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ALLAN  PIMERTON'S 


UC-NR 


7flfl 


DETECTIVE  STORIES 


!  BERKELEY 
.IBRARY 
JNtVERSITY  OP 
CALIFORNIA 


onp 


ALLAN  PINKERTON'S 

GREAT  DETECTIVE   STORIES, 


i.— THE  MOLLIE  MAGUIRES  AND  DETECTIVES. 

2.-STRIKERS,  COMMUNISTS,  AND  DETECTIVES. 

3.— CRIMINAL  REMINISCENCES  AND  DETECTIVES. 

4.— THE  MODEL  TOWN  AND  DETECTIVES. 

5. -THE  SPIRITUALISTS  AND  DETECTIVES. 

6.— THE  EXPRESSMEN  AND  DETECTIVES. 

7.— THE  SOMNAMBULIST  AND  DETECTIVES. 

8—CLAUDE  MELNOTTE  AS  A  DETECTIVE. 

9.— THE  MISSISSIPPI  OUTLAWS  AND  DETECTIVES. 
iot— GYPSIES  AND  DETECTIVES, 
ii.— BUCHOLZ  AND  DETECTIVES. 
i2.— THE  RAILROAD  FORGER  AND  DETECTIVES. 
13.— BANK  ROBBERS  AND  DETECTIVES. 
14.— THE  BURGLAR'S  FATE  AND  DETECTIVES. 
15.— A  DOUBLE  LIFE  AND  DETECTIVES. 
16.— PROFESSIONAL  THIEVES  AND  DETECTIVES. 
17.— THIRTY  YEARS  A  DETECTIVE. 
I8.-THE  SPY  OF  THE  REBELLION. 


"The  mental  characteristics  of  Allan  Pinkerton  were 
judgment  as  to  facts,  knowledge  of  men,  the  ability  to 
concentrate  his  faculties  on  one  subject,  and  the  persist- 
ent power  of  will.  A  mysterious  problem  of  crime, 
against  which  his  life  was  devoted,  presented  to  his 
thought,  was  solved  almost  in  an  instant,  and  seemingly 
by  his  intuitions.  With  half-closed  eyes  he  saw  the  scene 
in  which  the  wrong  was  done,  read  every  movement  of 
the  criminals,  and  reached  invariably  the  correct  conclu- 
sion as  to  their  conduct  and  guilt." 

A  new  uniform  edition,  cloth  bound,  Illustrated. 
Price  per  vol.  $1.00. 


G.W.  Dillingham  Co.,  Publishers 

NEW  YORK. 


CRIMINAL  REMINISCENCES 


AND 


DETECTIVE  SKETCHES. 


BY 


ALLAN    PINKERTON, 

AUTHOR   OF 

**THE  EXPRESSMAN  AND  THE  DETECTIVE,"   "THE  MODEL  TOWN 
AND  THE  DETECTIVES,"  "  THE  SPIRITUALISTS  AND  THE  DETEC- 
TIVES," "THE  MOLLIE  MAGUIRES  AND  THE  DETECTIVES," 
"STRIKERS,  COMMUNISTS,  TRAMPS  AND  DETECTIVES." 


NEW    YORK: 
G.     W,    Dillingham    Co.*    Publishers. 


LOAN  STAC* 


IGHT  BY 
ALLAN    PINKERTOM 

1878. 


HV 


CONTENTS  MAIKJ 


•  HOB 

PREFACE , 7 

CHAPTER  I. 
How  I  BECAME  A  DETECTIVE.  . .  9 


CHAPTER  II. 
JACK  CANTER 51 

CHAPTER  III. 
THE  GHOST  OF  THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  CEMETERY 73 

CHAPTER  IV. 
BURGLARS'  TRICKS  UPON  BURGLARS 88 

CHAPTER  V. 
SHERIDAN,  THE  FORGER 90 

CHAPTER  VI. 
\  GIGANTIC  CONSPIRACY  DEFEATED 108 

CHAPTER  VII. 
MAX  SHINBURN. 121 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
MR.  BLUFFER  AND  THE  MONTE-MEN 138 

CHAPTER  IX. 
TRAPPING  A  DETECTIVE ,   153 


380 


iv  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  X. 

FAG* 

PIPER,  THE  FORGER 156 

CHAPTER  XI. 
A  BOGUS  BAJR.ONET  AND  HIS  VICTIMS 166 

CHAPTER  XII. 
CANADA  BILL.. 177 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
REMARKABLE  PRISON  ESCAPES 206 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
AN  INSURANCE  CONSPIRACY  FOILED 219 

CHAPTER  XV. 
QUICK  WORK. 234 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
THE  COST  OF  BUSINESS  ARROGANCE 245 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
A  CURIOUS  CASE  OF  CIRCUMSTANTIAL  EVIDENCE 247 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

A  PRIVATE  ASSURANCE  COMPANY  AND  A  PUBLIC  INSURANCE 
COMPANY. 249 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
A  BIT  OF  DETECTIVE  OFFICE  ROMANCE 266 

CHAPTER  XX. 
BOGUS  DETECTIVES  AND  WOULD-BE  DETECTIVES 281 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
EXTRAORDINARY  SELF-ROBBERY .  298 

CHAPTER  XXII 
A  FVPLIANT  CONFIDENCE  SWINDLE  IN  HIGH  LIFE ic 


PREFACE. 


T  N    mesc^nnng  this  volume   to  the  public,  1  have  btU 

»<w  -vords  of  preface  to  offer. 

Those  sketches  pertaining  to  my  own  caree  as  a  de- 
tective have  been  taken  at  random  from  the  thousands 
of  incidents  which  have  occurred  during  my  detective 
experience,  and  are  simply  a  sample  of  the  numberles; 
circumstances  daily  occurring,  that,  like  swift  shuttles, 
have  woven  back  and  forth,  over  and  under,  through  anc 
through,  my  large  business  the  golden  threads  of  humor 
and  the  sable  threads  of  pathos  and  sorrow. 

Of  the  criminal  reminiscences  gathered  together,  1 
claim  no  particular  merit  of  originality  for,  01  of  them. 
They  are  merely  memories  of  the  past,  in  a  criminal 
sense — of  occurrences  ripe  with  thrilling  interest  in  their 
time,  and  still  full  of  fascination  and  attractiveness  ,  and 
of  men,  brilliant*,  talented  men,  who  have  lived  their 
unworthy  lives  of  magnificent  crime,  occupying  great 
stations  and  high  eminences,  as  these  are  measured, 


vlii  PREFACE. 

among  the  strange  and  mysterious  class  to  v'iDni  we  give 
the  generic  term  of  criminals. 

In  my  estimation,  although  my  thousands  of  readers 
may  differ  with  me,  all  these  interesting  sketches  and 
reminiscences  speak  their  own  lesson  of  caution  and 
warning ;  and,  doing  so,  have  their  honest  place  in  the 
world  by  the  side  of  all  those  aids  lending  to  make  bettei 
men  and  women  of  us  all. 

ALLAN  PINKER  JON, 
CHICAGO, 


DETECTIVE  SKETCHES 


CHAPTER   I. 

HOW   I    BECAME   A   DETECTIVE. 

ON  the  romantic  Fox  River — called  the  Pish-ta-ka 
in  the  original  Potawatamie  language—  and  about 
thirty-eight  miles  northwest  of  the  city  of  Chicago,  is 
located  the  beautiful  village  of  Dundee.  It  ha*  probably 
at  this  writing  a  population  of  three  thousand  inhabitants, 
and  is  one  of  the  brightest  and  most  prosperous  towns  of 
Illinois. 

The  town  was  originally  settled  by  a  few  sturdy  people, 
the  hardy  Scotch,  as  its  name  would  indicate,  as  also  thai 
of  the  splendid  little  city  of  Elgin,  but  five  miles  distant 
and  who  occupied  to  some  extent  the  outlying  farms ;  so 
that  the  place  and  community,  while  never  accomplishing 
anything  remarkable  in  a  business  way,  has  had  a  steady, 
quiet  growth,  has  lived  its  ute  uninterruptedly  and  peace- 
fully, and  possesses  the  pleasantest  evidences  of  steady 

prosperity  and  constant,  quiet  happiness, 
i* 


10  HOW  I  BECAME  A   DETECTIVE. 

If  this  would  be  easily  observed  by  the  visitor,  its  beau- 
tiful location  would  attract  still  greater  attention. 

Before  you,  looking  up-stream,  you  would  see  at  you* 
feet  the  rapid  river  which  has  juft  W|  ed  the  great  dam 
from  which  the  mills  and  manufactories  are  fed,  and,  above 
this,  stretching  and  winding  away  into  the  distance  like  a 
ribbon  of  burnished  silver,  it  would  still  be  seen,  gliding 
along  peacefully  with  a  fair,  smooth  bosom,  wimpling 
fretfully  over  stony  shallows,  or  playing  at  hide-and-seek 
among  the  verdure-covered  islands,  until  the  last  thread- 
like trail  of  it  is  lost  in  the  gorges  beyond.  To  the  right, 
just  beyond  the  little  basin  which  holds  its  part  of  the  vil- 
lage, rise  huge  hills  from  which  here  and  there  issue  forth 
beautiful  springs,  while  now  and  then  a  fine  roadway, 
hewn  out  between,  leads  to  the  Indian  Mounds  and  the 
splendid  farms  beyond.  To  the  left,  over  the  opposite 
portion  of  the  village,  the  eye  ranges  over  a  succession 
of  elevations  dotted  with  handsome  residences  and  em- 
bowered b>  gardens,  with  the  hills  and  the  uplands 
beyond,  as  well  as  the  highway,  or  "river  road,"  thread- 
ing along  in  and  out  of  sight  among  the  tree-covered 
bluffs  ;  while,  facing  about,  you  will  see  the  liver  moving 
|  eacefully  along,  until  lost  in  the  valleys  and  their  forests 
below. 

The  town  rests  there  on  the  banks  of  this  beautiful 
stream,  and  between  the  guardian  hills  upon  either  side, 
like  twin  nests  where  there  is  always  song  and  gladness. 

In  the  time  of  which  I  write,  however,  all  this  was 
different ;  that  is,  the  town  was  different.  The  river  ra» 


STOW,  I  BECAME  A   DETECTIVE.  II 

down  iik;  a  silvery  ribbon  from  among  the  islands  just 
the  same  ;  the  splendid  hills  were  all  there  crowned  with 
fine  forests  as  they  are  now ;  but  the  town  itself  did  not 
contain  probably  over  three  hundred  inhabitants  all  told, 
the  business  portion  only  consisting  of  a  few  country 
stores,  a  post  office,  a  blacksmith-shop  or  two,  a  mill,  and 
two  small  taverns  able  to  accommodate  a  few  travelers 
at  a  time,  but  chiefly  depending  for  their  support  upon 
the  custom  of  the  farmers  who  straggled  into  the  village 
on  rainy  days,  "  election  time,"  or  any  other  of  the  hun- 
dred ard  one  occasions  which  mark  out  events  in  the 
lives  of  back-country  people. 

There  was  then  one  rough  bridge  across  the  river, 
built  of  oaken  beams  and  rude  planks  in  a  cheap,  com- 
mon fashion  ;  and  at  either  end  of  this  were  clustered, 
each  side  of  the  street,  all  the  stores  and  shops  of  the 
place,  save  one. 

That  shop  was  my  own ;  for  there  I  both  lived  and 
labored,  the  "  Only  and  Original  Cooper  of  Dundee." 

This  shop  was  the  farthest  of  any  from  the  business 
center  of  the  village,  and  stood  just  back  of,  and  facing, 
the  main  highway  upon  the  crest  of  a  fine  hill,  about 
three  hundred  yards  distant  from  the  bridge.  It  was  my 
home  and  my  shop. 

I  had  straggled  out  here  a  few  years  before,  and  by  in- 
dustry and  saving  had  gradually  worked  into  a  comforta- 
ble business  at  my  cooper's  trade,  and  now  employed 
eight  men.  I  felt  proud  of  my  success  because  I  owed 
no  man,  had  a  cheery  little  home,  and,  for  the  early  days 


12  HOW  2  fiECAME  A    DETECTIVE. 

when  it  was  pretty  hard  to  get  a'ong  at  all,  I  was  making 
a  comfortable  living. 

My  cooper-shop  and  house  were  one  building — a  /ong, 
one-story  frame  building  with  a  pleasant  garden  about, 
some  fine  old  trees  near,  and  always  stacks  of  staves  arj 
hoop-poles  quite  handy.  At  one  end  we  lived,  in  a  fru- 
gal, but  always  cheery  way,  and  at  the  other  was  the 
shop,  where,  as  nearly  all  my  hands  were  German,  cnul£ 
be  heard  the  livelong  day  the  whistled  waltz,  or  the 
lightly-sung  ballad,  now  in  solo,  now  in  chorus,  but  al- 
ways in  true  time  with  the  hammering  of  the  adz  and  the 
echoing  thuds  of  the  "  driver "  upon  the  hoops  as  they 
were  driven  to  their  places. 

This  was  my  quiet,  but  altogether  happy,  mode  of  life 
in  the  beautiful  village  of  Dundee,  in  the  summer  of 
1847,  at  which  time  my  story  really  begins  ;  but,  to  give 
the  reader  a  better  understanding  of  it,  I  will  have  tc 
further  explain  the  existing  condition  of  things  at  that 
time. 

There  was  but  little  money  in  the  West,  which  was  then 
sparsely  settled.  There  being  really  no  markets,  and  the 
communication  with  eastern  cities  very  limited,  the  pro- 
ducer could  get  but  little  for  his  crops  or  wares.  I  have 
known  farmers  in  these  times  "  hauling,"  as  it  was  called, 
wheat  into  Chicago  for  a  distance  of  nearly  one  hundred 
miles,  from  two  to  five  streams  having  to  be  forded,  and 
the  wheat  having  to  be  carried  across,  every  bag  of  it; 
upon  the  farmer's  back,  and  he  not  then  able  to  get  but 
three  shillings  per  bushel  for  his  grain,  being  compelled 


HOW  I  BECAME  A   DETECTIVE.  1 3 

to  take  half  payment  for  it  in  "  truck,"  as    store  goods 
were  then  called. 

There  was  plenty  of  dickering,  but  no  money  Neces- 
sity compelled  an  interchange  of  products.  My  barrel* 
would  be  sold  to  the  farmers  or  merchants  for  produce, 
and  this  I  would  be  compelled  to  send  in  to  Chicago,  to 
h,  turn  secure  as  best  I  could  a  few  dollars  perhaps,  and 
anything  and  everything  I  could  use,  or  again  trade  away. 

Not  only  did  this  great  drawback  on  business  exist,  but 
what  money  we  had  was  of  a  very  inferior  character.  If 
one  sold  a  load  of  produce  and  was  fortunate  enough  to 
secuce  the  entire  pay  for  it  in  money,  before  he  got  home 
the  bank  might  have  failed  and  the  paper  he  held  have 
become  utterly  worthless.  All  of  these  things  in  time 
brought  about  a  most  imperative  need  for  good  money 
and  plenty  of  it,  which  had  been  met  some  years  before 
where  my  story  begins,  by  several  capitalists  of  Aberdeen, 
Scotland,  placing  in  the  hands  of  George  Smith,  Esq.,  also 
an  Aberdonian,  sufficient  funds  to  found  a  bank  in  the 
Great  West. 

Milwaukee,  then  a  city  of  equal  importance  with 
Chicago,  was  chosen  as  the  point,  and  the  Wisconsin 
Legislature,  in  1839,  granted  a  charter  to  the  institution, 
which  was  known  as  The  Wisconsin  Marine  and  Fire  In- 
surance  Company,  which,  in  its  charter,  also  secured 
banking  privileges. 

But  a  few  years  had  elapsed  before  the  bills  of  this  in 
etitution   gained  a  very  wide  circulation  throughout  the 
Northwest.     Branch  agencies  were  established  at  Chicago 


14  HOW  I  BECAME   A   DETECTIVE. 

and  various  points  in  the  West,  as  also  an  agency  for  the 
redemption  of  the  bills  at  Buffalo  ;  and  at  the  time  of 
which  I  write,  Chicago,  having  taken  lapid  strides  to  the 
front,  had  in  reality  become  the  central  office,  although 
the  Wisconsin  organization  and  ivlilwaukee  headquarter 
were  still  retained. 

Many  reasons  obtained  to  cause  these  bills — which 
were  of  the  denominations  of  one,  two,  three,  five,  and 
ten — to  be  eagerly  sought  for.  The  company  were  known 
to  have  large  and  always  available  capital  at  command  ; 
its  bills  were  always  redeemable  in  specie  ;  and  with  the 
personal  character  of  George  Smith,  who  stood  at  the 
head  of  the  concern,  there  was  created  an  almost  un- 
equaied  public  confidence  in  it  and  its  management.  In 
fact,  the  bills  soon  became  known  far  and  wide  as  "  George 
Smith's  money,"  and  "  as  good  as  the  wheat,"  the  farmers 
would  say. 

Smith  himself  was  a  Scotchman  of  very  decided  and 
even  erratic  character;  and  the  old  settlers  of  Chicago 
and  the  West  have  many  an  interesting  incident  to  relate 
of  his  financial  career.  One,  serving  for  many,  to  give 
an  idea  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  man,  and  showing  how 
he  gained  a  gieat  reputation  in  those  times  and  that  sec- 
tion, is  as  follows : 

The  almost  immediate  popularity  of  "  George  Smith's 
money  "  caused  considerable  envious  feeling ;  and  the  offi- 
cers of  several  other  western  banking  institutions  soughl 
as  far  as  possible  by  various  means  to  prevent  the  e& 
qroachnient  upon  their  business. 


HO  IV  I  BE  CAME  A   DEThC  TIVE.  I  5 

At  one  time  a  small  bank  near  the  central  part  of 
Illinois,  in  order  to  assist  in  the  depreciation  of  this  \  ar 
ticular  money,  began  the  policy  of  refusing  to  receive  the 
Wisconsin  Marine  and  Fire  Insurance  Company's  bills  ai 
par,  which  for  a  time  caused  in  certain  sections  considei 
able  uneasiness  among  the  holders  of  those  bills. 

The  quiet  Scotchman  in  Chicago  said  never  a  word  to 
this  for  some  time,  but  at  once  began  gathering  together 
every  bill  of  this  bank  he  could  secure.  This  was  con- 
tinued  for  several  weeks,  when  he  suddenly  set  out  alone 
and  unattended  for  Central  Illinois,  being  roughly  dressed 
and  very  unpretentious  in  appearance. 

Reaching  the  place  and  staggering  into  the  bank,  he 
awkwardly  presented  one  hundred  dollars  in  the  Fire  and 
Marine  bills,  requesting  exchange  on  Buffalo  for  a  like 
sum. 

The  cashier  eyed  him  a  moment  and  then  remarked 
sneeringly : 

"We  don't  take  that  stuff  at  par." 

"  Ah  !  ye  dinna  tak  it,  then  ?  " 

"  No,"  replied  the  cashier  ;  "  '  George  Smith's  money ' 
is  depreciating  rapidly." 

"Then  it's  gaun  down  fast,  is  it?"  responded  Smith, 
reflectively. 

4kOh,  yes  3  won't  be  worth  fifty  cents  on  a  dollar  in  six 
months !  " 

"It'll  be  worth  nae  mair  than  fifty  cents  ?  An'  may 
yours  "be  worth  a  huner'  cents  on  a  dollar,  not?  " 

*'  Certainly,  sir,  always.     If  you  should  happen  to  have 


16  HOW  /  BECAME  A  DETECTIVE. 

ten  thousand  dollars'  worth  about  you  at  the  presen*.  time/ 
replied  the  cashier,  as  he  gave  the  stranger  another  supei 
cilious  look,  "  you  could  get  the  gold  for  it  in  less  thar 
ton  seconds." 

"  Then,"  said  the  travel-stained  banker,  with  a  verj 
ugly  look  in  his  face,  as  he  crashed  down  a  great  package 
upon  the  counter  containing  twenty-five  thousand  dollars 
in  the  bills  of  the  opposition  bank,  "  Mister  George 
Smith  presents  his  Dest  respects  tae  ye,  and  would  be 
obleeged  tae  ye  if  ye  wad  gie  him  the  specie  for  this  !  " 

This  shrewd  stroke  of  business  policy  had  its  legitimate 
effect.  The  bank  in  question  could  not  instantly  redeem 
so  large  a  sum,  and  opposition  of  an  unfair  character  in 
that  and  other  directions,  through  the  notoriety  given  this 
practical  humiliation,  was  effectually  ended. 

In  countless  other  ways  this  early  Western  financial 
established  credit  and  compelled  respect,  until,  as  I 
have  said,  "  George  Smith's  money"  was  as  good  as  the 
gold  throughout  the  entire  western  country,  and  this  fact, 
in  time,  caused  it  to  be  taken  in  hand  by  eastern  counter- 
feiters. 

This  brings  me  again  to  the  main  part  of  my  story. 

Just  afternoon  of  a  hot  July  day  in  the  year  mentioned, 
a  gentleman  named  H.  E.  Hunt,  then  keeping  a  small 
general  store  in,  and  now  a  wealthy  merchant  at  Dundee,, 
sent  word  to  my  shop  that  he  wished  to  see  me  imme- 
diately at  his  place. 

I  was  busy  at  my  work,  bareheaded,  barefooted,  and 
having  no  other  clothing  on  my  body  than  a  pair  of  blu« 


HOW  1  BECAME  A  DETECTIVE.  I'/ 

denim  overalls  and  a  coarse  hickory  shirt,  my  then  almost 
invariable  costume  ;  but  I  started  down  the  street  at 
once,  and  had  hardly  reached  Hunt's  store  before  the 
proprietor  and  myself  were  joined  by  a  Mr.  I.  C.  Bos- 
worth,  then  another  storekeeper  of  the  village  and  now  a 
retired  capitalist  of  Elgin,  Illinois,  the  place  previously 
referred  to. 

"  Come  in  here,  Allan,"  said  Mr.  Hunt  in  a  rather 
mysterious  manner,  leading  the  way  to  the  rear  of  the 
store,  while  Bosworth  and  myself  followed;  "we  want 
you  to  do  a  little  job  in  the  detective  line." 

"  Detective  line  !  "  I  replied,  laughing ;  "  why,  my  line 
is  the  cooper  business.  What  do  I  know  about  that  sort 
of  thing?" 

"  Never  mind  now,"  said  Mr.  Bosworth,  seriously,  "  we 
know  you  can  do  what  you  want  done.  You  helped 
break  up  the  *  coney  men '  and  horse-thieves  on  *  Bogus 
Island,'  and  we  are  sure  you  can  do  work  of  this  sort  if 
you  only  will  do  it." 

Now  the  reference  to  breaking  up  the  gang  of  "  coney  ' 
men  and  horse-thieves  on  "Bogus  Island,"  calls  for  an 
explanation. 

I  was  actually  too  poor  to  purchase  outright  a  wheel- 
barrow-load of  hoop-poles,  or  staves,  and  was  conse- 
quently compelled  to  cut  my  own  hoop-poles  and  split  my 
own  staves.  In  the  pursuit  of  this  work  I  had  found  a  ^it 
tie  island  in  the  Fox  River,  a  few  miles  above  Dundee, 
and  but  a  few  rods  above  the  little  post-town  of  Algon 
quin,  where  poles  were  both  plentiful  and  of  the  best  qua! 


1 8  HOW  I  BECAME  A  DETECTIVE. 

ity ,  and  one  day  while  busy  there  I  had  stumbled  .ipoc 
some  smouldering  embers  and  other  traces  indicating  that 
*he  little  island  had  been  made  quite  common  use  of 
There  was  no  picnicking  in  those  days — people  had  more 
serious  matters  to  attend  to — and  it  required  no  great 
keenness  to  conclude  that  no  honest  men  were  in  the 
habit  of  occupying  the  place.  As  the  country  was  then 
infested  with  coin-counterfeiters  and  desperate  horse- 
thieves,  from  the  information  I  gave,  the  sheriff  of  that 
county  (Kane)  was  able  to  trace  the  outlaws  to  this  isl- 
and, where  subsequently  I  led  the  officers  who  captured 
the  entire  gang,  consisting  of  men  and  women,  securing 
their  implements  and  a  large  amount  of  bogus  coin ;  while, 
in  honor  of  the  event,  the  island  ever  since  has  been 
known  as  "  Bogus  Island." 

Upon  this  faint  record  Messrs.  Hunt  and  Bosworth 
based  my  claim  to  detective  skill,  and  insisted  on  my 
winning  new  laurels,  or  at  least  attempting  to  do  so. 

"But  what  is  it  you  wish  done  ?  "  I  asked,  very  much 
preferring  to  return  to  the  shop,  where  my  men  and  their 
work  needed  my  attention. 

Mr.  Hunt  then  explained  that  they  were  certain  that 
there  was  then  a  counterfeiter  in  the  village.  They  both 
felt  sure  he  was  one,  although  they  had  no  other  evidence 
sa/e  that  the  party  in  question  had  been  making  inquiries 
as  to  the  whereabouts  of  "  Old  man  Crane." 

Old  man  Crane  was  a  person  who  from  general  reputa 
tion  I  knew  well.  He  lived  at  Libertyville,  in  the  adjoin- 
ing county  of  Lake,  not  rrore  than  thirty-five  miles  dif 


HOW  I  BECAME  A   DETECTIVE.  1$ 

taut,   bore  a  hard  character  generally,,  and  it  was  sus- 
pected that  he  was  engaged  in  distributing  for  eastern 
counterfeiters    their    worthless    money,       Nearly    even 
blackleg  that   came  into   the  community  invariably   in 
qpired  for  "  Old  man  Crane,"  and  this  fact  alone  cau.-.exJ 
{he  villagers  to  give  him  a  wide  berth.     Besides  this  fact, 
but  recently  counterfeits  on  the  ten-dollar  bill  of  the  Wis- 
consin Marine  and  Fire  Insurance  Company's  bank  had 
made  their  appearance,  and  were  so  well  executed  as  to 
cause   serious   trouble   to  farmers  and  country  dealers. 
Pretty  positive  proof  had  come  to  light  that  Crane  had 
had  a  hand  in  the  business ;  and  the  fact  thai  a  respecta- 
ble appearing  man,  a  stranger  well  mounted  and  alto- 
gether   mysterious,  and  also  well  supplied  with  money,, 
had   suddenly   shown    himself  in   the    village,    to    begin- 
quietly  but  searchingly  making  inquiries  for  "Old  man; 
Crane,"  seemed   to   the  minds  of  my  fiiends  to  be  the: 
best  of  evidence  that  th*  stranger  was  none  other  than  \ 
the  veritable  counterfeiter  who  was  supplying  such  old' 
reprobates  as  Crane  with  the  spurious  ten-dollar  bills  on 
George  Smith's  bank. 

"But  this  was  curious  business  for  mes  I  thought,  as  pro- 
testing against  leaving  my  work  for  a  will-'o-the-wisp 
piece  of  business,  which,  even  should  it  happen  to  prove 
successful,  would  pay  me  nothing,  I  said :  "  Now,  see 
here,  what  do  /know  about  counterfeiting?  " 

"  Oh,  we  know  you  know  enough  about  it ! "  they  botk 
ttrged  anxiously. 

"  Why,"  said  I;  laughing  at  the  absurdity  of  :he  idea  o^ 


aO  HO IV  I  BECAME  A   DETECTIVE. 

turning  detective,  "  I  never  saw  a  ten-dollai  bill  in  mj 
life  !  " 

And  neitner  had  I.  There  I  stood,  a  young,  strong, 
agile,  hard-working  cooper,  not  exactly  green,  perhaps, — 
for  I  consider  no  man  verdant  who  does  well  whatever  he 
may  have  in  hand, — barefooted,  bareheaded,  dressed,  or 
rather,  almost  undressed,  in  my  hickory  and  denims,  dar- 
ing enough  and  ready  for  any  reckless  emergency  which 
might  transpire  in  the  living  of  an  honest  life,  but  decid- 
edly averse  to  doing  something  entirely  out  of  my  line, 
and  which  in  all  human  probability  I  would  make  an  utter 
failure  of.  I  had  not  been  but  four  years  in  America 
.altogether.  I  had  had  a  hard  time  of  it  for  the  time  I 
had  been  here.  I  had  heard  of  all  these  things  I  have 
mentioned  concerning  banks  and  money,  but  I  had  posi  • 
tively  never  seen  a  ten-dollar  bill ! 

A  great  detective  I  would  make  under  such  circum- 
stances, I  thought.  % 

"  Come  now,  Allan,"  urged  Mr.  Hunt,  "  no  time  is  to  be 
wasted.  The  man  is  down  there  now  at  Eaton  Walker's 
harness-shop,  getting  something  done  about  his  saddle." 

'*£tit  what  am  I  to  do  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Do  ?— Well !— do  the  best  you  can  !  " 

I  suddenly  resolved  to  do  just  that  and  no  lessj 
although  I  must  confess  that,  at  that  time,  I  had  not  the 
remotest  idea  how  to  set  about  the  matter. 

So  I  began  by  strolling  leisurely  about  the  street  for  a 
few  minutes,  and  then,  villager -like,  sauntered  into  the 
saddlery  shop. 


HOW  1  BECAME  A  DETECTIVE.  21 

Eaton  Walker,  a  jolly,  whole-souled,  good-hearted 
fellow,  was  perched  upon  his  bench,  sewing  away,  ant! 
when  t  entered  merely  looked  up  from  his  waxed  end  and 
nodded,  but  made  no  remark,  as  my  being  in  his  plac* 
was  a  very  common  occurrence. 

There  was  the  usual  quota  of  town  stragglers  loafing' 
about  the  shop,  and  looking  with  sleepy  eyes  and  open- 
mouthed  at  the  little  which  was  going  on  about  the  place. 

I  passed,  as  I  entered  the  shop,  a  splendid  horse 
hitched  outside.  It  was  a  fine,  large  roan,  well  Duilt  fof 
traveling ;  and  in  my  then  frame  of  mind  I  imagined 
from  a  casual  glance  that  it  was  a  horse  especially 
selected  for  its  lasting  qualities,  should  an  emergency 
require  them  to  be  put  to  a  test.  The  owner  of  the 
animal,  the  person  who  had  caused  so  much  nervousness. 
on  the  part  of  Messrs.  Hunt  and  Bosworth,  was  a  man. 
nearly  six  feet  in  height,  weighed  fully  two  hundred 
pounds,  was  at  least  sixty-five  years  of  age,  and  was  very 
erect  and  commanding  in  his  appearance.  I  noticed  all 
this  at  a  careless  glance,  as  also  that  his  hair  was  dark, 
though  slightly  tinged  with  gray,  and  his  features  very 
prominent.  His  nose  was  very  large,  his  mouth  unusu- 
ally so,  and  he  had  a  pair  of  the  keenest,  coldest  small 
gray  eyes  I  have  ever  seen,  while  he  wore  a  large,  plain 
gold  ring  on  one  of  the  fingers  of  his  left  han.I 

I  made  no  remark  to  him  or  to  any  per  ;<>n  ibum  me 
place,  and  merely  assumed  for  the  time-be'hig  10  De  a  vil- 
lage loafer  myself.  But  I  noticed,  without  showing  the 
(act,  that  the  man  occasionally  gave  me  a  keen  and 


32  NOW  I  BECAME  A   DETECTIVE. 

searching  glance.  When  the  work  had  been  complete  \ 
by  Walker,  I  stepped  outside  and  made  a  pretense  of 
being  interested,  as  any  country  gawky  might,  in  the 
preparations  for  the  man's  departure ;  and  was  patting 
the  horse's  neck  and  withers  as  the  stranger  came  out 
with  the  saddle  and  began  adjusting  it,  when  I  carehssly 
a.?nsted  him  in  a  free-and-easy  country  way. 

There  were,  of  course,  a  number  of  people  standing 
about  and  a  good-  deal  of  senseless  chatting  going  on, 
which  the  stranger  wholly  refrained  from  joining  in  ;  but 
while  we  were  both  at  work  at  the  saddle,  he  said,  without 
addressing  me,  but  in  a  way  which  I  knew  was  meant  for 
my  ears  :  "  Stranger,  do  you  know  where  old  man  Crane 
lives  ?  " 

I  took  my  cue  from  the  manner  in  which  this  was  said, 
and  followed  it  to  the  best  of  my  ability.  I  was  now  as 
certain  as  either  of  my  friends  that  the  man  was  a  black- 
leg of  a  dangerous  order,  whatever  his  special  line  of 
roguery  might  be.  We  were  both  busy  at  the  saddle  on 
the  side  of  the  horse  where  there  were  the  fewer  loungers, 
and  being  close  together,  I  replied  in  the  same  tone  of 
voice  : 

41  Cross  the  river  to  the  east,  take  the  main  road  up 
through  the  woods  until  you  come  to  Jesse  Miller's  farm- 
house. Then  he  will  tell  you  ;  but  if  you  don't  want  to 
.ask  " — and  I  put  considerable  meaning  into  this — "  hold 
£he  road  to  the  northeast  and  inquire  the  direction  tc 
TJbertyville.  When  you  get  there  you  will  easily  find  the 
old  roan,  and  he  is  as  good  as  cheese !  " 


HOW  I  BECAME  A  DETECTIVE. 

He  then  said  in  the  same  cautious  voice  as  before 

"  Young  man,  I  like  your  style,  and  I  want  tu 

m  better.  Join  me  over  the  river  Ir*  somt  ravine.  1 
to  talk  to  you." 

*'  A.?l  right,"  I  rejoined,  "but  you  better  let  me  go 
ahead.  I'll  have  to  go  up  to  the  shop  first  and  put  on 
my  boots  and  hat.  I'll  be  as  quick  as  1  can,  and  will 
start  on  first.  Then  you  follow  on,  but  not  too  closety. 
I'll  be  up  in  some  of  the  gorges,  so  we  can  talk  entirely 
by  ourselves.  But  I'll  tell  you  the  truth,  stranger,"  said 
I,  rather  indifferently,  "  upon  my  word,  I  don't  care  very 
much  about  going,  because  I've  already  lost  too  much 
time  at  the  shop  to-day." 

He  had  by  this  time  finished  saddling  his  horse,  but  he 
continued  adjusting  and  readjusting  things  so  as  to  gain 
time  to  say  what  he  wished  ;  and  to  my  intimation  that  I 
cared  very  little  about  leaving  my  work,  he  responded  : 

"  Don't  fail  to  join  me.  Til  make  it  worth  something 
to  you  /  "  He  then  added  flatteringly  :  "  You're  as  good 
a  man  as  I've  met  lately." 

I  then  moved  forward  to  fasten  the  reins,  and  he  edged 
along  towards  me,  asking  carelessly :  "  Do  you  know 
John  Smith,  of  Elgin  ?  " 

"  I  know  all  the  Elgin  John  Smiths,"  I  replied.  "  Do 
you  mean  the  gunsmith  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  he  answered  tersely. 

"  Well.  I  know  John,"  I  continued ;  u  that  is,  he  has  re 
paired  my  rifle  and  shotgun  several  times  ;  but  he  might 
Bo*  remember  me  I  never  had  much  talk  with  him." 


?4  HOW  I  BECAME  A   DETECTIVE. 

"  lie's  a  square  man,"  replied  the  stranger.  "/'/«  his 
uncle.  1  came  up  from  Elgin  this  morning.  Smith 
didn't  know  just  where  Crane  lived.  He  told  me  that 
he  traded  here  and  that  the  boys  were  over  here  a  good 
deal,  so  that  I  would  be  likely  to  find  somebody  here 
who  could  readily  direct  me  to  his  place." 

"  Well,"  I  said  rather  curtly,  "we've  talked  too  mucl 
already.  It  won't  do.  I'll  join  you  over  the  river  soon." 

With  this  I  carelessly  walked  away  towards  my  shop, 
and  at  some  little  distance  turned  to  see  the  stranger  now 
engaging  Eaton  Walker  in  conversation  with  an  evident 
purpose  of  gaining  time. 

"  Well,"  I  thought,  as  I  hastened  on,  "  there's  no 
doubt  now.  This  man  is  certainly  a  counterfeiter.  John 
Smith  is  always  loaded  down  with  it.  He  gets  it  from  old 
Crane ;  and  this  man  at  Walker's  is  the  chief  of  the  gang 
traveling  through  the  West  to  supply  these  precious  rascals, 
But  then,"  it  suddenly  occurred  to  me,  **  what  business  of 
mine  is  all  this  ?  Good  gracious  !  I've  got  a  lot  of  bar- 
rels to  make,  my  men  need  attention,  and  everything  is 
going  to  the  old  Harry  while  1  am  playing  detective !" 

But  having  got  this  far  my  will  had  been  touched,  and  i 
r^nVed  to  carry  the  matter  through,  whatever  might  be 
the  result.  While  putting  on  my  hat  and  boots  hastily, 
Hunt  and  Bosworth  came  in,  and  I  quickly  related  what  I 
had  learned. 

Looking  down  the  hill,  we  could  see  the  stranger  slowlj 
moving  across  the  bridge,  and  as  I  was  starting  in  the 
tame  direction  my  friends  both  ui>  ed ; 


ROW  1  BECAME  A   DETECTIVE.  **> 

"  Now,  Pinkerton,  capture  him  sure  !  " 

"Oh,  yes,"  I  replied,  "  but  how  am  I  to  get  at  all 
this?" 

4<  Why,  just  get  his  stock,  or  some  of  it,  and  then  well 
have  him  arrested." 

"Oh,  yes,"  said  I,  "but,  by  thunder!  it  takes  money 
to  buy  money  !  I've  got  none !  " 

"  Well,  well,  that's  so,"  remarked  Mr.  Hunt ;  "  we'll  go 
right  down  to  the  store.  You  drop  in  there  after  us,  and 
we'll  give  you  fifty  dollars." 

All  this  was  speedily  done,  and  I  soon  found  myself 
over  the  bridge,  past  the  horseman,  and  well  up  the  hill 
upon  the  highway. 

It  was  a  well-traveled  thoroughfare,  in  fact,  the  road 
leading  from  all  that  section  of  the  country  into  Chi- 
cago ;  but  it  was  in  the  midst  of  harvest-time,  and  every- 
body was  busy  upon  the  farms.  Not  a  soul  was  to  be 
seen  upon  the  road,  save  the  stranger  and  myself,  and 
almost  a  Sabbath  silence  seemed  to  rest  over  the  entire 
locality.  The  voices  of  the  birds  which  filled  the  woods 
in  every  direction  were  hushed  into  a  noon-day  chirping, 
and  hardly  a  sound  was  to  be  heard  save  the  murmuring 
of  the  rills  issuing  from  the  sides  of  the  hills  and  from 
every  nook  in  the  gorges  and  glens. 

I  confess  that  a  sense  of  insignificance  stole  over  me, 
originating  doubtless  from  the  reflection  caused  by  this 
silence  and  almost  painful  quiet ;  arxl  *  could  not  but 
realize  my  unfitness  for  the  work  before  me.  There  J 
was,  hardly  more  than  a  plodding  country  cooler,  having 
a 


26  HOI*  /  BECAME    4   DETECTIVE. 

had  but  little  experience  save  that  given  me  by  a  life  of 
toil  in  Scotland  and  my  trip  to  this  country,  and  no 
experience  of  things  in  this  country  save  that  secured 
through  a  few  years  of  the  hardest  kind  of  hard  work. 
For  a  moment  I  felt  wholly  unable  to  cope  with  this 
keen  man  of  the  world,  but  as  I  was  gaming  the  top  of 
the  hill  I  glanced  back  over  my  shoulder,  and  noticing 
that  the  horseman  was  following  my  instructions  to  the 
letter,  I  reasoned  that,  from  some  cause,  I  had  gained  an 
influence  over  this  stranger,  or  he  thought  he  had  se- 
cured such  a  one  over  me,  as  would  enable  me,  by  being 
cautious  and  discreet,  to  obtain  a  sufficiently  close  inti- 
macy with  him  to  cause  the  disclosure  of  his  plans  and 
possibly  ultimately  result  in  his  capture. 

I  had  now  reached  the  top  of  the  hill,  and  taking  a 
position  which  would  permit  of  my  being  seen  by  no 
person  save  the  horseman,  I  waited  until  he  had  ap- 
proached near  enough  for  me  to  do  so,  when  I  signaled 
him  to  follow,  and  then  struck  into  the  woods  over  a 
narrow  trail  about  two  hundred  yards  to  a  beautiful 
little  opening  on  the  banks  of  a  purling  brook,  leaping 
down  the  descent  towards  the  river  from  a  limpid  spring 
a  few  feet  above  the  spot  I  had  chosen  for  the  interview. 

But  a  few  moments  elapsed  before  the  stranger,  dash- 
ing in  over  the  trail  in  fine  style,  leaped  from  his  horse 
with  a  good  deal  of  dexterity  for  a  man  of  his  age,  and 
carelessly  flinging  the  bridle-rein  over  the  lirnb  of  a  smaT 
sapling,  passed  me  with  a  smile  of  recognition,  proceeded 
to  the  spring,  where  he  took  a  long,  deep  di  aught,  and 


HOW  I  BECAME  A  DETECTIVE.  2J 

then  returning  to  where  I  was  seated  upon  the  ve-vetj 
greensward,  threw  himself  carelessly  down  upon  the 
ground  beside  me. 

There  we  two  lay — the  stranger  with  his  keen,  sharp 
eyes,  and  his  altogether  careless,  but  always  attentive 
manner,  closely  regarding  me  and  looking  me  over  fro.Ji 
toe  to  tip ;  while  I  assumed  an  equal  carelessness,  but 
was  all  intent  on  his  every  movement.  I  saw  the  han 
dies  of  two  finely-mounted  pistols  protruding  from  innei 
coat-pockets,  and  I  did  not  know  what  might  happen 
I  was  wholly  unarmed,  but  I  was  young,  wiry,  powerful 
and  though  I  had  nothing  for  self-protection  save  my 
two  big  fists  and  my  two  stout  arms,  I  was  daring  enough 
to  tackle  a  man  or  beast  in  self-defense  at  a  moment's 
warning. 

After  a  moment's  silence,  he  said  : 

"  Well,  stranger,  I'm  a  man  of  business  from  the  word 
'  go.'  What's  your  name  and  how  long  have  you  been 
about  here  ?  " 

"  My  name's  Pinkerton.  I've  been  here  three  or  foul 
fears,  coopering  some,  and  harvesting  some  ;  but  coop 
ering's  my  trade.  You'd  have  seen  my  shop  if  you 
had  come  up  the  hill.  I  manage  to  keep  seven  01 
eight  men  going  all  the  time.  But  times  •  are  fearfully 
hard.  There's  no  money  to  be  had ;  and  the  fact  is," 
said  I,  looking  at  him  knowingly,  "  I  would  like  to  get 
hold  of  something  better  adapted  .c  getting  more 
ready  cash  out  of — especially  if  it  was  a  good  scheme — 
so  good  thit  there  was  no  danger  in  it.  But  what'* 


*3  HO W  I  BECAME   .1    DETECTIVE. 

your  name  and  \vhere  did  you  come   from?  '  I    asked 
abruptly. 

He  scarcely  heeded  this,  and,  Yankee-like,  replied  by 
asking  where  /came  from  before  locating  in  Illinois. 

"  From  Scotland,"  I  replied,  "  from  Glasgow.  I 
worked  my  way  through  Canada  and  finally  found  my- 
self here  with  just  a  quarter  in  my  pocket.  What  little 
I've  got  has  been  through  hard  work  since.  But,  my 
friend,"  said  I  smiling,  "  the  talk  is  all  on  one  side.  I 
isked^0#  something  about  yourself." 

"  Well,"  he  said,  still  looking  at  me  as  though  he  would 
read  me  through  and  through,  "  they  call  me  '  Old  man 
Craig.'  My  name  is  Craig — John  Craig,  and  I  live 
down  in  Vermont,  near  Fairneld ;  got  a  fine  farm  there. 
Smith,  down  here  at  Elgin,  is  a  nephew  of  mine ;  and  old 
Crane,  over  at  Libertyville,  and  myself,  have  done  a 
good  deal  of  business  together." 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  I  nodding,  "  I  understand." 

"  But,  you  see,"  resumed  the  counterfeiter,  "  this  part 
of  the  country  is  all  new  to  me.  I've  been  to  Crane's 
house  before,  but  that  was  when  I  came  up  the  lakes  to 
Little  Fort,*  and  when  I  got  through  with  my  visit  there  I 
always  went  into  Chicago  on  the  *  lake  road.'  " 

"And  of  course  you  both  stopped  at  the  Sauganash," 
I  said  meaningly. 

"Certainly  we  stopped  there,"  replied  Craig  nus 
ingly. 

*  The  city  of  Waukegan,  in  Lake  County,  Illinois,  TOS  call*) 
"  kittle  Fort  "  by  the  early  settlers. 


HOW  I  BECAME   A   DETECTIVE.  2g 

"  I  knoiL  that  Foster's  a  man  that  can  be  depended 
on,"  I  remarked  with  considerable  meaning  upon  the 
word  "  know." 

"  He's  a  square  man,  Foster  is,"  rejoined  the  counter- 
feiter ;  "  and,  Pinkerton,  I  believe  you're  the  right  sort 
of  a  man  too.  I  sold  Foster  a. big  pile  the  last  time  I 
was  in  Chicago."  And  then  quick  as  thought  he  said, 
looking  me  in  the  eyes  :  "  Did  you  ever  '  deal*  any  ?  " 

"Yes,  Mr.  Craig,"  I  replied,  "but  only  when  I  could 
get  a  first-class  article.  I  frequently  'work  off'  the 
stuff  in  paying  my  men  Saturday  nights,  when  traveling 
through  the  country,  and  on  the  merchants  here  in  Dun- 
dee, who  have  all  confidence  in  me.  But  I  wouldn't 
touch  anything  like  it  for  the  State  of  Illinois,  unless  it 
was  as  good  in  appearance  as  the  genuine  article.  Havj 
you  something  really  good,  now  ?  "  I  concluded  indiffei  - 
ently. 

"  I've  got  a  '  bang  up '  article,"  said  the  stranger, 
quietly. 

"But  I  don't  know  what  you'>e  got,"  I  persisted 
"  I  thought  you  were  going  over  to  o'd  Crane's  ?  " 

"  Well,  s}  I  was,  Pinkerton  ;  but  I  believe  you're  a 
good,  square  man,  and  I  don't  know  but  I  had  as  soon 
sail  to  you  as  him." 

u  I  think  you  had  better  see  Crane,"  said  I  indiffe* 
ently.     "He's  probably  expecting  you,  and  as  it's  afte* 
noon  now,  it  would  be  a  good  idea  for  you  to  make  th« 
best  time  you  can  there." 

