You have suffered many years of sorrow and trouble in
regard to it."
"Eight years," sighed the old lady, clasping the violin in her arms.
"I wish you a great deal of pleasure in its possession," continued the
Recorder.
Thus ended, as a matter of record, the case of The People against
Flechter. For eight years the violin dealer and his family had endured
the agony of disgrace, he had spent a fortune in his defense, and had
nevertheless been convicted of a crime of which he was at last proved
innocent.
Yet, there are those who, when the case is mentioned, shake their heads
wisely, as if to say that the whole story of the lost Stradivarius has
never been told.
IV
The Last of the Wire-Tappers
"Sir," replied the knave unabashed, "I am one of those who do make a
living by their wits."
John Felix, a dealer in automatic musical instruments in New York City,
was swindled out of $50,000 on February 2d, 1905, by what is commonly
known as the "wire-tapping" game. During the previous August a man
calling himself by the name of Nelson had hired Room 46, in a building
at 27 East Twenty-second Street, as a school for "wireless telegraphy.
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