LITTLE JESSE JAMESES

The Milford Society for the Detection of Horse Thieves is no more. After functioning for one hundred and thirty years in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts it has at last yielded to the firm grasp of finality. To all appearances the vigilantes of the state have no longer fear of the horse thief. He has gone the way of all the figures of a less mechanical past. So the Irish leader of the English stage can arrange no more "She wings of Blascos". Like the dodo, Shaw's hero has become extinct.

But, if the members of the society, these who agreed to call one hundred and thirty years sufficient for any law enforcement, consider that they have closed their books after true accomplishment, they are rather mistaken Not any society in the world has done away with the horse thief. He has merely changed with the times. As the gypsies who once told fortunes by colored vans in country lanes now make fortunes with colored sedans from coast to coast, so the horse thief who once led stolen mares to a ready market now steers stolen Marmons to dealers in modern antiques. Indeed, the last page of the records of the Milford Society should contain, and obituary notice, not of the horse thief but of the horse, and above the seal of the society should be placed a membership card in the A. A. A.