"How  far  is  it?"  he 


3O  HOW  I  BECAME  A  DETECTIVE 

"  Oh,  thirty-five  miles  or  thereabouts,  and  JLS  you'  ft 
got  a  good  horse,  you  can  make  it  by  dark  or  before." 

He  rose  as  if  undecided  what  to  do,  and  without  mak- 
ing any  fuither  remark  at  the  time,  took  his  horse  to  the 
spring  and  watered  it. 

He  then  returned,  and  again  throwing  himself  down 
beside  me,  remarked  carelessly  : 

"  But  I  haven't  yet  showed  you  what  I've  got.  Here 
ore  the  *  beauties  ; '  "  and  he  whipped  out  two  ten-dollar 
bills,  counterfeits  on  the  Wisconsin  Marine  and  Fire  In- 
surance Company's  money. 

I  looked  at  them  very,  very  wisely.  As  I  have  already 
said,  I  had  never  seen  a  ten-dollar  bill  in  my  life  ;  but  I 
examined  them  as  critically  as  though  I  had  assisted  in 
making  the  genuine  bills,  and  after  a  little  expressed  my- 
self as  very  much  pleased  with  them. 

They  were  indeed  "  beauties,"  as  the  old  rascal  had 
said,  and  in  all  my  subsequent  detective  experience  I 
have  hardly  seen  their  equal  in  point  of  execution  and 
general  appearance.  There  was  not  a  flaw  in  them.  To 
show  how  nearly  perfect  they  had  been  made,  it  is  only 
necessary  to  state  that  it  was  subsequently  learned  that 
several  thousand  dollars  in  these  spurious  bills  had  been 
received  unhesitatingly  at  the  bank  and  its  different 
agencies,  and  actually  paid  out  and  received  the  second 
time,  without  detection. 

"Come  now»  Pinkerton,  I'll  tell  you  what  I'll  do," 
continued  Craig  earnestly  ;  "  if  you'll  take  enough  of  thii 
I'll  give  you  the  entire  field  out  here,  The  fact  1*9 


HOW  I  BECAME  A   DETECTIVE.  Jl 

Crane's  getting  old  ;  he  isn't  as  active  as  he  used  to  be  \ 
he's  careless  also,  and,  besides  all  this,  he's  too  well 
known." 

"Well,"  said  I  thoughtfully,  "how  much  would  I  harj 

take  ?  " 

"  Only  five  hundred  or  a  thousand,"  he  replied  airily. 

"  On  what  terms  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Twenty-five  per  cent,  cash." 

'*  I  cannot  possibly  do  it  now,"  I  replied,  as  though 
there  was  no  use  of  any  further  conference.  "  I  haven't 
anywhere  near  the  amount  necessary  with  me.  I  want  to 
do  it  like  thunder,  but  when  a  man  can't  do  a  thing  he 
can  t,  and  that's  all  there  is  about  it." 

"Not  so  fast,  my  man  ;  not  so  fast,"  answered  the 
old  rogue  reassuringly.  "  Now,  you  say  these  lubber- 
heads  of  merchants  down  at  the  village  trust  you  ?  " 

"  Yes,  for  anything." 

"Then  can't  you  make  a  raise  from  them  somehow? 
You'll  never  get  such  another  chance  io  do  business  with 
a  square  man  in  your  life  ;  and  you  can  make  more  money 
with  this  in  one  year  than  any  one  of  them  can  in  ten. 
Now,  what  can  you  do,  Pinfeerton  ?  " 

I  assumed  to  be  studying  the  ma'ter  over  very  deeply, 
but,  in  reality,  I  had  already  deoded  to  do  as  the  man 
wished  ;  for  I  knevr  that  Messrs.  Hunt  and  Bosworth  , 
would  be  only  too  glad  to  have  the  matter  followed  up 
so  closely.  Finally  I  said  :  *'  I'll  'lo  it,  Craig ;  but  it  won't 
answer  for  you  to  be  seen  hanging  ^bout  here.  Whe  c 
shall  we  meet,  and  when?" 


32  HOW  2  BECAME  A  LETECTIVE. 

"  Easy  enough,"  said  he,  grasping  my  hand  warmly 
"  I  won't  go  over  to  old  Crane's  at  all.  If  he  wants  any 
of  the  stuff  after  this,  he'll  have  to  come  to  you.  I  only 
let  Smith  have  about  one  hundred  dollars  in  the  bills,  and 
that  out  of  mere  friendship,  you  know.  When  he  wants 
more,  I'll  make  him  come  to  you  too.  Now,  I'll  go 
right  back  down  there,  and  you  can  meet  me  at  Smith's 
this  evening." 

"  Oh,  no ;  no  you  don't,  Craig  !  "  I  answered  with  an 
appearance  of  deep  cunning.  "  I'm  willing  to  take  the 
whole  business  into  my  hands,  but  I  don't  propose  to 
have  every  Tom,  Dick  and  Harry  understand  all  about 
the  business  from  the  beginning.  I'll  find  rny  own  cus- 
tomers," I  concluded,  with  a  protesting  shake  of  my  head 

"  Well,  that  is  best.  You're  right  and  I'm  wrong. 
Where'll  we  meet  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  I've  a  capital  place,"  I  replied.  "  Do  you  know  where 
the  unfinished  Baptist  Church  and  University  are,  down 
at  Elgin?" 

"  Let  me  see,"  he  said,  smiling.  "  I  ought  to  know. 
I'm  a  splendid  Baptist  when  I'm  in  Vermont — one  of  the 
deacons,  as  sure  as  you  live  !  Are  they  up  on  the  hill  ?  ?f 

•'Yes,  the  same,"  I  answered.  "It's  a  lonesome 
enough  place  to  not  be  likely  to  meet  anybody  there ; 
and  we  can  arrange  everything  in  the  basement." 

"  All  right,"  he  acceded,  laughing  heartily,  "  and  the 
next  time  I  write  my  wife,  damn  me  if  I  don't  tell  hei 
that  I  dedicated  the  new  Baptist  Church  **  £l§in.  Illi- 
nois I '» 


BOW  I   tihCAME    «    DKTECTIVR.  33 

I  ioir.ed  in  ihis  Jittie  merriment  at  the  expense  oi  the 
Elgin  Baptist  Church ;  and  then  Craig,  who  had  begur 
to  feel  very  cheerful  and  friendly,  ^  tnt  into  quite  a 
lengthy  account  of  himself  and  his  mode  of  operations. 

As  before  stated,  he  said  that  he  was  located  in  Fait- 
field,  Vermont.  This  location  was  chosen  from  the  ready 
facility  it  offered  for  getting  into  Canada,  should  danger 
at  any  time  present  itself.  He  owned  a  large  and  fine 
place,  and  was  legitimately  engaged  in  fanning,  was 
wealthy,  and  had  been  a  counterfeiter  for  many  years, 
keeping  two  first-class  engravers  constantly  employed,  an-j 
he  warmly  invited  me  to  visit  him,  should  I  ever  happen 
that  way,  although  it  was  morally  certain  at  that  time,  to 
him  as  well  as  myself,  that  it  would  be  a  very  long 
time  before  I  began  traveling  for  pleasure,  and  C  re- 
ceived ail  this  for  what  it  was  worth,  but  fervently  prom- 
ised him  a  call  while  mentally  observing  :  "  Ah  !  my  man. 
if  everything  works  right,  maybe  that  the  call  will  come 
sooner  than  you  are  expecting  it  !  " 

What  chiefly  interested  me,  however,  was  what  he  told 
me  concerning  his  mode  of  operations. 

He  said  that  he  never  carried  any  quantity  of  counter- 
feit money  upon  his  person.  This  twenty  dollars  which 
he  had  shown  me  was  the  largest  sum  he  ever  had  about 
him.  This  was  simply  and  only  a  sample  for  use,  as  it 
nad  been  with  me.  Should  he  be  arrested  not  one  piece 
of  paper  which  would  not  bear  the  most  rigid  inspection, 
although  he  had  always  upon  his  person  about  two  thou- 
$and  Collars  in  genuine  money,  chiefly  in  eastern 


34  HOW  I  BECAME  A   DETECTIVE. 

bills.  No  person,  understanding  the  condition  of  things 
at  that  time,  could  be  persuaded  to  condemn  a  stranger 
in  a  new  country  and  unfamiliar  with  its  money,  for  hav- 
ing twenty  dollars  of  spurious  money  in  so  large  a  sum  a* 
two  thousand  dollars. 

I  asked  him  why  he  did  not  pad  his  saddle  with  the 
bills  and  carry  them  with  him,  in  this  manner,  for  conve- 
nience. I  made  this  inquiry,  more  than  anything  else,  to 
draw  from  Craig  his  manner  of  supplying  parties,  and  I 
was  successful,  for  he  immediately  replied  : 

"No,  that  wouldn't  do.  To  begin  with,  the  horse 
would  sweat  the  pad  and  badly  discolor  the  bills,  and,  in 
the  next  place,  somebody  might  be  as  curious  as  yourself, 
and  rip  open  the  saddle.  Oh,  no,  no ;  I've  got  a  better 
scheme  than  that.  I've  got  a  fellow,  named  Yelverson,  as 
true  as  steel  and  as  shrewd  as  a  man  can  be  made.  He 
follows  me  like  a  shadow,  but  you  will  never  see  him. 
He  is  never  seen  by  any  living  person  with  whom  I  have 
business.  I  simply  show  my  samples  and  make  the 
trade.  1  receive  the  money  agreed  upon  from  the  buyer, 
and  then  tell  him  that  I  think  he  will  fmd  the  speci- 
fied sum  in  my  money  in  a  certain  place  at  a  designated 
time. 

"  He  goes  there,  and  never  fails  to  find  the  bills.  But 
Yelverson  is  not  seen  in  the  transaction,  and,  in  the 
meantime,  I  have  hidden  my  samples,  as  well  as  the 
money  received  by  me,  which  might  be  marked,  so  that 
if  there  should  be  any  treachery,  nothing  could  be  proven 
against  me.  I  have  a  good  deal  of  Canada  trade,  and  if 


HOW  I  BECAM&  A  DETECTIVE.  3$ 

is  all  effected  in  this  manner.     Old  John  Craig  is  nevei 
caught  napping,  young  man  !  " 

The  last  remark  was  evidently  made  by  the  counter 
feiter  to  give  me  to  understand  that  though  he  had  given 
me,  or  pretended  to  give  me,  very  freely,  his  valuable  con 
fidence,  that  he  was  not  a  man  to  be  trifled  with  in  any 
particular,  and  I  fully  believed  this  of  the  man  already. 

I  was  satisfied  that  he  had  a  good  deal  of  the  honor 
which  is  so  frequently  referred  to  as  existing  between 
thieves.  There  is  no  doubt  but  that  this  man  always 
kept  his  word.  In  that  sense  he  was  honorable.  This 
kind  of  honor  was  a  necessity  to  his  nefarious  business, 
however,  and  I  fail  to  perceive,  as  many  sentimentalists 
do,  where  the  criminal  deserves  the  credit  for  being  hon 
orable  when  that  peculiar  quality  is  only  used  for  the 
worst  purposes,  and  is  as  much  required  by  the  criminal 
as  the  bread  he  eats. 

It  was  now  fully  half-past  one  o'clock,  and  I  suggested 
to  the  counterfeiter  that  we  conclude  our  interview,  as 
some  stragglers  might  happen  that  way. 

"You  will  be  on  hand,  Pinkerton?"  asked  Craig  as  he 
rose  from  the  grass. 

"There's  my  hand  on  it,"  said  I  quietly. 

"And  you'll  bring  enough  money  to  take  five  hun- 
dred?" 

"I'm  certain  I  can  raise  that  much,"  I  replied.  "But 
see  here.  Don't  you  come  down  through  the  village 
again.  It  will  cause  talk,  and  couple  you  with  myself  ID 
the  village  gossip  in  a  way  that  won't  do  for  rne  at  all." 


$6  HOW  i    BECAME  A  DETECTIVE. 

He  agreed  with  me  in  this,  and  I  then  directed  him  to 
take  what  was  called  the  "upper  road,"  past  General  Mc- 
Clure's  old  place,  and  having  got  this  well  fixed  in  his 
mind,  agreed  to  meet  him  at  the  designated  place  i» 
Elgin,  at  about  four  o'clock,  bade  him  good-by  and  took 
my  departure. 

I  hastened  towards  the  village,  and  saw  on  my  way, 
just  as  I  was  descending  the  brow  of  the  hill,  my  coun- 
terfeiter friend  well  along  the  upper  road,  halting  his 
horse  to  wave  me  a  good-luck,  or  good-by,  as  it  might 
be  taken,  to  which  I  merely  nodded  a  reply,  and  then 
made  all  possible  speed  to  Mr.  Hunt's  store,  where  I 
quickly  reported  the  result  of  my  interview  to  Messrs. 
Hunt  and  Bosworth. 

They  were  very  gleeful  over  my  success  in  working 
into  the  confidence  of  the  counterfeiter,  but  both  were 
rather  apprehensive  that  the  money  was  in  the  man's 
saddle,  that  Yelverson  was  a  myth,  and  that  possibly  we 
had  lost  an  opportunity  of  securing  either.  But  I  felt 
pretty  certain  that  Craig  would  be  on  hand  at  Elgin 
according  to  appointment,  and  securing  the  required 
amount  of  money,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars, 
and  a  bite  of  lunch,  I  set  out  on  foot  for  Elgin.  The 
place  was  only  about  five  miles  from  Dundee,  and  fire 
miles  for  me  then  was  as  nothing  ;  so  that,  a  few  minutes 
before  four,  I  was  within  the  deserted  structure. 

I  looked  into  every  conceivable  corner  and  cranny,  but 
could  discover  the  cour  terfeiter  nowhere. 

I  passed  outside   and  looked  in   every   direction,  bill 


HOW  I  kZCAMR  A  DETECTIVE  37 

still  he  was  not  to  be  seen.  Tired  and  worried  about 
the  whole  matter,  I  retired  within  the  basement,  and  had 
been  sitting  upon  one  of  the  loose  timbers  there  but  a 
few  minutes,  brooding  over  the  loss  of  my  day's  work, 
and  disgusted  with  the  whole  business,  when  Craig  sud- 
denly entered  and  smilingly  greeted  me. 

"  Why,  helloa,  Pinkerton,  you're  ahead  of  time." 

"  I  told  you  I  would  be  here,"  I  replied. 

"  Well,  did  you  bring  the  money  with  you  ?  " 

"  Certainly  I  did.  Here  it  is,"  said  I,  counting  out 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  as  carelessly  as 
though  accustomed  to  handling  comfortable  sums  of 
money. 

He  looked  it  over  more  carefully  than  suited  me  ex- 
actly. The  act  seemed  to  hold  a  faint  trace  of  suspicion, 
but  he  found  it  to  be  in  eastern  bills  and  correct  in 
every  particular. 

"  Coopering  must  be  pretty  profitable  work  ?  "  he  re- 
marked with  a  light  laugh. 

"  Oh,  fair,  fair,"  I  answered,  indifferently.  "  Does 
pretty  well  when  one  can  do  some  other  quiet  business 
along  with  it." 

"  Oh,  I  see,"  he  said  pleasantly,  "  Now,  Pinkerton, 
jou  go  outside  for  a  few  minutes,  and  keep  a  sharp  look- 
out, lest  somebody  may  be  watching.  Remain  outside 
four  or  five  minutes,  and  if  you  see  no  one  by  that  time, 
come  back." 

I  went  out  as  directed,  but  I  could  not  but  feel  that  I 
had  placed  myself  in  the  man's  power  completely,  as  fa? 


$8  ftOft  s  BECAME  A  LETECTIVL. 

as  giving  him  a  fair  opportunity  to  abscond  with  my 
friends' money  was  concerned,  and  though  a  new  hard  at 
this  kind  of  bellows,  I  determined  to  be  as  keen  as  he 
was  shrewd.  So,  instead  of  leaving  the  building  alto- 
gether, for  the  time  mentioned,  I  started  off  for  a  little 
distance,  and,  quickly  returning  up  through  a  small  ra- 
vine, took  a  position  near  an  open  window,  just  in  time 
to  observe  my  Baptist  friend  from  Vermont  placing  some- 
thing beneath  a  wide,  flat  building-stone  in  one  corner 
of  that  portion  of  the  basement  where  we  had  been 
together. 

This  much  seen,  I  got  away  from  the  place  as  speedily 
as  I  could,  and  at  once  sought  a  small  eminence  near  the 
building,  and  made  a  great  pretense  of  keeping  a  close 
watch  on  the  locality. 

While  thus  occupied,  I  observed,  out  of  the  corner  of 
my  eye,  that  Craig  had  appeared  at  one  of  the  entrances 
and  was  closely  watching  my  movements.  Apparently 
satisfied  at  last,  he  gave  a  low  whistle,  attracting  my  atten- 
tion, of  course,  when  he  then  motioned  me  to  join  him. 

As  I  entered  I  told  him  that  I  had  looked  everywhere, 
but  was  unable  to  see  any  person  about. 

"That's  all  right,"  he  replied  pleasantly,  and  then  look- 
ing  at  me  in  a  quizzical  sort  of  a  way,  asked : 

"Pinkerton,  what  would  you  think  if  I  told  you  that 
Yelverson  had  been  here  during  your  absence  outside,  and 
left  the  five  hundred  in  my  bills?  " 

••Well,  I  don't  know,"  1  answered;  "I'd  almost  think 
you'd  got  old  Nick  working  along  with  you  I" 


HOW  I  BECAME  A  DETECTIVE.  $$ 

"Perhaps  I  have,  perhaps  I  have,"  he  returned  quietly 
"  Look  under  that  stone  over  yonder." 

I  went  to  the  place  indicated,  and,  lifting  the  stone  which 
from  the  outside  I  had  seen  him  busied  with,  I  picked  up 
a  neatly-made  package. 

"  I  think  you  will  find  what  you  bought  inside  it,"  re 
marked  Craig. 

I  opened  the  package,  and  found  that  it  contained 
fifty  ten-dollar  bills.  They  were  the  counterfeits,  but, 
as  I  have  already  stated,  were  most  handsomely  exe- 
cuted. 

I  make  this  open  confession  to  my  readers  : 

For  a  moment  the  greatest  temptation  of  my  life  swept 
over  me.  A  thousand  thoughts  of  sudden  wealth  and  a 
life  free  from  the  grinding  labor  which  I  had  always  known, 
came  rushing  into  my  mind.  Here  in  my  hands  were  five 
hundred  dollars,  or  what  professed  to  be,  every  one  of 
them  as  good  as  gold,  if  I  only  chose  to  use  it.  The  pur- 
chasing power  of  five  hundred  dollars  then,  the  use  which 
could  be  made  of  it,  the  large  gain  which  would  accrue 
from  its  judicious  investment,  were  one  a>jd  all  ten  times 
what  they  are  now.  What  would  it  not  purchase  ?  Why, 
to  my  mind  then  it  was  a  great  fortune  ! 

All  this  and  more  pressed  upon  me  with  such  weight — 
the  first  and  last  time  in  my  whole  life — that  with  this 
struggle  in  my  memory,  while  I  have  always  been  unshaken 
in  my  determination  to  ntfcver  lose  sight  of  a  criminal  when 
it  once  becomes  my  duty  to  pursue  him,  I  can  never  think 
of  one  undergoing  the  first  great  temptation  to  crimo 


40  HOW  I  BECAME   A  DETECTIVE.. 

whether  he  has  resisted  or  fallen,  without  a  touch  of  genu 
ine  human  sympathy. 

I  am  satisfied  that  this  showed  in  my  face  somewhat, 
but  was  taken  by  him  to  indicate  cupidity  and  eageinesa 
at  the  prospect  of  large  profits  as  his  "  wholesale  agent " 
in  that  section,  and  soon  after  probably  stood  me  in  good 
service. 

We  sat  down  upon  one  of  the  timbers  and  chatted 
pleasantly  for  a  time,  during  which  he  informed  me  that 
Yelverson  had  at  once  returned  to  Smith's,  where  his 
horse  was  stabled,  and  ere  then  was  on  his  road  toward 
Chicago,  where  he,  Craig,  should  rejoin  him  on  the  next 
day,  after  passing  the  night  at  his  nephew's. 

My  thought  was  to  get  the  two  together  and  nab  therr 
both,  if  it  were  in  my  power.  I  saw  that  I  had  no  possible 
opportunity  to  do  this  in  Elgin,  for,  according  to  Craig's 
statement,  Yelverson  was  well  on  the  road  to  Chicago 
out  of  all  danger  of  pursuit ;  and  even  should  I  cause 
.Craig's  arrest,  from  what  I  already  knew  of  his  character 
and  habits,  his  conviction  on  my  unsupported  evidence 
would  prove  difficult. 

Accordingly,  while  sitting  there  and  chatting  away  with 
Craig,  all  these  things  were  playing  back  and  forth  like 
a  swift  shuttle  through  my  mind,  with  the  following 
result . 

"  Look  here,  Craig,"  said  I,  "  if  you  wouldn't  be  in 
too  big  a  hurry  about  getting  back  home,  I'll  tell  you 
what  I'll  do.  I  believe  I  could  make  arrangements  to 
buy  you  out  altogether." 


BECAME    A   DETECTIVE.  4* 

"Well,  now,  that's  a  good  idea,  Pinkerton,"  returned 
the  counterfeiter  thoughtfully,  but  evidently  pleased  at 
the  proposition. 

"How  much  have  you  got  ?  "  I  asked. 

*'  i  haven't  any, "  he  answered  with  a  sly  look* 
44  Yelverson  has  about  four  thousand  dollars  in  the  stuff, 
1  believe." 

«*  All  right,  "  I  replied.  "  Craig  or  Yelverson,  it's  all 
the  same  so  I  get  it.  Now  I've  been  thinking  that  I 
could  take  a  trip  out  to  Naperville,  in  Du  Page  County, 
and  St.  Charles,  Geneva,  Batavia,  Aurora,  and  Oswego, 
in  this  county,  and  work  off  the  greater  part  of  what 
I've  got,  and  while  at  Oswego  see  Lawyer  Boyd,  who,  I 
am  certain,  will  take  a  share  with  me." 

"  How  long  will  this  take  you  ?  "  inquired  Craig. 

"  1  can't  tell,"  said  I ;  "  not  more  than  three  or  four 
days  at  the  outside,  I  think." 

<!  Well,  try  and  see  what  you  can  do.  I  would  like  to 
sell  my  horse  and  my  entire  outfit  too,  and  go  back  by 
the  lakes,  if  I  can." 

"All  right,  Craig,"  said  I.  "  I'm  pretty  sure  that  I  can 
buy  everything.  I'll  try  hard,  and  think  that  if  I  can  see 
Bill  Boyd,  at  Oswego,  there'll  be  no  doubt  about  our 
being  able  together  to  take  everything  you  have." 

"  Good-by,  then,"  said  the  counterfeiter,  shaking  my 
hand  warmly.  "  I'll  spend  the  night  with  Smith,  go  into 
Chicago  to-morrow,  and  wait  there  at  the  "Sauganash" 
for  you  four  or  five  days.  But,  mind  you,  be  discreet !  " 

With   this  we  parted,  Craig  going  over  the  hills  into 


42  HOW  I  BECAME  A  DETECTIVE. 

r.he  wooJs  behind  the  town,  to  make  some  slight  detoui 
before  lejoining  the  gunsmith,  and  I,  with  my  five  hun- 
dred dollars  in  counterfeit  bills  on  the  Wisconsin  Marine 
and  Fire  Insurance  Company's  Bank,  starting  on  foot 
for  home,  where  I  arrived  just  as  the  sun  was  setting 
behind  the  grand  hills  of  Dundee,  upon  what  I  then  felt 
was  the  most  exciting  and  eventful  day  of  my  life. 

Messrs.  Hunt  and  Bosworth  were  on  the  qui  vive  of 
expectation,  and  listened  to  my  recital  with  the  greatest 
interest ;  but  they  both  seemed  apprehensive  that  the 
counterfeiter  would  not  keep  faith  with  me,  and  had 
probably  set  out  from  Elgin  for  some  distant  point  as 
soon  as  I  had  started  for  home,  and  would  leave  us  all  in 
the  lurch  with  five  hundred  dollars  in  counterfeit  money 
on  our  hands  for  all  our  trouble  and  officiousness. 

I  confess  that,  being  new  to  the  business,  I  had  some- 
thing of  a  like  fear,  or  distrust ;  but  still,  in  revolving  the 
matter  in  my  mind,  I  could  not  but  always  come  back  to 
the  first  impression  I  had  gained  of  my  Vermont  friend, 
to  the  effect  that,  criminal  though  he  was,  he  was  a  man 
who,  when  he  had  passed  his  word,  would  be  certain  to 
keep  it. 

With  a  view  of  allaying  the  anxiety  of  my  friends,  and 
also  satisfying  my  own  curiosity  concerning  the  matter,  I 
promised  that  carry  the  next  morning  I  would  take  some 
measures  to  learn  definitely  the  whereabouts  of  the  coun- 
terfeiter. And  so,  tired,  partly  discouraged,  and  fully  sat- 
isfied in  my  own  mind  that  I  was  not  born  to  become  a 
detective,  I  went  home,  and  sought  my  bed  with  a  feeling 


HOW  2  BECAME  A   DETECTIVE.  43 


•* 


that  the  little  cooper-shop,  my  good  wife,  and  our  plain 
homely  ways,  were,  after  all,  the  best  things  on  earth 
and,  altogether,  better  than  any  other  sort  of  life  or  at- 
tainments possible  for  man  to  secure. 

Prompt  to  my  promise,  I  was  up  betimes  the  next 
morning ;  and,  after  a  hasty  breakfast,  secured  a  horse, 
and  was  soon  rapidly  cantering  off  in  the  direction  of 
Elgin,  where  I  arrived  by  the  time  the  villagers  of  the 
little  town  were  stirring  about  their  several  avocations. 
I  proceeded  directly  to  the  house  of  John  Smith,  the 
gunsmith. 

Before  I  had  reached  the  same,  my  spirits  were  meas- 
urably raised  to  observe,  sitting  there  upon  the  rough 
porch  shaded  with  roses  and  honeysuckles,  the  veritable 
gentleman  from  Vermont  who  had  given  us  all  so  much 
uneasiness. 

He  was  smoking  his  pipe  and  enjoying  the  morning  as 
composedly  as  any  man  well  could,  and,  as  I  approached, 
looked  up  with  a  pleasant  smile  of  greeting. 

He  advanced  quickly  to  the  gate,  and  grasped  my 
hand  heartily,  saying  quietly  : 

"  Helloa,  Pinkerton,  what's  up  ?  " 

"  Only  myself,"  I  answered  jokingly. 

"  Have  you  got  started  out  on  your  trip  this  early  ?  " 
he  inquired. 

"  Yes,  I  believe  if  anything*  s  worth  doing,  it's  worth 
doing  quickly  and  thoroughly.  I'm  on  my  way  down 
the  river  to  take  in  the  towns  I  mentioned  yester- 
day. I'll  see  Boyd  to-  mcrro\v,  get  back  as  quick  AS 


44  HOW  I  BECAME  A   DETECTIVE. 

can,  and  meet  you  as  agreed  at  the  *  Sauganash,  in 
Chicago." 

"  You'll  do,  you'll  do,"  said  Craig  encouragingly. 

"  I  just  thought  I'd  call  on  my  way,  shake  hands  wirh 
you,  and  show  you  I  was  at  work  carrying  out  my  pait 
of  the  agreement." 

"  Glad  you  stopped ;  glad  you  stopped.  Make  as 
good  time  as  possible,  for  I  want  to  get  through  here 
and  get  back  east.  The  church  interests  always  languish 
while  I  am  away,"  he  added  laughing. 

And  so,  with  a  cheery  good-by,  we  again  parted. 

I  rode  away  ostensibly  for  St.  Charles,  but,  after  getting 
some  little  distance  from  Elgin,  took  a  detour,  and,  riding 
through  the  little  post-town  of  Undina,  reached  Dundee 
some  time  before  noon. 

The  information  secured  through  this  little  ruse  satis- 
fied both  myself  and  my  Dundee  friends  that  dependence 
could  be  placed  upon  meeting  Craig  in  Chicago.  This 
was  what  I  most  desired ;  for,  alone  in  the  country,  and 
not  knowing  what  secret  companions  he  might  have  near 
him  ready  to  spring  to  his  aid  at  the  lifting  of  his  finger, 
made  an  attempt  at  his  capture,  with  my  then  inex- 
perience, simply  foolish  and  something  not  to  be  thought 
of. 

Three  intervening  days  were  passed  in  frequent  con- 
sultations with  Messrs.  Hunt  and  Bosworth,  very  little 
attention  to  my  casks  and  barrels,  and  a  good  dea. 
of  nervous  plotting  and  planning  on  my  own  part ;  ana 
daybreak  on  the  fourth  owning  j  h.ad 


HOW  I  BECAME   A    DETECTIYE.  45 

the  last  glimpse  of  the  little  village  of  Dundee,  nestling 
like  a  bird  by  the  gleaming  river,  and  was  speeding  my 
horse  at  a  brisk  pace  over  the  winding  highway  toward 
Chicago. 

I  arrived  in  that  then  thiiving,  but  little  city,  during  the 
early  forenoon,  and  my  first  move  was  to  procure  war- 
rants for  the  arrest  of  both  Craig  and  Yelverson,  as  I  had 
high  hopes  of  now  being  able,  by  a  little  good  management, 
to  get  the  two  men  together ;  and  I  easily  secured  the  ser- 
vices of  two  officers,  one  of  whom  t  directed  to  follow  and 
watch  the  movements  of  Craig,  which  would  undoubtedly, 
if  there  was  any  such  person  as  Yelverson,  bring  the  two 
men  together.  My  idea  was  to  then  wait  until  they  had 
separated  and  were  so  situated  that  immediate  communi- 
cation would  be  impossible,  and  thus  capture  Yelverson ; 
while,  after  this  had  been  effected,  myself  and  the  second 
officer  would  attend  to  Craig.  But,  as  fine  as  all  this 
looked  in  a  plan,  it  was  doomed,  as  the  reader  will  ob- 
serve, to  prove  merely  a  plan. 

After  all  these  arrangements  were  perfected,  I  went  to 
the  Sauganash  Hotel.  The  officers  were  merely  consta* 
bles,  and  one  was  stationed  outside  the  house,  to  follow 
Craig  wherever  he  might  go,  or  whoever  might  come  in 
contact  with  him,  should  he  be  observed  *o  meet  any 
person  with  whom  he  might  appear  to  ha\c  confidential 
relations;  while  the  other  officer  was  located  inside  the 
hotel,  to  cause  Craig's  arrest  whenever  the  proper  time 
arrived. 

J  wanted  tp  faring  things  about  so  that  I  coujd  capturf 


4  HOW  I  BECAME  A  DETECTIVE. 

the  men  with  the  money  upon  them,  or  in  the  very  act 
of  passing  it;  but  circumstances  and  my  own  youth  antf 
inexperience  were  against  me. 

I  had  been  seated  in  the  office  of  the  hotel  but  a 
few  minutes  when  Craig  entered,  smoking  a  cigar.  He 
saw  me  instantly,  but  several  minutes  elapsed  before  he 
saw  fit  to  approach  me,  and  I  observed  by  his  manner 
that  he  did  not  wish  me  to  recognize  him.  He  sauntered 
about  for  a  time,  apparently  like  one  upon  whose  hands 
time  hung  heavily,  and,  finally  securing  a  newspaper, 
dropped  into  a  seat  beside  me. 

Some  minutes  even  elapsed  before  he  in  any  manner 
recognized  my  presence,  and  then  he  said,  with  his  atti- 
tude such  that  no  one  could  imagine  him  otherwise  than 
deeply  engaged  with  his  paper : 

"  Have  you  got  the  money  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  I  replied,  quite  as  laconically. 

"  Well,  I've  an  even  four  thousand  now.  The  horse  is 
sold;  so  you  pay  me  one  thousand  dollars,  and  in  the 
course  of  an  hour  I  will  see  that  you  have  the  package." 

"Craig,"  I  said,  "Lawyer  Boyd,  from  Oswego,  is  here 
with  me,  and  you  know  these  lawyers  are  sticklers  for 
form.  Now,  he  don't  want  to  pay  the  money  until  we  see 
the  bills." 

"  Why,  he  has  seen  what  you  had,  hasn't  he  °  You 
know  that  old  John  Craig's  word  is  as  good  as  his  money, 
and  that's  as  good  as  gold !  "  he  replied  with  some 
warmth,  and  evidently  nettled. 

"  If  it  was  wholly  my  own   affair,  Craig,  you  know  ii 


HOW  I  BECAME    4   DETECTIVE.  47 

would  be  different.  You  know  I  would  trust  you  with 
ten  times  this  sum^"  I  replied  reassuringly ;  "  but  I've 
placed  myself  in  this  damned  lawyer's  power  in  order  to 
keep  my  word  like  a  man  with  you,  and  he  insists  like  an 
idiot  on  having  the  thing  done  only  in  one  way." 

"  Well,  I'll  think  the  matter  over,  and  see  you  here  a 
half-hour  or  so  later,"  returned  Craig. 

We  then  adjourned  to  the  bar,  and  partook  of  sundry 
drinks ;  but  I  observed,  without  showing  that  I  did  so, 
that  Craig  was  very  careful  in  this  respect.  We  soon 
parted,  and  I  must  confess  that  I  began  to  have  a  pre- 
sentiment that  matters  were  beginning  to  look  a  little 
misty.  I  could  not  imagine  what  the  outcome  would  be  ; 
but  that  Craig  had  become  suspicious  of  something,  was 
certain. 

I  could  not  of  course  then  know,  without  exposing 
myself,  what  was  done,  or  how  Craig  actcJ,  but  I  after- 
ward learned  that  he  seemed  perplexed  and  doubtful 
about  what  he  should  do.  He  started  out  rapidly  in  the 
direction  of  the  lake,  suddenly  halted,  returned,  started 
again,  halted  again,  and  then  walked  aimlessly  in  vaiious 
ilirections,  occasionally  giving  a  quick  look  back  over  his 
shoulder  as  if  to  determine  whether  he  was  being  fol- 
lowed. 

Whatever  he  might  have  thought  about  this,  at  last  he 
returned  to  the  hotel  with  the  air  of  a  man  who  had  de- 
termined upon  something,  and  entered  the  office. 

Not  making  any  move  as  though  he  desired  to  see  me, 
I  soon  moved  toward  him,  and  nnaUy  said ; 


48  HOW  I  BECAME   A   DETECTIVE. 

"  Well,  Craig,  are  you  going  to  let  me  nave  the 
money  ?  " 

He  looked  at  me  a  moment  with  a  puzzled  air  of  sur 
prise,  the  assurance  of  which  I  have  never  since  seen 
equaled,  and  replied  quietly  : 

"  What  money?" 

I  looked  at  him  in  blank  amazement,  a..d  finally  said  \ 
ti  The  money  you  promised  me.' 

With  a  stolidity  that  would  have  made  a  Grant  or  a 
Wellington,  he  rejoined  : 

"  I  haven't  the  honor  of  your  acquaintance,  sir,  and 
therefore  cannot  imagine  to  what  you  allude." 

If  the  Sauganash  Hotel  had  fallen  upon  me,  I  could 
not  have  been  more  surprised,  or,  for  the  moment,  over- 
whelmed. 

But  this  lasted  but  for  a  moment  I  saw  that  my  fine 
plan  had  fallen  to  the  ground  like  a  nojse  of  straw. 
Yelverson  had  not  been  located ;  probably  no  counterfeit 
money  could  be  found  upon  Craig ;  and  there  was  only 
my  own  almost  unsupported  evidence  as  to  the  entire 
transaction,  as  the  reader  has  been  given  it ;  but  I  also 
saw  that  there  was  only  one  thing  to  do,  and  that  was  to 
make  Mr.  Craig  my  prisoner.  1  therefore  said : 

"All  right,  John  Craig ;  you  have  played  your  game 
well,  but  there  are  always  at  least  two  at  a  really  inter- 
esting game,  and  I  shall  have  to  take  you  into  custody 
on  the  charge  of  counterfeiting." 

I  gave  the  signal  to  the  officer,  and  Craig  was  at  once 
arrested  :  but  he  fairly  turned  the  tables  upon  Tie  thep 


HOW  I  BECAME  A  ^ZTECTIVE.  4£ 

by  his  assumed  dignity  and  gentlemanly  bearing.  Quite 
a  crowd  gathered  about,  and  considerable  sympathy  was 
expressed  for  the  stately,  gray-haired  man  who  was  being 
borne  into  captivity  by  the  green-looking  countryman 
cooper  from  Dundee. 

Not  a  dollar  in  counterfeit  money  was  found  upon 
Craig,  as  I  had  feared.  He  was  taken  to  Geneva,  ic 
Kane  County,  lodged  in  jail,  and,  after  the  preliminary 
examination,  admitted  to  bail  in  a  large  sum.  While 
awaiting  the  arrival  of  friends  to  furnish  the  required 
bonds,  he  was  remanded ;  and  it  was  soon  noticed  by  the 
frequenters  of  the  place  that  Craig  and  the  sheriff,  whose 
apartments  were  in  the  jail  building,  had  become  very 
intimate.  He  was  shown  every  courtesy  and  favor  possi- 
ble under  the  circumstances,  and  the  result  was  that  the 
community  was  suddenly  startled  to  learn  that  the  now 
famous  counterfeiter  had  mysteriously  escaped — leaving, 
it  was  said,  the  sheriff  of  Kane  Coui.  :y  considerably  richer 
in  this  world's  goods  from  the  unfortunate  occurrence. 

This  was  the  outcome  of  the  matter ;  but  though  this 
great  criminal,  through  the  perfidy  of  an  official,  had  es- 
caped punishment,  the  affair  was  worth  everything  to  the 
Wisconsin  Fire  and  Marine  Insurance  Company  in  par- 
ticular, and  the  entire  West  in  general — it  having  the 
effect  for  a  number  of  years  to  drive  counterfeiters 
entirely  from  our  midst. 

But  I  cannot  resist  relating,  in  connection  with  the 
termination  of  trie  case,  another  incident  characteristic  of 
George  Smith. 
\ 


$0  tfOW  I 

With  all  his  business  success,  like  Dickens'  "  Barkis. 
he  became  considerably  "mean,"  and  finally  obtained  the 
sobriquet,  among  his  friends  and  acquaintances,  of  old 
"  Na  !  "  on  account  of  the  abruptness  and  even  ugliness 
arith  which  he  would  snap  out  his  Scotch  "  na  !  "  or  no, 
to  certain  applicants  for  banking  or  other  favors. 

As  soon  as  I  had  got  Craig  safely  in  jail,  Messrs.  Hunt 
ind  Bosworth,  who  had  expended  nearly  one  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  in  the  matter,  saw  that  they  had  nothing 
left  for  their  pains  save  the  counterfeit  five  hundred  dol- 
lars, and  that  even  was  deposited  in  the  hands  of  the 
Kane  County  Court  clerk  ;  so  it  devolved  upon  me  to 
go  into  Chicago,  see  George  Smith,  and  get  from  him, 
if  possible,  so  much  money  as  had  been  expended,  and  a 
few  dollars  for  my  own  services. 

So  I  took  my  trip,  after  a  vexatious  delay  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  presence  of  the  mighty  banker,  and  tersely 
stated  my  errand. 

He  heard  me  all  through,  and  then  remarked  savagely  : 
"  Have  ye  nae  mair  to  say  ?  " 
"Not  anything,"  I  replied  civilly. 
"  Then   I've  just  this  tae  speak  :  ye  was  not  author 
ized  tae  do  the  wark,  and  ye  have  nae  right  t'  a  cent 
I'll  pay  this,  I'll  pay  this ;  but  mind  ye,  roo,"  and  he 
shook  his  finger  at  me  in  no  pleasant  way,  "  if  ye  ever  do 
wark  for  me  agin  that  ye  have  nae  authorization  for,  ye'll 
get  ne'er  a  penny,  ne'er  a  penny  !  " 

In  fact,  it  was  hard  work  for  the  close-fisted  Scotchman 
to  be  decently  just  in  the  matter,  and  I  am  certain  th« 


JACK  CANTER.  5* 

incident   has  been   of  servic;  to  me  during  these  latei 
years  in  causing  prudence  in  all  such  undertakings. 

The  country  being  new,  and  great  sensations  scarce, 
the  affair  was  in  everybody's  mouth,  and  I  suddenly 
found  myself  called  upon,  from  every  quarter,  to  under- 
take  matters  requiring  detective  skill,  until  I  was  soon 
actually  forced  to  relinquish  the  honorable,  though  not 
over-profitable,  occupation  of  a  cooper,  for  that  of  a  pro- 
fessional detective,  with  the  result  and  a  career  of  which 
the  public  are  fully  acquainted ;  all  of  which  I  owe  to 
"  Old  John  Craig"  and  this  my  first  detective  case. 


CHAPTER  II. 

JACK   CANTER. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch,  who  is  still  living  and 
occupying  a  felon's  cell  through  the  efforts  of  my 
detectives,  has  been  one  of  the  most  brilliant  of  profes 
sional  criminals. 

I  am  unable  to  give  my  readers  any  idea  of  the  circum- 
stances leading  to  his  becoming  what  he  has  been,  whicb 
to  me,  of  all  criminals  and  especially  those  of  the  better 
class,  as  studies  of  human  experience  and  the  yielding  to 
human  temptations,  always  prove  intensely  interesting. 

Canter  is  supposed  to  be  of  American  parentage,  and, 
as  nearly  as  I  am  able  to  learn,  was  born  in  some  little 


52  JA  CtC  C A.V TEX. 

village  of  Central  New  York.  He  is,  at  this  writing,  forty 
five  years  of  age,  is  five  feet  seven  inches  in  height,  of 
slight,  spare  frame,  has  a  dark  complexion,  dark  hair  and 
black  beard}  usually  worn  after  what  is  termed  the  "  Burn- 
side  "  fashion,  and  altogether  is  possessed  of  a  remarkably 
distingue  appearance.  He  is  probably  one  of  the  oldest 
counterfeiters  and  forgers  in  the  United  States,  and  has 
served  nearly  twenty-five  years  of  his  life  in  various  pris- 
ons, principally  at  Sing  Sing,  where  he  has  been  incarcer- 
ated during  three  terms,  one  of  which  was  for  fourteen 
years. 

I  wonder  if  any  of  my  readers  ever  endeavored  to  im- 
press their  minds  with  the  actual  duration  and  effect  of 
such  a  period  and  kind  of  existence. 

Whatever  Jack  Canter  might  have  been  before  his  first 
prison  experience,  when  he  passed  out  from  the  walls  of 
Sing  Sing  he  was  a  confirmed  criminal,  and  never  since 
has  seemed  to  have  an  aspiration  for  any  other  course  of 
life. 

He  has  been  arrested  by  the  Secret  Service  authorities, 
under  Colonel  Whitley,  numberless  times,  on  the  charge 
of  counterfeiting  ;  but  whenever  apprehended  he  invariably 
had  one  or  more  engraved  plates,  generally  valueless, 
which  he  would  turn  over  to  the  Government  authorities 
on  the  condition  that  he  secured  his  liberty,  which  was 
too  frequently  accorded  him. 

His  acquirements,  for  one  who  had  passed  so  many 
years  in  a  prison,  were  really, of  a  brilliant  nature,  and 
certainly  show  him  to  have  had  an  exceedingly  thorough 


JA  CR  CANTER.  5^ 

education  in  his  youth,  or  to  have  been  one  of  those  sin- 
gularly constituted  persons  that  can  instantly  acquire  and 
always  retain  whatever  they  get  their  minds  upon. 

He  is  a  great  linguist,  a  very  perfect  and  correct  one, 
having  the  French,  German,  Spanish,  Italian,  and  many 
other  languages  at  thorough  command.  He  is  a  splendid 
phonographer  and  an  expert  penman ;  is  a  well-informed 
chemist,  and  graduated  with  high  honors  as  a  physician  , 
is,  or  has  been,  one  of  the  most  exact  and  artistic  line- 
engravers  in  America,  and  line-engraving  requires  the 
highest  nicety  and  proficiency  in  the  art ;  and  is  a  man 
of  so  general  good  attainments  and  fine  ability  that  he  has 
very  frequently  given  the  press  scientific  articles  of  rare 
vigor  and  merit.  When  one  considers  how  great  the  pos- 
sibilities of  such  an  able  man  are,  and  then  see  to  what 
base  uses  these  accomplishments  are  put,  it  causes  a  gen- 
uine pang  of  regret  in  the  heart  of  every  well-wisher  of 
society. 

Canter  was  always  received  at  Sing  Sing  as  a  distin 
guished .guest,  and  granted  favors  to  an  unlimited  extent, 

Concerning  his  service  there,  it  is  related  that  he  was 
made  book-keeper  of  the  prison,  and,  through  his  expert 
use  of  the  pen  and  extensive  knowledge  of  chemicals, 
drove  a  thriving  trade  with  convicts  who  were  fortunate 
enough  to  have  wealthy  friends.  His  system  of  "  raising 
the  wind"  was  to  hunt  up  t"ie  antecedents  of  notorious 
professional  criminals  there  incarcerated,  and  boldly  offer 
to  reduce  their  term  of  service  for  a  ? attain  stipulated 
sum  of  money. 


54  VACX  CANTER. 


For  instance  :  a  convict  had  received  a  e.i  years'  sen- 
tence. Canter  would  ascertain  how  much  xeady  cash  the 
prisoner's  friends  could  or  would  advance  for  a  reduction 
of  the  term  for  one  or  two  years  or  from  one  to  five  year?, 
and  then,  after  securing  the  money  —  which  rumor  alleges 
was  generously  divided  among  certain  prison  officers—  he, 
by  an  '.  with  the  aid  of  certain  chemicals,  would  alter  the 
prison  records,  so  that  paying  parties  would  be  able  to 
secure  a  discharge  on  a  greatly  reduced  term. 

Through  these  favors  and  irregularities,  which  the 
prison  officials  must  have  been  cognizant  of,  Canter  car- 
ried a  "  high  hand  "  at  Sing  Sing.  He  supported  several 
"  fast  "  women  ;  went  out  and  in  the  prison  as  he  liked  ; 
drove  the  fastest  team  in  the  place  ;  and  it  is  alleged,  on 
the  best  of  authority,  was  frequently  seen  at  New  York, 
where  he  mingled  with  his  friends  at  leisure. 

