through the curtains in the berths, where the only man answering this description was located, the chief saw a silver-headed cane on the neatly tied up package representing the mattress part of an upper berth.  The chief and the officer decided that the red moustache would be near.  Parting the  curtains on the lower berth the chief saw Mr. Red Moustache and asked him if the name that went with the moustache and cane was not McGrath.  The man, after hesitating, said his name was Price, but the hesitation condemned him and he was ordered to dress and accompany the chief to jail, which he did after a glance at the warrant.  The man is accused of beating a board bill at Roanoke.
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[I wonder how many other passengers were startled by "Peering in through the curtains in the berths...?"  Incidentally, about 1938 my parents and I briefly lived in the Postlethwaite apartments on Ramsey Street in Bluefield.  Inasmuch as this was only twenty-six years after the above incident, it could be that Chief Postlethwaite was the owner of the apartments.]

Gordon Hamilton
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