In  other  words,  while  he  was  at  Sing  Sing  he  was 
"boss"  of  the  prison  ;  and  he  either  carried  so  high  a 
hand  on  his  own  account,  or  had  so  many  of  the  most 
influential  officials  there  mixed  up  in  his  counterfeiting 
affairs,  that  he  had  everything  his  own  way 

But  his  star  of  success  waned  when  he  fell  undei  the 
influence  of  honest  detectives,  as  represented  by  my 
Agency. 

He  was  arrested  by  my  officers,  in  1874,  f°r  his  connec- 
tion with  the  gigantic  forgeries  committed  in  September 
of  that  year  ;  and  those  influences  he  had  been  enabled  to 
make  use  of  whenever  he  so  wished  were  wholly  \vi  til- 
drawn  when  I  had  secured  his  committal  to  the  F  astern 


JACK  CAtfTER.  5! 

Penitential y  of  Pennsylvania,  at  Philadelphia,  for  one  01 
the  shrewdest  forgeries  he  had  ever  been  known  1C 
commit. 

In  February,  1873,  an  insurance  company  was  formed 
in  Philadelphia,  under  the  name  of  the  "Central  Fire 
Insurance  Company,"  of  which  VV  D.  Halfman,  a  gentle- 
man said  to  have  been  worth  nearly  a  million  dollars,  was 
elected  president,  and  W.  F.  Halfman,  a  convenient  rela- 
tive, as  treasurer.  The  secretary  and  directors  were 
John  Nicholson  Elbert,  W.  J.  Moodie,  C.  A.  Duy,  P. 
Thurlow,  W.  H.  Elberly,  and  others. 

It  was  represented  by  this  company  to  the  Insurance 
Commissioner  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  that  they  had 
a  capital  of  two  hundred  thousand  dollars,  invested  in 
various  railroad  and  other  securities,  and  that  their 
*tock  had  been  subscribed  for  as  follows : 

P.  Thurlow,  900  shares,  representing. . . .  .$45,000 

C.  A.  Duy,  200      "  "  10,000 

W.  H.  Halfman,  100      "  "  5,000 

W.  D.  Halfman,  800      "  "  40,000 

W.  J    Moodie,  200     "  "  10,000 

Moodie,  Gross  &  Co.,    40      4t  "  2,000 

W.  D.  Halfman,  1,560  (in  trust)  cc  78,000 

All  of  the  above  officers  and  stockholders  were  well 
known  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  reputable  business  men 
and  capitalists  of  moderate  resources,  and,  as  fai  as 
could  be  publicly  known,  were  able  to  purchase  and  own 
the  stock,  as  listed  for  inspection  by  the  Insurance  Com 
uiissioner. 


5$  JACK  CANTER. 

The  company  opened  oujt  in  fine  style,  had  elegant 
offices,  and  were  supposed  to  be  doing  a  very  prosperous 
business ;  but,  in  time,  J.  M.  Foster,  one  of  the  Insurance 
Commissioners  of  the  State,  becoming  suspicious  that 
the  concern  was  not  all  that  it  purported  to  be,  caused  an 
overhauling  of  its  business. 

This  examination  developed  the  fact  that  all  of  the 
assets  of  the  company  consisted  of  forged  railroad  stocks 
as  follows : 

500  shares  Phila.  &  Reading  R.  R.  Stock. 

500  "  Lehigh  Valley. . 

500  "  Delaware,  Lackawanna  and  Western  Stock. 

300  "  Central  Railroad  of  New  Jersey  *• 

100  "  Pennsylvania  Central  «« 

4,000  "  Lebanon  Paper  Company  " 

130  "  West  end  Railroad  of  Phila.  " 

All  of  which  the  company  claimed  to  own  absolutely. 

Investigation  developed  the  fact  that  all  of  these  stocky 
so  far.  as  their  assumed  value  was  concerned,  were  for 
geries.  They  had  originally  been  issued  for  one  or  two 
shares,  and  afterward,  by  a  chemical  process,  their  num 
bers  had  been  erased,  and  they  were  each  then  made  to 
represent  three  hundred  or  five  hundred  shares,  as  occa- 
sion required. 

This  alarming  condition  of  things  leaked  out,  and  the 
Philadelphia  and  Reading  Railway  Company,  in  order  to 
protect  its  stockholders,  secured  my  services  to  thor- 
oughly ventilate  the  matter.  After  considerable  triable. 


JACK  CANTER.  57 

I  caused  the  ariest  of  one  J.  II.  Elbert,  from  whom  1 
secured  a  confession  to  the  effect  that  he  had  employed 
a  man  named  Charles  Ripley,  of  New  York,  to  make  the 
alterations  on  the  certificates.  He  had  been  introduced 
to  this  Ripley  at  a  hotel  in  Jersey  City,  by  a  person 
named  Louis  W.  French  (afterward  convicted  in  New 
Jersey  for  the  frauds  committed  by  the  "  Palisade  Insur- 
ance Company  "  of  Hoboken,  N.  J.). 

Elbert  had  paid  Ripley  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  for 
making  the  alterations.  The  former  also  stated  that  he 
addressed  letters  to  Ripley  at  a  saloon.  No.  303  Bridge 
Street,  Brooklyn.  Inquiries  by  my  most  careful  opera 
tives  at  this  place  developed  the  fact  that  the  letters 
addressed  to  Charles  Ripley,  at  that  number,  had  been 
delivered  to  a  man  known  by  the  name  of  Charles 
Ostend.  Upon  securing  this  much,  I  placed  men.  so 
that  every  person  arriving  at  or  leaving  this  place,  if  not 
then  known,  could  be  followed  and  their  identity  estab- 
lished. The  result  of  this  was  that  I  had  shortly  effected 
the  arrest  of  Ostend,  whom  I  immediately  recognized  as 
the  notorious  Jack  Canter. 

He  was  at  once  removed  to  Philadelphia,  where  he  and 
VV.  D.  Halfman,  the  president  of  the  bogus  company, 
were  tried,  and  on  January  2,  1875,  Canter  was  sen- 
tenced to  nine  years  and  six  months'  solitary  confine- 
ment in  the  Eastern  Penitentiary,  at  Cherry  Hill,  Phila- 
delphia, and  Halfman  to  seven  years  and  six  months'' 
imprisonment  at  hard  labor. 

At  the  time  of  my  arrest  of  Canter,  he  had  been 
3* 


58  JACK  CANTER. 

out  of  Sing  Sing  only  about  two  years.  A  curious  illus- 
tration of  the  negligence  of  the  police  surveillance  if 
shown  in  the  fact  that,  when  I  captured  the  felow,  he 
had  been  living  within  one  block  of  the  Firjt  Precinct 
Brooklyn  police-station;  and,  on  searching  the  room, 
there  were  found  a  very  fine  nickle-platod  press  for  coun- 
terfeiting purposes,  a  full  set  of  the  fii  est  quality  of  en- 
graver's tools,  and  a  fine  plate  for  use  in  counterfeiting 
two  cent  bank-check  stamps — a  perfect  imitation  of  th<» 
genuine. 

There  were  also  found  in  his  room  several  poenw 
which  this  strange  man  had  written  while  a  convict  ut 
Sing  Sing.  Many  of  these  possessed  rare  merit,  net 
showing,  perhaps,  the  fine  polish  of  eminen*  writers,  biu 
still  indicating  the  great  degree  of  natura1  ability  ar-' 
poetic  genius  which  were  certainly  his. 

Probably  the  most  pretentious  of  these  poems  w*< 
one  called  the  "  Tale  of  a  Cell,"  which  I  have  reason  v 
believe  is  a  partial  history  of  the  man  himself,  and  a., 
impulsive,  passionate  outpouring  of  his  own  bitte.  rriso- 
reflections. 

Some  portions  of  the  poem  are  only  mediocre,  »nau» 
grammatical  and  metric  errors  exist;  but  there  arc  fr* 
quently  seen  the  indications  of  real  genius,  while  occr 
sionally  there  occur  passages  worthy  of  the  best  authors 
The  following  is  the  poem  complete  ; 


CANTEh  59 


TALE  OF  A  CELL. 

Ah,  n:e  !  how  many  years  have  flown, 

My  wearied  mem'ry  scarce  can  tell, 
Since,  piece  by  piece,  and  stone  by  stone, 

They  wrought  me  in  this  dismal  cell. 
Through  storm  and  calm,  and  sun  and  ram. 

Six  thousand  years  since  I  had  birth, 
On  yonder  hillside  I  have  lain, 

Soft  in  thy  bosom,  Mother  Earth  1 

But  rude  men  sought  my  resting-place, 

And  with  a  sudden,  fearful  shock, 
They  tore  me  from  thy  strong  embrace, 

The  wreck  of  a  once  mighty  rock. 
They  formed  me  in  this  living  grave, 

A  thing  abhorred,  a  loathsome  den  ; 
Here  am  I  now,  man's  wretched  slave, 

To  guard  and  grind  his  fellow-men, 

I  recollect  the  time  as  well 

As  if  it  were  but  yesterday, 
When  I  was  but  a  new-made  cell. 

My  naked  walls  were  cold  and  gray, 
For  then  I  had  not  been  o'er-reached 

By  sad  and  never-ceasing  care ; 
Long  years  of  misery  have  bleached 

My  sombre  sides  like  whitened  hair. 

'Twas  summer  time,  and  hill  and  dell 
And  plain  with  loveliness  were  strow% 

When  my  first  inmate  came  to  dwell 
Compar  ion  of  my  silence  lone. 


JACK  CANTER. 

The  earth  was  redolent  with  life 
Of  all  that's  beautiful  and  fair, 

With  birds  and  flowers  and  foliage  ripe 
That  sang  or  bloomed  and  budded  thext 


The  setting  sun's  departing  ray 

Just  pierced  the  darkness  lone  and  drear,, 
When  strange  men  came  from  far  away 

And  brought  the  trembling  captive  here. 
He  was  a  stripling  still,  and  one 

Who  ne'er  had  tasted  grief  till  then  ; 
Poor  child  !  he  had  but  just  begun 

To  live  his  three-score  years  and  ten. 

Upon  the  threshold  of  the  door 

He  shrank  as  if  from  touch  of  death  ; 
His  heart  beat  faster  than  before, 

And  hot  and  hurried  was  his  breath. 
I  saw  him  shudder  and  grow  pale 

When  clanged  the  door — poor  cap'ive  bird 
He  sighed,  and  then  a  low,  sad  wail 

Of 'speechless  agony  was  heard. 

He  leaned  upon  his  prison-bars 

And  gazed  until  the  sun  went  down, 
While  one  by  one  the  twinkling  stars 

Glowed  bright  in  night's  imperial 
But  the  broad  sky  was  shut  from  view  ; 

A  glance  upon  the  rippling  wave 
And  one  small  strip  of  heaven's  blue, 

Were  all  his  narrow  window  gave. 


JACK  CANTER.  6l 

Yet  there  one  little  star  appeared 

On  which  he  gazed  until  it  wore 
The  semblance  of  a  face  endeared 

By  ties  that  he  could  know  no  moie—" 
The  ties  of  mother  and  of  son  ; 

No  stronger  ties  on  earth  are  riven  ; 
Perhaps  it  was  this  same  dear  one 

That  beckoned  her  lost  child  to  heave  a. 


A  recollection  sad,  but  sweet, 

Stole  o'er  his  senses  like  a  thief, 
While  he,  unconscious  of  the  cheat, 

Forgot  his  shame,  forgot  his  grief. 
His  thoughts  were  far  away  from  here, 

'Mid  scenes  where  once  he  used  to  roam 
With  friends  and  kindred  fond  and  dear, 

Within  his  childhood's  happy  home. 

There  were  his  sisters  young  and  fair, 

And  there  his  brothers  stout  and  tall, 
And  there  his  aged  sire,  and  there 

His  mother,  dearest  of  them  all. 
Again  he  lived  his  childish  hours, 

So  gay,  so  good,  and  yet  so  brief, 
So  strewn  with  pleasure's  blooming  floweri, 

He  scarcely  saw  the  thorn  of  grief. 


Where'er  he  moved,  whate'er  he  saw 
His  mother's  form  was  ever  there ; 

With  her,  in  reverential  awe, 
He  knelt  at  morn  and  evening  praver. 


62  JA2K  CANTER. 

With  her,  each  holy  Sabbath  day, 

He  listened  to  God's  sacred  word } 
Twas  she  who  taught  his  lips  to  pray, 
And  his  young  heart's  devotion  stirred. 


And  when  he  stretched  his  weary  form 

Upon  the  couch  he  used  to  share, 
That  little  bed,  so  soft  and  warm, 

Was  made  by  that  fond  mother's  care. 
He  saw  her  wasted,  wan  and  pale, 

But  with  that  faith  that  never  dies, 
Admitted,  through  Death's  shadowy  vale, 

To  life  eternal  in  the  skies. 

Before  the  last  of  life  had  fled, 

As  he  stood  weeping  by  her  side, 
"  I'm  going  home,  my  child  I "  she  said, 

And  bade  him  meet  her  there,  and  died. 
He  saw  her  borne  to  her  last  bed, 

By  fellow-travelers  to  the  grave, 
The  sweet  "  City  of  the  Dead, ' 

Where  mourning  yew  and  cypress  wave. 

And  ere  he  well  could  comprehend 

A  mother's  love,  a  mother's  worth, 
He  saw  her  coffined  form  descend — 

"Dust  unto  dust,"  and  "earth  to  earth,* 
He  saw  his  home  deserted,  bare, 

Bereft  of  all  that  made  it  dear  ; 
His  kindred  gone  ;  no  thing  was  there 

Of  <U1  he  used  to  love,  revere. 


JACK  CANTER.  63 

And  then  he  wandered  forth,  apart 

From  all  that  blessed  him  when  a  child — 
Untutored  in  the  world's  black  heart, 

Temptation  his  young  heart  beguiled. 
The  crime,  arrest,  confinement,  shame, 

The  trial,  sentence,  felon's  cell, 
Passed  through  his  mind  like  withering  flame  ; 

'Twas  conscience — first  crime's  fiercest  hell 


Dim  grew  the  little  star's  bright  beam, 

A  dark  cloud  o'er  the  heavens  crept ; 
The  captive  started — 'twas  no  dream ; 

And  then  he  turned  aside  and  wept. 
'Twas  his  first  crime,  and  guilt  and  fear 

Had  pressed  him  deeply,  darkly  down  ; 
No  penitential  grief  could  cheer 

No  teais  his  crying  conscience  drown. 


Though  night  advanced  and  darkness  stole 

With  midnight  blackness  o'er  the  skies, 
No  hope  had  soothed  his  troubled  soul, 

No  sleep  had  closed  his  weeping  eyesfc 
A  sudden  thought  his  bosom  thrilled, 

A  hope  by  memory  long  delayed, 
His  grief  subdued,  his  passion  stilled, 

And  on  the  ground  he  kndi  and  prayed. 


And  ere  he  could  that  prayex  repeat, 
"  Or  echo  answer  from  the  hill," 

"A  stHl,  small  voice,"  divinely  sweet, 
Said  :  •'  Peace!  thou  troubled  soul, 


64  JACK  CANTER. 

He  slept — the  tranquil  sleep  of  thoce 

Who  feel  no  guilt  and  fear  no  hell—- 
The weary  sinner's  sweet  repose, 
When  danger's  past,  and  all  is  welL 


He  woke  when  morning's  purple  beams 

Along  the  hill-tops  richly  glowed  ; 
And,  as  he  rose  from  his  sweet  dreams, 

And  gazed  around  his  grim  abode, 
O'er  his  fair  face  there  came  a  shade, 

And  in  his  eyes  a  strange  light  burned. 
He  looked  bewildered,  lost,  afraid, 

Till,  one  by  one,  his  thoughts  returned, 

Bringing  his  terrors  back  again 
In  all  their  darkest  hues  arrayed  ; 

But  faith  and  hope  sustained  him  thec 
Again  he  wept,  again  he  prayed, 

And  then,  unseen  by  mortal  eye, 

In  that  bright  morn  serene  and  stil;, 

With  heart  and  hand  uplifted  high, 
He  vowed  to  do  his  Maker's  will. 


And  when  they  took  him  forth  that  day 

Among  his  brotherhood  in  sin, 
To  toil  with  them  he  went  his  way, 

Cheerful  without  and  calm  within  ; 
And  night,  returning,  brought  no  change- 

He  knew  the  justice  of  his  lot, 
And  to  its  mandate,  harsh  and  strange, 

He  meekly  bowed  and  murmured  not 


JACK  CANTEk. 

Thus  day  by  day,  each  morn  and  night, 

Sad,  but  resigned,  he  went  and  camej 
Still  me  urning  o'er  his  wretched  plight, 

He  buried  hopes  and  early  shame. 
Thus  months,  like  ages,  passed  away  ; 

A  change  came  o'er  the  convict  lad : 
Sometimes  his  heart  was  almost  gay, 

And  sometimes  very,  very  sad. 


And  often  by  the  night-lamp's  flame 
I  saw  his  youthful  features  wear 

A  vengeful  look  that  ill  became 
The  face  of  one  so  young  and  fair. 

T  knew  not  what  it  was  that  made 
His  heart  grow  colder  day  by  day  ; 

t  knew  not  why  his  hope  decayed, 
Nor  why  at  length  he  ceased  to  pray. 


But,  sometimes  in  his  absent  moods, 

With  flashing  eye  and  actions  strange, 
He  muttered  long,  like  one  who  broods 

O'er  bitter  wrongs  and  sweet  revenge. 
At  length  he  came  not  back  again — 

One  winter's  evening  black  and  chill 
I  watched  and  listened  all  in  vain — 

The  doors  were  closed,  and  all  was  still. 


The  morning  went  and  came  again, 

And  went  and  came  for  five  long  weeks, 

Ere  he  returned  sick  and  in  pain, 
With  sunken  eye  and  sallow  cheeks, 


JACK  CAMTE&. 

His  haggard  face  and  matted  hair 

With  dungeon  and  with  damp  iefilect-« 

The  hate,  the  anguish,  and  despair 
Seen  in  his  glances  fierce  and  wild  ; 


The  muttered  curses  deep  and  long, 

That  bubbled  up  at  every  breath 
And  told  a  tale  of  ruthless  wrong,         » 

Of  smothered  ire,  revenge,  and  death. 
Again  he  knelt,  but  not  in  prayer, 

And  called  on  God,  but  not  for  grac«t 
But  with  blasphemous  oaths,  to  swear 

Undying  vengeance  on  his  race. 


Calmly  he  laid  him  down,  as  lies 

The  weary  tiger  in  his  den  ; 
Calmly  in  sleep  he  closed  his  eyes, 

O'er  his  fell  purpose  brooding  then. 
But,  even  while  he  slumbered  there, 

His  injured  spirit  scorned  repose, 
And  other  scenes,  in  form  of  air, 

Around  the  restless  sleeper  rose. 


That  night  the  mystery  which  draped 

The  convict's  fearful  fate  was  broke^ 
And,  in  his  feverish  sleep,  escaped 

From  lips  that  all  unconscious  spoke. 
I  saw  the  secret  of  his  heart 

Bv  slow  and  sure  degrees  unfold, 
As,  night  by  night,  and  part  by  parts 

His  sad  and  cruel  tale  was  told. 


JACK  CANTER. 

Tbe  slave  of  men*  who  bought  and  sold 

Their  brother  fellows  for  a  price ; 
Whose  creed  is  gain,  whose  god  is  gold, 

Whose  virtue  is  another's  vice  ; 
Who  live  by  crime,  and  rave  and  storm 

At  those  who  hate  their  hellish  lust. 
Curse  God,  religion,  and  reform, 

And  all  that  makes  men  good  and  just  j 

Who  seemed  to  think  him  born  to  be 

The  slave  of  a  contractor's  will, 
To  doff  the  cap  and  bend  the  knee 

To  keeper's  manner,  viler  still. 
In  vain  he  sought  by  gentle  tones, 

Respectful  speech  and  humble  air, 
To  please  the  pompous,  senseless  drones 

Employed  to  drive  him  to  despair. 

In  vain  he  toiled  with  all  his  might 

Hi«  grinding  masters  to  appease  ; 
In  vain  he  wrought  from  morn  till  night, 

Heart-sick  and  wasted  by  disease. 
He  could  not  sate  their  thirst  for  gain, 

And  when  exhausted  nature's  store 
Of  strength  and  health  began  to  wane, 

They  never  ceased  to  cry  for  more  ; 

But  dragged  him  forth,  I  know  not  where, 
To  scenes  from  which  the  thoughts  recok. 

Till  death  should  free,  or  strong  despair 
Should  lend  him  energy  to  toil ; 

*  Contractor!, 


6S 


JACK  CANT  Alt. 

Or  torture's  keen sst,  fiercest  pain* 
Should  grind  his  very  soul  away, 

To  swell  a  grasping  miser' s  gains 
Or  swell  a  tyrant  jailor's  sway. 


He  spoke  of  dungeons  where  no  light 

Can  ever  pierce  the  noisome  gloom, 
Whose  icy  chill,  and  long,  long  night 

Outlive  the  horrors  of  the  tomb ; 
Where  time  appears  so  loth  to  leave, 

Each  moment  seems  an  age  of  care, 
And  noon  and  night,  and  morn  and  eve, 

Are  all  alike  to  dwellers  there  ; 


Where  the  lone  wretch  in  terror  quaked 

While  madness  darkened  o'er  his  brain. 
And  naught  the  deathless  stillness  waked 

Save  the  dull  clank  of  his  own  chain, 
As,  blindly,  fearfully,  he  groped 

In  solitude  complete,  profound  ; 
Or,  half- unconscious,  sat  and  moped 

Upon  the  cold  and  slimy  ground. 


He  spoke  with  agonizing  cries 

Of  tortures  pen  can  ne'er  depict, 
That  none  but  demons  could  devise, 

And  none  but  hell's  foul  fiends  inflict ; 
Now  writhing  as  in  mortal  pangs, 

Now  gasping  hurriedly  for  breath, 
Now  trembling  like  the  wretch  that  hangs 

Suspended  o'er  the  brink  of  death. 


JACK  CANTER.  69 

Defiant  now,  and  now  dismayed, 

Now  struggling  with  an  unseen  foe, 
He  smiled  and  frowned,  and  cursed  and  prayed, 

In  accents  piteous  and  low. 
So  day  by  day,  and  week  by  week, 

His  bed  the  grave-cold  granite  stones, 
While  hunger  gnawed  his  pallid  cheeic 

And  almost  bared  his  aching  bones. 


Debarred  the  sweet,  reviving  air, 

The  shining  sun  and  azure  sky, 
The  pale,  pale  victim,  in  despair, 

Outlived  the  death  he  longed  to  die. 
Thus,  often,  when  the  night  unrolled 

Its  sable  screen  o'er  land  and  sea, 
The  all-unconscious  dreamer  told 

Tlis  cruel  wrongs  to  God  and  me. 


And  while  he  muttered  in  his  sleep 

His  tale  of  sorrow  and  distress, 
1  knew  he  suffered  pains  too  deep 

For  pen  or  pencil  to  express. 
1  knew  it  by  the  sunken  eye, 

Distorted  face  and  blood-stained  lip, 
The  sweat,  the  tear,  the  groans,  the  crj 

Convulsive  grasp  and  death -like  grip. 


I  knew  it  by  the  heart's  hard  beat ; 

I  knew  it  by  the  bursting  brain ; 
I  knew  it  by  the  fever  heat 

That  burned  and  blazed  in  every 


JACK:  CANTER. 

I  knew  it  by  the  fearful  lines 
That  mortal  woe  and  anguish 

I  knew  it  by  the  thousand  signs 
Of  great  and  measureless  despair. 


How  changed  since  they  brought  him 

A  timid,  trembling,  weeping  boy — 
No  foes  to  hate,  and  none  to  fear, 

No  friends  to  grieve,  and  none  to  joy  ! 
Respectful,  willing,  meek,  benign, 

He  toiled  as  for  a  royal  crown — 
Rejoiced  by  an  approving  sign, 

Disheartened  by  an  angry  frown. 


As  pliant  as  the  potter's  clay, 

They  might  have  moulded  him  at  will 
For  honored  happiness,  had  they 

The  wish,  the  justice,  or  the  skill ; 
But  those  who  should  have  taught  his  min<ij 

By  precept  and  example  loud, 
Were  stone-blind  leaders  of  the  blind, 

Base,  overbearing,  lawless,  proud ; 

Exacting,  cruel,  harsh,  and  grim, 

In  Christ  no  hope,  in  heaven  no  share, 
They  went  not  in,  and  hindered  him 

Who  gladly  would  have  entered  there  , 
With  no  kind,  Christian  friend  to  steer 

His  drifting  bark  to  ports  above, 
No  eye  to  pity,  tongue  to  cheer, 

Or  loving,  kindred  heart  to  lore. 


CAtfTER.  71 


Condemned  to  herd  with  those  who  sought 

His  purer  nature  to  defile, 
Whose  every  word,  and  deed,  and  thought. 

Was  vile,  the  vilest  of  the  vile ; 
To  them,  the  vicious  and  depraved, 

In  his  extremity  he  turned  ; 
With  them  he  sought  the  cheer  he  craved, 

The  sympathy  for  which  he  yearned. 

They  welcomed  him  to  darker  shame, 

A  baser  life,  a  deeper  fall ; 
And  the  once  child-like  youth  became 

The  vilest,  sternest  of  them  all — 
Rebellious,  scornful,  fierce,  profane, 

Vindictive,  stubborn,  void  of  fear : 
Well  might  I  marvel  and  exclaim, 

How  changed  since  first  they  brought  him 


Time  went  as  time  has  always  went — 

In  pleasure  swift,  in  sorrow  slow ; 
And  soon,  unfettered  and  unspent, 

He  would  be  free  to  come  and  go. 
Enraptured  thought  ! — ah,  wonld  it  be? 

He  scarcely  dared  believe  it  so. 
But  time  rolled  on,  and  he  was  free ; 

Was  he  then  truly  happy  ?— No  ! 


No  !  life  had  nothing  left  for  him ; 

No  joy  to  lend,  no  boon  to  give  j 
He  could  not  sink,  he  could  not  swim, 

But  struggling,  dying,  doomed  to  In*  I 


72  JACK  CANTER: 

Yes,  live,  though  life's  bright  sun  hs*l  set; 

He  cared  not  how,  he  thought  not  why; 
He  knew  that  he  must  live,  and  yet 

Forget,  alas' I  that  he  must  die. 


I  saw  him,  when,  in  after  times, 

With  nothing  left  of  sin  to  learn, 
He  came  again,  for  darker  crimes, 

A  bearded  ruffian,  hard  and  stern. 
He  mocked  at  those  who  brought  him  back 

And  laughed  to  scorn  their  idle  threats. 
What  torture  from  his  frame  could  rack 

The  sum  of  his  unmeasured  debts  ? 


He  laughed  to  think  how  many  times 

He  sinned  unpunished  and  uncaught ; 
What  nameless  and  unnumbered  crimes 

That  red  right  hand  of  his  had  wrought. 
He  laughed  when  he  remembered  how 

His  wrongs  were  soothed  in  human  wcxs. 
And  he  but  one  lone  captive  now 

To  his  ten  thousand  thousand  foes 


He  cursed-  the  faithless  hopes  that  first 

His  too  confiding  heart  beguiled  j 
He  cursed  his  innocence,  he  cursed 

The  dreams  that  mocked  him  when  a  child 
He  cursed  his  lonely  prison  den, 

And  death,  hell,  and  the  grave  defied  ; 
He  cursed  himself  and  fellow-men ; 

He  cursed  his  Maker,  God — and  died. 


GHOST  OF  fHE  OLD  CA  THOLIC  CEME  TER  Y.      73 

The  world  will  never  know  the  wrong 

That  drives  its  erring  children  back 
To  deeper  crime  and  those  who  throng 

Destruction's  broad  and  beaten  track, 
'Twill  never  know  the  trusts  betrayed, 

The  worth  its  wolfish  tools  devour ; 
'Twill  never  know  the  prices  paid 

To  sate  the  cruel  pride  of  power  I 

JACK  CANTER. 
SING  SING,  Oct.  31,  1870. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE   GHOST  OF   THE    OLD    CATHOLIC    CEMETERY 

IT  would  be  a  surprise  to  the  general  public  if  the  rec- 
ords of  all  my  offices  could  be  thrown  open  for  in- 
spection, so  that  it  might  be  observed  what  a  wide  rangt 
has  been  covered  by  investigations  which  I  have  been 
called  upon  to  undertake — the  mysteries  to  unravel,  or 
crimes  to  prevent  or  unearth.  It  must  not  be  supposed 
that  the  services  of  my  agencies  are  wholly  devoted  to 
criminal  matters.  Some  of  the  most  important  legal  con- 
tests of  the  times  have  been  decided  in  accordance  with 
the  irresistible  array  of  evidence  which  a  small  army  of 
my  men  have  quietly,  keenly,  and  patiently  secured; 
while  the  operation  of  immense  business  interests,  like 
banking,  insurance,  and  railway  matters,  have  often  been 
interrupted  by  seemingly  inextricable  confusion  and  cow 
4 


74      GHOST  OF  THE  OLD  CA  THOLIC  CEME  2  ER  Y. 

plexity,  which  threatened  great  loss,  until  my  service  I 
were  asked ;  and  by  my  thorough  and  complete  system, 
through  which  almost  general  and  instant  communication 
and  information  can  be  secured,  I  have  been  enabled  to 
bring  order  out  of  chaos,  and  prevent  what  might  have 
otherwise  resulted  in  commercial  ruin  to  my  patrons. 
As  the  individual  detective's  notice  must  be  brought  to 
everything  great  and  small  upon  any  investigation  he  may 
be  conducting,  so  is  it  true  that  the  principal  of  a  large 
system  of  detective  agencies  must  be  so  situated  that  he 
may  consider  and  receive  every  possible  variety  of  busi- 
ness— always  excepting  that  which  is  disreputable — and 
then  have  means  at  his  command  to  carry  each  case, 
may  it  be  great  or  insignificant,  to  a  successful  issue. 

In  the  pursuit  of  these  cases  there  is  frequently  both 
tragedy  and  pathos ;  they  are  always  full  of  deep  and  fasci- 
nating interest  to  myself  and  my  operatives,  and  quite  fre- 
quently they  bring  to  the  surface  all  phases  of  ridiculous 
humor,  which  I  frequently  enjoy  to  the  greatest  possible 
degree. 

In  the  summer  of  1857  there  was  located,  along  the 
ihore  of  Lake  Michigan,  within  the  limits  of  the  city  of 
Chicago,  a  high,  narrow,  sandy  strip  of  land,  then  occu- 
pied as  a  cemetery,  known  as  the  "  Old  Catholic  Burymg- 
Ground,"  or  the  "  Old  French  Cemetery,"  from  the  fact 
that  within  it  reposed  the  remains  of  hundreds  who  had 
died  in  the  Catholic  faith,  as  well  as  large  numbers  of  the 
early  French  settlers  and  their  half-breed  progeny. 

Quaint  inscriptions  and  devices  were  there  seen?  and 


GHOS  T  OF  THE  OLD  CA  THOLIC  C  3.  ME  TER  Y.      75 

everywhere  upon  the  great  cenotaph  or  monument,  01 
upon  the  most  modest  of  graves,  the  cross,  in  every  man- 
ner of  design,  somber  with  black  paint  or  bright  with 
fanciful  colors,  or  still  white  in  chiseled  marble,  could  tx 
found. 

The  old  cemetery  has  since  been  removed ;  and  where 
once  stood,  in  silence  and  mournfulness,  the  city  of  the 
dead,  now  are  seen  splendid  mansions  of  the  rich,  with 
magnificent  gardens  and  conservatories,  or,  in  that  por 
tion  which  has  been  absorbed  by  Chicago's  beautiful  Lin- 
coln Park,  handsome  drives,  fine  fountains,  exquisite  lawn 
or  copse ;  and  over  all  the  old-time  somberness  has 
come  an  air  of  opulence,  beauty,  and  healthful  diversion. 
Scarcely  could  a  greater  change  anywhere  be  noted  than 
from  the  former  solemnity  and  desolation  to  the  present 
elegance  and  artistic  winsomeness. 

In  the  time  of  which  I  write  Chicago  was  much 
younger  than  now.  Twenty  years  have  made  the  then 
little  city  the  present  great  metropolis.  All  the  great  en- 
terprises which  now  distinguish  the  city  were  then  in  their 
infancy.  Particularly  were  all  institutions  of  learning 
having  a  hard  struggle  to  creep  along ;  and  the  medical 
schools,  then  just  started,  were  put  to  every  possible  shift 
for  the  funds  necessary  to  an  existence ;  and  there  being 
often  no  legal  provision  for  securing  "subjects"  foi  dis- 
section, the  few  students  pursuing  their  course  of  .itudy 
were  compelled  to  secure  these  essential  aids  to  theii 
work  by  grave-robbery,  that  greatest  and  rrost  horribk 
Desecration  imaginable. 


?6      GHOST  OF  THE  OLD  ~A  THOLIC  CEME  TER  Y. 

The  old  French  cemetery  being  situated  less  than  » 
mile  and  a  half  from  the  river — which  then  as  now  wis 
called  neaily  the  geographical  center  of  the  city—  th«j 
temptation  to  steal  newly-buried  bodies  from  so  conve 
nient  a  locality  proved  irresistible,  and  the  city  was  soon 
startled  by  a  succession  of  grave-robberies  which  excited 
general  indignation  and  alarm.  Coupled  with  this  indig 
nity  to  the  dead  and  the  friends  of  the  dead,  some  mali- 
cious persons  had  entered  the  cemetery  and  wantonly 
desecrated  graves  from  which  subjects  had  not  been 
taken. 

Some  held  that  this  had  been  caused  through  religious 
ill-feeling,  others  that  it  was  the  result  of  pure  mischief  or. 
the  part  of  such  persons  as  had  been  concerned  in  othei 
impudent  and  graceless  grave-robberies  ;  but  the  result 
of  it  all  was  that  so  much  public  wrangling  and  excite- 
riient  occurred  that  a  committee  of  prominent  gentlemen, 
including  some  of  the  city  officials,  called  upon  me,  and 
desired  me  to  take  such  measures  as  would  cause  a  cessa- 
tion of  the  outrages,  and  bring  to  punishment  whoever 
might  be  found  to  have  been  the  perpetrators  of  the 
same. 

While  such  was  the  result  of  the  operation,  it  is  omy 
my  purpose  here  to  relate  a  single  incident  of  the  many 
interesting  ones  which  transpired,  and  one  which,  while 
it  illustrates  the  ridiculous  length  of  absurdity  to  which 
an  inherent  superstition  and  a  hearty  fear  will  lead  theii 
possessor,  I  can  never  recall  without  almost  uncontrollable 
laughter. 


GHOST  OF  THE  OLD  CA  THOL2C  Ch  ME  TER  Y.     77 

My  plan  of  operations  was  as  follows  ? 

I  detailed  eight  men  from  my  force,  under  the  charge 
of  Timothy  Webster,  one  of  the  most  faithful  men  ever 
in  my  service — who,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  executed 
at  Richmond  as  a  Federal  spy  during  the  late  civil  war. 
These  were  so  stationed  that  every  entrance  to  the  ceme- 
tery should  be  guarded,  as  well  as  all  the  new-made 
graves  thoroughly  watched.  As  no  word  could  be  spoken 
lest  it  might  frighten  away  any  culprit  before  he  could  be 
captured,  I  found  it  absolutely  necessary  to  devise  some 
simple,  though  silent  and  effective  means  of  communica- 
tion. To  effect  this  I  decided  upon  using  several  sets 
of  heavy  chalk-lines,  such  as  are  generally  used  by  carpen- 
ters in  laying  out  work.  The  ends  of  each  line  were  at- 
tached to  small  stakes  driven  in  the  ground  about  three 
feet  apart.  The  operatives'  station  was  between  these 
stakes  ;  and,  in  order  that  every  man  should  be  forced  to 
not  only  remain  at  his  post,  but  remain  continually  awake 
and  vigilant,  I  required  the  line  to  be  gently  pulled  three 
times,  beginning  with  a  certain  post,  and  extending  rapidly, 
according  to  a  pre-arranged  plan,  and  the  same  signal 
repeated  after  a  lapse  of  about  one  minute,  in  reverse 
order.  This  was  the  general  signal  that  eve-y thing  was 
as  it  should  be,  and  nothing  new  had  transpired.  This 
was  repeated  every  fifteen  minutes,  so  that  by  no  possi 
bility  could  any  dereliction  of  duty  pass  undetected. 

Aside  from  this,  the  system  of  signals  compr'sed  means 
of  communicating  the  presence  of  any  outside  party,  at 
whatever  point  the  intruder  should  make  his  appearance,. 


/8      GHOST  OF  THE  OLD  CA  THOLIC  CEME  TER  Y. 

and  such  other  necessary  information  as  would  lead  to  a 
silent,  swift,  and  certain  capture  of  any  person  who  might, 
for  any  cause  whatever,  enter  the  cemetery, 

I  had  detailed  men  for  this  work  whom  I  fe?t  I  could 
rely  upon.  Simple  as  it  may  seem  to  one  who  has  neve: 
had  such  an  experience,  remaining  all  night  in  a  grave 
yard,  with  every  nerve  and  faculty  on  the  constant  qu 
vive  of  expectation,  is  not  such  pleasant  work  as  it  may  be 
supposed ;  and  though  the  novelty  of  the  affair,  coupled 
with  all  mannei  of  outlandish  jokes  upon  the  situation, 

kept  up  an  interest  which  lasted  a  few  nights,  I  began  to 

^ 
notice  signs  among  a  few  of  my  men  indicating  that  the 

solemnity  and  dread  of  the  situation  were  taking  the  place 
of  its  original  romance. 

Coupled  with  this,  there  were  among  these  eight,  as 
there  always  are  among  any  like  body  of  men  the  world 
over,  a  few  who,  like  myself,  began  to  notice  these  indi- 
cations of  weakness  on  the  part  of  the  more  susceptible 
among  them.  These  braver  fellows  immediately  com- 
menced, with  solemn  tones  and  long  faces,  to  relate  hob- 
goblin tales  of  ghosts  and  materialized  spirits  which  came 
from  their  silent  resting-places  for  unearthly  strolls  among 
them.  Although  I  put  a  stop  to  this  as  much  as  possi- 
ble, what  had  already  been  done  had  had  its  desired 
effect,  and  a  few  of  the  watchers  showed  well-defined 
evidences  of  genuine  fear,  and  to  such  an  extent  that  4 
was  finally  compelled  to  relieve  some  men,  and  All  theii 
places  with  others. 

Among  the  cemetery  detail   was  one  young  fellow 


GHOST  Of  THE  OLJ  CA1 HOLIC  CEM&  TER  Y.      79 

named  O'Grady,  a  genuine  son  of  the  Emerald  Isle,  who 
had  come  to  me  almost  direct  from  Ireland,  and  who, 
though  he  had  been  in  my  service  but  a  few  months,  had 
shown  native  traits  such  as  gave  promise  of  improve- 
ment and  advancement.  He  was  the  very  life  and  soul 
of  the  detective  rooms,  and  the  wonderful  tales  he  re- 
aied  of  himself,  his  ready  wit,  his  true  bravery  in  all 
places  wherever  he  had  been  previously  used,  and  his 
quick  generosity  toward  his  fellows,  had  given  him  an 
exalted  place  among  them. 

I  saw  that  O'Grady  was  weakening. 

He  tried  hard  not  to  show  it.  He  endeavored  to  look 
bright  and  spirited,  but  it  was  all  up-hill  work.  He 
began  to  get  thin  on  this  grave-yard  duty.  It  was  very 
reflective  work.  From  eight  to  ten  hours  utterly  alone, 
and  surrounded  by  everything  which  could  fill  one's  mind 
with  fear  and  dread,  had  its  effect.  His  natural  supersti- 
tion suddenly  developed  into  an  abnormal  and  unnatural 
dread,  which  to  the  ignorant  fellow  seemed  to  become 
almost  overwhelming.  Had  he  not  been  such  a  hero  in 
his  own  eyes,  I  am  certain  that  I  could  not  but  have 
relented  ;  but,  under  the  circumstances,  I  confess  that  I 
neartily  enjoyed  his  forlorn  appearance  as  he  dejectedly 
left  the  Agency  to  take  up  his  all-night's  vigil,  which  un- 
doubtedly soon  became  a  genuine  terror  to  him. 

Having  carried  the  matter  so  far,  the  spirit  of  innocent 
mischief  and  practical  joking,  which  has  always  been 
strong  within  me,  as  many  of  my  personal  friends  lon| 
»go  discovered,  prompted  we  §till  further, 


8O     GHOST  OF  THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  CEMETFR  Y,  ' 

I  determined  to  play  ghost  for  one  night,  show  O'Grady 
a  genuine  goblin,  and  put  his  often-told  tales  of  personal 
bravery  to  a  practical  test. 

Accordingly,  giving  out  at  the  Agency  that  I  should  be 
absent  at  a  neighboring  town  for  the  night,  before  snn- 
down  I  secured  a  private  conveyance  which  took  me  to 
a  point  along  the  lake  shore,  about  a  mile  beyond  the  old 
Catholic  Cemetery ;  and  then,  before  the  time  for  the  detail 
to  go  on  duty  came,  disguised  all  that  was  necessary  to 
prevent  recognition  by  any  chance  stroller,  I  hastily  re- 
turned to  the  cemetery  through  the  heavy  copse  of  scrub- 
oak  and  willow  that  then  lined  the  shore  at  that  point, 
and,  entering  the  place  unobserved  just  as  the  twilight 
began  to  gather  heavily,  secreted  myself  within  a  heavy 
clump  of  arbor  vita  ornamenting  a  family,  lot,  not  over 
twenty  feet  from  the  point  where  I  had  previously  learned 
that  O'Grady  was  stationed  each  night. 

I  had  no  time  to  spare,  for  I  had  thus  hardly  be- 
come one  of  the  cemetery  watchers  before,  one  by  one, 
and  all  in  stealth,  the  men  began  coming  in  from  every 
direction,  but  so  secretly  and  carefully  that  they  might 
have  been  mistaken,  by  one  not  informed  of  their  pur- 
pose, for  ghosts  or  grave-robbers  themselves,  while  Tim- 
othy Webster  noiselessly  sped  from  point  to  point, 
stretching  the  line  which  held  the  men  silently  to  their 
work. 

I  could  have  touched  the  fellow  as  he  passed  me.  ID 
fact,  ar.  almost  irresistible  desire  seized  me  to  plav  Puck, 
sped  by,  am}  trip  him  among  the  damp,  dark  weeds 


GHOST  OF  THE  OLD  CA THOLIC  CEMETER  Y.      8 1 

Pretty  soon  O'Grady  came  to  his  station,  groaning  ano 
muttering. 

As  soon  as  the  dark  came  down  upon  the  old  cemetery 
I  left  my  hiding-place  and  got  in  line  with  the  tell-tale 
string. 

O'Grady  was  busy  saying  his  prayers,  and  of  course  did 
not  hear  me  rustling  about  in  the  long  grass. 

My  first  impulse  was  to  grab  a  cross  from  some  old- 
time  grave,  and  toss  it,  over  the  stones,  in  upon  him  ; 
but  by  great  effort  I  suppressed  this,  and  soon  found  my- 
self sitting  in  a  hollow  between  two  mounds,  with  my 
hand  upon  the  lirie. 

"One,  two,  three  !" — jerk,  jerk,  jerk,  went  the  line: 
the  first  signal  was  being  given. 

My  hand  touched  the  line  as  lightly  and  yet  as  know- 
ingly as  the  telegraph  operator's  fingers  touch  his  well- 
known  instrument ;  but  I  made  no  sign  of  my  presence. 

O'Grady  answered  the  signal  loyally  ;  but  scarcely  was 
his  duty  done  in  this  respect  before  he  began  a  sort  of  a 
low,  crooning  wail,  half  like  a  mother's  lullaby,  half  like  a 
"keen"  at  a  wake. 

"  Why  did  I  lave  ye,  ye  green  ould  sod  ?  Why  did  I 
iave  ye,  ye  dear  old  bogs  ?  Why  did  I  lave  ye,  ye  blue- 
eyed  swateheart  ?  Feule  I  am  that  I  came  to  the  divil's 
ould  boy,  Phinkerton !  Feule  I  am  that  I  sit  here  by  the 
blissed  crosses  av  the  dead,  waitin'  for  the  ghouls  to  rob  I 
Och,  murther  !  happy  I'll  be  if  the  whole  blissed  place  ia 
tuk  away !  " 

"  One,  twp,  three  !" — jerk,  jerk,  jerk,  came  the  signJ 


82     6#dsf  Of  Ttf£  OLD  CATHOLIC  CEMETERY. 

again,  while  O'Grady  answered  it,  as  I  could  feel,  with  an 
impatient  response. 

After  this,  for  a  time,  the  brave  Irish  guardsman 
weaved  back  and  forth  upon  the  grave  where  he  was  sit- 
ting ;  when  suddenly,  to  my  horror,  he  lighted  his  pipe 
and  began  smoking. 

I  knew  the  man  had  become  desperate  in  his  loneliness, 
and  had  arrived  at  a  point  of  feeling  where  he  was  u* 
terly  regardless  of  the  success  of  the  operation ;  and  if  I 
had  felt  sure  of  this  when  he  recklessly  lighted  his  du 
dheen,  I  could  not  but  realize  it  to  my  sorrow  when,  in 
the  glow  of  his  roaring  pipe,  I  could  see  that  he  followed 
his  solace  of  tobacco  by  a  more  substantial  quieter  of 
superstition  and  fear  from  a  black  bottle,  which  the  bold 
O'Grady  had  conveniently  set,  after  each  passage  to  his 
rjps,  upon  the  base  of  the  monument  above  the  grave 
where  he  was  sitting. 

I  was  indignant,  and  yet  interested.  I  felt  like  drag- 
ging the  brave  O'Grady  from  his  comfortable  quarters  to 
give  him  a  good  drubbing  for  his  utter  carelessness  of 
the  interests  of  the  operation,  and  I  am  certain  that  in 
my  then  state  of  mind  1  would  have  done  so  if  my 
desire  to  nearly  scare  the  life  out  of  him  had  not  been 
uppermost. 

Outside  of  the  fussing  and  wailing  of  the  O'Grady, 
there  were  no  other  but  unpleasant  surroundings  i:i  the 
old  Catholic  Cemetery.  No  v  and  then  the  ghostly  hoot 
of  the  owl  sounded  weirdly  from  the  surrounding  tree- 
tops.  From  the  low  copses  beyond  came  the  mournfuJ 


GHOST  Of  THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  CEMETERY.      %$ 

cry  of  the  whip-poor-will.  And  down  along  the  silvery 
beach  of  the  shore,  which  gleamed  and  darkened  as  the 
new  moon  appeared,  or  was  obscured  for  a  time  behind 
the  darkening  clouds,  floated  up  and  over  the  dreary  place 
the  sad  and  ghostly  beating  of  the  waves  upon  the  beach. 

It  was  a  lonesome  place,  and  it  began  to  occur  to  me 
that  I  would  not  care  to  pass  many  nights  in  such  a  man- 
ner  myself;  but,  under  the  circumstances,  I  saw  that  Mr 
O'Grady  had  fixed  himself  about  as  comfortably  as  it 
well  could  be  done.  Every  time  the  signal  was  given, 
Mr.  O'Grady  would  respond,  when  he  would  immediately 
recollect  that  his  good  bottle  stood  idle  beside  him. 
After  a  little  he  seemed  to  become  so  lonesome  anC 
dejected  that  he  began  a  sort  of  conversation,  in  a  lov» 
tone,  with  himself,  in  which  he  compelled  the  bottle. 
ly  proxy,  to  join,  all  after  the  following  fashion  : 

(t  An'  it's  a  big  feule  ye  are,  O'Grady.  If  it  were  not 
for  meself  that's  thakin'  pity  on  yez,  ye'd  be  dead  en- 
thirely." 

"Ah,  faith!"  Mr.  O'Grady  would  reply,  with  a  sigh, 
"  fchrue  for  ye,  thrue  for  ye  !  If  I  ever  get  out  of  this 
divel's  own  schrape,  ould  Phinkerton  '11  never  get  me  in 
the  loikes  again  !  " 

'*  So  ye  say  !  so  ye  say,  O'Grady;  but  yer  always  and 
foriver  resolvin',  and  ye  come  to  nothin'  in  tae  ind  i " 

"  Don't  be  worryin'  and  accusin'  me,  me  dear  boy. 
This  schrape  wid  the  graves  will  be  me  last.  By  the  rock 
of  Cashel!  phat's  that?" 

This  last  exclamation  from  Mr.  O'Grady,  A'hich  was  ii 


84    Gffosr  OF  THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  CEMETEK.  y 

a  tone  of  great  alarm,  was  caused  by  my  displacing  a 
small  foot-stone,  which  fell  from  the  elevation  of  the 
graded  mound  with  a  sharp  crash  upon  the  graveled 
walk  below. 

I  had  got  my  sheet  well  adjusted,  and  had  intended  mov- 
ing upon  the  scared  Irishman  atone  rush;  but  his  terribly 
frightened  manner  and  the  unfortunate  falling  of  the  foot- 
stone  caused  me  to  change  my  plan  and  decide  to  bring 
on  the  climax  in  a  gradual  accumulation  of  horrors.  Sc 
I  gave  a  well-defined  moan,  and  watched  for  the  results. 

Mr.  O'Grady  listened  for  a  moment,  as  if  hoping  that 
he  had  been  deceived;  but  I  could  see  in  the  faint  light, 
to  which  my  eyes  had  become  accustomed,  that  he  was 
trembling  violently.  He  applied  his  bottle  to  his  lips, 
and  its  mouth  rattled  against  his  teeth  as  he  did  so. 

Another  prolonged  and  blood-curdling  moan  came 
from  the  cluster  of  arbor  vita.  This  caused  Mr.  O'Grady 
to  industriously  begin  crossing  himself,  and  at  the  same 
time  mutter  some  prayers  as  rapidly  as  his  half-drunken 
lips  could  dole  them  out. 

I  saw  that  this  should  not  be  too  far  prolonged,  for  the 
poor  coward  might  give  the  danger  signal,  which  would 
at  once  bring  a  half-dozen  stalwart  fellows  upon  us  ;  and 
so,  while  in  his  abject  fear  he  was  pleading  with  all  the 
saints  in  the  calendar  for  protection,  I  suddenly  rose  in 
my  ghostly  attire  and  in  a  moment  was  upon  him,  waving 
my  arms  and  gesticulating  very  savagely  for  any  sort  of 
ghost  that  was  ever  manufactured,  vut  never  ttering  a 
word. 


THE  OLD  CA  THOUC  CEME  TER  Y.      8  $ 

"  Holy  mother  of  Moses  !"  yelled  O'Grady,  springing 
wildly  into  the  air,  and  turning  a  complete  back  somer- 
sault over  the  base  of  an  uncompleted  monument  while 
I  sprang  after  him. 

"  Murther  !  Help  !  Murther  !  "  howled  O'Grady,  re- 
covering, and  bounding  like  a  deer  over  four  graves  at  a 
leap  ;  while  I  could  see,  as  I  flew  after  him,  that  my  oper- 
atives were  hastening  to  the  rescue. 

I  could  not  help  but  know  that  grave  consequences 
might  follow  my  unusual  action  ;  but  a  wild,  boyish,  and 
uncontrollable  desire  to  pursue  the  flying  O'Grady  sud- 
denly possessed  me,  and  for  the  time  overcame  all  other 
motives. 

And  so  away  we  went  together  ! 

Mounds,  headstones,  clumps  of  evergreens,  newly-dug 
graves,  wheelbarrows,  and  grave-diggers'  litters  were 
cleared  as  though  we  two  were  fox-hounds  at  a  chase. 
Some  sort  of  instinct  for  safety  seemed  to  direct  the  wild 
O'Grady  toward  the  western  boundary  of  the  cemetery ; 
and  away  he  went,  howling  and  yelling  at  every  jump, 
but  increasing  his  speed  at  each  terrified  glimpse  of  the 
relentless  ghost  behind  him. 

Over  the  fence  he  went  at  a  bound,  cursing  and  pray 
ing  at  every  gasp.  I  was  younger  then  a  score  of  years, 
hardy  and  agile,  and  I  now  saw  a  two-fold  reason  for 
keeping  pretty  well  upon  the  heels  »f  O'Grady.  My 
operatives  were  in  full  pursuit,  and  "  Halt,  halt,  halt ! " 
was  heard  on  every  side  ;  and  so,  making  a  running 
jump  of  it,  although  my  ghostly  toggery  impeded  me 


£      GHOST  OF  THE  OLD  CATHOLIC  CEMETERY. 

somewhat,  I  managed  to  get  over  the  fence  with  quite  at 
much  grace  and  agility  as  the  wild  Irishman  in  advance, 
It  was  well  that  I  did  so,  for  at  that  moment  I  could  see 
the  flash  of  several  pistols  lighting  the  sky  behind,  and 
instantly  after  heard  the  whispering  of  several  bullets 
within  dangerous  proximity  to  my  person.  Over  the 
fence  scrambled  my  men  in  hot  pursuit,  but  swift  on  the 
wings  of  terror  and  fear  sped  the  horrified  O'Grady  ;  and> 
never  for  an  instant  relinquishing  what  were  certainly  un- 
usual exertions  on  my  own  part,  I  sped  on  wildly  after  him. 
We  soon  outdistanced  my  operatives  so  much  that  I 
could  see,  as  I  ran,  that  they  were  compelled  to  give  up 
the  chise  and  return  defeated;  but  the  witless  O'Grady 
and  his  vengeful  ghost  still  swept  on  and  on.  That  part 
of  the  city,  then  containing  but  a  few  scattering  resi- 
dences, was  soon  passed,  and  O'Grady  and  the  ghost 
continued  the  trial  of  speed  out  across  the  open  prairie, 
still  to  the  northwest.  This  was  traversed  in  the  most 
^markable  time  ever  made,  O'Grady  still  yelling  and 
cursing  and  praying,  but  the  ghost,  ever  silent  and  relent- 
less, not  far  behind  ;  when  suddenly  we  came  to  the  north 
branch  cf  the  Chicago  River,  then  hardly  more  than  a 
creek,  into  which,  with  a  wild  cry  of  despair,  the  Irishman 
plunged,  swimming  and  scrambling  to  the  other  side  just 
as  I  had  reached  the  shore,  where  I  gave  another  spurt 
to  his  speed  by  an  unearthly  yell,  whici  seemed  to  send 
the  man  on  still  faster,  if  it  could  be  possible  ;  and  the 
last  I  heard  of  O'Grady  he  was  tearing  and  bounding 
through  the  hazel  brush  like  a  mad  bull  beyond. 


GHOST  OF  THE  OLD  CA  THOLIC  CEMETERY.      8/ 

So  far  as  I  know,  O'Grad)  is  still  running. 

He  has  never  been  heard  of  by  me  or  any  of  my  many 
employees.  Though  I  adver.ised  for  him  repeatedly,  no 
answer  ever  came  ;  and  if  any  one  of  my  readers,  whose 
eyes  may  chance  to  fall  upon  this  sketch,  can  prove  tha; 
he  is  the  veritable  O'Grady,  he  can  have  the  small 
amount  of  salary  still  standing  to  his  credit  on  my  books, 
which  has  so  far  been  wholly  unclaimed. 

After  a  hearty  laugh  on  the  shore  of  the  North  Branch, 
I  cast  my  ghostly  attire  upon  the  prairie,  and,  utterly 
tired  and  exhausted,  plodded  back,  through  the  darkness, 
to  the  city,  taking  lodgings  at  an  out-of-the  way  hotel  for 
the  balance  of  the  night,  and  was  ready  for  business  as 
usual  at  my  office  in  the  morning. 

Never  were  there  seven  more  perplexed  men  than 
those  who  reported  the  mystery  of  the  night  previous  at 
the  Old  Catholic  Cemetery. 

O'Grady  was  gone — that  was  certain.  His  cries  for 
help  had  been  heard.  His  wild  flight,  pursued  by  a  veri- 
table giiost,  which  could  be  vouched  for  by  those  who 
had  attempted  its  capture,  was  related.  There,  at  the 
mound  of  the  uncompleted  monument,  were  found  a 
nearly  empty  whisky-bottle  and  a  still  smoldering  pipe. 
But  this  was  all  that  was  known  by  the  honest  fellows,  of 
will  be  known,  until  this  sketc'.  is  given  to  he  public,  of 
the  Ghost  of  the  Old  Catholic  Cemetery, 


88         BURGLARS1    TRICKS    UPON  BL'XGLAKS. 

CHAPTER  IV 
BURGLARS'  TRICKS  UPON  BURGLARS. 

f~*  RIMINALS  not  only  are  very  ingenious  in  theil 
^— /  schemes  against  the  general  public,  but  they  fre- 
quently show  considerable  skill  and  a  certain  grade  of 
quiet  humor  in  well-laid  plans  against  each  other. 

An  instance  of  the  kind  happened  in  this  wise : 

In  1875,  Scott  and  Dunlap — the  famous  bank  robbers 
who  robbed  the  Northampton  National  Bank  of  nearly  a 
million  dollars,  and  who  are  now  behind  the  bars  of  the 
penitentiary  of  that  State,  through  the  efforts  of  my 
Agencies — had  laid  their  plans  to  rob  a  certain  up-town 
New  York  city  bank. 

George  Miles,  alias  Bliss,  alias  White,  the  notorious 
Max  Shinburne's  old  partner,  and  his  party  were  con- 
cocting a  like  operation  for  relieving  a  down-town  bank 
of  its  capital. 

Now  it  was  found  by  the  Miles  party  that  both  banki 
were  to  be  robbed  in  like  manner,  by  that  very  popular 
method  of  "bank-bursting,"  which  consists  of  renting  a 
room  or  rooms  above  those  occupied  by  a  bank,  and 
then,  if  possible,  tunneling  through  into  its  vaults  or 
into  the  bank  offices,  and  then  breaking  into  the  vaults 
in  the  regular  manner, 

Miles  saw  that,  if  the  Scott-Dunlap  gang  should  hap 


BURGLARS'    TRICKS   UPON  BURGLARS          89 

pen  to  first  complete  their  job,  the  publicity  given  the 
method  employed  would  set  every  bank  officer  in  New 
York  investigating  the  possibility  of  a  like  misfortune, 
and  thus  defeat  his  own  purpose.  He  accordingly  took 
two  of  his  men,  who  were  wholly  unknown  to  the  other 
party,  provided  them  with  complete  police  uniforms  and 
clubs,  and,  at  a  suitable  time  after  nightfall,  stationed 
them  in  hiding  behind  the  up-town  bank,  and  when  the 
members  of  the  Scott-Dimlap  party  approached  the  build- 
ing "  to  pipe  it  off,"  or  take  observations,  tfcey  were  of 
course  recognized  by  Miles'  policemen,  who  drove  them 
away. 

The  Scott-Dunlap  party  were  now  in  utter  consterna- 
tion. They  felt  certain  that  their  scheme  had  been  dis- 
covered, or  at  least  that  the  officers  of  the  bank  had 
had  their  suspicions  in  some  manner  awakened,  and  cer- 
tainly to  that  extent  which  would  make  their  project  im- 
possible. 

To  put  the  matter  to  further  test,  on  the  succeeding 
night  other  of  their  men  were  instructed  to  "  pipe  off" 
the  place  still  more  cautiously.  But  these  too  were  dis- 
covered by  Miles'  vigilant  but  bogus  police,  given  chase 
to,  and  unmercifully  clubbed. 

This  delayed  matters  with  Scott  and  Dunlap  until 
Miles  and  his  party,  the  chief  members  of  which  con- 
sisted of  George  Miles,  "  Pete  "  Curly,  and  "  Sam  "  Per 
ris,  alias  *•  Wooster  Sam,"  got  everything  ready  for  theii 
attack  on  the  down-town  Dank,  which  was  located  within 
one  block  of  the  First  District  police-station  a:  id  within 


9°  SHERIDAN,    THE 

the  same  distance  of  my  New  York  office,  at  No.  66  EJ 
change  Place. 

In  the  meantime,  it  is  thought,  the  Scott-DunUp 
party  had  learned  of  the  down-town  scheme,  and  cause  J 
information  to  be  given,  and  before  the  Miles  party  had 
got  fairly  at  work  they  were  pounced  upon  by  the  police. 

A  lively  fight  ensued,  and,  although  considerable  shoot- 
ing was  done,  the  entire  party  of  burglars  escaped,  so 
that  two  great  bank  burglaries,  where  very  probably  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  dollars  in  cash  and  bonds  would 
have  been  secured,  were  prevented  through  nothing  more 
ar  less  than  what  was  hoped  to  be  a  very  excellent  trick 
by  one  notorious  set  of  rogues  upon  another. 


CHAPTER  V. 

SHERIDAN,   THE    FORGER. 


was  born,  near  Sandusky,  Ohio,  in  the  yeai 
A  1838,  an  adventurous  lad  named  Walter  Eastman 
Sheridan.  His  people  were  plain  but  intelligent  farmers, 
and,  while  not  possessed  of  an  over-supply  of  means,  .had 
considerable  pride  in  the  boy,  ga\e  him  a  liberal  educa- 
tion, and  destined  him,  as  fond  parents  sually.  do,  foi 
some  very  bright  career  in  life. 

He  remained  at  home  until  about  fourteen  years  of 
ige,  wherj  its  restraints  became  too  i  1  some,  an  J  full  of 


SHERIDAN,    THE  FORGER.  9* 

An  adventurous  spirit,  and  feeling  able  to  take  caie  ot 
himself  in  the  world,  he  d!d  what  thousands  of  boys  did 
before  him  with  various  results — he  "ran  away"  from 
home  to  seek  his  fortunes  in  the  then  brilliant  and  fasci- 
nating city  of  St.  Louis. 

Here  he  secured  employment ;  but,  being  without  ft 
home  and  its  healthful  influences,  soon  fell  into  bad  com- 
pany. He  was  a  bright,  pleasant-faced  fellow ;  but  as  he 
was  "  too  independent  "  to  return  to  his  friends  or  accept 
their  advice,  little  tricks  were  soon  resorted  to,  and  the 
boy  readily  saw  that  it  was  an  easy  matter  to  win  the  con- 
fidence of  those  with  whom  he  came  in  contact,  and  be- 
fore he  had  become  eighteen  years  of  age  he  was  an 
adept  in  the  art  of  living  genteelly  from  forced  public 
contributions  of  a  varied  character. 

His  first  crime,  or  rather  the  first  crime  for  which  he 
was  tried,  was  for  horse-stealing  at  St.  Louis,  in  1858. 
He  was  convicted,  and,  while  awaiting  sentence,  broke 
jail  and  escaped  to  Chicago. 

Being  a  dashing,  rosy-cheeked  fellow  of  elegant  ad- 
dress, after  he  had  been  in  that  city  for  a  time,  he  b> 
came  the  pupil  of  Joe  Moran,  a  noted  confidence  man 
and  hotel  thief,  the  couple  doing  a  neat  and  thrifty  busi- 
ness from  the  beginning. 

Sheridan  proved  so  pat  about  everything  he  did,  and 
exhibited  such  aptness  and  delicate  judgment  in  every- 
thing he  undertook,  that  the  pair  continued  in  partner- 
ship nearly  three  years,  woiking  the  hotels  of  Chicago 
$i)d  neighboring  citiest  but  \v\  \\\$  <?ajly  part  of 


92  SHERIDAN,    THE  FORGER. 

were  arrested  in  the  act  of  robbing  the  guests'  rooms  at 
the  old  Adams  House  in  that  city.  They  were  both  con- 
victed, and  given  three  years  each  at  the  Illinois  Peniten- 
tiary, then  located  at  Alton. 

The  two  men,  after  serving  this  term,  retained  to 
Chicago  together,  Moran  soon  dying  of  some  disease 
brought  on  by  prison  exposure,  while  Sheridan  resumed 
the  same  class  of  operation  with  the  then  notorious  men 
of  the  same  ilk,  Emmett  Lytle,  Matt  Duffy,  and  John 
Supple. 

But  Sheridan,  being  a  young  man  of  good  mind,  some- 
what cultivated  tastes,  and  large  ambition,  notwithstand- 
ing his  reprehensible  calling,  soon  tired  of  the  low  asso- 
ciations necessary  to  this  standard  of  villainy,  broke  with 
hie  old  companions,  and  took  a  step  higher  in  the  profes- 
sion, becoming  the  "  brains "  and  leader  of  "  bank- 
sneaks,"  consisting  of  the  notorious  Joe  Butts,  Tom  Par 
rell,  alias  "  Pretty  Tom,"  and  others,  and  for  some  time 
the  party  did  a  very  successful  business,  the  elegant  and 
refined  Sheridan  acting  as  "  stall." 

As  many  of  my  readers  may  not  be  very  familiar  vri'.K 
criminals  and  their  modes  of  pr<  cedure,  I  will  explain 
what  a  "  stall "  is  in  connection  with  the  neat  work  t\ 
"bank-sneak  gangs." 

To  begin  with,  the  "  gang  "  is  the  party  generally  con 
sisting  of  about  three  to  five  persons  working  together 
As  a  rule,  these  persons  are  gentlemen  of  elegant  leisuret 
secure  large  plunder,  and  have  plenty  of  time  to  devote-  to 
acquainted  with  the  workings  of  a  bank,  famU 


SHERII  AN,    THE  FOhGER.  93 

lar  with  the  faces  and  habits  of  its  officers,  ~s  also  of 
many  of  the  heavier  depositors;  and  when  reidy  foi 
work  have  quite  as  much  knowledge  of  the  inter! 01 
arrangements  of  the  bank  as  many  of  its  employees. 
Though  there  are  numberless  modes  of  accomplishing  the 
same  thing,  the  following  instances  will  serve  as  illustra- 
tive of  them  all. 

A  gentleman  who  has  business  stamped  in  every  line  of 
his  face  and  article  of  his  clothing,  steps  into  a  bank  about 
noon,  when  the  officers  and  several  of  the  clerks  are  gen- 
erally at  lunch,  and  either  presents  a  forged  letter  of  in- 
troduction or  in  some  other  manner  compels  the  respect  • 
ful  attention  of  the  cashier,  or  teller,  as  the  case  may  be. 

He  will  very  probably  produce  a  figuring-block  or  tab- 
let upon  which  are  various  memoranda  and  figures,  and, 
while  asking  questions  very  rapidly  and  interrupting  them 
quite  as  abruptly,  conveys  to  the  teller,  who  has  already 
become  somewhat  distracted,  the  information  that  he,  as 
the  trustee  for  something  or  somebody,  has,  we  will  say 
twenty  thousand  dollars  in  five-twenty  bonds  to  invest  in 
different  securities,  and  desires  five  thousand  dollars  in 
gold,  five  thousand  dollars  in  seven -forties,  five  thousand 
doilars  in  ten-twenties,  and  five  thousand  dollars  in  some 
lailroad  stock  or  other. 

7'nis  affords  the  cashier,  or  teller,  a  series  of  delicate, 
if  not  difficult,  calculations,  anj  all  this  time  the  business- 
like "  trustee  " — who  is  none  other  than  the  "  stall  " — is 
annoying  him  with  questions,  suggestions,  and  probably 
other  orders  as  to  the  character  of  the  investment  desired. 


94  SttERlDAtf,    Tti£  PORG&R. 

so  that  the  teller's  whole  attention  is  absolutely  requLcd 
to  follow  the  customer's  whims  and  his  own  calculations. 

This  is  exactly  what  has  been  striven  for  by  the  "  stall," 
and  his  eminence  in  his  profession  is  in  just  the  proportion 
to  his  ability  to  accomplish  this,  whatever  be  the  means 
he  may  employ  in  doing  it. 

But  before  this  "stall"  begins  playing  the  "trustee/* 
01  other  game,  three  of  his  companions,  or  pals,  called 
"pipers,"  are  on  the  look  out  for  the  approach  of  any  of 
the  bank  officers  or  employees,  and  are  ready  to  sound  a 
signal  at  the  approach  of  the  slightest  cause  for  alarm ; 
and  sometimes  other  "  stalls  "  are  stationed  in  the  bank 
wherever  necessary  ;  while,  at  a  given  signal,  the  "  sneak," 
who  is  generally  a  nimble  little  fellow,  slips  behind  the 
partition  through  some  open  door,  or  sometimes  through 
open  windows,  and  thence  into  the  bank-vault,  where  he 
secures  his  plunder,  which  is  usually  large,  because  th: 
thieves  have  taken  time  to  make  the  operation  a  success. 

After  the  "  sneak  "  is  well  away,  the  "  stalls  "  draw  off, 
so  as  not  to  excite  suspicion,  and  the  "trustee,1'  after 
thankfully  receiving  the  teller's  calculations  and  agreeing 
to  return  with  the  bonds  to  effect  the  desired  exchange 
before  the  close  of  banking  hours,  takes  his  departure. 
The  entire  job  is  done  in  ten  or  fifteen  minutes,  and  fre 
quently  the  loss  is  not  discovered  for  days. 

Another  game  of  the  "  bank-sneak  gang,"  but  one  whicn 
requires  far  more  nerve,  assurance,  and  personal  bravery 
though  far  less  tact  and  skill,  is  to  become  cognizant  of 
parties  making  heavy,  deposits  at  a  late  hour,  when  every 


SHERIDAN,    THE   FORGER.  95 

thing  is  rushing  about  the  bank  and  the  check  desks  are 
crowded. 

In  this  instance,  the  sneak,  with  a  bogus  bank  book  in 
his  hand,  and  with  a  business-like  air  aboiu  .iim,  taps  some. 
gentleman  with  a  flush  deposit  in  Vis  hand  lightly  on  the 
shoulder,  and  politely  calls  his  attention  to  the  fact  thai 
he  has  dropped  some  money.  Looking  upon  the  floor, 
the  latter  sees  a  genuine  ten-dollar  bill  (which  the  sneak 
has  dexterously  dropped  there,  of  course),  anu  bends  over 
to  pick  it  up,  leaving  his  book  and  deposit  upon  the 
check-desk. 

In  an  instant  the  polite  gentleman  has  the  money  left 
upon  the  desk  and  is  upon  the  street,  while  the  robbed 
arid  astounded  depositor  recovers  himself  and  gives  chase ; 
he  is  apparently  accidentally,  but  very  effectually,  impeded 
by  other  gentlc'men  (all  pals  of  the  sneak),  who  run  into 
him  and  beg  his  pardon  in  the  most  natural  manner  pos- 
sible, giving  the  party — who  had  invested  merely  a  ten- 
dollar  bill  and  a  little  politeness,  and  who  may  have 
secured  several  thousand  dollars — ample  time  to  escape. 

I  could  fill  pages  with  instances  of  this  kind,  but  will 
only  mention  a  few  of  the  heavier  robberies  of  late  years, 
whi;h  were  all  committed  in  this  manner,  all  of  which  are 
probably  still  fresh  in  the  public  mind.  They  are  : 

The  noted  Lord  bond  robbery,  where  a  million  and  a 
half  dollars  were  taken ;  the  Royal  Insurance  Company 
robbery,  over  a  half-million  dollars  being  taken  •  Camber- 
ing &  Pine,  New  York  brokers,,  r  >bbed  of  t»/o  hundred 
thousand  dollars ;  Litchmere  Bank,  East  Cambridge, 


$6  StiERIbAtf,    THE 

Mass.,  seventy-five  thousand ;  the  recent  robbery  oi 
Jarnes  H.  Young,  of  New  York,  by  the  "  Little  Horace  " 
Hovan  party,  of  five  hundred  thousand ;  the  Canal  Bank, 
of  New  Orleans,  in  1872,  sixty-five  thousand  ;  paymaster's 
office  of  the  Grand  Trunk  Railway,  Montreal,  twenty- 
five  thousand ;  Adams  Express  Company's  office,  at  Cin- 
cinnati, ten  thousand ;  First  National  Bank,  of  Council 
Bluffs,  Iowa,  twenty  thousand  ;  and  so  on,  ad  infinitum. 

Sheridan  and  his  party  worked  this  line  of  business — 
robbing  banks  at  Chicago,  Cincinnati,  Louisville,  St. 
Louis,  and  other  large  cities — until  1865,  when  he  sepa- 
rated from  these  fellows,  seeking  more  high-toned  com- 
panions, and  was  taken  on  by  George  Williams,  alias 
"  English  George,"  a  widely-known  thief  and  bank-robber. 
Williams  had  had  his  eye  upon  the  young  criminal  for 
some  time,  and,  admiring  his  shrewdness,  audacity,  and 
tact,  took  him  into  his  Eastern,  operations,  where  he  did 
such  good  work  that  in  1867  he  was  known  to  be  worth 
fully  seventy-five  thousand  dollarn. 

A  little  later  he  participated  in  the  robbing  of  the 
Maryland  Fire  Insurance  Company,  of  Baltimore,  acting 
OS  "  stall "  when  his  party  crowded  the  office  and  secured 
apward  of  seventy-five  thousand  dollars  in  money  an.' 
negotiable  bonds. 

Not  one  cent  of  this  money  was  recovered,  nor  were 
any  of  the  robbers  captured. 

One  of  the  neatest  robberies  Sheridan  ever  engaged 
in  was  that  of  United  States  Judge  Blatchforl,  at  &n 
apple-stand  in  New  York  city. 


SHERIDAtf,    THE  FOttGEK.  97 

The  Judge  was  sauntering  along  the  street,  and  feeling 
like  partaking  of  some  fruit,  he  stopped  at  a  little  apple- 
stand,  at  the  corner  of  Nassau  ar.;i  Liberty  Streets,  and  in 
a  fatherly  manner  purchased  a  few  apples  of  the  old 
apple-woman  there.  Sheridan  accosted  him,  and  so  inter- 
ested him  for  a  moment  that,  when  he  turned  to  take  up 
the  wallet,  which  he  had  carelessly  laid  upon  the  s^and, 
he  found  that  it  was  gone.  A  suspicion  flashed  across 
his  mind  that  the  handsome  stranger  had  had  something  to 
do  with  its  disappearance  ;  but  he  too  was  gone.  The  wal- 
let contained  seventy-five  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  bonds, 
«id  but  a  small  portion  of  the  plunder  was  recovered. 

One  of  his  first  exploits,  after  becoming  a  professional, 
was  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  where  he  was  not  so  fortunate. 
After  the  Baltimore  robbery,  he  had  come  West  with 
Charles  Hicks,  a  Baltimore  sneak-thief,  and  Philip  Pier- 
son,  alias  "  Baltimore  Philly,"  and  their  initiatory  move 
was  upon  the  First  National  Bank,  at  Springfield. 

Sheridan  called  at  the  bank,  and  as  usual  proposed 
some  complicated  business,  lucrative  to  the  bank,  which 
completely  engaged  the  cashier's  attention  ;  while  Hicks 
"  piped,"  and  Pierson  sneaked  into  the  bank,  securing 
packages  containing  thirty-two  thousand  dollars,  passing 
the  money  over  to  Hicks. 

As  Hicks  was  leisurely  leaving  the  bank  the  president 
entered,  and  observing  the  huge  package  peeping  out 
from  under  his  summer  overcoat,  which  was  not  large 
enough  to  cover  them,  grabbed  him,  and  demanded  wherr 
be  got  so  much  money.  He  replied  that  he  had  just 


9$  SHERlbAN*    THE   FORGEk. 

drawn  it  out.  But  the  president  suggested  that  they  had 
better  step  into  his  apartment  until  he  could  see  about  it 
The  cashier  at  once  saw  what  had  been  nearly  accom 
plished,  and  on  some  pretext  handed  a  card  into  the 
president's  apartment  without  exciting  Sheridan's  notice, 
instructing  the  president  to  send  two  men  to  the  front  of 
the  bank  to  detain  the  person  conversing  with  him, 
which  was  done,  and  which  resulted  in  Sheridan's  cap- 
ture, though  Pierson  escaped. 

Sheridan  and  Hicks  of  course  claimed  that  they  had 
never  seen  each  other  before,  but  they  were  put  in  differ- 
ent cells  and  given  separate  trials.  Hicks  pleaded  guilty, 
and  was  sentenced  to  eight  years'  imprisonment  in  the  Illi- 
nois penitentiary  at  Joliet;  but  Sheridan  played  the  high 
moral  dodge,  gave  bail  to  the  amount  of  seven  thousand 
dollars,  which  sum  he  deposited  and  subsequently  for- 
feited, when  the  District  Attorney  set  this  sum  aside  tow- 
ards securing  his  apprehension,  and  immediately  em- 
ployed  me  to  use  all  the  means  at  my  command  to  effect 
his  recapture. 

I  soon  ascertained  that  Sheridan  was  communicating 
with  Hicks  at  Joliet,  through  the  latter's  brother,  who  vis 
ited  him  with  unusual  frequency ;  and  I  therefore  detailed 
my  son,  William  A.  Pinkerton,  with  ctn  assistant,  to  follow 
out  this  clue  and  see  what  it  was  worth. 

In  keeping  unremitting  watch  over  this  Hicks,  my  son 
one  evening  found  himself  in  the  piotty  city  of  Hudson, 
Michigan,  having  arrived  there  on  the  same  train  with 
Hicks. 


SffERIDAN,    THE  FO&4E&.  <& 

The  latter  at  once  proceeded  to  the  best  hotel  in  the 
city,  still  followed  by  William,  who  was  not  long  in  learn- 
ing to  his  surprise  that  Sheridan  owned  the  hotel,  which- 
was  being  conducted  by  his  brother-in-law,  as  also  a  fine 
fruit-farm  in  the  vicinity  of  St.  Joe,  and  large  tracts  of 
pine  and  farming  lands  scattered  throughout  the  State. 

Hicks  directed  the  hotel  clerk  to  call  him  at  seven 
o'clock  the  next  morning,  and  my  son  accordingly  was 
put  down  on  the  call-book  for  six. 

As  great  care  was  necessary  to  be  exercised,  lest  Sheri- 
dan or  his  friends  might  learn  that  he  was  being  so  closely 
followed,  William  could  make  only  sparing  inquiries  ;  but 
he  did  succeed  in  learning  enough  to  convince  him  that 
he  was  not  then  at  Hudson,  and,  on  awakening  bright  and 
early  in  the  morning,  he  decided  on  making  an  attempt 
to  accomplish  something  which  might  be  of  the  greatest 
possible  assistance  in  the  future. 

Although  Sheridan  had  already  become  famous  as  a 
criminal,  no  picture  of  him  had  ever  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  the  authorities.  The  public  may  not  be  aware  of  how 
much  service  a  good  picture  of  a  criminal  is  to  the  detec- 
tive. It  will  do  good  duty  in  a  hundred  places  at  one 
time.  Accordingly  William  ascertained  the  location  of 
the  landlord's  family  rooms,  and,  while  the  occupants  were 
at  breakfast,  committed  a  small  and  under  the  circum- 
stances quite  excusable  burglary,  resulting  in  securing  a 
capital  photograph  of  Sheridan,  which  has  for  several 
years  adorned  the  rogues'  galleries  at  my  different  agen- 
cies. This  picture  undoubtedly  effected  the  eventual 


'OO  SHERi^  ^AT,    THE  FORGER. 

recent  capture  of  this  great  criminal,  as  it  was  the  only 
picture  extant,  and  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  my  almost 
numberless  correspondents  both  in  this  country  ind  in 
Europe. 

On  this  particular  occasion  spoken  of,  however,  it  was 
of  no  great  importance  save  to  familiarize  its  possessor 
with  the  handsome  features  of  Sheridan,  who  returned  to 
Hudson  the  same  day. 

William  wisely  concluded  that  it  would  be  foolish  to 
attempt  his  arrest  in  the  midst  of  so  many  friends,  who,  if 
they  could  not  effect  his  forcible  escape,  would  undoubt- 
edly use  every  possible  effort  to  secure  his  legal  rescue 
upon  some  trivial  technicality  ;  and  consequently  followed 
him  for  several  days,  finally  capturing  him  at  Sandusky, 
Ohio. 

As  it  was,  my  son  had  a  difficult  time  in  getting  the 
criminal  to  Chicago,  as  the  splendidly-appearing  fellow 
strongly  protested  to  the  passengers  that  he  was  being 
kidnapped,  and  appealed  for  aid  and  rescue  in  the  most 
impassioned  manner  possible.  Finding  this  of  no  avail, 
although  it  came  pretty  nearly  being  successful,  he  then 
shrewdly  pretended  complete  acquiescence,  and  when 
for  a  moment  left  alone  with  the  operative  who  had  im 
mediate  charge  of  him,  offered  that  person  ten  thousand 
dollars  in  cash  merely  for  the  opportunity  of  being  per 
mitted  to  jump  through  the  window  of  the  car  saloon, 
although  well  ironed,  so  that  both  men  were  necessarily 
watched  every  mile  of  the  remaining  distance. 

Even  after  he  had  been  bro  jight  to  my  Chicago  Agency 


SHERIDAN,    THE  FORGER.  IOI 

preparatory  to  being  forwarded  to  Spring  fiell,  a  little  in- 
stance occurred  illustrative  of  the  daring  character  of  the 
man. 

For  convenience  he  had  been  given  a  seat  temporarily 
in  my  private  office — -he  being  perfectly  secure  there, 
and  it  being  necessary  for  my  son  to  step  outside  the 
door  for  a  moment.  Scarcely  had  he  done  so,  when 
Sheridan  espied  my  snuff-box,  and,  instantly  grasping  it, 
placed  himself  in  a  position  to  fling  its  contents  into 
William's  eyes  as  he  re-entered,  with  the  intention  of 
bounding  by  him  in  the  confusion  which  would  follow  and 
attempting  to  escape — which,  however,  would  have  been 
utterly  impossible,  owing  to  constant  safeguards  in  use  at 
my  offices  to  cover  similar  cases. 

But  his  intention  was  just  as  determined,  notwithstand- 
ing all  this,  of  which  he  of  course  was  not  aware. 

My  son  re-entered  the  room  slowly — feeling  that  there 
might  be  danger,  and  knowing  his  man — with  the  grirn 
muzzle  of  a  splendid  English  "Trautcr"  revolver  in 
front  of  him  ;  and  Sheridan,  seeing  that  his  captor  was  as 
wary  as  he  was  daring  and  inventive,  resumed  his  seat 
with  the  manner  of  a  French  courtier,  took  a  pinch  of 
snuff,  as  he  replaced  my  box,  and  with  airy  politeness 
icmarked: 

"Billy,  that  snuff  of  your  father's  is  a  d — d  fine 
article  !  " 

"Foi  the  eyes?"  asked  William  quietly. 

"  EyeL  or  nose,"  he  retorted.  •'.  "  But  I'm  very  sc:ty  to 
say  that  the  noes  have  it  this  time  1  ' 


IO2  SHERIDAN,    THE    *ORGER. 

I  succeeded  in  having  the  man  safely  conveyed  Ui 
Springfield ;  but  Sheridan  made  his  money  count  in  an- 
other way  than  upon  my  detectives.  He  had  the  case 
fought  on  every  legal  technicality  which  could  be  brought 
forward,  secured  a  postponement  of  trial  for  nearly  a 
year,  and  finally  a  change  of  venue  to  the  city  of  Decatur, 
where,  after  retaining  the  very  best  lawyers  in  the  State  of 
Illinois,  and — what  was  quite  as  useful — a  portion  of  the 
jury,  he  was  eventually  acquitted,  expending  altogether 
for  this  manner  of  acquiring  liberty  the  snug  little 
sum  of  twenty  thousand  dollars,  as  he  subsequently  ad- 
mitted. 

After  this  affair,  Sheridan,  who  was  inordinately  ambi 
tious  to  become  noted  as  one  of  the  most  successful 
thieves  in  America,  went  East,  and  organized  a  party  of 
"bank-bursters,"  or  bank-robbers,  consisting  of  Frank 
McCoy,  alias  "  Big  Frank,"  James  Brady,  James  Hope, 
Ike  Marsh,  and  others,  the  crowd  becoming  a  terror  to 
the  East,  until  so  closely  hunted  there  that  its  members 
were  compelled  to  disband ;  when  he  assisted  at  a  robbery 
of  a  Cleveland  bank,  where  forty  thousand  dollars  wcic 
taken.  This  was  followed  by  a  raid  upon  the  Mechanics' 
(Hawley's)  Bank,  of  Scranton,  Pennsylvania,  where  Sher- 
idan and  ".Little  George"  Corson  appropriated  thirty- 
thousand  dollars'  worth  of  negotiable  bonds. 

Hi*  next  exploit  of  note,  and  one  which  struck  a  very 
lender  chord  in  the  hearts  of  several  citizens  of  Louis- 
ville, Kentucky,  \v..s  his  planning  of  and  participation  in 
fts  I  4(ls  gity  TobaQCQ  BanK  rQl?kery  at  th^t  city  in 


^    THE  FORGER.  IO3 

irhen  upward    of   three    hundred    thousand  dollars  were 
secured. 

The  robbers  rented  an  office  immediately  over  thr 
vault  of  the  bank,  and  carried  on  a  legitimate  businesi 
therein  for  some  months  before  the  robbery  occurred. 
My  readers  will  remember  the  circumstances  of  the  great 
Ocean  Bank  robbery,  in  New  York,  where  Max  Shin- 
burn's  party  robbed  that  bank  by  renting  an  insurance 
office  immediately  below  the  president's  apartments,  and 
then  sawed  through  the  floor  into  the  bank  and  blew  open 
the  safe.  The  same  kind  of  tactics  were  used  here,  only 
the  robbers  went  into  the*  bank  from  above  instead  of 
from  beneath,  and  tumbled  into  the  vault  direct,  instead 
of  blowing  open  the  vault  door. 

The  gang  were  divided  into  regular  reliefs,  and  while 
one  party  were  digging  away  through  the  night,  the  other 
were  posted  in  a  front  room  over  the  St.  Charles  res- 
taurant immediately  opposite,  from  which  point  a  fine  but 
strong  silk  cord  was  stretched  to  the  robbers'  windows. 
Attached  to  the  end  of  this  cord,  next  the  windows  ovei 
the  bank,  was  a  pendant  bullet,  so  that  the  confederates 
located  over  the  St.  Charles  restaurant — whose  business  it 
was  to  watch  for  any  signs  of  approaching  danger — couM 
signal  the  same  on  their  immediate  discovery.  In  this 
manner  the  thieves  had  an  abundance  of  time  and  lei- 
sure, and  finally  effected  an  entrance  to  the  vault  early  in 
the  night,  when  they  carried  away  almost  everything  of 
value  the  vault  contained. 

|t  was  Sheridan's  generalship  and  even  bravery  \i  one 


IO4  SHERIDAN,    THh    FORGER. 

has  the  right  to  apply  that  term  to  a  person  of  this  char 
acter  atterly  devoid  of  fear,  that  caused  the  i  etiremenl 
of  this  large  amount  of  capital  from  Louisville  circula 
tion  ;  and  these  instances,  showing  his  wonderful  genius 
for  schemes  requiring  skill,  patience,  and  personal  cour- 
age, could  be  multiplied  almost  beyond  number ;  but 
those  I  have  already  given  will  serve  to  illustrate  his 
marked  ability,  and  also  the  almost  exceptional  instance 
of  a  criminal  beginning  among  the  lowest  of  associates,  and 
by  the  tact,  skill,  and  frugality  which  would  have  made 
him  a  millionaire  in  respectable  life,  gradually  climbing 
higher  and  higher  in  his  grade  of  crimes  with  his  com- 
panions as  stepping-stones,  until  he  arrives  at  the  very 
pinnacle  of  his  criminal  calling,  and  has  acquired  in  that 
profession  everything  which  men  ordinarily  seek  for — re- 
spect, admiration,  and  hosts  of  friends,  as  well  as  great 
wealth;  for  Sheridan  was  worth  in  1874  fully  a  quarter 
of  a  million  of  dollars,  while  during  these  later  years  of  his 
crimes  he  maintained  most  respectable  social  and  busi- 
ness relations. 

All  of  this  eminently  fitted  the  man  *€>r  becoming,  as 
he  really  was,  the  author  of  the  gigantic  Bank  of  England 
forgeries,  although  the  very  caution,  ability,  and  skill 
which  first  made  the  scheme  possible  eventually  led  to 
the  work  being  done  by  other  parties ;  and  it  is  safe  to 
say  that  if  Sheridan  had  had  the  management  of  the  af- 
fair throughout  it  would  have  proved  a  success  instead  of 
a  failure. 

The  members  of  the  original  party  subscribing  to  this 


SHERIDAN,    THE   FORGER.\  IO* 

Bank  of  England  scheme  were  Sheridan,  George  Wilkes. 
Andrew  J.  Roberts,  and  Frank  Gleason,  while  McDon 
nell  and  Bidwell,  now  serving  life  sentences  for  the 
crime,  were  to  conduct  the  English  branch  of  the  opera 
tiori.  Sheridan  discovered  that  the  two  last-named  men 
were  lacking  in  discretion,  as  afterward  proved  true,  and 
ne  consequently  withdrew  from  the  scheme  altogether. 
He  then  organized  a  party — consisting  of  Roberts,  Glea- 
son,  Spence  Peftis,  and  Gottlieb  Engels — for  a  series  of 
the  most  gigantic  forgeries  ever  known  in  America,  and 
finally  issued  bonds,  to  the  extent  of  five  million  dollar. 
on  the  following  institutions  and  corporations  :  New 
York  Central,  Chicago  and  Northwestern,  New  Jersey 
Central,  Union  Pacific,  and  California  and  Oregon  Rail- 
roads, the  Erie  Water  Loan  Bonds,  the  Western  Union 
Telegraph  Company,  and  other  similar  great  corpora- 
tions. The  floating  of  these  forged  bonds  ruined  scores 
of  Wall  Street  brokers  as  well  as  private  investers. 
Their  execution  was  almost  absolutely  faultless,  and  an 
instance  is  given  where  some  of  these  forged  bonds  of 
the  Buffalo  and  Erie  road  were  taken  to  the  president  of 
the  company  for  examination,  having  been  offered  sua  • 
piciously  low,  when  he  not  only  pronounced  them  genu- 
ine, but  purchased  thirty  thousand  dollars'  Worth  for  an  in 
vestment. 

At  least  half  fhe  amount  issued  was  disposed  of. 

Sneridan  now  assumed  a  new  character.  He  became 
Ralston,  nephew  of  the  once  great  San  Francisco  bankei 
who  committed  suicide  after  his  financial  downfall.  Wit)' 


SffERfDAN,    THE    FORGEX 

this  name  and  plenty  of  money  he  became  a  member  o! 
the  New  York  Produce  Exchange,  and  at  No.  60  Broad- 
way carried  on  a  successful  business  as  agent  for  the 
Belgian  Stone  Company,  dealing  largely  in  all  manner  of 
fancy  marbles. 

On  the  eventual  discovery  of  the  forgeries,  Sheridan 
quietly  gathered  his  assets  together,  and  sped  to  Belgium 
— that  fashionable  retreat  for  Americans  having  too  little 
honesty  and  too  much  brains. 

It  is  not  known  just  how  large  an  amount  Sheridan 
succeeded  in  disposing  of,  but  it  must  have  equaled  all 
that  of  the  other  large  operators.  "  Steve "  Raymond 
sold  ninety  thousand  dollars'  worth,  and  Charles  Williams, 
alias  Perrin,  one  hundred  and  ten  thousand,  while  the 
American  public  was  mulcted  fully  two  millions  in  excess 
of  the  amount  secured  from  our  English  cousins  in  the 
Bank  of  England  forgeries. 

When  I  sent  my  son,  William  A.  PinkcrtflP,  to  Europe 
to  capture  and  return  Raymond,  which  he  gseomplished, 
he  met  Sheridan  in  Brussels,  where  Le  was  fell  living  like 
a  prince,  with  the  avowed  determination  of  liew  returning 
to  America-  But  he  did  return  here  ;  and  that  mistake 
eventually  led  to  my  capturing  him.  He  CCillu  not  live 
without  the  excitement  of  scheming,  speculating,  crimi- 
nal adventure,  and  what  was  to  him  the  geCQtne  pleasure 
of  transacting  business  on  a  large  scale. 

He  slipped  back  to  America,  and,  under  the  name  of 
Walter  A.  Stewart,  suddenly  appeared  at  Denver,  where 
lie  established  probably  the  largest  and  most  expensive 


SHERIDAN,    THE  FORGER.  IO? 

hot-house  in  America,  did  an  immense  business  in  SUP- 
S'tying  that  market  with  vegetables  and  rare  plants,  was 
elected  a  director  of  the  German  National  Bank  of  thai 
city,  and  soon  established  a  bank  of  his  own  aj:  Rosita,  n 
the  Colorado  mining  districts.  Here  his  spirit  of  specu- 
lation took  possession  of  him  again,  and  he  began  the 
wildest  kind  of  gambling  in  mining  stocks,  which  re- 
sulted in  his  losing  every  dollar  he  possessed  on  earth. 

About  this  time  I  again  got  upon  Sheridan's  trail,  and, 
following  him  from  point  to  point,  learned  that  he  con- 
templated a  trip  to  the  East,  to  discover  his  old  compan- 
ions and  inaugurate  some  new  and  brilliant  scheme  of 
robbery.  In  trusting  matters  at  New  York  to  my  .son, 
Robert  A.  Pinkerton,  Superintendent  of  my  New  York 
office,  I  gradually  caused  the  lines  to  be  drawn  in  about 
him  ;  and  on  the  nighl  of  March  23,  1876,  at  eleven 
o'clock,  as  Sheridan,  alias  Ralston,  alias  Stewart,  was 
landing  in  New  York  city  from  the  Pennsylvania  ferryboat, 
at  the  foot  of  Desbrosses  Street,  my  son  Robert  slipped  his 
arm  through  that  of  the  criminal's,  and  quietly  said  : 

"  Sheridan,  I  want  you  to  come  to  the  Church  Street 
police-station  with  me.  I  have  a  bench  warrant  for  youi 
arrest." 

He  made  no  resistance,  but  seemed  to  give  up  all 
hope  and  courage  at  once. 

As  he  was  without  money,  the  legal  fight  made  for  his 
lib~i<.y  was  not  so  bitter  as  had  been  anticipated,  and  in 
consideration  of  this,  and  the  sympathy  created  on  ac- 
count of  his  rapidly  failing  health,  and  though  he  cam? 


!08       A  GIGANTIC  CONSPIRACY  t>£F£AT£&. 

into  New  York  with  eighty-two  indictments  hanging  over 
his  head,  his  trial  and  conviction  only  resulted  in  a  fen* 
tence  for  five  years  in  the  penitentiary  ;  which,  under  thr 
circumstances,  will  serve  all  the  ends  of  justice,  as  un- 
doubtedly before  the  expiration  of  that  term  he  will  pass 
from  an  infamous  life  to  an  infamous  grave  in  the  little 
cemetery  just  above  Sing  Sing. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

A   GIGANTIC   CONSPIRACY    DEFEATED. 

HOW  apt  and  true  are  many  of  the  sayings  put  into 
the  mouths  of  the  marvelous  characters  created 
by  Charles  Dickens  ! 

Notice  how  much  is  contained  in  the  eloquent  passage 
spoken  by  "  Obenreizer  "  to  "  Vandale  "  in  the  Christ- 
mas story  of  "  No  Thoroughfare,"  where  the  former, 
when  the  moral  conviction  of  his  great  guilt  sinks  down 
upon  him  like  a  fall,  remarks  :  "  What  did  I  always 
observe  when  I  was  on  the  mountains  ?  We  call  them 
vast,  but  the  world  is  so  little.  So  little  is  the  world  that 
one  cannot  keep  a\vay  from  persons.  There  are  so  few 
persons  in  the  world,  that  they  continually  cross  and 
recross.  So  very  little  is  the  world  that  one  cannot  get 
rid  of  a  person  !  " 

Neither  can  dishonest  men  get  rid  of  the  consequences 
of  their  guilt :  and  sometimes  it  seems  inexplicable  to  in« 


A  GIGANTIC  CONSPIRACY  DEFEATED.       10$ 

thkt  men  possessed  of  good  intelligence,  surrounde.l  by 
pleasant  associations,  which  could  be  held  to  the  sun- 
niest level  that  life  affords,  and  with  the  countless  exam- 
ples before  them  of  fatal  errors  and  their  most  fatal 
results,  *vrll  so  far  forget  themselves  as  to  enter  a  criminal 
career  vi:h  the  vain  hope  that  some  pressing  necessity 
can  ^e  relieved  and  their  honor  remain  unsullied  and 
intact. 

But  the  terrible  greed  that  often  overwhelms  men  to 
suddenly  become  possessed  of  vast  wealth,  or  even  a 
moderate  competence,  without  patiently  striving  for  and 
earning  it,  has,  and  ever  will,  create  criminals,  who  must 
be  hunted  down  and  punished. 

The  instance  which  I  am  about  to  relate  shows  the 
frustration  of  one  of  the  most  deliberate  conspiracies  to 
commit  a  gigantic  robbery  of  and  swmu!e  upon  a  great 
business  corporation  that  has  ever  come  under  my  notice, 
and  illustrates  forcibly  the  truth  of  the  statement  that 
th^  world  is  very  small,  in  the  sense  that,  when  modern 
detective  methods  and  appliances  are  thoroughly  em- 
ployed, it  is  not  big  enough  to  permit  the  criminal  to 
escape,  however  certain  he  may  be  that  his  schemes  aie 
perfect,  or  whatever  way  he  may  turn  when  the  despera- 
rion  of  failure  stares  him  in  the  face. 

Some  time  in  1866,  one  James  C.  Engley  was  at  the 
head  of  what  was  known  as  the  Neptune  Express  Com- 
pany, at  Providence,  Rhode  Island.  At  the  time  the 
Merchants'  Union  Express  Company  was  organized  and 
started,  a  preposition  was  made  by  the  latter  to  buy  up 


A  GIGANTIC  CONSPIRACY  DEFEATED. 

the  former,  which  was  accepted,  and  the  Neptune  be 
came  absorbed  in  the  Merchants'  Union. 

In  the  arrangements  for  the  transfer  of  business  Eng 
ley  insisted  upon  the  stipulation  that  he  should  be  the 
Providence  agent.  This  was  objected  to,  but  finally  it 
was  agreed  that  he  could  have  the  position  as  nominal 
agent. 

Among  the  articles  transferred  was  the  office  safe  , 
but  before  the  transfer  was  wholly  consummated,  Engley, 
having  conceived  a  plan  for  swindling  the  new  company 
on  a  gigantic  scale,  had  duplicate  keys  made  which  fitted 
most  admirably,  enabling  him  to  open  and  shut  the  safe 
quite  as  easily  as  with  the  original  keys.  These  duplicate 
keys  he  reserved  for  use  when  the  proper  time  should 
arrive. 

Engley  moved  in  the  best  social  circles  of  Providence, 
notwithstanding  attacks  had  been  made  on  his  character, 
on  account  of  several  questionable  transactions  of  his  dur- 
ing the  war.  He  had  been  charged  with  defrauding  a 
regiment  of  colored  volunteers  out  of  their  bounties ;  but 
an  examination  of  the  case  by  the  Rhode  Island  Legisla- 
ture resulted  in  his  favor,  which  was  said  to  have  been 
owing  to  the  complicity  of  some  high  officials  with  Engley 
in  the  alleged  irregular  transactions. 

Having  acquired  a  large  amount  of  money,  he  purchased 
a  controlling  share  of  the  stock  of  »he  Neptune  Express 
Company,  already  mentioned,  and  continued  apparently 
to  enjoy  the  confidence  of  the  best  men  in  Providence, 
occasionally  passing  his  note  with  them  foi  considerable 


A  GIGANTIC  CONSPIRACY  DEFEATED.        II* 


amounts,  but  n*/er  meeting  his  engagements  except 
brilliant  promises  for  the  future. 

At  length  his  financial  condition  became  so  precarious 
that  he  was  compelled  to  do  something  to  sustain  himself; 
and  it  was  at  this  juncture  in  his  affairs  that  he  determined 
to  reveal  his  plan  to  some  one  upon  whose  ability  and 
secrecy  he  could  rely  with  unshaken  confidence.  He 
visited  Boston,  and  there  met  an  old  acquaintance,  named 
C.  A.  Dean,  to  whom  he  related  his  plan  for  becoming 
suddenly  wealthy  at  the  expense  of  others. 

Mr.  Dean  happened  to  be  a  man  of  Engle/s  ilk,  and 
fell  in  with  the  plan  rapturously,  lauding  Engley  and  his 
genius  most  unsparingly. 

At  Engley's  subsequent  suggestion,  the  arrangement 
first  settled  on  was  altered,  and  I  only  give  my  readers 
the  plan  finally  decided  upon. 

Engley  said  he  had  keys  with  which  he  could  open  the 
safe  in  the  office  of  the  Merchants'  Union  Express  Com 
pany  at  Providence  whenever  he  so  liked  ;  that  whei 
the  Neptune  was  sold  out  to  the  Merchants'  he  had  con 
ceived  the  idea  of  making  a  little  fortune  at  some  future 
date,  for  which  purpose  he  had  insisted  on  remaining 
agent  for  the  new  company  ;  that  he  had  carried  his  point  ; 
that  he  was  not  held  responsible  for  the  contents  of  the 
safe  ;  and  that,  therefore,  any  depredation  he  might  com 
mit  by  taking  funds  from  it  would  cause  others  to  be  sus- 
pected, and  was  besides  fully  protected  by  his  powerful 
social  relations;  that  his  idea  was  to  have  three  hundied 
thousand  dollars  ser^  *-r*n  New  York  to  Providence  bj 


112       A  GIGANTIC  CONSPIRACY  DEFEATED. 

the  Merchants'  Union  Company ;  that  the  said  amount 
should  disappear  in  Providence  by  his  hand  ;  that  the 
company,  being  responsible,  would  of  course  refund  the 
whole  amount  to  the  sender  j  that  the  money  so  refunded 
should  be  divided  into  three  equal  s1  ires  between  him- 
self (Engley),  Dean,  and  whatever  third  party  they  shouVl 
take  into  the  conspiracy  in  order  to  raise  the  sum  to  be 
sent ;  that  the  amount  should  be  made  up  at  some  bank 
of  good  standing  before  being  forwarded,  so  that  there 
should  exist  the  most  undoubted  evidence  of  its  hav- 
ing been  shipped ;  that  he,  in  his  capacity  as  agent  at 
Providence,  would  receive  and  receipt  for  it ;  that  he 
could  subsequently  make  affidavit,  if  necessary,  that  he 
had  so  received  it  and  receipted  for  it ,  that  at  night, 
while  an  evening  party  should  be  in  full  blast  at  his  house, 
he  would  slip  out  for  a  few  moments  unobserved  by  the 
guests,  and  return  again,  so  that  every  guest  might,  if 
called  upon,  prove  an  alibi  in  his  favor ;  that  in  the  in- 
terval of  his  absence  from  the  party  at  his  house,  he  should 
enter  the  office  of  the  Express  Company,  abstract  from 
the  safe  the  three  hundred  thousand  dollar  package,  and 
retire  unnoticed  and  unsuspected  by  any  one. 

Such  was  the  plan,  its  only  other  details  being  as  to  who 
might  be  suspected.  The  tradesman  who  kept  the  store 
adjoining  the  Express  Office,  which  was  only  separated  by 
a  very  shaky  wooden  partition,  a  fruit-seller,  who  occupied 
a  basement  adjacent  to  the  office  ;  Mr.  Charles  R.  Dennis, 
responsible  and  acting  agent  for  the  Merchants'  Union 
*',xuress  Company  and  the  cashier — these  were  the  par 


A  GIGANTIC  CONSPIRACY  DEFEATED.       1 1  \ 

des  whose  reputations  were  to  be  .  uined  for  the  benefn 
of  Mr.  Engley  and  his  co-conspiratoi  s,  should  his  plans 
work  as  smoothly  as  he  calculated. 

The  next  step  in  this  nice  little  game  was  to  find  some 
party  who  was  the  possessor  of  three  hundied  thousand 
dollars,  or  who  could  secure  the  possession  of  so  large  a 
sum  of  money  temporarily,  and  who  would  permit  himself 
find  his  money  to  be  used  in  this  manner  even  for  the  pos- 
sible great  benefit  to  accrue  from  the  same.  This,  of 
course,  caused  another  canvass  ajid  search.  Speculators 
m  New  York  and  Boston,  known  to  both  parties,  were 
named,  and  the  probabilities  of  their  being  willing  to  enter 
into  any  such  feasible  plan  as  they  had  plotted  were  dis 
cussed. 

A  Mr.  C.  W.  Fitch,  of  New  York,  was  finally  selected 
as  a  possible  party  to  the  enterprise.  He  is  a  respect 
able  man,  so  far  as  I  know,  but  was  understood  by  these 
fellows  to  be  "  available."  He  is  a  man  of  means  and  a 
genuine  speculator,  but,  as  subsequently  transpired,  was 
not  in  the  habit  of  speculating  in  just  this  kind  of  a  way. 
.  But  a  letter  was  written  to  him  by  Dean,  who  had  con- 
veniently assumed  the  alias  of  Drew,  and  whom  I  will 
hereafter  call  by  that  name.  Mr.  Fitch  was  informed  by 
Mr.  Drew  that  the  latter  had  some  business  proposition 
of  great  importance  to  communicate  to  him,  and  was  also 
requested  on  the  strength  of  this  to  make  an  appointment 
for  an  interview. 

Mr.  Fitch,  who  was  naturally  open  for  ary  chance  to 
increase  his  fortune,  replied,  inviting  Mr.  Drew  to  j»ro 


114      A  GIGANTIC  CONSPIRACY  DEFEATED. 

ceed  to  Ne\r  York.  Drew  went  there,  and  a  preliminary 
talk  occurred,  during  which  Mr.  Fitch  had  some  trouble 
to  understand  just  what  the  Boston  gentleman's  plan  was> 
as  he  only  spoke  of  it  in  general  terms,  apparently  to  test 
Mr.  Fitch's  fitness  for  the  particular  work  before  the 
party.  This  meeting  not  proving  altogether  satisfactory, 
an  appointment  was  made  for  another  to  be  held  in  Bos- 
ton. 

Mr.  Fitch  went  to  Boston,  and  met  Drew  at  the  Parker 
House,  where,  being  a  gentleman  of  an  inquiring  turn  of 
mind,  he  soon  discovered  that  a  certain  Mr.  Engley  occu- 
pied a  room,  to  which  apartment  his  friend  Mr.  Drew 
seemed  to  have  a  peculiar  fondness  for  frequently  retiring  ; 
and,  on  further  finding  that  Engley's  name  corresponded 
on  the  hotel  register  with  that  of  an  Engley  he  knew  con- 
siderable about,  he  felt  rather  chary  of  coming  to  anything 
definite  in  a  scheme  which  promised  extra  perilous  results 

On  returning  to  New  York,  he  therefore  laid  the  matter 
before  a  legal  friend,  informing  him  of  Engley's  connection 
with  the  scheme,  which  he  already  suspected  to  be  one 
of  robbery  of  the  express  company,  from  certain  sup- 
posed operations  which  had  been  submitted  to  him  for 
his  consideration.  The  lawyer  properly  advised  him  to 
go  on  and  ascertain  all  he  could  of  the  plan,  as  though  he 
were  acting  in  good  faith,  and,  if  he  discovered  that  the 
matter  looked  to  the  injury  of  the  express  company,  it 
would  then  be  his  immediate  duty  to  communicate  aft  the 
particulars  of  the  matter  to  the  officers  of  the  company  in 
New  York. 


A  GIGANTIC  CONSPIRACY  DEFEATED.        \\\ 

Mr.  Fitch  readily  agreed  to  this,  and  again  met  the  con- 
Bpirators  in  Boston,  when  they  unfolded  the  whole  plan 
to  him.  He  apparently  accorded  his  hearty  support  to 
it,  and  returned  to  New  York  ostensibly  for  the  purpose 
of  preparing  himself  for  his  part  of  the  enterprise  ;  but 
instead  of  doing  this,  he  immediately  communicated  the 
entire  facts  obtained  to  Mr.  J.  D.  Andrews,  then  agent  of 
the  company  in  New  York. 

Mr.  Andrews  at  once  submitted  all  the  information  to 
me,  at  my  New  York  offices,  and  I  at  once  arranged 
a  counter-plan,  which,  though  Engley  had  repeatedly 
boasted  that  he  had  "  thought  his  scheme  over  and 
over,  and  found  that  there  was  not  a  flaw  in  it,"  I  felt 
certain  would  eventually  rather  astonish  the  two  embryo 
swindlers. 

Several  subsequent  meetings  were  held  by  Drew,  Eng- 
ley, and  Fitch. 

On  one  of  these  occasions,  in  order  to  test  the  ability 
of  Engley  to  carry  out  his  design,  should  he  remain  un- 
molested, I  directed  Mr.  Fitch  to  inquire  of  him  how  hf 
intended  to  account  for  the  shipment  of  so  large  a  sum  as 
three  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  Providence. 

"  Why,  I  have  arranged  for  that  already.  I  tell  you  we 
can't  be  beaten.  You  know  we  need  a  hotel  at  Provi- 
dence, a  big  hotel — one  worth  at  least  half  a  million. 
Well,  it  has,  some  way,  got  into  the  papers,"  continued 
Engley,  with  a  knowing  wink,  "  that  we  are  going  to  have 
one.  So  the  minds  of  our  Providence  people  are  amplj 
prepared  for  the  reception  of  ^eve»  million  dollars 


I  1 6       A   GIGANTIC  CONSPIRAC  Y  DEFEATED. 

through  the  banks,  through  the  express  company,  or  anj 
other  way  it  can  get  there  ! " 

Another  circumstance  also  occurred,  which  proved  be 
yond  doubt  Engley's  intentions  to  become  both  a  robber 
and  a  swindler. 

One  day  Engley,  while  transacting  some  business  in 
the  express  office,  thoughtlessly  laid  his  pocketbook 
down  upon  the  desk.  As  he  turned  away  to  some  other 
part  of  the  office,  Mr.  Dennis,  the  responsible  agent, 
noticed  that  a  small  paper  package  slipped  down  the  in- 
clined surface  of  the  desk  away  from  the  pocketbook, 
Mr.  Dennis,  who  did  not,  for  some  reason,  have  the  high 
est  possible  confidence  in  his  superior,  opened  the  pack- 
age quickly,  ascertained  that  it  contained  a  set  of  safe- 
keys  the  perfect  duplicate  of  his  own,  and,  applying  them 
to  the  safe,  found  that  they  also  worked  quite  as  well  as 
his. 

With  commendable  presence  of  mind  he  took  a  file  and 
reduced  such  portions  of  both  keys  as  would  destroy 
them  from  operating  on  the  combination  of  the  safe. 

After  this  very  sensible  precaution  was  done,  he  re- 
turned the  keys  to  their  place  in  the  paper  package,  and 
laid  the  latter  on  the  desk  beside  the  pocketbook.  He 
had  hardly  accomplished  this  when  Engley  returned, 
picked  up  the  pocketbook  and  piece  of  paper,  not  sus- 
pecting that  either  had  been  molested,  puf  them  ir  hi« 
pocket,  and  went  out. 

When  this  was  first  reported  to  me,  it  flashed  into  my 
mind  that  perhaps  this  was  a  clever  ruse  on  Engley's  part 


A  GIGANTIC  CONSPIRA  CY  DE FEA  TEZ>.        1 1 7 

to  ascertain  definitely  whether  he  was  suspected  ;  but 
from  other  moves  made  by  the  man,  and  the  conviction 
that  this  might  prove  too  daring  a  risk  for  a  man  of  his 
calibre,  I  satisfied  myself  that  he  was  serenely  awaiting 
the  realization  of  his  fond  hopes. 

Eveiy thing  being  ready,  the  package  of  three  hundred 
thousand  dollars  was  made  up  at  the  company's  offices 
in  New  York,  under  my  direction,  but  it  did  not  contain 
that  large  sum  of  money.  It  was  marked  "  $300,000," 
but  really  contained  only  three  thousand  five  hundred 
and  ninety-four  dollars,  so  arranged  with  five  hundred 
dollar  bills  at  top  and  bottom  as  to  deceive  a  nervous, 
hasty,  and  adventurous  observer.  I  arranged  matters  so 
as  to  have  the  package  arrive  in  Providence  on  Thurs- 
day evening,  December  19  ;  but  one  of  the  heaviest  snow- 
storms of  the  year  suddenly  set  in,  and  delayed  all  the 
trains,  so  that  the  package  and  other  goods  did  not 
reach  that  place  until  Friday  evening,  and  the  reception 
at  Engley's  residence,  which  could  not  be  postponed,  and 
which  proved  a  very  fashionable  affair,  could  not  be  very 
well  used  as  planned,  for  alibi  purposes. 

I  very  well  knew  the  high  stancing  of  the  man  we  had 
to  deal  with,  and  consequently  realized  the  impossibility 
of  showing  him  in  his  true  light  in  Providence  unless 
what  was  about  to  occur  was  participated  in  to  some  ex- 
tent and  actually  witnessed  by  some  of  the  best  people 
of  the  place ;  and  I  accordingly  secured  the  co-operation 
of  a  few  of  the  most  reputable  business  men  of  Pi  evi- 
dence, who  were  detailed  to  quietly  watch  Engley  at  th* 


1 1 8       A  GIGANTIC  CONSPIRA  C  Y  DEFEA  TED. 

time  of  the  arrival  of  the  package  as  well  as  his  subse- 
quent movements,  and  also  to  occupy  the  store-room  ad- 
joining the  express  office,  through  the  partition  of  which 
all  movements  of  Engley  might  be  observed. 

The  package  had  arrived  at  about  eight  o'clock.  Mr. 
Dennis  suggested,  in  the  hearing  of  Engley  and  one  or  two 
respectable  gentlemen,  that,  as  a  package  so  valuable 
was  in  their  safe,  it  would  be  well  to  have  a  watch  placed 
upon  it ;  but  Engley  nervously  pooh-poohed  the  sugges- 
tion, saying  that  the  safe  was  a  solid  institution,  had  ever 
defied  burglars,  and  could  never  be  opened.  Dennis 
seemed  to  fall  in  with  the  idea  that  the  safe  could  be 
trusted,  and  at  nine  o'clock  closed  the  office  and  went 
home. 

It  was  a  bitterly  cold  night,  and  my  operatives  on  duty 
had  a  slight  taste  of  the  actual  hardships  which  are  often 
meted  out  to  the  honestly  faithful  and  persistent  detec- 
tive ;  while  the  gentlemen  stationed  at  different  points 
throughout  the  city,  and  particularly  those  in  the  store 
next  to  the  express  office,  on  account  of  the  rigor  of  the 
night,  came  near  deserting  their  posts.  Nothing  bill 
inordinate  curiosity  held  them. 

At  about  ten  o'clock  a  phantom-like  object  left  Eng 
ley's  residence,  and  could  have  been  observed  moving 
cautiously  toward  the  express  office,  followed  at  a  little 
distance  by  a  very  faithful  attendant,  who  never  permit- 
ted the  distance  between  them  to  grow  less  or  become 
greater.  There  were  also  several  unobserved  observers, 
silent  watchers  of  the  night,  who  never  made  a  ageless 


A  GIGANTIC  COVSPIRA      'DEFEATED.        IIQ 

movement,  but  every  one  of  whom  did  what  they  had  been 
detailed  to  do  mechanically  and  noiselessly. 

The  leading  figure,  passing  down  the  now  deserted 
•treets,  was  none  other  than  Engley,  who  had  left  •'  the 
best  society  of  Providence  "  for  a  few  minutes,  to  take  a 
quiet  stroll  on  one  of  the  coldest  nights  of  the  winter  of 
1867  and  1868. 

Arriving  in  front  of  the  express  office,  fee  stopped, 
quickly  and  searchingly  looked  up  and  down  the  street, 
and  then  peered  long  and  anxiously  within.  The  usual 
lights  were  burning,  and  the  window-blinds  were  suffi- 
ciently low  to  permit  everything  inside  to  be  seen. 

In  a  moment  more  Engley  walked  past,  suddenlj 
turned  a  corner,  came  back,  crossed  over  in  the  snow, 
went  up  an  alley ;  after  being  out  of  sight  for  a  while,  ap- 
peared at  an  unexpected  point,  turned  another  corner, 
dodged  a  policeman  who  was  just  emerging  from  the 
cheery  glow  of  a  saloon,  and  at  length  returned  swiftly  to 
the  express  office.  It  was  a  singular  fact,  too,  that  the 
party  before  referred  to  would  have  reminded  one,  who 
rould  have  observed  all,  of  "  Mary's  little  lamb,"  at  least 
in  one  particular,  for  everywhere  that  Engley  went  that 
man  was  sure  to  go.  He  had  a  happy  faculty  of  almost 
understanding  what  Engley' s  next  cutting  of  corners, 
dodging  up  alleys  or  doubling  his  route,  would  be,  and 
seemed  to  be  on  hand,  but  always  invisible  to  Eng- 
ley, wherever  that  gentleman's  peculiar  movcmerts  led 
him. 

Engley  entered  the  office,  locked  the  door  behind 


I2O       A  GIGANTIC  CONSPIRACY  DEFEATED. 

and,  in  another  instant,  had  raised  the  window-blindi  so 
that  no  person  could  look  into  the  place  from  the  street. 
The  parties  in  the  adjoining  room  were  all  agog  now,  and 
a  half-dozen  pairs  of  eyes  were  applied  to  a  half-dozen 
devices  in  the  thin  partition. 

After  thoroughly  searching  the  place,  as  if  to  ascertain 
that  no  person  could  be  hidden  in  the  office,  Engley  took 
the  keys  from  a  vest-pocket,  stepped  quickly  to  the  safe, 
and  applied  them.  The  lock  refused  to  respond.  Again 
he  tried,  and  again  failed.  With  an  oath  he  stepped  to  a 
gas-jet,  and  carefully  examined  the  keys.  In  his  haste, 
excitement,  and  nervousness  he  could  see  nothing  wrong 
about  them. 

Again  he  tried  the  safe.  No,  it  could  not  be  opened. 
The  work  of  Mr.  Dennis  upon  them  a  month  previous 
had  been  effectual. 

"  My  God  !  it  can't  be  got !  "  he  muttered ;  stood 
looking  at  the  safe  a  moment,  as  if  half  tempted  to  try 
some  desperate  method  of  breaking  the  great  iron  recep- 
tacle open,  and  then  swiftly  left  the  place. 

He  had  scarcely  finished  locking  the  door,  when  a  heavy 
hand  was  laid  upon  his  shoulder,  and  the  voice  of  the 
mysterious  follower  of  the  robber  sternly  said  : 

"  Engley,  you're  my  prisoner  !  " 

A  moment  more  and  the  door  of  the  store  had  opened. 
and  a  crowd  of  the  best  business  men  of  Providence  had 
lurrounded  the  officer  and  his  prisoner ;  and  Engley, 
looking  into  the  faces  of  his  old  friends,  only  said,  with  a 
kind  of  mow  i 


MAX  SHINBURN.  121 

"  Gentlemen,  I'm  ruined  !     Be  as  merciful  as  you  can 
to  me ! " 

Dean,  alias  Drew,  was  arrested  the  next  day  in  Boston, 
and  though  the  two  men  never  received  the  just  deserts 
for  their  infamous  attempt  at  robbery  and  their  more  in* 
famous  and  heartless  scheme  to  ruin  for  life  the  charac 
ters  of  honest  men  in  order  to  shield  their  guilt,  had  not 
its  consummation  been  prevented,  they  were  given  such 
penitentiary  sentences  as  undoubtedly  impressed,  irrevo- 
cably, upon  their  minds  the  principle  laid  down  by  Dick- 
ens, that,  "  So  little  is  the  world  that  one  cannot  get  rid 
of  persons,"  and,  I  would  add,  especially  if  those  persons 
happen  to  be  honest  detectives. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

MAX   SHINBURN. 

MAXIMILIAN  SHINBURN,  alias  Mark  Shin- 
burn,  alias  Mark  Baker,  alias  Zimmerman,  with 
half  a  hundred  other  aliases,  is  a  very  brilliant  and  ex- 
ceptional instance  of  a  professional  criminal  having  won 
considerable  fame  from  a  series  of  masterly  bank  and 
bond  robberies,  marvelous  prison  escapes,  and  the  like, 
in  America,  and  then  crowning  all  by  a  final  escape, 
sound  and  safely,  to  Belgium,  where  he  has  since  lived 
an  active,  and,  as  far  as  can  be  learned,  an  honorable 
business  life,  being  favored  with  luxury  and  the  pleasant- 

est  of  life's  surroundings, 
6 


MAX  SHI&BURN. 

He  is  now  about  forty  years  of  age,  and,  whethei  bom 
in  America  or  elsewhere,  is  a  German  Jew,  and  has  a 
fluent  command  of  the  English,  German,  French,  Span- 
ish, and  Italian  languages.  One  account  has  it  that  he 
was  born  in  Europe,  and  received  his  superb  education 
there,  leaving  his  native  country  on  account  of  some  wild, 
boyish  escapade,  and  coming  to  America  when  he  was 
about  eighteen  years  of  age,  proceeding  to  St.  Louis, 
where  he  became  very  proficient  in  the  locksmith's  trade  \ 
but  finding  this  a  slow  way  to  secure  the  elegancies  of 
life,  turning  the  knowledge  thus  gained  to  criminal  pur  - 
suits,  and  after  being  arrested,  and  while  awaiting  triai, 
effecting  the  liberation  of  himself  and  seventeen  other 
prisoners. 

Again,  some  of  his  old  associates  in  crime  state  that  he 
was  born  of  German  parents,  near  Germantown,  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  was  spoiled  by  a  rich  mother,  who  lavished 
her  wealth  upon  his  education  and  accomplishments  ; 
and  that,  after  graduating  from  college  as  a  highly 
finished  scholar  and  gentleman,  he  was  placed  in  a  large 
mercantile  establishment,  and,  after  securing  a  thorougn 
knowledge  of  business  there,  was  given  a  position  in  a 
bank,  where  he  familiarized  himself  with  monetary  affairs, 
but  where  he  grew  so  extravagant  in  his  habits  and  disso 
lute  in  his  mode  of  life  that  at  last  he  became  hopelessly 
in  debt,  when  he  duplicated  the  keys  of  the  bank  vaults 
and  for  a  long  time  pursued  a  system  of  "weeding"  the 
packages  of  notes  in  the  vaults,  and  making  its  loss  cor- 
respond by  false  entries,  in  the  ledgers.  This  was  cow.' 


MAX  SfffNBURflr.  123 

turned  for  nearly  a  year  increasing  in  amour,  t  until  the 
annual  settlement,  wi;ii  tae  loss  was  discovered.  So 
artfully  had  the  thin£  z-yin  done,  that  both  tellers  were 
arrested  on  suspicion,  as  the  alterations  in  the  books 
were  exact  imitations  of  their  handwriting ;  but  as  they 
lived  honest  and  respectable  lives,  nothing  could  be 
ascertained  derogatory  to  their  characters,  and  the 
charges  were  subsequently  withdrawn.  At  length  suspi- 
cion was  thrown  upon  young  Shinburn  by  his  reckless 
life  generally,  and,  while  no  absolute  proof  of  his  guilt 
could  be  gathered,  he  was  eventually  discharged  in  dis- 
grace. 

These  same  old  companions  also  relate  that  the  stigma 
of  his  crime  rested  heavily  upon  Shinburn,  and,  after  a 
night's  carouse,  he  suddenly  resolved  to  become  a  profes- 
sional criminal.  Hardly  had  the  idea  seized  possession 
of  his  mind,  than  he  proceeded  to  carry  it  into  execution. 
Securing  what  money  he  could  command,  he  attired  him- 
self magnificently,  and  departed  on  the  Camden  and 
Ajnboy  road  for  Bcston. 

His  adventures  here  were  attended,  as  they  always 
seemed  to  be,  with  fine  success.  Registering  himself  as 
Walker  Watterson  at  the  Revere  House,  he  soon,  by  his 
engaging  conversation,  elegant  manners,  and  liberal  ex- 
penditure of  money,  rendered  himself  the  favorite  of  all 
the  gentlemen  of  the  house.  After  a  good  standing  had 
been  secured,  he  laid  siege  tc  the  heart  of  a  prepossess- 
ing daughter  of  a  cultivated  Boston  banker,  and  in  this 
tfay  became  intimate  at  the  banker's  house,  the  bank 


MAX  SHIN  BURN. 

itself,  and  with  many  of  the  bank  officers  and  cleiks— df 
course  all  this  time  keeping  a  keen  eye  out  foi  the  main 
chance,  and  gradually  acquiring  possession  of  all  informa- 
tion in  reference  to  the  character  of  the  locks  and  the 
location  of  the  vaults;  and  early  one  morning,  when  ic 
turning  from  a  fashionable  party,  amidst  a  terrific  storm, 
he  forced  an  entrance  to  the  building.  He  then  retired 
from  the  place,  changed  his  clothing,  and  returning, 
passed  inside  of  the  bank,  and  immediately  began  opera- 
tions upon  the  vaults.  Here  was  occasioned  his  first 
great  trial,  as  the  locks  at  first  baffled  his  attempts ;  but 
after  a  half-hour  of  patient  work  he  had  the  satisfaction 
of  seeing  the  entire  contents  of  the  vaults  at  his  com- 
mand. But  instead  of  taking  a  large  sum  of  money, 
which  would  immediately  raise  a  hue  and  cry,  he  only 
took  several  thousands  of  the  money,  closed  and  locked 
the  vault-door,  and  then,  after  taking  a  wax  impression  of 
the  locks,  decamped  from  the  place,  arriving  at  his  hotel 
«afr  and  sound  before  the  milkmen  had  made  their 
fiiorning  calls. 

However  much  truth  there  may  be  in  all  this,  the  ad- 
venture is  wholly  characteristic  of  the  man.  He  was  a 
zealous  student  of  everything  that  might  fit  him  for  a 
most  complete,  safe,  and  perfect  success  in  his  nefarious 
calling ;  and  wherever  and  at  whatever  time  he  secured 
his  mechanical  knowledge,  it  is  certain  that  he  was  most 
splendidly  skilled  in  all  that  pertained  to  the  locksmith's 
trade  and  intricate  work  in  iron  and  steel.  He  was  a 
constant  reader  of  the  Scientific  American,  and  devoted 


125 

much  time  and  money  in  keeping  posted  on  the  intrica 
cies  of  every  new  patent  or  novelty  that  in  any  way  per. 
tained  to  appliances  for  bank  proteotion. 

His  keenness  in  this  regard  is  illustrated  by  the  fact 
that  at  one  time  there  was  not.  a  Lillie  lock  in  existence 
of  which  he  could  not  secure  the  combination  and  which 
he  could  not  pick.  His  genius  was  also  as  inventive  as» 
it  was  inquiring. 

He  purchased  a  Lillie  safe  simply  for  the  purpose  of 
"  operating  "  on  the  lock.  Every  part  and  portion  was 
studied  with  an  assiduity  and  zeal  truly  remarkable.  He 
shut  himself  up  with  it  until  he  was  the  complete  master 
of  it.  But  though  he  had  acquired  as  much  knowledge 
of  it  as  its  inventor,  there  was  one  thing  still  to  be  over- 
come. He  could  never  be  certain  of  the  combination. 
Here  his  inventive  skill  was  exhibited  in  a  brilliant  man- 
ner indeed.  He  actually  constructed  a  delicate  piece  of 
mechanism  by  which  he  could  secure  the  combination  of 
any  Lillie  safe,  providing  he  could  only  get  access  to  the 
outside  of  it. 

This  was  when  the  dials  of  the  Lillie  lock  were  secured 
by  screws  on  the  outside,  and  could  be  taken  off. 

It  was  usually  no  trouble  for  him  to  secure  entrance  to 
a  bank,  for  he  could  manufacture  a  key  to  its  doors  with- 
out the  least  trouble.  When  this  much  was  gained  he 
had  a  sure  thing  on  a  Lillie  safe  or  any  vault  guarded  bj 
that  kind  of  a  lock.  His  apparatus  was  a  delicate  affair, 
A  handsomely  finished  ratchet,  which,  when  placed  undei 
the  dial,  would  make  no  mark  or  indication  if  moved  ia 


126  MAX  SHINBURk. 

one  direction,  but  when  the  dial  was  stopped  ind  ac 
attempt  made  to  move  it  in  an  opposite  direction,  it  made 
a  little  puncture  in  a  sheet  of  paper  or  other  light  sub- 
stance which  would  retain  it,  and  which  was  properly 
placed  to  receive  such  puncture. 

Shinburn  would  enter  a  bank  at  night,  insert  this  under 
the  dial  of  the  lock,  and  the  next  night  on  his  return  he 
would  have  discovered  the  first  feature  of  the  combina- 
tion. Then  he  would  set  his  register  for  the  reverse  mo- 
tion, which  he  would  secure  the  second  night,  and  so  on 
until  he  had  just  as  perfect  a  knowledge  of  the  combina- 
tion of  the  safe  or  vault  as  any  officer  of  the  bank. 

In  this  way  he  robbed  the  New  Windsor  Bank,  of  Mary- 
land. Some  of  his  confederates  proved  traitorous  subse- 
quently, and  he  was  arrested  by  John  Young,  then  chief 
of  detectives  of  New  York  city,  since  deceased,  who,  or. 
securing  a  portion  of  the  stolen  money,  permitted  Shin- 
burn  to  go  free  ;  and  following  this  Young  resigned. 

He  also  in  this  manner  committed  a  robbery  at  Nor- 
walk,  Connecticut,  where  he  obtained  nearly  two  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars,  as  also  the  robbery  of  a  bank  at 
Binghampton,  Vermont ;  while  a  large  number  of  the  same 
class  of  depredations  were  done  by  him  which  never  cam* 
to  light. 

After  his  Boston  adventures,  already  related,  Shinburn 
arranged  a  regular  system  of  bank  depredations  through- 
out New  England,  which  should  apply  in  its  operations  to 
all  banks  of  importance.  In  pursuance  of  this  scheme 
be  made  regular  tours  of  that  section  of  the  country,  foi 


MAX  SHINBURN.  itf 

Che  purpose  of  securing  information  in  reference  to  the 
location  of  these  banks  and  the  means  necessary  to  enter 
them  successfully.  Having  secured  this  indispensable 
knowledge,  he  prepared  the  keys  and  implements  requi 
site  to  carry  his  plans  into  execution.  Then  the  raid 
began  and  continued  for  several  years,  in  which  he  was 
from  first  to  lastt  undetected,  and  was  at  length  arrested 
only  through  the  treachery  of  some  of  his  false  friends, 
after  he  had  stolen  and  recklessly  spent  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  dollars  in  the  most  extravagant  manner. 

His  adventures  during  this  period  were  as  remarkable 
as  his  criminal  successes.  During  the  summer  of  '64  he 
had  secured  a  very  handsome  sum  from  several  banks  in 
the  section  of  country  referred  to,  and  he  determined 
to  pass  a  gay  season  at  some  of  the  fashionable  watering- 
places.  Procuring  a  magnificent  outfit,  he  proceeded 
from  New  York  to  Saratoga,  and,  registering  a  romantic 
alias  on  the  books  of  the  Union  Hotel,  soon  became  one 
of  the  leaders  of  the  fashion  in  that  summer  hot-bed  of 
dissipation  and  frivolity. 

His  appearance  was  particularly  agreeable  :  well-propor- 
tioned and  finely  cut,  expressive  features,  his  form  attired 
in  the  latest  style  of  clothing,  with  a  magnificent  solitaire 
diamond  glittering  in  his  shirt-front,  small  hands  and  feet; 
with  altogether  a  distingue  air,  he  presented  every  exter- 
nal appearance  of  a  gentleman.  His  intellectual  ability, 
of  a  high  order,  was  rendered  more  conspicuous  by  his 
Huent  command  of  the  foreign  languages,  already  referred 
to.  With  these  combined  qualifications  and  a  plentiful 


i*8  MAX 

supply  of  greenbacks,  which  he  expended  most  Uvishb . 
ne  speedily  made  his  way  into  the  very  best  society,  and 
was  everywhere  courted  as  a  desirable  acquaintance 
Flirting  with  handsome  young  ladies  and  playing  the  heart- 
less Lothario,  betting  at  the  race-course,  mornings  at  the 
springs  and  night  divided  'between  faro  and  the  hops,  he 
led  a  life  of  reckless  extravagance,  vile. deceit,  and  crim 
ii.al  pleasure. 

During  the  time  he  favored  the  Grand  Union  with  his 
presence,  he  courted  and  was  under  promise  of  marriage 
to  the  daughter  of  a  prominent  western  politician,  which 
of  course  was  never  consummated.  After  paying  visits 
to  Newport  and  Long  Branch,  he  passed  through  the 
summer,  and  devoted  the  winter  to  his  regular  practice 
of  bank  "  weeding  "  with  varying  success,  until,  embold- 
ened by  his  hitherto  good  luck,  he  determined,  in  concert 
with  several  noted  bank-thieves,  among  whom  was  his 
criminal  partner,  George  White,  alias  George  Bliss,  to 
rob  the  Concord  (New  Hampshire)  Bank,  which  was  most 
brilliantly  executed,  and  from  which  they  succeeded  in 
securing  over  two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  With  the 
plunder  the  thieves  separated  with  their  shares,  when  one 
of  thz  gang  was  captured,  and  disclosed  the  names  of  the 
depredators,  chief  among  whom  was  that  of  Max  Shin- 
burn.  Upon  this  information  the  hunt  commr  need,  and 
Shinburn  was  captured,  tried,  convicted,  and  sentenced 
to  the  Concord  state  prison  for  ten  years. 

His  arrest  was  effected  while  he  was  holding  one  of  hii 
orgies  of  pleasure  at  Saratoga ;  and  a  most  profoum  1  sen 


MAX  SHINBURH. 

•atton  was  caused  there  at  the  sudden  retirement  of  the 
gorgeous  leader  of  fashion  ;  but  the  social  waters  soon 
quieted,  to  be  disturbed  by  the  next  ripple,  while  Shin- 
burn  went  behind  the  great  gray  walls  of  the  prison. 

But  he  was  too  much  of  a  genius  in  his  line  of  life  to 
sit  down  meekly  and  waste  his  time  brooding  over  his 
misfortunes.  While  others  of  the  common  sort  might 
give  themselves  up  to  the  despair  of  a  life  in  the  living 
tomb  of  a  prison,  his  being  in  such  a  place  at  all  was 
only  preliminary  to  getting  out  of  it.  His  first  move  was 
to  make  friends  with  everybody ;  and  as  he  always  man 
aged  to  keep  a  good  supply  of  money  on  hand,  this  was 
not  difficult  to  accomplish.  Being  a  wonderful  burglar, 
he  was  treated  with  distinction,  and  of  course  everybody 
knew  him.  His  keepers  came  to  think  that  Shinburn  was 
one  of  the  cleverest  fellows  in  the  place.  He  was  an 
exemplary  prisoner,  and,  as  he  always  had  a  cheery  smile 
for  his  fellows  and  an  occasional  substantial  "tip"  for 
the  officer,  he  soon  had  everything  his  own  way,  and  had 
acquired  a  degree  of  familiarity  with  his  keepers  that 
made  the  bold  and  daring  act  he  had  so  long  planned, 
possible. 

One  night  he  called  the  keeper  to  his  cell,  and  entered 
into  conversation  with  him  over  some  trivial  matters 
which  were  made  very  agreeable  and  entertaining  on 
Shinburn's  part,  for  some  little  time,  when  suddenly  he 
asked  the  keeper  to  step  inside  for  some  purpose  which 
the  shrewd  fellow  made  seem  an  important  one.  The 
unsuspecting  guardian  did  as  he  was  requested,  when. 
6* 


IJO  MAX  SHINBURN. 

quicker  than  lightning,  Shinburn  overpowered  the  keeper 
took  his  revolver  from  him,  threatening,  if  any  alarm  was 
given,  he  would  blow  his  brains  out,  took  his  keys  fioni 
him,  locked  the  unfortunate  keeper  in  his  own  cell,  an .' 
coolly  let  himself  out  of  the  prison  and  regained  l.U 
liberty. 

Great  astonishment  and  alarm  was  created  at  the  time 
in  New  Hampshire  at  this  daring  and  bold  escape,  and  a 
large  reward  was  offered  for  the  recapture  of  the  reckless 
criminal;  but  for  twelve  months  he  eluded"  the  most 
vigilant  search,  until  one  evening  a  private  citizen,  travel- 
ing on  the  cars  from  Binghampton,  recognized  Shinburn 
amongst  the  passengers — the  citizen  having  been  in  court 
at  the  time  of  his  trial  and  conviction. 

With  commendable  presence  of  mind,  the  gentleman, 
well  knowing  the  desperate  and  dangerous  character  of 
the  man,  immediately  went  into  another  car  and  inquired 
if  any  sheriff's  men  or  other  officers  of  justice  were  on  the 
train. 

It  so  fortunately  happened  that  four  deputy-sheriffs, 
who  were  returning  from  the  State  prison,  to  which  place 
they  had  conveyed  some  convicts,  were  on  the  train,  and 
they  returned  to  the  car  in  which  Shinburne  was  quietly 
sitting,  and  with  drawn  revolvers  pounced  upon  him  and 
made  him  their  prisoner. 

He  was  conveyed  to  his  Did  quarters,  and  an  extra 
watch  and  guard  set  over  him  ;  but  he  soon  disarmed  sus- 
picion, and  a  want  of  caution  supervened,  which,  as  the 
seque*  shows,  resulted  in  a  second  escape.  Shinburn, 


MAX  SHINBURN.  13 1 

with  the  potatoes  that  were  served  with  his  food,  took  an 
impiession  of  the  cell-lock,  and  from  his  iron  spoons 
made  a  key  to  fit  it.  Think  of  the  patience,  persever- 
ance, and  real  ability  requisite  to  such  a  purpose.  After 
a  painfully  long  time  he  found  himself  provided  wuii  the 
meanb  to  reach  the  corridor ;  and  after  all  was  still  for 
the  night  he  would  leave  his  cell  and  proceed  to  the  outer 
barred  gate,  where,  with  a  delicate  steel  saw  that  had 
been  conveyed  to  him  by  an  accomplice,  by  being  im- 
bedded in  the  fore-piece  of  a  light  silk  cap,  he  would  saw 
the  massive  iron  bars  until  they  would  just  hold,  but 
would  be  broken  off  by  any  sudden  contact  of  a  heavy 
object.  The  slight  trace  of  this  work  would  be  com- 
pletely removed  by  filling  the  interstices  made  by  the 
•lender  saw  with  portions  of  a  potato  mixed  with  soot. 

It  was  the  rule  of  the  prison  to  march  the  prisoners 
around  the  yard  every  day ;  and  Shinburn,  having  by 
perseverance  so  cut  the  bars  that  they  would  give  way 
upon  a  quick  pressure,  on  one  of  these  occasions,  when 
the  prisoners  were  taking  their  daily  circuit,  the  daring 
fellow  made  a  sudden  rush  at  the  then  apparently  secure 
bars,  which  yielded  as  if  by  magic,  and  Shinburn  went 
through  them  like  a  flash  of  light,  and  while  the  keepers 
were  struck  dumb  by  what  appeared  a  miracle,  the  bold 
thief  sprang  into  a  wagon  in  waiting  for  him,  and  was 
again  at  liberty.  He  immediately  changed  his  clothing, 
and  with  his  companions  set  out  for  Plymouth.  They 
were  hotly  pursued  by  the  prison  watch  and  a  large  posse 
of  citizens,  who  came  up  with  the  fugitives  in  a  dense 


MA*    SHINBVRN. 

piece  of  woods.  Here  they  were  ordered  to  halt;  bu' 
their  only  answer  was  a  well-directed  volley  from  then 
revolvers :  and  finding  that  the  desperate  men  were  de 
termined  to  surrender  only  after  a  conflict,  in  which  mat!? 
of  the  pursuing  party  would  undoubtedly  meet  theii 
death,  the  latter  retired,  and  Shinburn  was  free  to  again 
pursue  his  brilliant  career,  to  eventually  be  recaptured 
and  again  make  his  escape  in  a  manner  which  for  a  time 
turned  the  laugh  upon  me,  as  he  had  so  often  upon 
others,  and  which  I  will  not  neglect  to  record,  at  the 
risk  of  a  joke  upon  myself,  with  the  reflection  that  he  is 
about  the  only  criminal  that  ever  escaped  me  in  my 
nearly  a  third  of  a  century's  active  and  exciting  detect- 
ive's career. 

On  the  night  of  July  9,  1868,  the  office  of  the  Lehigh 
Coal  and  Navigation  Company,  at  White  Haven,  Penn 
sylvania,  was  entered,  the  vault  and  safe  opened  by  means 
of  false  keys,  and  fifty-six  thousand  dollars,  in  bank  bills 
currency,  and  bonds,  stolen. 

The  entrance  to  the  building  had  also  been  effected  by 
means  of  false  keys  ;  and  while  no  clue  to  the  robbers  re- 
mained, it  was  evident  the  job  had  been  carefully  planned, 
and  that  professionals  were  concerned  in  it. 

The  case  was  put  in  my  hands ;  and  from  certain  evi- 
dences of  the  style  of  work  which  are  as  marked  in  noted 
criminals  as  are  the  brands  on  goods  of  different  manu- 
facture, I  at  once  concluded  that  whoever  had  suggested 
the  robbery,  it  was  Max  Shinburn's  master-mind  that  had 
planned  it  and  brought  it  to  a  successful  execution. 


MAX  SHINBURN.  133 

In  pursuance  of  these  convictions,  I  soon  had  i  un  ..own 
the  entire  party,  among  which  was  the  redoubtable  Shin- 
burn.  It  then  came  to  light  that  the  robbery  had  been 
suggested  by  one  Starks,  then  proprietor  of  the  White 
Haven  Hotel,  in  White  Haven,  who  had  let  two  other 
parties,  named  Spencer,  alias  Griffin,  and  one  Sinclair, 
into  the  scheme ;  but  none  of  them  being  accomplished 
criminals,  Shinburn's  services  had  been  secured. 

The  robbery  had  been  planned  as  early  as  March  pre- 
vious, and  the  scheme  was  to  enter  the  place  while  it  con- 
tained a  large  amount  of  currency  for  the  monthly  pay- 
ment of  the  company's  hands.  On  arrival  at  White 
Haven,  and  receiving  such  information  as  the  conspira- 
tors there  were  able  to  furnish,  Shinburn  daringly  en- 
tered the  agent's  house  at  night,  and  then,  in  the  bed- 
chamber, took  from  the  pockets  of  the  sleeping  man  all 
the  keys  of  the  safe,  vault,  and  compartments,  of  which  he 
took  impressions  in  wax,  and.  having  returned  the  keys 
"jid  removed  all  signs  of  his  visit,  departed.  When  Shin- 
burn  had  manufactured  such  keys  as  he  desired,  he  re- 
turned to  the  place,  and  at  night  entered  the  coal  cora« 
pany's  office,  opening  the  various  doors  and  the  vault. 
One  key  was  found  imperfect ;  but  this  defect  was  subse- 
quently remedied.  The  thieves  now  only  awaited  the  ar- 
rival of  the  money  to  do  their  work  ;  but  although  they 
were  ready  for  operations  in  April,  it  was  not  until  July 
Jiat  ciicumstances  favored  them. 

On  July  5th  Griffin  hired  a  team  in  Dunmore,  repre 
senting  that  he  would  be  absent  for  a  number  of  day* 


*34  MAX  SfflNBURN.     ' 

and  leaving  a  deposit  for  the  value  of  the  turn-out.  A 
short  distance  out  of  town  he  met  Sinclair  and  Shinbum, 
to  whom  he  surrendered  possession  of  the  t?Jim,  returning 
tc  town  himself  and  going  into  retiracy.  Sinclair  then 
drove  to  a  rendezvous  in  the  woods,  near  Wilkesbarre, 
where  they  remained  until  the  9th,  when,  after  dark,  they 
drove  to  White  Haven,  arriving  there  at  midnight.  Shin- 
burn  entered  the  office,  opened  the  safe,  abstracted  the 
money,  and  within  twenty  minutes  they  were  dashing 
away  toward  Scranton,  fifty-six  thousand  dollars  richer  for 
their  nocturnal  visit. 

I  had  already  captured  all  the  lesser  game,  and  had  just 
succeeded  in  laying  my  hands  upon  Shinburn,  after  an 
exciting  chase,  when  my  clients  urgently  advised  that 
Shinburn  should  be  held  in  custody  by  my  officers  until 
he  had  been  relieved  of  the  lion's  share  of  the  plunder 
which  it  was  known  he  had  carried  off.  Though  strongly 
objecting  to  this  course — as  it  is  a  thorough  principle  with 
me  to  immediately  turn  prisoners  over  to  the  regularly  con» 
stituted  authorities — I  at  last  reluctantly  yielded.  This 
deviation  from  my  rule  in  such  cases  cost  me  my  prisoner, 
for  Shinburn's  matchless  cunning,  which  always  seemed 
to  be  equal  to  any  test,  came  to  his  rescue  again,  and  he 
here  made  one  of  the  most  remarkable  escapes  for  which 
he  has  become  so  notorious. 

Knowing  the  slippery  character  of  the  man,  I  had 
every  precaution  taken  to  prevent  the  execution  of  any 
of  his  brilliant  schemes.  I  shut  him  up  in  a  *oom  at  a 
Wilkesbarre  hotel,  and  put  my  most  trustworthy  men  in 


MAX  SHIN  BURN  135 

charge  of  him,  handcuffing  them  together,  so  that  there 
could  be,  as  was  thought,  no  possibility  of  escape.  Ir 
this  way  they  passed  the  time,  eating,  drinking,  and  sleep- 
ing together,  seemingly  as  inseparable,  on  account  of  the 
handcuffs,  as  the  Siamese  twins,  while  the  men  were 
relieved  often  enough  to  keep  them  wakeful  and  vigilant. 
At  night  extra  precautions  were  taken,  and  the  guard  and 
prisoner  were  compelled  to  sleep  together. 

But  all  this  did  not  avail ;  for  Shinburn,  one  night,  after 
countless  trials  which  would  have  unnerved  and  dis- 
mayed any  less  wonderful  a  man,  using  his  left  hand^ 
picked  the  lock  of  the  handcuff  with  the  shank  of  his 
breast-pin,  stole  softly,  silently,  and  breathlessly  from  'he 
side  of  the  sleeping  officer,  and  fled.  All  pursuit  /ria 
useless.  He  in  some  manner  shipped  as  a  sailj/,  and 
finally  reached  Belgium,  from  which  country  he  Cf  aid  not 
be  taken  by  an  American  officer. 

But  Shinburn  could  not  resist  the  temptation  of  re- 
turning to  a  field  where  his  abilities  made  him  so  success- 
ful ;  and  it  is  quite  probable  that  he  came  back  to 
America  with  the  fixed  determination  of  securing  enough 
plunder  to  give  him  a  competence  for  the  remainder  of 
his  life.  He  worked  c  nearly  six  months  with  the 
greatest  secrecy  and  good  fortune,  finally  crowning  all  by 
his  masterly  planning  and  execution  of  the  famous  Ocean 
Bank  robbery,  at  New  York,  in  June,  1869,  in  which 
over  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars  in  securities  and  cur- 
rency  was  taken. 

This  robbery  was  done  in  the  following  manner  :  Pa* 


136  MAX  SHI NB  URN. 

ties  in  the  scheme  rented  a  portion  of  the  basement 
under  the  bank,  at  the  corner  of  Fulton  and  Greenwich 
Streets,  for  the  ostensible  purpose  of  opening  a  branch 
office  of  the  Chicago  Life  Insurance  Company,  but  an- 
nounced to  Mr.  Okell,  the  lessee  of  the  entire  basement, 
that  they  would  not  be  ready  for  business  for  some  weeks, 
as  they  would  have  to  comply  with  the  insurance  laws  of 
New  York,  which  required  a  deposit  from  foreign  insur-v 
ance  agencies. 

After  this  much  was  done,  every  little  item  of  informa- 
tion concerning  the  bank  was  gradually  secured,  until  a 
favorable  time  had  arrived,  when  the  burglars  began 
work  after  the  closing  of  business  on  Saturday  evening, 
and  probably  within  twenty-four  hours  had  secured  all 
that  they  wanted,  departing  with  the  utmost  leisure,  and 
leaving  not  the  slightest  clue  behind  them.  They  had 
made  most  accurate  calculations,  and  had  sawed  a  large 
hole  through  the  ceiling  of  the  basement  and  the  bank 
floor,  enabling  them  to  come  up  through  within  the  pri- 
vate office  of  the  president  of  the  bank.  Having  thus 
gained  access  to  the  bank  floor,  they  hung  black  glace 
and  oiled  silk  over  the  windows  and  doors,  and  went  to 
work.  In  some  mysterious  manner  the  combination  to 
Ihe  locks  of  the  main  vault  was  known — which  showed 
Shinbum's  genius  again;  and  when  the  vault  was  en- 
tered, the  small  safes  and  compartments  were  easily 
opened  with  a  massive  jack-screw  and  other  well-known 
burglars'  appliances.  Thirty  thousand  dollars  in  gold  was 
left — that  evidently  being  too  heavy  for  transportation-' 


MAX  SHINBURN.  1 3? 

but  altogether  upward  of  a  quarter  of  a  million  in  money 
and  securities  was  captured.  The  adventurous  fellows 
left  behind  them  probably  the  finest  "  kii  *'  of  tools  evei 
got  together.  It  must  have  cost  at  least  three  thousam' 
dollars,  and  comprised  a  jack-screw  capable  of  raising 
the  side  of  the  bank  building,  six  large  and  powerful 
*  jimmies,"  an  assortment  of  finely-tempered  steel 
sedges  and  copper-headed  sledge-hammers,  also  patent 
drills,  braces  and  bits,  augers,  compasses,  saws,  small 
hand- saws,  brad-awls,  two  large  pruning-knives,  putty- 
knife,  powder-flasks,  patent  fuse,  a  cleverly  contrived 
and  constructed  funnel  with  an  India-rubber  tube  at- 
tached for  inserting  powder  into  holes  drilled  in  the  doors 
of  the  safes,  a  pair  of  handcuffs,  coils  of  rope,  dark- 
lanterns,  rubber  shoes,  overalls,  and  a  large  quantity  of 
oiled  silk  used  for  deadening  the  sounds  of  the  blows 
from  the  heavy  sledge-hammers,  and  a  large  number  of 
cold-chisels,  screw-drivers,  gimlets,  and  other  small  tools 
too  numerous  to  mention  in  detail.  The  "kit"  com- 
prised over  two  hundred  pieces,  and  was  the  largest  and 
finest  ever  seen. 

Immediately  after  this  magnificent  capture,  Shinburn, 
who  probably  secured  a  large  portion  of  it,  at  once 
escaped  to  Europe,  and  settled  in  Belgium.  It  is 
thought  that  he  must  have  saved  from  two  to  three  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars.  With  a  portion  of  this  he  pur- 
chased a  title  from  some  wretchedly  impecunious  Belgian, 
and  is  now  living  in  luxury  ar.d  ease  from  the  proceeds 
9(  his  villainies  in  America, 


138        MR.  BLUFFKR  AND   THE  MONTE-MEN. 

Altogether,  Maxi-ailian    Shinburn    may  be  coni'dered 
one  of  the  most  re  tiarkably  successful  criminals  of  the 

w 

present  century,  »nd  is  almost  the  single  instance  on 
record  where  su^h  a  character  has  escaped  a  violen1 
death,  a  convict's  career,  and  cursed  end,  or  a  final  drag- 
ging out  of  a  miserable  existence  in  wretched  poverty 
and  disgrace,  which  may  yet  be  his  end,  as  the  old  adage, 
that  "a  fool  and  his  money  are  soon  parted,"  is  no  less 
'rue  than  tnat  "a  thief  and  his  plunder  soon  separate." 
;rhen  the  old  daring,  the  old  temptations,  and  the  great 
shadow  of  old  crimes  prove  the  irresistible  power  that 
propel  to  the  certain  fate  of  the  professional  criminal. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

MR.    BLUFFER  AND   THE    MONTE-MEN. 

I  HAVE  at  present  in  my  employ,  and  have  had  for  a 
great  number  of  years,  at  the  head  of  one  of  the  de- 
partments of  my  business,  a  now  elderly  man,  who  is  a 
genuine  character.  His  fidelity  and  ability  in  my  service 
have  given  him  the  right  to  my  utmost  confidence  and 
respect ;  but  he  possesses  traits  of  character  that  have 
created  t  at  different  times,  for  myself,  my  officers,  and 
large  number  of  employees,  almost  infinite  merriment. 

He  is  known  far  and  wide,  as  well  <is  among  my  peo 
pie,  as  Mr.  Bluffer,  which  scbriquet  ^vas  bestowed  upop 


MR.  BLUFFER  AND  THE  MOtf'2  E-MSN.        1 39 

him  some  years  since,  by  being  deputized  at  Chicago  tc 
make  the  arrest  of  a  notorious  criminal  who  was  ;it  that 
time  claiming  a  large  share  of  public  attention,  and  who 
had  come  under  my  surveillance  for  capturing. 

Although  then  past  the  prime  of  life,  and  already  grat 
and  grizzled,  he  was  determined  in  whatever  he  undei- 
took ;  and  though  that  kind  of  work  was  outside  of  hid 
department,  he  accomplished  his  mission  successfully, 
and  with  such  vigor  and  spirit,  that,  when  the  prisoner 
was  brought  to  my  office,  he  laughingly  remarked  that  his 
captor  was  a  "  cranky  old  bluffer,  and  no  mistake  !  '' 
and  in  honor  of  the  exploit  he  came  to  be  called  "  MJ 
Bluffer." 

The  most  striking  characteristics  of  Mr.  Bluffer,  which 
gave  everything  he  said  or  did  a  marked  individuality, 
were  a  disposition  to  speak  out  plainly  about  anything 
and  everything  that  came  under  his  attention — and  but 
little  escaped  it — and  then,  if  there  was  anything  which 
he  fancied  wrong  about  the  matter,  he  would  set  it  right, 
if  the  very  dead  had  to  be  raised  in  doing  it.  This, 
coupled  with  an  abruptness  and  occasional  ferocity  which 
often  provoked  the  most  disastrous  results  to  himself, 
caused  him  to  be  in  hot  water  most  of  the  time,  alwayi 
gave  his  tormentors  the  keenest  enjoyment,  and  fre- 
quently resulted  in  his  being  handled  without  gloves. 

Some  time  since  I  had  occasion  40  send  Mr.  Bluffei 
from  New  York  to  Albany  on  a  rathei  important  mission, 
and  on  his  return  he  met  with  .an  F.dventure  in  which  h? 
came  out  victorious  but  which,  at  the  vame  time,  nearlj 


140       MR.  BLUFFER    ltft>  THE  MOtfTE-MEtf. 


upset  the  old  gentleman  from  the  terrible  "  canary  "  w.iich 
his  indignation  and  rage  threw  him  into. 

The  train  left  Albany  at  half-past  eight  in  the  morning, 
and,  after  an  hour's  delightful  companionship  with  an  an- 
cient and  odorous  pipe,  which  Bluffer  keenly  enjoys  and 
which  is  his  inseparable  companion,  he.  returned  to  the 
ladies'  from  the  smoking  car,  and  with  a  copy  of  Mark 
Twain's  "  Tom  Sawyer  "  seated  himself  comfortably  in  a 
seat  with  a  friend  for  the  remainder  of  the  trip. 

He  had  not  been  long  thus  engaged  when  his  attention 
was  attracted  from  his  book  to  an  individual  "  made  up  " 
for  a  Texan  —  homespun  suit,  sombrero  hat,  cowhide 
boots,  etc.  —  who  began  a  rambling  conversation,  in  a  high 
falsetto  voice,  with  one  or  two  of  his  neighbors. 

The  gist  of  his  remarks  was  that  in  the  North  wonderful 
sights  were  to  be  seen  by  the  unsophisticated  Southerner, 
and  lucky  is  the  man  who  gets  back  to  his  country  home 
without  being  robbed  and  in  a  sober  condition  from  the 
great  metropolis  of  the  West,  Chicago,  which  great  city  he 
had  just  left. 

The  peculiar  voice,  the  well-imitated  Southern  dialect, 
and  his  tout  ensemble,  had  amused  the  passengers  for  some 
ten  or  fifteen  minutes,  when  he  suddenly  bent  forward 
and  shouted  in  the  ear  of  a  gentleman  who  was  quietly 
reading  a  paper  in  front  of  him  : 

"  Say,  stranger,  that  ar"  Chicago's  a  buster  anyhow, 
ain't  it?" 

"  Did  you  address  your  question  to  me,  sir  ?  "  said  thf 
gentleman  rather  testily. 


MR.  BLUFFER  AND  THE  MONTE-MEN.        141 

"  Ya-as,  'n  no  bad  meanin'  with  it  either.  How  do  you 
like  Chicago  ?  " 

"  I'm  a  resident  of  Chicago  and  it's  good  enough  foi 
me  !  "  This  with  an  expression  of  contemjt  for  the  ques- 
tioner. 

"Wall,  all  I've  got  ter  say  is  just  this,"  resumed  the 
Texan,  not  at  all  disconcerted,  "  Chicago  is  the  gaul- 
durndest  town  I  ever  struck.  They  tell  me  New  Yoik  is 
about  half  as  big  as  Chicago,  and  I'm  going  to  see  the 
show  thar  too.  These  cities  is  big  sights  fur  us  cattle- 
raisers.  Was  you  ever  in  Texas,  stranger  ?  " 

"  No,  and  have  no  desire  to  go  there  either." 

"  Then  you  do  live  in  Chicago,  eh  ?  Ar'  you  travelin 
fur?" 

"  I  am  going  to  New  York  on  business,  simply,"  aLr 
swered  the  Chicago  business  man,  evidently  very  much 
bored. 

"  "Wall,  now,  you  Chicago  fellers  are  right  smart.  Some 
of  the  boys  played  it  on  me  a  couple  of  days  ago ;  but  I'm 
agpin',to,:get  even  on 'em,  gauldurned  if  I  don't.  .I'U 
tell, you, how  it  was." 

At  this  point  the  passengers'  attention,  ladies  and  all, 
had  been  attracted  by  the  eccentric  appearance  and  lan« 
guage  ofrthe  "Texan,"  and  all  .were  listening. 
...  "You  see,"  continued  the:,  Texan,  "I  was  walkin' 
along  the  street,  when  a  feller  asked  me  if  I  wanted  to 
buy  .a  gold  watch.  <; Wall,  I  reckon  not,'  says  I.  'I 
can't  stand  the  press.,'  '  Ir  know^  wnere  you  can  get  a 
good  watch  for  a  dollar,'  says  he.  'You  do.  ?  '  says  I. 


142       MR.  BLUFFER  AND  TtfE  MONTE-MEtf. 

Tin  your  man.  'Come  along  with  me,'  says  he.  And 
stranger,  we  just  measured  mud  right  smart,  you  can  bet 
'  Here  you  are,'  says  he ;  and  we  walked  into  a  nice 
looking  doorway,  and  went  up-stairs  into  a  room  whar  a 
gang  of  lads  was  chuckin'  dice.  4  Step  right  up  and  bea; 
twenty-five,  and  you  can  git  one  of  these  elegant  gold 
watches,'  a  feller  says  to  me  as  was  standin*  behind  a  ba? 
like  \  *  it's  only  a  dollar  a  throw.'  I  got  up  and  1 
thro  wed,  but  I  didn't  beat  twenty-five.  '  You're  in  bad 
iiick  not  to  beat  twenty-five,'  says  a  young  feller  to  me  ; 
'  I  jist  won  a  watch,  and  I  beat  thirty-six  ! '  *  Hold  on 
thar,'  says  I  to  the  man  behind  the  bar ;  'I'll  try  that 
agin.'  But  I  slipped  up  on  it,  stranger,  and  I'll  be  gaul- 
durned  if  I  didn't  try  it  twenty-five  times.  I  couldn't 
fetch  it  once,  and  it  cost  me  twenty-five  dollars  for  my 
fun.  But,  by  and  by,  I  smelled  a  right  smart-sized  mice 
and  I  says :  *  Gentlemen,  I've  had  enough  ! '  and  gaul- 
durn  me  if  I  didn't  get  eout  o'  that  right  quick — I 
reckon  1 " 

"  Why  didn't  you  complain  to  the  police  ?  "  kindly  in- 
quired  a  gentleman  who  was  sitting  behind  him.  This 
individual  had  been  chatting  with  an  elderly  lady  about 
the  decadence  of  steamboat  travel  on  the  Hudson,  anj 
praising  the  good  cheer  of  tae  olden  times,  when  there 
were  such  life  and  gayety  "  on  the  river."  He  \vas  a  pom- 
pous-looking person,  and  had  let  slip  several  remarks  so 
worded  that  a  stranger  would  easily  understand  that  he 
was  a  member  of  some  Legislature,  and  appeared  to 
have  plenty  of  money  in  his  we'l-filled  pocketbook,  judg- 


MR.  ALUFFEA  AND  THE  MUA  TE-MEN.        143 

ing  from  its  appearance  when  he  displayed  it  as  he  gave 
his  ticket  to  the  conductor. 

"  Complain  to  the  police  ?  Why  I  didn't  ws  nt  my  friends 
to  know  I'd  been  such  a  gauldurned  sucker.  My  friends 
read  the  papers — they  do,  stranger.  And  tht  n  I  expected 
to  get  beat  anyhow,  somehow  afore  I  got  eout  of  Chicago, 
and  so  I  jist  said  nothin'  to  nobody." 

The  roar  of  laughter  had  scarcely  subsided,  when  Mr. 
Bluffer,  whose  ears  had  been  pricked  up  for  a  time,  and 
whose  suspicious  disposition  had  shown  him  that  the  car 
contained  a  first-class  "  monte  "  crowd,  whispered  to  his 
companion  :  "  I  say,  friend,  that  fellow  ought  to  be  an 
actor.  He  plays  that  very  well." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  was  the  reply. 

"  Hold  on — let's  wait ;  he's  got  another  yarn  ; "  and  just 
then  the  Texan,  apparently  flattered  by  the  attention  he 
was  receiving,  resumed  his  yarns  about  Chicago. 

"  But  the  worst  beat  I  got  was  in  losing  five  hundred 
dollars  in  the  slickest  way  you  ever  seed." 

"How  was  that?"  said  the  Chicago  merchant,  at 
length  becoming  interested,  aiK  unbending  from  his 
former  dignity. 

"  Why,  a  feller  come  up  to  me  and  showed  me  three 
cards.  He  says  :  *  I'll  bet  you  ten  dollars  you  can't  tell 
me  which  one  is  the  "old  woman,'"  and  he  mixed  'em  all 
up  an'  laid  'em  all  down  on  a  little  board  he  had  in  front 
of  him.  'No,  you  don't  play  that  on  me,'  I  says;  *I 
jist  got  bit  on  one  game.'  *  Here,  /can  tell  you,'  says  a 
young  feller  what  was  lookin'  on ;  and  he  did  tell  him. 


144       MR.  BLUFFER  AND  THE  MONTE- MEN. 

1  Do  you  want  to  try  it  again  ? '  says  he.  '  Well,  I  don'l 
mind,'  says  the  young  feller.  '  I'll  bet  you  fifty  dollars, 
all  I've  got  with  me,'  and  I'll  be  gauldurned  if  he  didn't 
win.  '  Here,'  I  says,  *  I'll  go  you  on  that  thing.'  You 
see,  I  had  been  a  watchin',  and  I  knew  the  card  jist  as 
well  as  the  feller  that  won.  *  How  much  ?  '  says  the  fel- 
ler with  the  cards.  'Two  hundred  dollars,'  I  says.  '  All 
right,'  says  he,  '  I'll  bet  you.'  I  put  my  finger  on  the  old 
woman,  but  he  turned  up  the  card,  and  it  wasn't  her — not 
much  :  it  was  the  Jack,  and  I  got  beat.  Now  you  jist 
calkerlate  my  eyes  stuck  out.  I  couldn't  see  how  I  made 
such  a  mistake,  and  I  offered  him  to  go  just  once  more 
for  three  hundred.  He  took  it ;  but,  stranger— well, 
don't  you  ever  try  that  game — that's  all.  You'd  get  beat ! " 

And  the  Texan  leaned  back  with  a  sigh. 

"  Then  you  lost  ?"  asked  the  senator. 

"  Yes,  you  bet  I  lost.  The  feller  offered  to  bet  me 
just  once  more,  to  give  me  a  chance  to  git  even,  but  1 
told  him  I  was  tired  and  wanted  to  go  home  ! " 

Another  roar  of  laughter  followed  this  sto'ry  and  the 
Texan  resumed  : 

"  But  I  tell  yer  what  I  did  do.  I  give  that  Ghicagei 
skunk  ten  dollars  for  them  three  keerds,  and  I'm  goin1  to 
take  'em  down  to  Texas  and  clean  all  the  cow-boys  out 
of  their  stamps.  I  kin  do  it,  sure.  Why,  I've  got  'enr 
right  here,"  said  he;  "I'll  show  'em  to  you,"  and  he 
went  down  into  an  inner  vest-pocket,  produced  -a  recP 
banda/ia  handkerchief,  which  he  carefully  unfolded,  and' 
showed  three  playing-cards — the  knave;  queenj  and  king.  ! 


NX.  SLVFFEk  AtfD  THE  MOtfTE-AfEN.        *45 

"  There's  the  jokers,"  he  said  triumphantly,  displaying 
them  awkwardly  to  the  Chicago  merchant. 

All  this  time  Mr.  Bluffer  had  been  bristling  -p.  Here 
were  some  villains  aboard  a  coach  full  of  respectable  peo- 
ple— many  of  whom  probably  had  large  sums  of  money 
with  them — who  were  now  playing  the  prelude  to  the  little 
drama  of  robbery.  It  was  a  shame,  Mr.  Bluffer  thought ; 
and,  like  a  valiant  knight,  he  determined  to  distinguish 
himself.  He  confided  to  his  friend  what  was  really  going 
on  under  the  appearance  of  rural  simplicity,  and  expressed 
a  purpose  of  denouncing  the  parties  there  and  then ; 
but  he  was  finally  persuaded  to  let  the  matter  rest  until 
there  was  really  some  danger  of  a  swindle  being  perpe- 
trated. 

"Why,"  said  the  solid  Chicago  business  man  to  the 
Texan,  "  that's  the  game  they  call  *  three-card  monte.' 
It's  a  shame,"  he  continued,  addressing  a  gentleman  whose 
curiosity  had  drawn  him  near,  "  that  such  rascality  cannot 
be  prevented.  The  manner  in  which  these  poor,  ignorant 
countrymen  will  allow  themselves  to  be  swindled  is  piti- 
able in  the  extreme.  Something  should  be  done  to  stop 
it.  The  penalties  upon  those  convicted  should  be  more 
severe  than  they  are." 

" That's  true,"  remarked  the  senator  warmly.  "We 
are  thinking  of  introducing  a  bill  at  the  coming  session  of 
the  I  egislature  at  Albany  making  it  an  offence  punishr 
ible  with  imprisonment  ten  years  in  the  penitentiary!, 
Gambling  must  be  stopped  ! " 

By  this  time  Mr.  Bluffer  was  in  a  very  fever  of  v?rtu- 
7 


146       m    BLVFtER  AND  THE  MONTE-MEN". 

ous  indignation,  and  low  mutterings  from  time  to  tinu 
escaped  him,  and  were  given  in  very  strong  language. 
He'd  be  dashed  if  he'd  see  such  goings  on.  Very  decided 
adjectives  affirmed  that  others  might  permit  such  damna< 
ble  work,  but  old  Bluffer,  true  to  his  pugnacious  disposi- 
tion, would  be  blanked  if  he  would  allow  it.  In  fact,  he 
began  to  attract  considerable  attention  in  his  part  of  the 
car ;  but  his  friend,  who  had  some  curiosity  to  see  how  the 
matter  would  end,  coupled  with  some  apprehensions  that 
the  deputy's  violent  temper  might  precipitate  trouble 
should  he  interfere  in  his  brusque  manner,  quieted  him 
down  somewhat  for  the  time  being. 

The  Chicago  business  man  had  noticed  this ;  and  after 
eying  Mr.  Bluffer  for  a  moment,  he  beckoned  him  to  fol- 
low him  to  the  extreme  end  of  the  car,  where,  although 
the  former  evidently  endeavored  with  a  most  winning 
argument  to  calm  my  old  employee  down,  from  the  indig- 
nant snortings,  the  savage  shaking  of  his  head,  and  the 
demonstrative  manner  of  his  entire  person,  it  could  be 
seen  that  it  was  an  entirely  one-sided  argument. 

While  this  by-play  was  going  on,  the  Texan  and  his 
confederate,  the  senator,  were  losing  no  time.  The  for 
mer  proceeded  to  show  his  amused  and  interested  listen- 
ers just  how  he  had  been  beaten.  He  shuffled  the  cards 
in  a  bungling  manner,  eliciting  a  remark  from  the  senator 
to  the  effect  that  he  must  do  better  than  that  or  he  would 
never  get  even  on  the  Chicago  sharks  by  beating  his  friends 
in  Texas  on  that  game,  because  any  man  could  tell  which 
card  was  the  "  old  woman." 


MR.  BLUFFER  AND  THE  MONTE-MEN.        147 

"  Wall,  now,  stranger,  I  doubt  it.  I  kinder  think  you 
can't  turn  her  over  !  " 

"  Oh,  yes ;  any  one  can  tell,"  responded  the  senatoi 
airily. 

"  Look  a-here  :  I'll  just  bet  yer  a  ten-dollar  note  yejr 
can't,  stranger ! " 

"  Done  !  Here  it  is  !  "  And  the  senator  picked  up  the 
right  card,  which  was  apparent  to  every  bystander,  from 
the  clumsy  manner  in  which  the  cards  had  been  shuffled. 

"  Wall,  you  did  beat  me,  didn't  you  ?  "  ejaculated  the 
Texan,  with  a  look  of  stupid  simplicity  and  unaccountable 
astonishment.  I  reckon  I'll  have  to  practice  this  thing  a 
little  afore  I  can  hide  it ;  but  I'll  be  gaul-danged  ef  I 
don't  git  even  ! " 

Down  at  the  end  of  the  car,  where  the  virtuously  indig- 
nant Mr.  Bluffer  and  the  Chicago  business  man  were 
having  their  one-sided  argument,  the  former  was  shaking 
his  head  furiously,  and  exclaiming : 

"No,  sir — never  !  That's  all  very  fine  ;  but  I  can't  see 
it  1  I  wouldn't  be  found  dead  with  any  of  your  money  on 
me  1  If  I  was  to  carry  it  about  me  in  Chicago,  I'd  be 
arrested  for  handling  counterfeit  money.  You've  got 
hold  of  the  wrong  man  for  a  bribery  !  "  and  the  like  ;  and 
then  Mr.  Bluffer,  snorting  and  puffing,  returned  to  his 
friend,  muttering  and  fussing,  and  showing  many  symp- 
toms of  a  near  explosion. 

In  the  meantime  the  senator  had  been  solicited  to  bet 
once  more,  and  had  done  so  to  oblige  the  Texan  ;  and 
again  won — this  time  fifty  dollars, 


148        MR.  BLUFFER  AND  THE  MONTE-MEN. 

Among  the  spectators  stood  a  young  man,  with  a 
Jewish  cast  of  countenance,  whose  hand  h;|d  been  going 
in  and  out  of  his  pocket  for  some  time,  as  though  he  were 
anxious  to  try  his  luck.  The  fire  of  excitement  was  in  his 
eyes,  and  his  cheeks  were  flushed — a  gambler  in  inclina- 
tion, young  as  he  was,  and  evidently  unsophisticated. 

"I'll  bet  you  ten  dollars  I  can  show  you  that  card," 
said  he  ;  and  he  was  laying  down  a  ten-dollar  bill  on  the 
improvised  table,  consisting  of  an  overcoat  upon  the 
Texan's  knee,  on  which  he  was  showing  how  the  "  little 
game  "  was  played,  when  suddenly  Mr.  Bluffer,  in  a  bursf 
of  indignation,  seized  the  young  man's  arm. 

"No,  you  don't ! "  he  exclaimed,  pushing  him  away ; 
"  no,  you  don't !  Don't  be  a  fool,  young  man  !  "  he  con- 
tinued, while  the  bystanders  looked  surprised,  and  an  ugly 
light  scintillated  from  the  Texan's  eyes  as  he  looked  up  at 
tne  intruder. 

"  Let  him  bet.  I'll  take  my  chances.  Let  him  bet, f 
said  the  Texan. 

"You'll  take  your  chances,  will  you?"  burst  forth  old 
Bluffer  ferociously.  "  A  nice  chance  that  would  be  fo» 
him,  wouldn't  it?" 

The  young  man  paused  for  a  moment  bewildered* 
while  the  Chicago  business  man,  smiling  pleasantly  and 
leassuringly,  beckoned  him  to  bet ;  and  the  senator  urged 
him  to  try  his  luck  :  why,  he  could  beat  him  certainly,  just 
as  easy  as  he  had  done.  The  young  Hebrew  was  reach- 
ing  his  hand  down,  when  a  sign  from  Bluffer  and  hii 
friend  restrained  him  again. 


MR.  BLUFFER  AND  THE  MONTE-MEN.        143 

" You're  a  nice  gang,  ain't  you?"  blurted  out  Bluffei 
Dotty,  eying  the  Chicago  merchant  with  a  look  of  con. 
tempt  as  his  fists  began  to  double  up.  "  I  want  you  to 
get  out  of  this  car  as  quick  as  ever  you  can  go  !  "  ind  he 
made  a  step  in  the  direction  of  the  latter,  while  that 
sleek  individual  assumed  an  indignant  attitude  and  turned 
very  red  in  the  face. 

"  What  do  you  mean,  sir  ?  "  he  exclaimed,  bridling  up. 
"  Do  you  know  to  whom  you  are  speaking  ?  I  demand 
to  know  what  you  mean  by  insulting  me  in  this  manner." 

The  passengers  stared  from  one  to  another  in  astonish 
ment,  and  the  ladies  began  to  look  frightened. 

"I  am  a  respectable  merchant  from  Chicago,  sir,  and 
I  demand  an  apology  instantly,  sir,  or  you  must  answer 
for  this  insult!" 

"That's  all  very  fine!  that's  all  very  fine!"  snorted 
Mr.  Bluffer,  weaving  back  and  forth  from  a  very  excess 
of  contempt  and  rage.  "  Oh,  you  do  it  very  well — very 
well.  You  ought  to  be  an  actor !  A  respectable  mer- 
chant from  Chicago,  eh?  Wry,  ladies  and  gentlemen, 
these  scamps  are  an  organized  gang  of  three-card-monte 
gamblers,  who  have  come  here  to  rob  :  yes,  rob — and  be 
damned  to  you  !  "  he  added  savagely,  as  "  Texas " 
jumped  up,  muttering  threats  and  curses,  and  placing  the 
cards  in  his  pocket  "  And  what  are  you  going  to  do 
about  it  ?  Yes,  ladies  and  gentleman,"  said  old  Bluffer, 
in  a  high  tragedy  voice,  "  and  this  fellow  here  "  (pointing 
to  the  "  business  man  ")  "  does  -he  genteel  business. 
That  one  over  there "  (referring  to  the  senator)  "is  pal 


MR.  BLUFFER  AND  THE  MONTE-MEff. 

No.  2,  and  always  wins  to  encourage  the  victims,  in  ordei 
that  that  scoundrel"  (pointing  to  the  Texan)  "may 
fkece  them.  Why,  that  Chicago  business  man!" — and 
here  the  brave  old  Bluffer  shook  his  trembling  finger  vei) 
close  to  the  nose  of  that  individual — "  not  five  minutes 
ago  offcied  me  twenty-five  dollars  to  keep  my  mouth 
shut  and  say  nothing  It's  all  pretty  well  played,  but  I 
object  to  their  presence  here,  and,  damn  me,  but  they'll 
go  out  of  the  car,  or  I  will !  " 

At  this  the  "business  man,"  boiling  with  rage,  sud- 
denly put  his  hand  into  a  convenient  valise,  drew  forth  a 
revolver,  which  he  cocked.  This  was  followed  by  shrieks 
from  the  ladies,  while  an  ominous  and  painful  silence  en- 
sued among  the  bystanders,  who  shrank  out  of  the  way, 
The  ugly  eyes  of  the  baffled  Texan  gleamed,  the  "  sena- 
tor," in  a  ridiculous  attempt  at  dignity,  and  with  wholly 
the  look  of  a  sneak,  appeared  not  to  know  just  how  to 
act,  while  the  hand  of  the  "  business  man  "  trembled  and 
his  face  paled,  as  he  said  hoarsely  :  "  Take  back  what 
you  said,  or  I'll  blow  daylight  through  you  !'" 

"  Corne  away,  or  you'll  be  hurt ! "  whispered  Mr 
Bluffer's  friend. 

"  Not  much  ! "  blurted  out  the  old  fellow  defiantly, 
"He  daren't  shoot!  He's  too  big  a  coward!"  and  he 
looked  the  gambler  in  the  face,  while  he  bantered  him  tq 
shoot. 

"  Give  it  to  him— ^shoot !  "  yelled  the  Texan.     "  NVhj 
don't  you  shoot  ?  "  he  howled  wildly,     "  Give  the  *  pop  v 
tome;   I'll  bore  him  1" 


MR.  BLUFFER  AND  THE  MONTE  MEN.        I$l 

"  Oh,  yes  !  that's  all  very  fine  !  why  don't  you  give  it 
to  him  ?     He'll  shoot — oh,  yes  !  shoot  nothing  !  "  snarled 
old  Blurffer  defiantly,  while   the  taunted  party  looked  nei 
vously  around. 

"  Stop  the  train  and  call  the  conductor  ! "  shouted  one 
frightened  individual ;  while  Mr.  Bluffer's  friend  stole 
around  behind  the  "  Chicago  business  man,"  ready  to 
snatch  the  revolver  on  the  first  sign  of  genuine  danger. 

Mr.  Bluffer  seemed  to  get  braver  and  braver.  His 
blood  was  up  !  He  was  ready  for  battle.  His  pugna- 
cious spirit,  coupled  with  a  knowledge  that  the  scoun- 
drelly gang  were  weakening,  made  him  bolder  than  a  lion, 
and  he  fairly  danced  up  and  dowxi  in  front  of  the  gam- 
blers. 

"  Look  at  the  trunk  of  the  gentleman  from  Chicago  ! " 
giving  the  satchel  a  nimble  kick,  which  sent  it  spinning, 
and  disclosing  an  empty  interior ;  "  nothing  in  it  but  a 
pack  of  cards!"  Don't  you  acknowledge?"  yelled 
Bluffer,  advancing,  "  or  shall  we  call  in  all  the  passen- 
gers?" 

"Yes,  the  game  is  up.  I  own  up,"  replied  the 
Chicago  business  man  in  a  low  voice  of  baffled  rage, 
at  the  same  time  putting  his  revolver  in  his  pocket  and 
picking  up  the  empty  valise  to  follow  the  "  senator," 
who  still  attempted  to  appear  dignified,  to  the  door  ; 
while  the  Texan,  concluding  things  were  beginning  to 
look  warm,  as  he  observed  the  now  determined  f  tees  of 
nearly  all  the  passengers,  followed  after. 

"All   right,  my  fine   o!4   snooker !    well  fix  you  T 


IS2        MR.  BLUFFER  AND  THE  MONTE* MEN. 

shouted  the  Texan  to  Mr.  Bluffer,  as  the  former  re 
treated. 

The  train  was  now  nearing  the  suburbs,  and  it  had 
got  bruited  about  that  the  demonstrative  old  fellow  was 
one  of  my  men — "  one  of  Pinkerton's  superintendents," 
had,  in  fact,  reached  the  ears  of  the  retreating  gamblers  ; 
and  they  stopped  at  the  door  to  give  their  persistent 
enemy  a  parting  shot. 

Of  all  the  vile  language  ever  used,  the  Texan,  the 
"  business  man "  and  the  "  senator "  now  indulged  in. 
They  raked  the  sturdy  old  Bluffer  fore  and  aft.  Outside 
of  all  the  fine  names  their  tongues  could  fling  forth,  they 
sneered  at  him,  jibed  him,  bullied  him,  called  him  a  jani- 
tor, hurled  at  rum  taunts  of  being  Pinkerton's  coal-heaver, 
Pinkerton's  floor  scrubber,  Pinkerton's  hostler,  and  alto- 
gether so  hurt  the  old  fellow's  "pride  in  his  position  and 
badgered  him  on  his  personal  appearance  and  infirmities, 
that,  had  not  the  ancient  Bluffer  been  restrained,  he 
would  have  thrown  himself  upon  the  three,  in  all  the 
might  and  power  of  his  boundless  indignation  and  rage, 
and  probably  got  a  good,  sound  drubbing,  if  not  worse. 

As  it  was,  he  followed  them,  with  trembling  form, 
shrieking  tones,  and  shaking  fists,  to  the  last  that  he  was 
able,  and  earned  another  great  victory,  in  his  own  esti 
mation,  in  behalf  of  decency  and  justice. 

The  gamblers  were  hustled  off  the  train  at  the  first 
stop  made,  breathing  dire  threats  of  revenge ;  while  my 
triumphant  and  faithful  employee,  amid  the  hearty  con 
gratulations  of  the  passengers,  solaced  himself,  until  the 


TRAPPING  A  DETECTIVE.  153 

Union  depot  was  reached,  by  mighty  and  vigorous  puff 
ings  at  his  ancient  and  odorous  pipe ;  and  when  the 
passengers  disembarked  for  their  various  destirations 
might  still  have  been  seen  puffing  and  muttering  away 
Sut  wearing  the  dignity  of  a  conquering  hero. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

TRAPPING  A   DETECTIVE. 

THE  "  smart  boy  "  of  the  period  is  sometime  s  very 
smart  indeed.  There  seems  to  be  a  period  in  the 
life  of  every  boy  when  he  naturally  becomes  this  '  smart 
boy  of  the  period,"  and  takes  to  tricks  of  a  brilliant  char- 
acter as  naturally  as  a  young  miss  takes  to  beaux.  Phila- 
delphia had  one  of  these  smart  boys  recently,  and  he 
showed,  under  the  pressing  necessity  of  the  occasion,  an 
ingenuity  and  shrewdness  which  would  have  much  more 
become  the  Philadelphia  city  detective  whom  he  out- 
witted. 

A  Brook  Street  grocer  lost  fifty  dollars  from  his  till,  and 
a  lad  named  Falvey  was  suspected  of  the  theft.  His 
father  very  comrnendably  took  him  to  the  police-station, 
and  put  him  in  charge  of  an  officer  pending  an  investiga- 
tion of  the  matter.  After  young  Falvey  was  placed  in  a 
coll,  Detective  Swan,  of  the  city  force,  was  ordered  to 
enter  and  "  break  him  down,"  which  is  the  detective  par 

lance  for  securing  a  confession  from  a  supposed  criminal 
7* 


154  TRAPPING  A  DETECTIVE. 

The  boy  did  finally  confess  to  the  theft  with  loud  prd4 
"estations  of  grief  and  repentance,  and  finally  told  the 
officer  a  regular  "Tom  Sawyer"  story  of  having  hidden 
It  in  a  certain  coal-yard  along  the  docks,  and  promised  to 
go  with  the  detective  and  show  him  where  he  had  secreted 
the  bills. 

The  two  sallied  forth  in  quest  of  the  treasure,  the  de- 
tective triumphant  in  his  reflections  of  his  ability  to  get 
at  such  things  speedily,  and  the  boy  humble  and  demure 
as  the  picture  of  the  typical  good  boy  in  the  Sunday-school 
books.  At  last  they  reached  the  docks  and  the  par- 
ticular coal-yard  where  the  stolen  money  had  been  hid- 
den. 

Now  these  docks,  or  yards,  are  all  provided  with  great 
numbers  of  elevated  "smites"  used  in  discharging  coal. 
To  one  of  these  the  guileful  youth  led  the  satisfied  detec- 
tive, where  they  found  a  hole  just  large  enough  for  one 
person  to  crawl  into.  He  said  the  money  was  hidden  in 
this  hole ;  and  the  officer,  not  suspecting  the  youth  was 
playing  any  game  upon  him  to  escape,  directed  him  to 
"  go  along  in."  : 

The  boy  did  go  in ;  but  that  same  boy  came  out  at  the 
large  instead  of  the  small  end  of  the  horn — and  that  end, 
it  is  certain,  was  not  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  de- 
tective. 

The  detective  soon  began  to  think  that  it  required  a 
Jong  time  for  the  boy  to  get  out  of  so  small  a  place.  He 
•; accordingly  put  his  head  into  the  dark  orifice  and  shouted 
ilustily. 


TRAPPING  A  DETECTIVE.  155 

There  was  no  response  but  the  sepulchral  ec.ho  of  his 
own  voice,  and  besides,  it  seemed  to  him  that  he  had 
drawn  a  bucketful  of  cinders  into  his  lungs,  while  his  en- 
tire features  were  eclipsed  with  the  richest  possible  qual- 
ity of  coal-smut. 

Again  he  hallooed,  and  threatened  to  shoot  into  the  hole 
should  the  boy  not  make  his  appearance  immediately  at 
the  expiration  of  one  minute.  The  detective  held  his 
watch  and  cursed  his  luck ;  but  this  threat  was  of  no 
avail.  Finally  he  did  shoot  into  the  dark  hole,  and  trem- 
bled a  little  at  the  risk  he  was  taking ;  but  it  brought  no 
boy  and  no  sound  to  indicate  his  whereabouts. 

While  standing  there  cogitating  what  should  be  the 
next  move,  he  suddenly  heard  the  sound  of  some  heavy 
object  dropping  below.  He  directly  inferred  that  the 
keen  youngster  had  outwitted  him,  and  had  jumped  into 
the  bins  below  ;  and  he  accordingly  made  all  haste  to  fel- 
low, making  quite  a  daring  swinging  leap  over  the  side  of 
the  "  shute,"  landing  in  the  bottom  of  a  huge  bin,  an  I 
where  he  would  rather  have  given  a  ten-dollar  bill  than  to 
have  been. 

He  found  to  his  chagrin  that  he  and  the  deceitful  youth 
had  gone  to  very  different  places.  The  detective  was  in 
the  bottom  of  a  coal-bin,  and  nobody  within  hearing  to 
help  him  out. 

In  this  miserable  position  the  detective  remained  sev 
eral  hours,  with  the  sun  blaz'ng  down  upon  him.  He 
wou'd  yell  for  assistance  for  a  time,  and  then  he  would 
this  amusement  by  cursing,  and  it  is  thought  that 


I  $6  PIPER,    THE  FORGE&. 

some  of  the  choicest  swearing  ever  done  in  tne  Quakei 
City  was  executed  on  this  momentous  occasion. 

At  last  some  laborers  came  that  way,  and  pulled  up  the 
unfortunate  officer  with  a  rope,  setting  hin.  at  liberty ;  but 
he  was  wholly  unrecognizable,  and  returned  to  headquai 
ters  without  his  boy  or  money,  to  receive  the  derisive 
shouts  of  his  companions,  and  to  be  known  among  them 
to  this  day  as  the  "  coal-heaver  detective." 


CHAPTER  X. 

PIPER,  THE    FORGER. 

I    THINK  I  can  best  relate  the  romantic  history  of 
this  remarkable .  criminal  by  extracts  from  his  con 
fession  to  me,  in  the  summer  of  1876,  shortly  after  his 
release  from  prison,  and  when  it  was  hoped  his  profes- 
sions of  reform  would  prove  all  they  then  promised : 

"  I  was  born  in  Cynthiana  Township,  rear  Paris,  Kentucky,  on  the 
old  Topper  plantation,  in  1828.  My  father  was  a  gentleman  in 
whom  courtesy  and  courtliness  were  inborn  graces.  My  earliest  recol- 
lections are  of  this  man,  his  wife,  my  mother  (a  brilliant  French  la  ly 
he  had  married  in  Europe),  flowers,  happy  negroes,  and  countless  lady 
and  gentleman  visitors.  This  picture  passed  away  when  I  became 
five  years  of  age  and  my  mother  died.  Her  death  brought  darl 
days  to  me,  and  the  removal  of  our  family  to  Brooklyn,  where,  aftef 
a  few  years,  my  father  married  a  wealthy  lady  of  that  city,  who  wai 
—  well,  what  stepmothers  usually  are.  She  was  not  my  mother,  and 


PIPER,    THE  FORGER.  157 

besides,  there  were  two  crops  of  children,  and  the,/  canac  vciy  well 
be  mixed  like  two  grades  of  wheat  in  a  Chicago  elevator. 

"  My  father  was  wealthy  for  those  times,  worth  probnblj  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars  ;  and  having  no  home  in  reality,  I  was  not 
long  in  spoiling.  My  father  was  socially  a  favorite,  and,  as  he  took 
me  almost  everywhere  with  him,  by  the  time  I  was  fourteen  years  of 
age  I  was.  a  regular  pet  of  the  lawyers,  politicians,  and  literary  men 
of  Lis  circle. 

"  Naturally  precocious,  and  with  no  restraining  home  influences,  1 
went  to  the  devil  at  a  rapid  pace.  My.  father  was  very  desirous  that 
I  should  have  a  fine  education ;  and  after  I  had  gone  through  the 
Brooklyn  public  schools,  I  was  prepared  for  college  by  tutors,  and 
intended  graduating  from  Yale,  when  a  little  incident  occurred  which 
changed  the  whole  tenor  of  my  life,  and  led  to  the  circumstances  that 
forced  me  into  being  what  I  have  been. 

"'  My  father  gave  me  four  thousand  dollars,  and  directed  me  to 
proceed  to  the  Wyoming  Valley,  to  invest  the  same  in  coal,  provided 
it  could  be  secured  at  certain  rates.  I  got  as  far  as  Philadelphia, 
went  on  a  spree  there,  and  finally  went  to  New  Orleans,  where  I 
spent  every  dollar  before  my  father  discovered  my  whereabouts. 

*'  It  almost  broke  his  heart,  as  I  was  the  man's  pride.  He  never 
reprimanded  me ;  but  I  could  see  that  it  bowed  him  down,  and,  thougt 
he  was  always  tender  and  considerate,  had  built  a  wall  between  us. 

"  I  pursued  my  studies  about  a  year  after  this,  and  then,  getting 
hold*  of  a  few  hundred-  dollars,  went  to  Buffalo,  not  exactly  as  a  run- 
away,  but  with  a  coldness  that  made  that  separation  from  my  father 
*  final  one.  I  had  some  good  letters  of  introduction,  and  several 
Buffalo  business  men  knew  of  my  family's  wealth  and  standing,  and, 
as  I  never  had  any  bad  habits,  I  made  friends  there  rapidly. 

"  I  shortly  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  firm  natied  Rathburn, 
Pettis  &  Co.,  the  senior  member  of  which  was  convicted  of  forging 
grain  receipts,  and  was  sentenced  to  ten  years  at  Auburn,  but  was 
pardoned  out  several  years  refore  the  expiration  of  his  term,  and 


t5$  PIPER,    THE  FORGER. 

subsequently  toon   up  all  the  paper  which  had  takea   him 
dying  a  few  years  since  worth  fully  a  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

**  Rathbura  seemed  greatly  interested  in  me,  and,  through  the  firm'i 
influence,  I  became  steward  of  the  old  '  Superior,'  a  steamer  then 
plying  between  Buffalo  and  Chicago,  ran  two  trips  as  such,  and  was 
then  promoted  to  the  assistant  clerkship,  which  position  I  retained 
until  the  close  of  navigation.  In  the  meantime  I  had  become  one 
of  Rathburn's  family,  and  they  seemed  to  love  me  as  a  son.  They 
lived  on  what  was  then  known  as  Dousman  Street,  an  aristocratic 
locality,  with  people  like  Dean  Richmond  for  neighbors.  Rath- 
burn's  family  were  very  extravagant,  which  ruined  him.  He  had  often 
remarked  on  my  wonderful  penmanship — not  that  it  was  so  beautiful, 
but  on  account  of  its  being  so  varied  and  done  with  such  fluency. 

**  One  winter  evening — it  was  Sunday  evening,  and  a  dreary  one — 
he  came  to  me  in  their  parlor,  where  his  two  beautiful  daughters  and 
myself  were  sitting  reading,  and  said  :  '  My  son  ' — he  always  called 
me  '  my  son  ' — '  step  into  the  library  a  moment ;  I  want  to  speak 
with  you.'  I  saw  there  was  something  wrong,  but  followed  him  in  ; 
and" he  motioned  me  to  a  seat  in  front  of  his  secretary,  where  there 
were  writing  materials,  evidently  just  laid  there.  He  walked  the 
floor  for  a  little  time,  and  then  came  to  where  I  was  sitting,  and  be- 
gan, in  a  rattling,  gasping  sort  of  a  way,  complimenting  my  hand- 
wrifinq,  praising  my  good  qualities,  bemoaning  his  family's  extrava- 
gance, and  requesting  me  to  see  if  I  could  write  certain  names  attached 
to  different  papers  as  well  as  they  were  written  upon  them — all  in  a 
piteous,  half-crazed  manner,  which  scared  me.  He  explained  that  no 
harm  could  come  of  it ;  that  he  could  more  than  meet  all  of  his  obli- 
gations if  given  but  a  chance  to  turn ;  and  concluded  by  remind ;ng 
me  that  I  would  permit  his  ruin  if  I  did  not  or  could  not  do  as  he 
wished  by  the  next  morning. 

**I  got  all  worked  up  about  it,  and  told  him  that  I  could  not 
mrite  my  own  name  that  night,  but  that  I  would  go  right  to  bed, 
have  a  good  sleep,  get  up  early  in  the  morning,  and  if  he  would  thef 


PfPERt    THE  FCXGER.  159 

•how  me  what   he  wanted  I  would  try  and  do   it   for  him.      Thif 

made  the  man  so  happy  and  bright,  that  I  went  to  ted  happy  too, 
and  got  up  at  six  o'clock,  and  went  into  the  library,  where  I  found 
everything  ready.  I  worked  steadily  for  an  houi  under  his  direc- 
tions, and  at  the  end  of  that  time  he  was  half  wild  with  delight — the 
possessor  of  thirty  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  grain  receipts,  that  wer« 
good  as  genuine,  to  realize  upon.  He  grasped  me  by  the  hand,  and, 
with  tears  of  joy  and  gratitude  streaming  down  his  face,  said,  hyster- 
ically, that  I  had  saved  him,  and  that  a  two  thousand  dollar  span  and 
carriage  he  owned  should  be  my  reward. 

"I  did  not  then  realize  the  enormity  of  my  crime,  and  I  beliera 
that,  had  I  not  known  that  man,  and  unconsciously  fallen  before  that 
terrible  temptation,  I  never  would  have  been  what  I  have;  but  that 
turn-out,  the  man's  gratitude  and  manifest  kindnesses,  his  wife's  re- 
doubled attention,  his  two  daughters'  extreme  affection,  everything 
that  will  whirl  the  head  of  a  foolish  boy  and  give  him  the  first  devil 
.sh  taste  of  power,  crazed  me,  ruined  me  J 

"  The  first  grain  receipts  thrown  upon  the  markets  were  of  course 
retired  as  fast  as  they  became  due  and  substituted  by  new  ones,  but 
the  overplus  became  so  great  after  a  few  months  that  the  inevitable 
had  to  come.  Rathburn  was  arrested,  tried — ex- President  Fillmore 
being  his  counsel — convicted,  and  sentenced  to  Auburn  for  ten  years, 
there  being  a  general  and  powerful  feeling  that  the  whole  thing  waj 
a  conspiracy  of  his  partners  for  his  ruin.  When  the  lightning  struck, 
his  wife  came  to  me  with  a  thousand  dollars  and  begged  me,  in  heav- 
en's name,  to  fly  the  country ;  which,  after  disposing  of  my  turn-out, 
I  did.  But  not  until  I  had  put  the  Atlantic  Ocean  between  me  aiuj 
the  United  States  did  I  realize  that  I  was  a  fugitive  in  a  strange 
land,  and  a  man  without  a  country. 

"  But  once  in  Europe,  and  the  necessity  for  some  scheme  for  money 
goading  me  on,  tne  terribly  unfortunate  power  I  held,  coupled  with 
a  good  education,  quick  wits,  and  a  be  ,.»nJiess  self-reliance,  made  m| 
nlwcquent  career  as  a  criminal  a  natural  sequence. 


I<5O  PIPER,    THE  FORGER. 

"  My  next  operation  was  in  purchasing  four  bills  of  exchange  foi 

eight  pounds — each  the  smallest  bills  then  purchasable  in  England — 
from  a  Liverpool  bank  upon  a  Paris  house;  and  I  "  raised"  them, 
rsalizing  twelve  thousand  dollars  out  of  the  operation.  Being  of  a 
literary  turn  of  mind  and  a  good  scholar,  I  then  went  to  Heidelberg, 
Germany,  with  a  view  of  entering  the  university  there  and  becoming 
a  thorough  German  scholar;  but  after  a  little  time  got  restless,  and 
returned  to  London,  where  I  secured  an  attorney,  who  settled  the 
Paris  matter  and  took  up  the  paper  for  me,  accomplishing  the  whole 
for  less  than  two  thousand  dollars. 

"  I  was  only  a  few  months  in  Europe,  when  I  returned  U 
America;  and  after  wandering  about  for  a  little  time  —  though 
always  studying  banking  and  commercial  rules  and  customs  with 
the  zeal  of  an  honest  capitalist,  I  went  to  Philadelphia,  and  pur- 
chased, at  a  bank  there,  five  certificates  of  deposit — one  for  five 
thousand  dollars  and  the  other  four  for  fifty  dollars  each.  With 
these  in  my  pocket,  and  about  six  thousand  dollars  in  ready  money 
besides,  I  sailed  from  Baltimore  to  Charleston,  S.  C.,  and  repre- 
sented myself  as  a  wealthy  Englishman  traveling  for  his  health 
and  seeking  profitable  American  investments,  made  acquaintance 
at  the  banks,  where  I  was  informed  of  terms  of  discount  for  cashing 
my  five  thousand  dollar  certificate — claiming  to  be  in  no  great  haste, 
and  giving  them  plenty  of  time  to  ascertain  by  mail  that  my  certifi- 
cate of  deposit  was  no  myth.  Then  I  raised  the  four  fifty  dollai 
certificates  to  five  thousand  dollar  certificates,  leisurely  called 
around  at  the  four  different  banks,  and  got  them  cashed,  transferred 
the  genuine  to  a  wealthy  friend,  securing  the  cash  for  the  same,  and, 
lang  before  my  Charleston  friends  could  secure  advices  from  Phila- 
delphia, I  was  well  on  my  way  to  Cuba,  with  an  additional  fund  of 
twenty  thousand  dollars.  I  made  it  an  invariable  rule  to  "  settle ' 
these  little  matters  up  clean  as  1  went  along,  and  doing  so  in  thii 
instance  only  cost  me  four  thousand  dollars. 

44 1  could  do  nothing  in  my  line  in  Cuba.     There  are  no  enterpri* 


PIPER,    THE  FORGER. 

tag  business  men   there.     They  want  to  know  all  about   &   man 

They  insist  on  knowing  that  a  man  has  been  honest,  as  well  as  that 
he  seems  so,  and  has  money.  I  soon  left  that  country  ;  and,  whilr 
crossing  to  New  Orleans,  developed  a  scheme  to  relieve  that  city  ol 
about  fifty  thousand  dollars,  which  failed.  A  foolish  momentary 
fondness  for  a  brilliant  New  Orleans  adventuress  caused  this  plan 
to  fail,  as  I  felt  satisfied  that  she  had  learned  too  much  of  mv 
methods,  and  would  levy  on  me  heavily  for  silence,  or  expose  me 
outright.  I  left  Cuba  with  some  little  Spanish  paper,  which  I  in- 
tended to  expand  sufficiently  to  enable  me  to  purchase  about  sixty 
thousand  dollars'  worth  of  cotton,  make  a  bona-fide  purchase  of  that 
amount  with  the  inflated  paper,  ship  it  to  Liverpool,  and  draw 
against  the  shipment  for  fifty  thousand  dollars,  and  then  draw  out  of 
the  cotton  trade. 

"I  went  to  Cleveland  from  New  Orleans,  and  at  Berea  I  married. 
I  had  about  twenty-five  thousand  dollars,  and  I  began  husbanding 
it  as  carefully  as  though  I  had  earned  every  cent  of  it  by  hard  Ubor. 
From  Ohio  I  went  to  Rochester,  New  York,  and  there  opened  a 
large  Yankee  notion  and  furnishing-goods  store,  and  started  ped- 
dling wagons  into  the  country.  I  did  well ;  sold  out  well ;  and 
went  to  Albion,  New  York,  and  there  engaged  in  the  stove  business, 
inaugurating,  I  believe,  the  system  of  stove-peddling,  which  after- 
ward became  general  throughout  the  State,  in  which  business  I  had 
twelve  wagons  engaged. 

"  Everything  I  touched  seemed  to  turn  as  if  by  magic  into  money. 
About  1850  I  came  back  into  Ohio,  and  purchased  several  mills  ; 
and  in  1852  removed  to  Iowa,  where,  as  I  had  taken  fully  one  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars,  I  soon  became  one  of  the  leading  capitalists 
of  the  State,  and  in  five  years  had  come  to  be  worth  fully  half  a 
million.  I  was  considered  worth  a  million,  and  ranked  financially 
next  to  Cook  &  Seargant,  the  well-known  Davenport  bankers.  ID 
fact,  I  was  one  of  the  very  few  solid  men  of  Iowa,  and  my  paper  was 
is  good  as  the  gold  at  any  bank  in  the  State.  I  felt  guilty  and  rest 


102  PIPER,    THE  FORGER. 

less  all  this  ti.ne,  and  could  find  no  pleasure  save  in  incessant  worit 
I  built  an  eighty  thousand  dollar  residence,  and  one  of  my  enter, 
prises  was  building,  with  old  Anton  Marat,  the  City  Hote!  of  St. 
Louis,  once  a  fine  house,  with  the  extensive  sale-stables  attached  ; 
and  in  Iowa  I  was  in  every  enterprise  that  I  could  learn  of.  I  made 
an  immense  amount  of  money  in  a  very  short  time  ;  but  my  finan 
cial  ruin  came  frorr  indorsing  the  paper  of  everybody  who  would 
ask  it. 

tl  Everything  was  swept  away  in  the  crash  of  '57,  save  four  thou- 
sand dollars,  which  I  had  deposited  with  Budd  &  Baldwin,  bankers, 
at  Clinton.  With  this  I  left  the  State,  and  went  to  Chicago,  where 
for  a  time  I  bought  wheat  on  the  street  for  a  firm  named  Radcliffe  & 
Walker ;  but  at  that  time  everybody  was  poor,  scared,  and  running 
away  ;  and  the  old  fascination  of  the  criminal's  life  coming  over  me, 
I  left  Chicago  with  five  hundred  dollars  of  what  remained  of  this  four 
thousand  dollars,  in  one  dollar  bills,  and  the  balance  in  gold,  and 
went  to  Fremont,  Ohio.  Making  a  great  show  of  this,  I  delib- 
erately determined  on  swindling  somebody,  and  soon  found  that  a 
spendthrift  Frenchman,  one  Falquet,  who  had  made  the  wife  of 
the  Sandusky.  Ohio,  postmaster  his  mistress,  was  going  to  the 
dogs  financially,  and  who  I  at  once  saw  was  the  proper  party,  for 
a  victim.  The  result  was,  I  went  to  New  York,  and  purchased,  for 
one  hundred  dollars,  ten  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  the  then  ab- 
solutely worthless  Pennsylvania  Coal  Company's  bonds.  My  next 
step  was  to  get  about  two  hundred  copies  of  Thompson's  Stock  Re- 
porter, one  hundred  of  two  years  previous,  and  one  hundred  then  cur- 
rent, transfer  the  covers,  and  slip  them  into  their  olaces  where  thcj 
were  taken.  Pennsylvania  Coal  Company's  bonds  suddenly  went  up 
from  nothing  to  above  par,  and  with  twenty  thousand  dollars'  worth 
of  them  and  three  hundred  dollars  in  gold,  I  became  the  bona-fidc  pur- 
chaser of  Falquet's  business,  making  a  cool  twenty  thousand,  and 
•ending  him  and  his  mistress  on  to  New  York  in  a  most  happy  frame 
pf  mind.  Of  course  I  was  arrested  for  fraud,  but  no  fraud  coul(|  bf 


PIPER.    THE  FORGER.  l6j 

ihown  ;  and,  after  honorably  conducting  the  business  for  some  time, 
F  sold  out,  and  became  a  desperately  dangerous  forger. 

"  In  1862  I  made  arrangements  with  the  chiefs  of  police  of  a 
dozen  large  cities,  by  which  1  was  to  receive  protection  for  a  certain 
percentage  of  my  plunder.  They  were  not  only  to  act  as  a  *  fence  ' 
tor  the  money  or  bonds  I  might  secure,  but  act  as  'go-bet weens  *  fitur 
the  purpose  of  effecting  settlements  with  parties  whom  I  had  swiiiu- 
dled.  If  I  was  too  closely  pressed,  I  wa&  to  bs  aanested  on>  soiree1 
trivial  charge  and  protected  in  jail,  or  given  2n'  opportunity  to  get 
straw  bail  and  escape.  Under  this  protection,  which  for  several 
years  was  absolute,  my  first  operation  was  in  Wisconsin,  the  next  in 
Minnesota,  next  in  Iowa,  then  in  Illinois,  next  in  Ohio,  then  in 
Pennsylvania,  then  in  Indiana,  next  in  New  York,  then  in  Rhode 
Island,  next  in  Nova  Scotia,  then  in  Canada,  and  then  in  Vermont, 
which  caused  my  incarceration  at  Rutland,  in  February,  '69,  for  a 
term  of  ten  years  ;  but,  through  the  commutation  for  good  behavior, 
I  was  discharged  the  fourth  of  February,  1876.  From  1857  to  the 
time  of  my  final  arrest  I  probably  *  raised '  a  million  dollars  in 
checks  and  drafts,  and  made  half  that  amount  more  from  altering 
court  records,  forging  wuls,  changing  numbers  on  stolen  bonds  so 
they  could  be  put  upon  the  market,  and  in  the  thousands  of  ways  in 
which  my  dangerous-  art  could  be  used. 

*•  My  daring  during  my  second  career  of  forgery  was  so  great, 
f  nd  I  relied  so  thoroughly  upon  the  perfect  execution  of  my  work 
Atid'my  complete  knowledge  of  the  French  language,  that  I  was 
whirled  into  a  scheme  for  relieving,  at  one  stroke,  Emperor  Maxi- 
milian of  nearly  two  millions  in  gold  stored  in  the  treasury  vaults 
of  the  Mexican  capital.  Preparatory  to  this,  I  went  to  England, 
provided  myself  with  a  large  number  of  bills  of  exchange  on  differ- 
ent French  banks,  and,  after  proceeding  to  Paris,  rented  quiet  lodg- 
ings, where  I  inflated  these  bills  until  they  represented  fabulous 
sums.  After  this  work  was  completed,  I  set  about  forgUg  letter^ 
Accrediting  myself  »s  a  secret  agent  from  the  French  government  U 


1 64  PIPER,    THE  FORGER. 

the  Mexican  emperor  and  poor  Carlotta.  These  forged  papeis  gavi 
exhaustive  political  and  private  reasons  why  official  advices  should  not 
be  burdened  with  my  coming  as  a  secret  agent,  and  also  told  in  writ- 
ing, too  familiar  to  be  mistaken,  why  this  secret  embassador  (myself) 
should  be  implicitly  trusted,  and  even  obeyed,  should  the  condition 
of  things  in  Mexico,  on  the  agenrts  arrival,  warrant  flight. 

"  As  in  the  case  with  the  Frenchman,  Falquet,  at  Fremont,  Ohio, 
my  scheme  was  to  induce  the  self-crazed  emperor  to  do  something 
from  which  he  dare  not  turn  back.  I  would  take  my  chances  on  the 
rest.  On  arriving  at  Brownsville,  the  three  men  who  were  to  have 
assisted  me  in  this  bold  and  desperate  scheme,  learning  of  the  alarm- 
ing condition  of  things  at  the  city  of  Mexico,  refused  to  go  any  fur 
ther,  and  I  pursued  my  journey  of  adventure  alone.  Arriving  at  the 
capital,  I  at  once  gained  an  interview  with  the  emperor,  who  seemed 
in  a  listless,  palsied  condition,  as  if  already  practically  dead,  and  only 
sensible  of  a  lingering,  undesired  existence,  and  who,  while  acknowl- 
edging the  genuineness  of  my  credentials  and  the  necessity  for  imme- 
diate flight,  desired  five  days  in  which  to  take  counsel  and  give  a  de- 
cision, though  actually  ordering  a  count  of  the  coin  and  bullion  in 
the  treasury  vaults.  I  at  once  saw  that  I  could  not  secure  the  re- 
moval of  this  vast  weight — not  knowing  or  daring  to  trust  a  soul  in 
that  wild  country,  where  every  hand  held  a  dagger,  and  knew  how  to 
drive  it  home  too — and  felt  that  it  was  useless  to  waste  my  beautiful 
English  paper  where  I  might  not  be  able  to  get  away  with  the  pro- 
ceeds of  it ;  and  although  I  held  several  subsequent  interviews  with 
the  fated  emperor,  I  saw  that  my  own  death  was  only  a  question  of 
time  if  I  remained  there,  and  the  third  day  after  my  arrival  in  the 
city  of  Mexico  I  left  the  place  for  Salt  Lake,  via  Santa  Fe.  Two 
days  after  —  completing  the  five  days  at  the  expiration  of  which 
Maximilian  was  to  have  given  me  his  decision — a  bullet  had  put 
the  Austrian  dupe  beyond  the  need  of  raised  bills  of  exchange." 

There  is  no  question  but  that?  in  his  time,  Piper  wa* 


PIPER,    THE  FORGER.  l6$ 

one  of  the  most  skilled  of  forgers  in  any  country.  It  ia 
said  of  him  that  he  spent  the  best  part  cf  eight  years  of 
his  worthless  life  in  the  study  of  chemistry  under  the  best 
professors,  and  at  an  expense,  including  the  cost  of  ex- 
periments, of  what  any  ordinarily  honest  man  would 
consider  a  large  fortune.  His  great  skill  secured  for  him 
among  his  class  the  title  of  the  "  invincible ;"  and  it  is 
undoubtedly  a  fact  tfcat  there  was  no  bank-note,  draft, 
bill  of  exchange,  certificate,  or  other  monetary  paper  or 
legal  instrument  which  he  could  not  so  alter,  to  suit 
himself  or  the  parties  employing  him  to  do  the  work,  as 
to  absolutely  defy  detection. 

In  personal  appearance  he  bore  a  striking  resemblance 
to  Professor  Swing,  the  noted  Chicago  divine,  and  was 
one  of  the  smoothest-tongued  rascals  it  has  ever  been  my 
business  to  know.  He  seemed  to  have  a  singular  faculty 
of  compelling  everybody  who  came  in  contact  with  him 
to  like  him  and  even  admire  him,  though  they  might  be 
perfectly  aware  of  his  character ;  while  the  man's  nature 
was  a  singular  mixture  of  unstinted  and  reckless  gener- 
Dsity,  kind-heartedness,  brilliancy,  cruel  recklessness,  and 
heartless  criminal  daring. 

On  his  liberation  from  the  Vermont  penitentiary,  m 
1876,  he  professed  a  complete  roforrn.  I  believe  his  pro- 
fessions were  genuine.  I  believe  he  really  meant  to  live 
the  life  of  an  honest  man.  Neither  am  I  ashamed  to 
confess  that  I  put  my  hand  *n  my  pocket  and  helped  him, 
on  condition  that  he  vould  be  one  in  everything  he  did. 
But  it  was  too  hard  work  for  him..  His  luxurious  habits, 


166      A  BOGUS  BARONET  AND  HIS  VICTIMS. 

the  ease  with  which  he  could  secure  money  dishonest!/, 
the  fascination  of  the  adventure  and  daring  of  his  old 
career,  all  overwhelmed  him,  and  he  "  broke  over,"  and 
sold  all  the  little  manhood  left  in  him  for  the  excitement 
and" fleeting  pleasures  of  the  adventurer's  life ;  and,  after 
a  short  series  of  successes,  he  became  ill,  when  of  course 
the  friends  of  his  class  forsook  him,  and  he  died  in  miser- 
able poverty  and  disgrace — the  fate  of  nearly  every  pro- 
fessional criminal  that  ever  existed — on  September  4, 
1877,  at  the  Robertson  House,  in  the  city  of  Joliet,  Illi- 
nois, within  a  few  miles  of  the  penitentiary  he  had  a  hun- 
dred times  cheated  of  deserved  convict's  service. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

A   BOGUS    BARONET  AND   HIS   VICTIMS. 

THE  good  people  of  the  city  of  Boston  were  greatly 
exercised,  at  a  certain  period  during  the  war,  over 
the  doings  of  one  Sir  Henry  Mercer,  Bart.,  who  came 
to  the  surface,  made  a  ripple  of  excitement,  and  then 
passed  from  sight  and  thought,  giving  place  to  the  next 
sensation,  as  will  be  the  way  of  the  world  until  the  end 
of  time. 

The  particular  interest  centering  in  Sir  Henry  Mercer 
lay  in  the  ease  with  which  he  secured  his  rank,  the  re- 
markably good  time  he  had  while  he  held  the  title,  an^l 
the  general  luxurious  way  in  which  he  enjoyed  the  pre- 


A  BOGUS  BARONET  AND  HIS  VICTIMS.       1 67 

rogatives  of  rank  and  wealth — including  of  course  sev- 
eral first-class  scandals  while  he  was  supposed  to  be  theii 
rightful  possessor. 

Great  men  frequently  spring  from  humble  surround 
ings,  and  Mercer  was  no  exception  to  this  desirable  way 
of  getting  on  in  the  world,  which  used  him  rather  shab 
bily  at  the  start,  for  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  him. 
self  and  wife  were  found  making  a  very  ques.ionable 
living  in  a  very  questionable  way  in  a  then  very  doubtful 
locality  on  Sudbury  Street,  Boston.  In  fact,  Mrs.  Mercer 
enjoyed  the  .reputation  of  being  one  of  those  accommo- 
dating business  ladies  who  can  conduct  a  cigar-store  so 
as  to  make  it  more  profitable  than  the  best  of  men, 
although  the  actual  sale  of  cigars  would  not  have  sup- 
ported so  modest  a  salesman  as  Silas  Wegg,  before  he 
met  old  Noddy  Boffin,  and ,  became  avaricious,  for  she 
had  a  way  of  making  appointments  for  parties,  both 
ladies  and  gentlemen,  who  imagined  they  had  not  their 
affinities.  Added  to  this  business  basis  was  the  employ- 
ment of  two  slinking  fellows,  who  were  called  "  private 
detectives,"  and  who  employed  their  time  taking  notes  on 
callers  and  parties  in  general  who  met  here,  following 
them,  learning  all  that  was  possible  concerning  tnem, 
and  then,  after  a  little  time,  taking  occasion  to  call  on 
fchem  at  their  offices,  if  they  had  any,  remind  them  of 
their  "  little  indiscretion,"  and  secure  whatever  might  be 
got,  which  usually  was  and  usually  is  in  proportion  to 
the  cowardice  of  the  victim. 

This  was  the  bnsinp««  »r  MVC   Mercer,  while  her  hus- 


1 68     A  tiOcVs  BAkONE T  AtfD  J*js  P'ic  r/A/s. 

band  had  rather  precarious  employment  as  a  city  "  hum 
mer"  for  the  drygoods  house  of  Laught  &  Co.  and  wai 
in  every  way  qualified  for  adventure,  possessing  a  fine 
appearance,  a  large  amount  of  self-assurance,  and  had 
several  languages  at  his  tongue's  end,  so  that  after  a 
time  he  was  not  only  able  to  bring  a  large  amount  of 
business  to  his  employers,  but  considerable  custom  to  the 
Sudbury  Street  cigar-store,  where  he  had  no  trouble  in 
inducing  country  merchants  to  go  wild  in  their  laudable 
endeavors  to  study  the  zoological  department  of  society 
usually  described  by  that  generic  phrase,  "seeing  the 
elephant:" 

While  matters  were  progressing  in  this  manner  with  the 
Mercers,  Laught  &  Co.,  in  their  haste  to  become  rich,  in 
1864  began  shipping  largely  to  Nassau,  for  Florida,  goods 
that  would  suit  the  Southern  market.  They  did  not  run 
the  blockade,  but  they  forwarded  the  material  that  was  to 
run  it.  The  shrewd  Mercer  shortly  discovered  this  se- 
cret, and  he  was  not  long  in  using  it  to  advantage ;  and 
while  acting  as  agent  for  the  firm,  he  informed  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  acts  of  his  employers,  and  finally  obtained 
the  double  position  of  drummer  and  government  detective. 

His  first  disclosures  led  to  the  arrest  of  Laught,  who 
was  lodged  in  jail.  While  lying  there,  by  some  treachei- 
ous  arrangement  Mercer  so  imposed  on  his  employei 
that  he  obtained  a  power-of-attorney  to  collect  all  the 
debts  of  Laught  &  Co.  at  Nassau ;  and  there,  as  well  as 
in  Boston,  after  this  brilliant  move,  he  was  recognized  ai 
a  partner  in  the  firm. 


A  BOGUS  BARONET  AND  HIS  VtCTiMS.       1&9 

On  his  arrival  at  Nassau,  Mercer,  who  now  blossomed 
out  as  a  genuine  English  Sir  Henry  Mercer,  a  partner  in 
the  firm  of  Laught  &  Co.,  was  received  by  Mr.  Heni) 
Adler,  the  great  blockade-runner  and  agent  for  the  Con- 
federate States,  with  the  most  distinguished  marks  of  es- 
teem. After  he  had  concluded  his  business,  and  just 
before  leaving  for  Boston,  Mr.  Adler  introduced  him  to  a 
very  attractive  young  widow,  a  Northern  lady,  who  had 
lost  her  husband,  a  Southerner,  running  the  blockade. 
He  was  of  course  introduced  as  a  live  baronet,  and  the 
widow  naturally  felt  proud  of  such  noble  society  ;  the  re- 
sult of  which  was  that  on  the  voyage  from  Nassau  to  Bos- 
ton Sir  Henry  wooed  and  won  her,  which  wooing  and 
winning  was  continued  after  the  couple  had  arrived  in 
Boston,  notwithstanding  the  trifling  obstacle  remaining  in 
the  way  behind  the  cigar  stand  on  Sudbury  Street. 

When  this  shadow  presented  itself,  Sir  Henry  urged  that 
a  little  matter  like  that  was  hardly  to  be  considered.  All 
English  noblemen  were  accustomed  to  such  incumbrances. 
A  trifling  annuity  would  take  the  cigar-stand  party  back 
to  England  ;  and  it  is  a  fact  worthy  of  record  that  she  did 
go  there,  whatever  the  inducement  offered. 

It  appears  that  the  widow  was  worth  nearly  half  a  mil. 
lion  dollars  in  her  own  right ;  and  as  this  was  too  tempt- 
ing a  capture  to  permit  escaping,  Sir  Henry  pressed  his 
suit  with  greater  vigor  than  ever,  and  the  day  for  the  pro- 
posed marriage  was  finally  set,  while  the  happy  baronet 
succeeded  in  quartering  himself  at  the  widow's  elegant 

mansion. 

I 


I/O      A  BOGUS  BARONET  AND  HIS  VICTIMS. 

The  lady's  friends  made  a  bitter  fight  against  the  man, 
but  she  seemed  completely  infatuated,  and  not  until  the 
most  powerful  efforts  were  made  would  she  consent  to 
even  seem  to  doubt  him  by  a  visit  to  his  "  bankers,"  which 
was  proposed  as  a  test  of  the  man's  being  all  he  professed. 
When  the  baronet  heard  of  this  proposition,  he  acceded 
to  it  in  the  blandest  terms,  giving  his  lovely  bride-to-be  a 
letter,  over  which  was  beautifully  printed  an  embossed 
coat-of-arms  in  bronze  and  gilt,  to  his  "  bankers  "  in  New 

York. 

/ 

Armed  with  this  reassuring  document,  the  lady  pro- 
ceeded to  New  York,  to  find  Sir  Henry  unknown  there  ; 
and,  thoroughly  alarmed,  swiftly  returned  to  Boston,  only 
to  find  that  the  bogus  baronet  had  left  on  the  very  next 
train,  taking  with  him  twelve  thousand  dollars  of  hei 
money,  together  with  all  the  silver  plate,  and  that  he  had 
started  for  England,  via  Quebec,  in  which  city  he  was 
arrested.  But  the  fair  widow,  afraid  of  the  scandal  and 
exposure  it  would  bring  about,  let  the  scamp  go  with  her 
money,  plate,  and  honor ;  and  Sir  Henry  Mercer,  as  a 
sensation,  soon  passed  from  public  attention,  and  eventu- 
ally from  sight,  but  came  back  again,  like  a  had  penny,  in 
a  way  which,  through  my  efforts,  shut  the  do«rs  of  a  prison 
upon  him. 

Just  four  years  later,  Mr.  J.  M.  Ballard,  then  division 
superintendent  of  one  of  the  express  companies  running 
in  and  out  of  Chicago,  called  upon  me  at  my  chief  office 
in  that  city,  and  in  a  very  excited  manner  told  me  that 
only  an  hour  or  two  previous  he  had  become  convinced 


A  BOGUS  BARONET  AND  ffSS  VICTIMS.       \J\ 

that  an  embezzlement,  amounting  to  two  or  three  thou 
sand  dollars,  had  occurred  on  their  route  between  Chicago 
and  a  large  city  further  west. 

With  what  slight  information  I  could  secure,  I  immedi- 
ately detailed  several  of  my  best  operatives,  and  within  a 
short  time  had  secured  a  happy  result  to  my  work,  which 
brought  out  the  following  facts : 

About  six  weeks  before,  J.  R.  Wilson,  a  pleasant-faced, 
boyish  fellow  of  about  twenty,  and  a  messenger  of 
the  express  company  between  Chicago  and  the  city 
referred  to,  one  of  the  most  important  express  routes  in 
the  country,  was  introduced  by  another  messenger  to 
one  W.  S.  G.  Mercer,  proprietor  of  a  Randolph  Street 
saloon  and  restaurant.  Mercer  cultivated  Wilson's  ac- 
quaintance assiduously — so  much  so,  in  fact,  that  the 
two  were  firm  friends  within  a  week  or  two,  and,  when 
Wilson  was  in  Chicago,  were  constantly  in  each  other's 
society- 

About  two  weeks  previous  to  the  call  upon  me  by  Mr. 
Ballard,  Mercer,  who  was  none  ojier  than  the  bogus  Sir 
Henry,  and  who  had  degenerated  from  a  live  baronet  to 
a  Chicago  saloon-keeper,  gambler,  and  ward  politician—- 
about as  low  as  it  is  possible  for  one  to  get  — took  *  trip 
to  the  western  city  with  his  young  friend,  and  the  twc 
had  a  very  gay  time  of  it,  during  which  the  crafty  Mercer 
praised  Wilson's  good  qualities,  fine  appearance,  jtnd 
splendid  business  abilities,  cunningly  coming  around  to 
delicate  insinuations  that  the  boy  was  having  too  hard  a 
of  it  for  one  of  his  good  parts,  and  finally,  with  der 


172      A  BvGUS  BARONET  AND  HIS  VICTIMS. 

ilish  ingenuity,  hinting  at  the  ease  with  which  a  good  haul 
could  be  made  from  the  company. 

This  subject  was  hinted  at  over  wine  and  cigars,  at  the 
theater  and  at  places  where  the  very  devil  in  men  is  most 
easily  awakened,  until,  before  leaving  on  their  return, 
the  two  had  agreed  upon  a  plan  by  which  Wilson  should 
secure  all  that  was  possible,  without  awakening  suspicion, 
on  two  "  runs,"  or  trips  to  Chicago,  when  the  money 
should  be  divided  and  the  two  should  fly  to  Canada,  and 
from  there  proceed  to  Europe  on  a  tour  of  pleasure. 

According  to  arrangements,  on  Monday  morning, 
March  30,  1868,  Wilson  returned  from  his  trip,  and,  while 
getting  his  money-box  and  books  into  the  express  wagon, 
a  business-like  looking  gentleman  stepped  up  to  the  cai 
and  inquired  : 

"  Is  there  a  valise  for  me,  from  J.  A.  Walters  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  replied  Wilson.  "  You  can  get  it  over  to  the 
office  in  a  few  minutes." 

"  Can't  you  let  me  have  it  now  ?     Here's  the  receipt." 

"  All  right,  then.     Fifty  cents  charges." 

The  stranger  signed  the  messenger's  book,  paid  him 
fifty  cents,  and  walked  away. 

That  valise  contained  three  thousand  dollars  taken  by 
Wilson,  and  the  party  who  carried  it  away  so  noncha- 
lantly was  the  ex-Sir  Henry. 

It  was  on  the  next  day  that  Mr.  Ballard  called,  and  arf 
that  I  could  learn  then  was  that  inquiries  had  been  made 
for  amounts  by  business  men  which  had  not  come  to  hand, 
for  a  total  sum  so  large  that  its  non-arrival  alarmed 


A  BOGUS  BARONET  AND  HIS  VICTIMS.       1/3 

him  ;  so  that  my  men  were  on  hand  at  once  to  follow  and 
observe  every  movement  of  each  messenger  that  might  by 
any  possibility  have  been  the  guilty  party. 

Consequent  upon  this  arrangement,  I  discovered  that 
on  Wednesday  morning,  as  the  train  bearing  Wilson  on 
his  "  out-trip  "  was  about  leaving,  a  certain  gentleman 
brought  a  well-filled  valise  to  the  express  car,  gave  it  to 
the  messenger,  who  consigned  it  on  his  way-bill  to  "  J.  A. 
Walters,"  a  mythical  personage  of  course,  and  on  paying 
the  charges,  and  taking  a  receipt  in  a  most  business- 
like manner,  walked  off  whistling ; — but  not  alone,  for 
wherever  the  man,  whom  I  soon  found  to  be  Mercer, 
went,  there  was  an  invisible  though  remorseless  attendant 
beside  him. 

A  certain  Chicago  gentleman  also  took  a  trip  on  the 
same  train  with  Wilson,  who  at  every  station  where  the 
train  halted  saw  that  the  messenger  did  not  leave  it,  and 
after  he  had  arrived  at  his  destination,  that  he  never 
made  an  unobserved  move. 

The  reports  of  the  two  operatives,  condensed,  were  . 
"  Wilson  :  restless ;  excited  ;  has  something  ^n  his  mind 
worrying  him.  Sports  a  brand-new  suit  of  clothes,  a  hand 
some  gold  watch,  and  a  diamond  pin," 

**  Mercer :  neglecting  business ;  pretty  full  of  liquor ; 
constantly  borrowing  money  right  and  left." 

This  settled  the  matter  in  my  mind. 

Wilson,  closely  watched  by  my  operative,  left  on  his  re- 
turn Thursday  night,  arriving  in  Chicigo  Friday  morning. 

After  the  rush  of  the  departing  passengers  was  a  littjj 


A  BOSUS  BARONET  AND  HIS  VICTIMS. 

over,  Mercer,  who  had  been  waiting  between  some  can 
in  front  of  the  train  so  as  not  to  attract  attention,  walked 
rapidly  down  the  track,  stepped  up  to  the  express-car,  r& 
peated  the  same  inquiries  as  on  the  former  occasion,  was 
met  by  the  same  answers  from  Wilson,  paid  the  charger 
on  the  valise,  and,  just  as  he  turned  to  depart,  one  of  my 
operatives,  who  happened  to  be  passing,  heard  him  re- 
mark in  a  low  tone  of  voice  : 

'•  Meet  me  at  the  Sherman  House  just  as  soon  as  you 
get  through.  Room  86." 

Two  men  accompanied  Mercer  to  that  hotel  without 
his  knowledge,  with  orders  to  arrest  him  instantly  on  his 
making  the  slightest  sign  of  an  intention  to  not  keep  his 
appointment  with  Wilson ;  while  two  more  detectives  fol- 
'owed  the  company's  wagon,  in  a  private  conveyance,  to 
the  express  office,  with  instructions  to  never  permit  the 
guilty  messenger  to  escape  them,  but  in  no  manner  to 
disturb  him  if  he  proceeded  to  the  hotel  according  to  ap- 
pointment ;  while  I  at  once  dispatched  a  special  messen- 
ger requesting  Superintendent  Ballard  to  meet  me  im- 
mediately in  the  office  of  the  Sherman  House. 

By  this  means  in  less  than  an  hour  all  the  parties  had 
been  brought  together,  and  helped  materially  to  swell  the 
crowd  in  the  rctunda. 

I  kept  Mr.  liallard  out  of  sight,  as  I  was  apprehensive 
lest  Wilson  might  suspect  his  mission,  and  found  that  this 
was  the  wisest  plan,  for  shortly  he  came  hurriedly  into  the 
hotel,  and,  after  standing  a  moment  as  if  irresolute,  walked 
though  and  through  the  office,  hazily  scanning  the  face 


A  BOGUS  BARONET  AND  HIS  VICTIMS.       1/5 

of  every  man  in  it,  not  excepting  myself.  Then,  after 
going  out  and  looking  up  and  down  the  street  in  eithei 
direction,  as  if  to  be  doubly  assured  that  he  was  not  sus 
pected  and  followed,  he  returned  and  hurriedly  proceeded 
to  the  room  designated  as  No.  86. 

Telling  Mr.  Ballard  to  follow  in  a  few  moments,  I  has- 
tened after  the  retreating  messenger,  and  arrived  at  the 
landing  of  the  floor  on  which  No.  86  was  situated  just 
in  time  to  observe  Wilson,  a  few  yards  in  advance,  pause 
before  a  door,  give  two  quick  raps,  and  enter  immediately 
after. 

There  were  two  or  three  gentlemen  in  the  hall,  care 
lessly  conversing  together.  A  stranger  to  them  would 
merely  have  regarded  them  as  pleasant,  chatty  guests,  who 
had  met  by  chance  and  were  enjoying  the  meeting. 
They  were  my  operatives  ;  but  they  paid  no  attention  to 
me,  nor  I  to  them. 

Scarcely  had  the  door  to  86  closed,  when  I  silently 
stood  beside  it,  and  could  easily  catch  the  low,  earnest 
conversation  within. 

"  My  dear  boy,"  said  Mercer  enthusiastically,  "  you 
did  splendidly  !  " 

"  I  feel  like  death  about  it !  "  said  the  messenger  with 
such  a  touch  of  genuine  remorse  in  his  tones,  that  I 
pitied  the  deluded  fellow  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart 

"  O  pshaw  !  d — n  them  !  it's  nothing  to  them,  and  in 
two  days  we  will  be  out  of  harm's  way.  But  we  must  get 
out  of  this  lively.  My  plan  is  to  get  a  livery  team  and 
drive  out  into  Indiana,  and  there  take  the  M'chrjat 


I?         4  BOGUS  BARONET  AND  HIS  VICTIMS. 

Central  train  for  Canada.  They'll  probably  have  a  loi 
of  Pinkerton's  men  watching  the  depots,  and  we  will  just 
learn  these  smart  detectives  a  new  trick,"  replied  Mercer 
with  a  triumphant  laugh. 

By  this  time  Mr.  Ballard  was  beside  me,  and,  with  a. 
slight  signal,  I  had  two  of  the  parties  in  the  hall,  whom  a 
stranger  would  have  taken  for  chatting  guests,  at  the 
door,  one  stationed  silently  at  either  side. 

Then  I  rapped  loudly  upon  the  door. 

A  smothered  oath  from  Mercer,  a  cry  of  remorseful 
surprise  from  the  poor  messenger,  and  a  rustle  and  hurry 
inside,  were  the  only  response. 

I  rapped  again,  louder  than  before,  and  then  finally 
told  the  parties  that  if  the  door  was  not  instantly  opened, 
it  would  be  forced. 

After  another  rustle  and  scuffle,  Mercer  opened  the 
door,  and  Mr.  Ballard  and  myself  quickly  entered,  1  lock- 
ing the  door,  putting  the  key  in  my  pocket. 

Mercer  looked  me  full  in  the  face  for  a  moment,  and 
with  the  one  gasping  ejaculation,  "  My  God  ! — Allan 
Pinkerton  !  "  sank  into  a  chair ;  while  Wilson,  white  as  a 
ghost,  reeled  against  the  wall,  looking  from  me  to  Mr. 
Ballard,  his  superintendent,  for  a  moment,  and  then, 
burying  his  face  in  his  hands,  threw  himself  upon  the  bed, 
and  moaned  in  utter  agony. 

They  were  at  once  arrested ;  and  while  Mercer  was 
consigned  to  the  county  jail  to  await  examination,  I  had 
Wilson  taken  to  my  office,  whtre  a  full  confession  was  se- 
cured, .  All  the  ropney  was  recovered,  save  the  few  hun 


CANADA   BILL.  177 

dred  dollars  expended  by  Mercer  for  the  clothing  and 
jewelry  with  which  his  dupe  was  led  on  to  the  commission 
of  the  second  and  greater  crime. 

At  the  trial  which  was  shortly  had,  the  judge,  at  my 
earnest  solicitation,  mercifully  took  into  consideration  the 
facts  of  the  case,  and  the  messenger,  Wilson,  was  given 
the  least  punishment  possible  ;  while  ex-Sir  Henry,  whose 
crime  was  aggravated  ten-fold  by  his  cruel  and  heartless 
ruin  of  a  previously  honored  and  respected  boy,  was  con 
signed  to  his  rightful  sphere  of  action,  where,  for  ten  years 
at  least,  he  remained  an  honest  and  law-abiding  citizen 
of  the  State  of  Illinois  within  its  penitentiary  at  Joliet 


CHAPTER  XII. 

• 

CANADA   BILL. 

THERE  are  some  men  who  naturally  choose,  or, 
through  a  series  of  unfortunate  blunders,  drift  into 
the  life  of  social  outlaws,  who  possess  so  many  remarkably 
original  traits  of  charactei  that  they  become  rather  sub- 
jects for  admiration  than  condemnation  when  we  review 
heir  life  and  career. 

On  nrst  thought  it  could  hardly  be  imagined  that  one 
who  has  been  all  his  life,  so  far  as  is  known,  a  gambler 
and  a  confidence  man,  whose  associates  were  always  of 

the  same  or  worse  class  than  himself,  v  bq  had  no 
8* 


CANADA  BILL. 

regard  for  law  than  a  wild  Indian,  and  who  nerer  in  hii 
entire  career  seemed  to  have  an  aspiration  above  being 
the  vagabond,  par  excellence,  could  move  us  to  anything 
beyond  a  passing  interest,  the  same  as  we  would  have  for 
a  wild  animal  or  any  unusual  character  among  men  and 
women. 

But  here  is  a  man  who,  from  his  daring,  his  genuine 
simplicity,  his  great  aptitude  for  his  nefarious  work,  his 
simple,  almost  childish  ways,  his  unequaled  success,  and 
a  hundred  other  marked  and  remarkable  qualities,  cannot 
but  cause  something  more  than  a  common  interest,  and 
must  always  remain  as  an  extraordinarily  brilliant  type  ot 
a  very  dangerous  and  unworthy  class. 

Such  was  "  Canada  Bill,"  whose  real  name  was  William 
Jones.  He  was  born  in  a  little  tent  under  the  trees  of 
Yorkshire,  in  old  England.  His  people  were  genuine 
Gypsies,  who  lived,  as  all  other  Gypsies  do,  by  tinkering, 
dickering,  or  fortune-telling,  and  horse-trading.  Bill,  as 
he  was  always  called;  grew  up  among  the  Romany  like 
any  other  Gypsy  lad,  becoming  proficient  in  the  nameless 
and  numberless  tricks  of  the  Gypsy  life,  and  particularly 
^dept  at  handling  cards.  In  fact,  this  proficiency  caused 
him  finally  to  leave  his  tribe,  as,  wherever  he  went  among 
them,  he  never  failed  to  beat  the  shrewdest  of  his  shrewd 
people  on  every  occasion  where  it  was  possible  for  him 
to  secure  an  opponent  willing  to  risk  any  money  upon  his 
supposed  superiority  in  that  direction. 

Having  become  altogether  too  keen  for  his  Gypsy 
friends,  he  began  appearing  at  fairs  and  tnv:ling  witft 


CANADA  BILL. 

provincial  catchpenny  shows  5n  England.  Tiring  of  suc- 
cesses in  that  field,  he  eventually  came  to  America,  and 
wandered  about  Canada  for  some  time  in  the  genuine 
Gypsy  fashion.  This  was  about  twenty-five  years  ago, 
when  Bill  was  twenty-two  or  twenty-three  years  of  age, 
and  when  thimble-rigging  was  the  great  game  at  the  fairs 
and  among  travelers. 

Bill  soon  developed  a  great  reputation  for  playing  short- 
card  games,  but  finally  devoted  his  talents  entirely  to 
three-card  monte  under  the  guise  of  a  countryman,  and 
may  be  said  to  'have  been  the  genuine  original  of  that 
poor,  simple  personage  who  had  been  swindled  by  sharp- 
ers, and  who,  while  bewailing  his  loss  and  showing  inter- 
ested people  the  manner  in  which  he  had  been  robbed, 
invariably  made  their  natural  curiosity  and  patronizing 
sympathy  cost  them  dearly. 

Himself  and  another  well-known  monte-player,  named 
Dick  Cady,  traveled  through  Canada  for  several  years, 
gaining  a  great  notoriety  among  gamblers  and  sporting 
men  ;  and  it  was  here  that  this  singular  person  secured  the 
sobriquet  of  "Canada  Bill,"  which  name  clung  to  him 
until  his  death,  in  the  summer  of  1877  ;  and  he  was  known 
by  everybody  throughout  the  country  who  knew  him  at 
all  by  that  name,  it  being  generally  supposed  that  he  was 
of  Canadian  birth. 

As  a  rule,  three-card  monte  men  are  among  the  most 
godless,  worthless,  unprincipled  villains  that  infest  society 
anywhere  ;  but  this  strange  character,  from  his  simplicity, 
which  was  geruins,  his  cunning,  which  was  most  brilliant, 


i8o  CANADA  BILL. 

his  acting,  which  was  inimitable,  because  it  was  nature  it 
self,  created  a  lofty  niche  for  himself  in  all  the  honor  therr 
may  be  attached  to  a  brilliant  and  wholly  original  careei 
as  a  sharper  of  this  kind  ;  and  however  many  imitator? 
he  may  have — and  he  has  hundreds — none  can  ever  ap- 
proach his  perfection  in  the  slightest  possible  degree. 

Any  deft  person,  after  t  certain  amount  of  practice, 
can  do  all  the  trickery  there  is  about  the  sleight-of-hand  in 
three-card  monte ;  but  the  game  is  so  common  a  dodge 
among  swindlers,  that  unless  the  confidence  of  the  dupe  is 
first  fully  secured,  he  seldom  bites  at  the  bait  offered. 

This  must  either  be  confidence,  on  the  part  of  the 
person  being  operated  on,  that  he  is  smarter  than  the 
dealer,  if  his  real  character  is  known  ;  or,  in  case  it  is  not 
known,  a  conviction  that  he  is  a  genuine  greenhorn  whj 
can  easily  be  beaten  the  second  time. 

It  was  here  that  Canada  Bill's  peculiar  genius  never 
failed  to  give  him  victory ;  and  it  is  said  of  him  that  he 
never  made  a  mistake  and  never  failed  to  win  money 
whenever  he  attempted  it. 

His  personal  appearance,  which  was  most  ludicrous, 
undeniably  had  much  to  do  with  his  success.  He  was  the 
veritable  country  gawky,  the  ridiculous,  ignorant,  absurd 
creature  that  has  been  so  imperfectly  imitated  on  and 
off  the  stage  for  years,  and  whose  true  description  can 
scarcely  be  written.  He  was  fully  six  feet  high,  with 
dark  eyes  and  hair,  and  always  had  a  smooth-shaven  face, 
full  of  seams  and  wrinkles,  that  were  put  to  all  mannei 
of  difficult  expressions  with  a  marvelous  facility  and  ease, 


CANADA  BttL.  l8l 

Atl  this — coupled  with  long,  loose-jointed  arms,  long, 
thin,  and  apparently  a  trifle  unsteady  legs,  a  shambling, 
shuffling,  awkward  gait,  and  this  remarkable  face  and 
head  bent  forward  and  turned  a  little  to  one  side,  like  an 
inquiring  and  wise  old  owl,  and  then  an  outfit  of  Granger 
clothing,  the  entire  cost  of  which  never  exceeded  fifteen 
dollars — made  a  combination  that  never  failed  to  call  a 
smile  to  a  stranger's  face,  or  awaken  a  feeling  of  curiosity 
and  interest  wherever  he  might  be  seen. 

One  striking  difference  between  Canada  Bill  and  all  the 
other  sharpers  of  his  ilk  lay  in  the  fact  that  he  was  the 
thing  he  seemed  to  be.  Old  gamblers  and  sporting-men 
could  never  fathom  him.  He  was  an  enigma  to  his  clos- 
est friends.  A  short  study  of  the  awkward,  ambling  fellow 
would  give  one  the  impression  that  he  was  simply  su- 
premely clever  in  his  manner  and  ma*ke  up ;  that  he  was 
merely  one  of  the  most  accomplished  actors  in  his  pro- 
fession ever  known ;  and  that  he  only  kept  up  this  ap- 
pearance of  guilelessness  for  the  purpose  of  acquiring 
greater  reputation  among  his  fellows.  But  those  who 
knew  him,  as  far  as  it  was  possible  to  know  the  wander- 
ing vagabond  that  he  was,  assert  that  he  was  the  most 
unaffected,  innocent,  and  really  simple-hearted  of  human 
beings,  and  never  had  been  anything,  and  never  could 
have  been  anything,  save  just  what  he  was. 

This  would  hardly  seem  possible  of  even  an  exceptional 
person  among  ordinary  people  ,  and  I  can  only  reconcile 
this  singular  case  with  consistency  when  I  call  to  mind 
many  of  the  interesting  old  Gypsv  tinkers  I  have  myself 


1 82  CAtfAtiA  SILL. 

known,  who,  with  all  their  wise  lore  ahd  cunning  tricks 
were  the  merriest,  kindest-hearted,  'oiliest,  and  most  child- 
like simple  dogs  on  earth. 

It  seems  almost  impossible  that  any  living  person 
waging  such  a  relentless  war  against  society  as  Canada  Bill 
did,  until  the  day  of  his  death,  could  have  anything  gener- 
ous and  simple  about  him  ;  but  he  certainly  had  those 
two  qualities  to  a  remarkable  degree.  They  were  upper- 
most in  everything  that  he  did.  It  almost  seemed  that 
this  man  had  no  thought  but  that  his  vocation  in  life  wag 
**f  the  highest  respectability  ;  that  skinning  a  man  out  of 
A  thousand  dollars  as  neatly  as  he  could  do  it  was  an  ad- 
mirable stroke  of  business,  even  if  it  led  to  that  man's 
ruin  ;  and  that  every  act  of  his  criminal  life  was  one  of  the 
most  honorable  accomplishments ;  so  that  this  sunny  tem- 
per and  honest  face  was  an  outgrowth  of  a  satisfaction  in 
upright  living. 

He  was  certainly  different  from  all  other  men  whom  I 
have  been  called  upon  to  study.  He  always  had  a  mel- 
low and  old  look  about  him  that  at  once  won  the  looker- 
on  and  caused  a  real  touch  of  warmth  and  kindliness 
toward  him.  His  face  was  always  beaming  with  a  rough 
good-fellowship  and  a  sturdy  friendliness  that  seemed 
almost  something  to  cling  to  and  bet  on,  while  every 
movement  of  his  slouchy,  unkempt  body  was  only  a  new 
indication  of  his  rustic  ingenuousness. 

One  November  night,  several  years  since,  1  started  on 
a  hurried  trip  over  the  Pittsburg  and  Fort  Wayne  road 
from  Chicago  to  the  East,  for  the  transaction  of  some  im- 


CA»AZA  BILL.  183 

portant  business  of  such  a  nature  that  I  did  not  desire  the 
fact  of  my  preser.ee  known  there  ;  and,  noticing  several 
eastern  and  western  people  of  my  acquaintance  in  the 
sleeper  and  throughout  the  cars,  before  the  train  started, 
I  quietly  entered  the  smoking  car.  and  took  a  cigar  and  a 
seat  in  a  quiet  corner,  with  the  object  of  avoiding  my 
friends  as  much  as  possible,  and  remaining  where  I  was 
until  everything  had  got  quiet  in  the  sleeper  for  the 
night,  so  that  I  could  safely  retire  without  observation. 

Being  very  tired,  after  a  casual  glance  at  several  other 
persons  in  front  of  me-  in  the  car,  I  settled  myself  snug<v 
in  my  seat,  hoping  to  be  able  to  get  a  little  nap  ;  but  I  had 
scarcely  got  myself  comfortably  arranged,  when  the  train 
halted  at  Twenty-second  Street,  and  my  attention  was  at- 
tracted by  the  entrance  into  our  car  of  a  tall,  stumbling 
fellow,  dressed  in  some  cheap,  woolen,  home-spun  stuff, 
that  hung  about  his  attenuated  frame  like  a  dirty  camp- 
meeting  tent  around  a  straggling  set  of  poles. 

Pausing  just  inside  the  door  for  a  moment,  he  deposited 
on  the  floor  a  valise  whose  size  and  cavernous  appearance 
would  have  won  the  heart  of  an  audience  at  a  minstrel 
show,  and  then,  giving  his  big  hand  a  great  ungainly  wave 
as  if  to  clear  away  the  smoke  immediately  in  front  of  him, 
peered  into  the  murky  distance,  and  ejaculated  "  Gaul- 
darned  thick  ! '' 

He  probably  referred  to  both  the  smoke  and  the  pas- 
sengers. In  any  event,  he  sat  clumsily  down  upon  the 
stove,  from  which  he  suddenly  bounded  like  a  rubbei 
ball,  although  there  was  no  fire  within  it.  it  appeared  * 


184  CANADA  BILL. 

though  it  had  crept  into  his  bucolic  mind  that  ic  was  sit 
ting  on  a  stove,  and  that  there  must,  of  course,  be  a  fire 
within  it,  and,  consequently,  he  must  be  bursed.  What- 
ever impelled  him,  he  and  his  cavernous  valise  went 
ricocheting  along  the  aisle,  finally  coming  up  short,  like  a 
"bucking"  mule,  at  about  the  center  of  the  car,  and  there, 
tumbling  noisily  into  a  seat,  which,  taking  into  considera- 
tion the  crowded  condition  of  the  coach,  singul&rly 
enough  was  vacant. 

By  this  time  there  was  a  broad  smile  on  the  faces  of  all 
the  passengers,  and  many  mirthful  references  were  made 
in  an  undertone  to  the  wild  "  Hoosier,"  some  of  which 
he  evidently  overheard,  but  which  were  received  in  the 
best  of  humor,  the  subject  of  such  witticism  turning  a 
benign  and  smiling  farmer  face  upon  all,  but  holding  on 
to  his  big,  though  evidently  nearly  empty  valise  with  bo'tn 
Sands,  as  if  indicating  that  he  was  quite  ready  for  any 
good-natured  joke  with  "  the  boys,"  so  long  as  none  oi 
them  attempted  any  sharp  city  tricks  upon  him,  wii»chr  it 
could  be  easily  seen  from  his  manner,  he  had  already 
experienced,  as  he  thought,  and  wa*  quite  ready  to  have 
it  generally  known  that  quite  a  mistake  wouid  be  made 
when  anybody  took  him  for  a  "  young  man  from  the 
country. " 

After  the  Twenty-second  Street  crossing  was  passt  d.  ve 
sped  along  rapidly,  almost  the  majority  of  the  car  seem- 
ing  to  be  of  that  very  common  class  of  travelers  that  are 
usually  considered  "good  fellows,"  who  were  rea^v  <o» 
jest,  whether  it  were  ordinary  or  of  the  first  class. 


CANADA  BILL. 

We  had  been  bowling  along  for  but  a  short  time,  now 
i  ver,  before  the  conductor  made  his  appearance. 

His  was  mere  business — to  collect  fares  ;  that  was  all. 
He  came  through  the  car  like  an  '  old  campaigner,"  with 
no  favors  to  ask  and  none  to  give. 

He  got  along  to  where  our  bucolic  friend  was  sitting 
without  trouble,  when  that  lively  individual  seemed  ready 
for  an  argument. 

"  You're  the  conductor  ?  "  he  remarked  dryly. 

"  Yes." 

:*  You  takes  the  money  for  ridin'  on  this  machine  ?  " 

"  Yes  ;  where  ye  goin'  ?  " 

"  Fort  Wayne,  God  willin'." 

The  countryman  clumsily  produced  a  bill  from  out  a 
huge  roll,  and  then  remarked  : 

"  Lots  of  good  boys  on  the  train  ?  " 

"  Dunno  ;  guess  so,"  replied  the  conductor.  The  con- 
ductor  gave  the  innocent  party  his  change,  when  thai 
ubiquitous  individual  remarked  : 

"  Lots  of  funny  fellows  on  this  train  ?  "  . 

The  conductor  had  passed,  but  he  took  the  time  tc 
turn  and  say : 

"Don't  trust  'em,  my  Granger  friend." 

"  D d  if  I  will,"  said  he,  as  he  took  a  stronger  and 

firmer  hold  of  his  priceless  "?riu-sack."        D d  if  I 

will,  fur  I've  been  thar  !  I've  been  thar  i  " 

A  roar  of  laughter  followed  this  sally  from  the  "  In 
jeanny  Granger,"  and  I  noticed  at  the  time,  without  giv 
ing  it  any  particular  attention  so  far  as  this  c  tmtryman 


186  CANADA  BILL. 

and  his  immediate  remarks  were  concerned,  that,  at 
various  intervals  throughout  the  car,  the  laughing  which 
followed  his  remark  was  extremely  well  distributed ;  but 
being  tired,  I  received  all  this  merriment  as  a  common 
occurrence,  and,  after  the  conductor  passed,  fell  into  a 
heavy  drowse,  in  which  tall  Indiana  Grangers,  brusque 
conductors,  commercial  travelers,  and  the  ordinary  rail- 
road riffraff  danced  back  and  forth  through  my  disturbed 
dreams. 

I  was  of  course  unconscious  of  what  passed  for  a  little 
time,  but  was  eventually  disturbed  by  renewed  laughtei 
through  the  car,  and  noticed  that  quite  a  group  had  gath- 
ered around  the  Granger,  whose  members  were  evidently 
greatly  interested  in  whatever  he  was  doing  and  saying ; 
while  his  great,  honest  face,  all  alive  with  enthusiasm,  was 
wreathed  with  smiles  at  being  such  an  object  of  general 
interest. 

As  before  stated,  up  to  this  time  I  had  given  the  mat- 
ter no  thought ;  but  when  I  now  heard-  one  of  a  couple  ir 
front  of  me  remark  :  "  Very  quaint  character ;  very  quaint 
character.  I  believe  some  of  those  Chicago  rascals  have 
victimized  him,  and  he  is  telling  the  passengers  about  it,' 
which  was  followed  by  a  request  to  his  companion  to 
J<  come  along  and  see  the  fun,"  I  immediately  under- 
stood that  we  were  to  be  given  an  exhibition  of  three- 
card  monte  of  a  very  ir  cresting  character,  and  that  many 
of  the  persons  in  the  car  were  "  cappers,"  or  those  mem- 
bers of  the  gang  who  are  used  to  persuade  fools  to  bet 
upon  the  game. 


CANADA  BILL.  187 

My  first  impulse  was  to  put  a  stop  to  the  villainy  at 
Wiy  personal  risk  ;  but  I  recollected  that  the  very  reason 
which  had  forced  -ne  to  take  up  with  the  discomforts  of 
the  smoking-car — an  absolute  necessity  for  remaining  un- 
known— prevented  this,  and  though  my  blood  boiled  with 
i,  desire  to  frustrate  the  already  ripened  and  charmingly- 
working  plans  of  the  keen  scamps,  I  was  forced  to  swal- 
low my  indignation  and  content  myself  with  taking  up  a 
position  where  I  could  get  a  comprehensive  idea  of  what 
might  follow. 

By  this  time  so  much  interest  was  being  exhibited  in 
the  uncouth  fellow's  manipulations,  that  two  seats  had 
been  given  him  ;  and  there  he  sat  in  one  corner  of  the 
space  thus  made,  with  his  legs  crossed  under  him  like  a 
tailor's,  his  huge  valise  lying  across  this  framework  in 
such  a  manner  that  a  most  neat,  level,  and  glossy  surface 
was  made,  and  all  this  with-  a  nicety  of  calculation  really 
remarkable,  while  his  whole  form,  manner,  and  action 
showed  him  to  be  the  simplest,  most  honest  of  men,  who, 
out  of  the  pure  goodness  of  his  heart,  —  rough,  ig- 
norant, and  unkempt  as  he  was. — proposed  giving  the 
crowd  about  him  his  experiences  merely  for  what  benefit 
it  would  certainly  prove  to  them. 

*  Yaas,"  he  said  in  an  indescribably  droll  tone  of  voice, 
"  yaas,  them  dogoned  Chicago  skinners  cum  nigh  a  ruin- 
in'  me.  Now,  1  do  'low  them  fellers  beat  the  hull  tarnal 
kentry.  But  gosh  !  I  found  'em  out !  " 

Here  the  Hoosier  laughed  with  such  a  ridiculously  child 
is)'  lir  of  triumph,  that  general  laughter  was  iiresie'ible, 


lS8  CANADA  BILL. 

He  then  reached  his  long,  skinny  fingers  down  into  hi* 
huge  valise  and  brought  out  a  handful  of  articles  of  va- 
rious  kinds,-  among  which  were  a  couple  of  sickle-teeth, 
tied  together  with  a  string,  a  horn  husking-pin,  and  a 
"  snack  "  of  chicken  covered  with  bread-crumbs.  These 
caused  another  laugh,  but  were  suddenly  returned  to  theii 
restirfg-pte.ce  a-nd  several  other  dives  made  into  the 
greasy  cavern,  evidently  to  the  great  discomfiture  of  the 
gawky;  but  he  chattered  and  grinned  away,  until  finally 
a  brand-new  pack  of  cards  had  been  secured. 

This  was  bunglingly  opened,  the  greater  portion  of  the 
cards  slushing  out  of  his  hands  upon  the  floor  and  flying 
in  different  directions  upon  the  seat. 

To  any  casual  observer  it  was  more  than  apparent  that 
the  poor  silly  fellow  was  not  more  than  half-witted,  and 
Hie  fun  of  it  all  seemed  to  lie  in  his  sincerity,  which  the 
passengers  took  for  one  of  the  hugest  of  jokes. 

After  things  had  been  got  to  rights — which  took  the 
clumsy  fellow  a  long  time,  during  which  he  enlivened  his 
listeners  with  his  idea  of  Chicago  as  a  city,  its  people  as 
sharpers  of  the  first  order,  and  the  grandeur  of  his  own 
great  State,  Indiana — he  selected  three  cards  from  ths 
pack,  and,  wrapping  the  balance  in  a  dirty  bit  of  browc 
paper,  put  them  away  carefully  in  the  valise. 

The  three  cards  selected  were  the  five  of  spades,  the 
five  of  clubs,  and  the  queen  of  hearts,  and  the  gentleman 
from  Indiana  now  began  his  exposition  in  real  earnest 

"  Wy,  d'ye  know,  the  durn  skunks  said  they  knowed 
me,  'n'  'fore  I  knowed  what  I  was  a  doiii'  these  oW 


CANADA  BILL  189 

friends,  as  they  said  they  wus,  had  me  bettin'  th  it  1  could 
jerk  up  the  joker.  Now,  yer  see,  fellers,"  reu.arked  tlie 
dealer,  as  he  held  up  the  queen,  '  they  called  this  keerd 
the  joker,  fur  why  I  can't  tell  yer,  lest  it's  a  joke  on  the 
dealer  if  yer  picks  it  up," 

"Of  course  you  picked  it  up  \  '  jsmarked  a  flashy  gen- 
tleman, who  had  the  appearance  of  a  successful  commer- 
cial traveler  on  a  good  salary. 

Such  a  look  as  the  dealer  gave  the  man. 

"  Picked  it  up  ! — picked  it  up  ?  My  friend,  mebby  you 
think  you're  smart  enough  to  pick  it  up  !  Don't  you  ever 
squander  yer  money  like  I  did  a-tryin'  !  Pick  her  up  ! 
Pick  up  hell  !  'Tain't  in  her  to  git  picked  up.  She 
can't  be  got.  Them  cussed  coons  has  worked  some  all- 
fired  charm  on  that  durned  keerd,  so  that  no  man  can 
raise  her.  Mebby  you  kin  lift  the  keerd  ?  She  allers 
wins,  she  does  ;  but  don't  bet  nuthin'." 

Here  the  dealer  bunglingly  shuffled  the  cards,  and  made 
such  a  mess  of  it  that  the  effort  only  brought  forth  more 
peals  of  derisive  laughter. 

"  Now,  ye  see,  fellers,"  pursued  the  imperturbable 
dealer,  "  this  is  the  five  uv  spades,  hy'r  is  the  five  uv 
dubs,  and  thar  is  the  rip-roarin'  female  that  wins  every 
time  she  kin  be  got.  I'm  jest  a-goin'  to  skin  the  boys 
down  hum  in  Kos-cus-ky  County  ;  fur  it's  the  beautifullest 
and  deceivenst  game  out;  but,"  he  added,  with  the  so- 
lemnity of  a  parson  at  a  funeral,  "  fellers,  d'ye  know  I 
wouldn't  hev  a  friend  o'  mine  bet  on  this  yer  game  fin 
anything—  not  fur  a  good  boss  1  " 


190  CANADA   BILL. 

He  closed  this  admonitory  remark  with  such  \  drol" 
wave  of  his  long  arm  and  hand,  that  a  palpable  snickei 
greeted  the  performance ;  and  the  flashy  gentleman  «vho 
had  suggested  that  the  greeny  must  have  been  able  to 
pick  up  the  card  when  being  entertained  by  his  Chicago 
friends,  bent  forward,  and  after  a  moment's  hesitation  over 
the  three  cards,  which  were  lying  face  downward  upon  the 
valise,  picked  up  one,  which,  with  an  air  of  triumph,  he 
held  aloft  for  a  moment  and  then  slapped  down  with  a 
great  flourish. 

This  was  the  *  *  rip-roarin'  female  that  wins  every 
time!"  and  his  honor,  the  gentleman  from  Kosciusco 
County,  Indiana,  turned  white  as  he  observed  how  neatly 
her  ladyship  could  be  brought  to  the  surface  by  one  of  a 
miscellaneous  crowd. 

"  Jehosiphat !  "  he  exclaimed,  as  he  grabbed  the  cards 
and  began  another  bungling  shuffle  of  them — "Jehosi- 
phat !  Stranger,  d'yer  know  I've  got  pea-green  scrip  in 
my  pocket  as  says  as  yer  can't  do  that  agin  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I  wouldn't  take  your  money  !  "  the  flashy  man 
replied,  as  he  nudged  a  man  near  him.  "  *T wouldn't  be 
fair,  you  know." 

"  Now — now,  see  hy'r,  stranger,"  answered  the  Indi- 
anian,  "  I've  told  ye  already  that  ye  hadn't  ought  to  bet 
on  this  deceitful  game;  but  yer  is  too  sassy  and  Dold. 
Yer  thinks  yer  knows  it  all,  'n'  yer  doesn't.  Jist  wait  till  i 
fix  the  keerds.  Thar  nov.' !  Old  Injeanny  agin  the  field  !  " 

The  dealer  had  rearranged  the  cards  in  a  reckless, 
fashion ;  but  there  they  lay,  and  the  passenger* 


CANADA  BILL.  191 

ciowded  closer  and  closer  about  the  group  to  see  all  the 
fun  that  might  happen. 

Slowly  and  ungainly  enough  the  dealer  reached  down 
into  the  outside  pockets  of  his  homespun  suit  with  both 
hands.  Finding  nothing  there,  he  tremulously  went  into 
his  pantaloons  pockets  ;  but  he  found  nothing  there. 

"  Oh,  he's  a  fraud  !  "  suggested  a  big-bellied  man  near 
me,  turning  to  a  rural-looking  fellow  at  his  side.  "  Do 
you  know,"  he  continued  warmly,  "you  and  I  could  go 
in  together,  and  clean  that  'old  Jasey'  out — if  he's  got 
any  money.  But,"  he  added,  confidentially,  to  his  com- 
panion, "I  don't  believe  he's  got  a  copper;  and  I 
wouldn't  be  surprised  if  he  passed  around  his  hat,  begging 
lor  car-fare,  or  lodging,  or  for  his  supper-bill,  or  something 
of  that  sort,  before  he  leaves  the  train.  Oh,  I've  seen  too 
much  of  that  sort  of  thing,  /have  ! " 

His  companion,  whom  I  had  already  taken  for  a  coun- 
try merchant,  or  something  of  that  kind,  as  he  afterward 
proved  to  be,  looked  nervous,  and  only  replied  : 

"  Wait  a  bit ;  let's  see  what  he  can  find  in  his  clothes. 
Perhaps  these  gentlemen  wouldn't  let  us  win  anything 
anyhow." 

1  did  not  catch  the  answer,  only  observing  that  a  pretty 
good  understanding  had  been  arrived  at  between  the 
two.  The  party  from  Indiana  by  this  time,  after  going 
through  nearly  every  pocket  in  his  clothing,  had  brought 
out  from  an  inside  vest-pocket  a  great,  rough,  dirty-look- 
ing wallet  that  contained,  as  could  be  seen  at  a  glance,  a 
irery  large  though  loosely  arranged  package  of  green- 


19*  CANADA  BILL 

backs,  which  he  had  denominated  "pea-green  scrip,'  And 
which  he  shook  out  into  his  broad-rimmed  hat  at  his  side 
in  an  alarmingly  careless  way. 

"  Thar's  what  I  got  left,  after  comin'  outn'  that  d— d 
Gomorer,  Chicager  !  "  the  dealer  said  feelingly.  "  Stock's 
down,  V  grass  is  dry,  but  I'll  be  gol-walloped  ef  I  don't 
believe  for  a  hundred-dollar  pictur  the  female  boss  can't 
be  lifted  agin  !  " 

"  I'm  your  sweet  potato — just  for  once,  mind  you,  just 
for  once,  for  I  ain't  a  betting  man.  But  I'll  risk  that  much 
just  to  show  you  how  easily  you  can  be  beat  at  your  own 
game  !  "  remarked  the  flashy  man,  carelessly,  at  the  same 
time  covering  the  hundred-dollar  "  pictur  "  with  ten  ten- 
dollar  bills. 

"  Can't  I  go  halves  on  that  ?  "  eagerly  asked  a  rough- 
looking  fellow,  who  stood  on  a  seat  peering  over  the  headf 
of  the  passengers,  and  at  the  same  time  holding  up  a  fifty, 
dollar  bill. 

I  saw  that  the  scheme  for  getting  outside  parties  to  bet, 
and  divide  chances  with  those  who  considered  themselves 
"  up  to  the  game,"  was  being  given  a  fine  impetus. 

"Well,  I  don't  mind,  although  I'm  sure  of  the  whole," 
gaid  the  flashy  party,  as  he  received  the  fifty  dollars  non- 
chalantly. 

The  honest  Granger  from  Indiana  looked  dumbfounded 
at  this  new  evidence  of  a  want  of  confidence  in  his  abil- 
ity, but  spoke  up  cheeiily  :  "  Wall,  thar's  the  keerds  ;  yei 
kin  take  yer  pick  !  " 

Upon  this  the  flash/  party  pushed  his  way  into  the 


CANADA  BILL.  193 

open  space,  sat  down  opposite  the  dealer,  and,  without 
any  further  ado,  reached  forward  with  one  hand  and 
turned  the  queen  in  a  twinkling,  and  raked  in  the  money 
with  the  other,  immediately  risir.g  and  handing  the  party 
who  had  taken  half  the  bet  the  one-hundred-doiiar  bill, 
and  pocketing  the  ten  ten-dollar  bills,  and  then  imme- 
diately leaving  the  luckless  dealer,  to  communicate  and 
comment  upon  his  good  fortune  to  his  friends  throughout 
the  car  and  tell  them  how  easily  the  thing  was  done. 

"Gaul  darn  the  keerds,  anyhow!"  blurted  out  the 
dealer;  "  the  hull  cussed  thing's  gone  back  on  me ;  but  I 
swon  ef  I  don't  keep  the  fun  a-goin' !  " 

Several  small  bets  were  made  by  various  parties,  the 
winnings  being  almost  equally  divided — if  anything,  out- 
ride parties  getting  the 'best  of  what  was  to  be  got. 

Suddenly  there  was  a  movement  near  me,  and  I  heard 
the  country  merchant  remark  to  his  friend : 

"Well,  I'll  go  in  five  hundred  with  you.  Be  careful 
now,  be  careful ! " 

Another  "  capper  "  in  the  crowd,  having  a  Jew  in  tow, 
now  bet  a  hundred  dollars,  ar.  3  won,  dividing  the  winnings 
with  that  party,   who  received  his  share  with  rapturous 
delight ;  and  it  could  be  easily  seen  he  was  in  a  fine  con 
dition  to  be  "  worked." 

The  large  man  with  the  country  merchant  now  stopped 
and  turned  to  "his  friend,  saying  in  an  undertone:  "  No, 
you're  a  stranger  to  me,  and  I'd  rather  you'd  bet  thf^ 
money.  We  will  fix  it  this  way:  I'm  certain  of  picking 
np  the  card,  but  I  might  be  mistaken.  I'll  make  two  o| 
9 


194  CANADA  BILL. 

three  small  bets  first,  or  enough,  so  that  I  can  pick  np  tht 
card.  While  I  have  it  in  my  hand,  I'll  turn  one  corner 
under,  so  that  the  card,  after  it  is  dealt,  won't  .ay  down 
flat.  You'll  see  it  plainly,  and  you  can't  make  a  mistake 
Now,  watch  things  ! " 

With  this  fine  piece  of  bait,  the  corpulent  fellow,  who 
was  none  other  than  a  "capper,"  sat  down  opposite  the 
dealer  and  made  a  few  small  bets.  He  lost  three  in 
quick  succession,  but  on  the  fourth  trial  he  turned  up 
the  queen,  and  won. 

I  watched  him  closely,  for  I  had  overheard  him  state  to 
his  dupe  that  he  would  mark  the  card  by  turning  one  cor- 
ner of  the  same  under  toward  the  face.  Surely  enough, 
he  did  so  very  deftly,  and  I  noticed  that  the  country 
merchant  had  also  seen  the  action,  for  he  immediately 
stepped  forward  and  took  the  place  made  vacant  for  him. 

*'  Careful  now ! "  said  the  stout  man,  as  they  passed 
each  other. 

An  answering  look  from  the  merchant  showed  that  he 
considered  himself  up  to  a  thing  or  two ;  and,  as  he  seated 
himself,  he  inquired  of  the  ?gnorant  dealer  if  he  limited 
his  bets 

"Ye  kin  jist  bet  yer  hull  pile,  or  a  ten-cent  pictur, 
stranger!"  replied  that  worthy,  with  a  silly,  childisb 
chuckle,  as  he  tossed  the  cards  back  and  forth  in  a  seem- 
ingly foolishly-reckless  way. 

The  crowd  now  pressed  forward,  all  interest  and  atten 
tion.  There  is  always  an  inexpressible  fascination  about 
either  winning  or  losing  money,  ^he  flush  of  winning 


CANADA  BILL.  195 

communicates  itself  to  every  looker-on,  while  :he  wild 
hunger  to  get  back  what  one  has  lost  has  just  as  firm  a 
hold  upon  the  bystander  as  the  victim;  and  one  feels 
almost  impelled  to  try  his  luck,  when  he  sees  that  the  very 
fates  are  all  against  him. 

"  Two  hundred  dollars  on  the  queen  !  "  said  the  country 
merchant,  laying  that  amount  on  the  old  valise.  I  noticed 
that  a  quick  look  of  intelligence  passed  between  the  stout 
man  and  the  Hoosier  dealer.  The  stout  fellow  was  mis 
taken  in  his  man.  He  was  betting  too  low.  I  made  up 
my  mind  that  his  look  to  the  dealer  expressed  all  this  with 
the  additional  advice  :  "  Let  him  win  a  little  !  " 

The  money  was  covered,  and  the  merchant's  hands 
fluttered  tremulously  over  the  cards  for  a  moment.  But 
he  picked  up  the  queen  and  won.  A  buzz  of  excited  com- 
ments followed. 

"Be  ye  one  o'  them  Chicager  skinners?"  asked  the 
dealer.  "  Confound  it !  I'm  a-gittin'  beat  right  an' 
left  I " 

The  merchant  was  flushed  with  his  winnings.  He  was 
evidently  flattered  by  being  considered  so  shrewd  as  a 
"Chicago  skinner."  Over  behind  the  front  ranks  of  the 
ookers-on  earn-;  a  pantomime  order  from  his  stout  friend, 
which  seemed  to  me  to  mean  :  "  Bet  heavy  while  you  are 
to  luck." 

"You  don't  limit  bets?"  asked  the  merchant  eagerly. 

"Nary  time,  nary  time.  Hyr's  a  hatful  of  picturs  as 
backs  the  winnin'  keerd,  which  is  always  the  queen." 

u  Well,  then,"  said  the  dupe  with  painful  slowness,  while 


106  CANADA.  6ILL. 

the  corners  of  his  mouth  drew  down  and  his  lips  became 
colorless,  "  I'll  bet  fifteen  hundred  dollars  I  can  pick  up 
the  queen ! " 

There  laid  one  of  the  cards,  showing  it  had  beet 
doubled  enough  to  prevent  its  resting  flatly  upon  the  old 
valise.  The  merchant  counted  out  the  money  in  a  husky 
voice,  making  several  errors,  and  being  correcte  1  by  some 
cf  the  passengers.  The  dealer,  who  might  have  had  just 
a  trace  of  a  glitter  in  his  black,  fishy  eyes,  groped  around 
among  his  "  picturs "  and  provided  an  equal  amount. 
Every  person  in  the  car  bent  forward,  and  in  a  painful, 
breathless  silence  awaited  the  result. 

"  Yer  pays  yer  money,  'n'  yer  takes  yer  choice  ! "  re- 
marked the  dealer,  leaning  back  in  his  seat,  and  whistling 
as  unconcernedly  as  if  at  a  town-meeting. 

The  merchant  leaned  forward.  He  looked  at  the 
cards  as  though  his  very  soul  had  leaped  into  his  eyes. 
He  suddenly  grasped  the  card  that  refused  to  lie  flatly 
upon  the  valise,  and  turned  it  over. 

He  had  picked  up  the  five  of  clubs,  and  had  lost ! 

Something  like  a  moan  escaped  the  poc  r  victim's  lips. 
My  own  blood  boiled  to  rescue  him  from  this  villainous 
robbery.  I  could  not  do  it  without  jeopardizing  fa* 
greater  interests,  but  my  heart  bled  for  him  in  his  misery , 

"  I'm  a  ruined  man  !"  he  gasped,  and  then  staggered 
through  the  crowd  to  sink  into  a  vacant  seat. 

Even  then  he  could  not  be  left  alone.  His  stout 
friend,  the  "capper,"  sought  him  out  and  upbraided  him 
for  his  foolishness  in  picking  up  the  wrong  card  and 


CANADA  BILL.  197 

losing  his  five  hundred  dollars  with  his  own.  le  even 
begged  him  to  try  again,  and,  finding  that  he  had  a  few 
hundred  dollars  left  out  of  what  he  was  going  to  New 
York  to  buy  goods  with,  cursed  him  because  he  woulc 
not  risk  that  in  order  to  retrieve  himself  and  pay  him  bacK 
his  money,  which  the  reader  will  readily  understand 
already  belonged  to  the  honest,  simple-hearted  Hoosier 
who  was  manipulating  the  cards. 

But  the  game  went  on.  The  loss  of  so  great  a  sum  of 
money  put  rather  a  dampener  upon  it ;  but  the  "  cappers  " 
came  to  the  rescue  with  twenty,  fifty,  and  one  hundred 
dollar  bets,  which  were  so  rapidly  won  that  the  Jew  was 
at  last  "  worked"  out  of  six  hundred  dollars  in  two  quick 
bets  of  three  hundred  each ;  and  amid  a  great  row  and 
racket  which  he  made  over  his  loss,  the  voice  of  the 
brakeman  could  be  heard,  crying  out : 

"  Valparaiso  !     Twenty  minutes  for  supper  !  " 

Not  a  minute  more  had  passed,  and  the  train  had  not 
even  come  to  a  halt,  when  every  one  of  the  nefarious 
gang  had  disappeared. 

The  flashy  man,  with  the  look  of  a  successful  commer- 
cial traveler,  was  gone ;  the  stout  man,  who  had  "  stood 
In  "  with  the  country  merchant,  had  gone  ;  the  party  who 
bad  entertained  the  Jew  was  gone  ;  and  the  honest,  sim- 
ple, cheery  countryman  from  Kosciusko  County,  Indiana, 
with  his  cavernous  valise  half  full  of  loose  bills,  which  he 
had  not  even  taken  time  to  arrange  in  the  old  book  for 
carrying  in  his  side-pocket — and  who  was  none  other 
than  the  notorious  "  Canada  Bill " — was  gone.  They 


19$  CANADA  SILL. 

were  all  gone,  and  they  had  taken  from  their  dupes  frott 
eighteen  hundred  to  two  thousand  dollars. 

I  could  not  but  pity  the  poor  victims,  who  were  left  on 
the  train  to  brood  over  their  foolishness ;  but  at  the  same 
time  a  sense  of  justice  stole  in  upon  my  sympathy. 
3very  one  of  these  dupes  had  got  beaten  at  his  own 
game.  They  were  just  as  dishonest  as  the  men  who 
fleeced  them.  They  would  not  have  risked  a  dollar  had 
they  not,  one  and  all,  believed  that  they  had  the  advan- 
tage of  a  poor,  foolish  fellow.  If  he  had  been  what  they 
believed,  and  they  had  won  his  money,  it  would  have 
been  robbery  just  as  much  as  it  was  robbery  to  take  their 
money  as  neatly  and  easily  as  it  was  taken. 

Just  after  the  close  of  the  war  Canada  Bill,  in  company 
with  a  river  gambler,  named  George  Devol,  or  "  Uncle 
George,"  as  he  had  a  fondness  for  being  called,  started 
for  the  South,  and  began  operating  in  and  about  New 
Orleans.  This  George  Devol  was  himself  a  character, 
as  he  had  once  been  a  station-agent  of  some  railroad  in 
Minnesota,  and  on  being  "braced"  and  beaten  out  of 
his  own  and  considerable  of  the  company's  funds,  had 
such  an  admiration  for  the  manner  in  which  he  had  been 
beaten,  that  he  turned  out  a  gambler  himself,  and  became 
quite  well  known  along  the  lower  Mississippi. 

The  two  men,  in  company  with  one  Jerry  Kendricks, 
did  an  immense  business  in  New  Orleans,  in  the  city, 
upok  the  boats,  and  on  the  different  railroad  lines  run- 
ning out  of  that  place.  Here,  in  New  Orleans,  Bill  aras 
the  green,  rollicking,  back-country  planter,  and  nearly 


CANADA  SILL.  19^ 

always  made  his  appearance  upon  a  boat  or  a  train  as 
though  he  had  had  a  narrow  escape  from  a  gang  of  cut- 
throats, but  was  in  high  glee  over  the  fact  that  they  hai' 
not  stolen  quite  all  of  his  money,  and  had  left  him  a  fine 
package  of  tin-ware,  two  or  three  packages  of  cow-hide 
shoes,  large  enough  for  a  Louisiana  negro,  and  a  side  01 
two  of  bacon.  Old  "  Ben  "  Burnish,  a  character  well 
known  among  sporting  men  in  the  North,  was  one  of  his 
most  accomplished  "  cappers  "  during  these  days,  and  the 
gang  made  vast  sums  of  money. 

But  finally  "  Uncle  George  "  Devol  hoped  to  get  the 
best  of  Bill,  he  was  so  careless  and  really  ingenuous 
among  his  friends  ;  and,  knowing  that  he  carried  a  twenty- 
five  hundred  dollar  roll,  got  a  man  and  arranged  things  to 
beat  him.  Through  his  wonderful  faculty  for  reading 
people  and  character,  Bill  permitted  the  play,  and  when 
his  opponent  won,  remarked  quietly  :  "  George,  you 
sized  my  pile  pretty  well,  and  got  things  fixed  nice. 
Your  friend  will  find  that  roll  the  smallest  twenty-five 
hundred  dollar  pot  he  ever  grabbed.  Good-by,  Uncle 
George  ! " 

Bill  having  arranged  a  "  road-roll,"  or  a  showy  pile  of 
bills  of  small  denomination,  was  willing  to  expend  that 
much  to  ascertain  definitely  that  Devol  had  played  him 
false,  and  immediately  took  leave  of  him  forever. 

When  the  Union  and  Central  Pacific  Railroads  were  in 
process  of  construction,  this  field  proved  a  grand  harvesjl 
for  Canada  Bill ;  and,  on  leaving  the  South,  where  he  at 
one  time  owned  nearly  half  of  a  town  at  the  mouth  of  thfl 


200  CANADA  BILL. 

Red  River,  he  proceeded  to  Kansas  City,  wnere,  with 
"  Dutch  Charlie  "  as  principal  "  pal,"  he  certainly  must 
have  won  from  a  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars. 

From  Kansas  City  he  went  to  Omaha,  and  drifted 
back  and  forth  between  these  points  for  some  time,  never 
failing  to  win  money  where  he  attempted,  becoming  a 
perfect  scourge  to  the  railroad  companies  and  travelers, 
but,  strangely  enough,  establishing  the  highest  regard 
among  all  business  men  with  whom  he  came  in  contact, 
hardly  one  of  whom  would  not  have  taken  his  word  for 
almost  any  amount  of  money. 

The  man  did  not  seem  to  realize  what  money  was 
worth,  and  gave  it  to  anybody  that  might  ask  it.  It  has 
been  related  by  those  who  should  be  capable  of  judging, 
that  Bill  gave  away,  gambled,  or  foolishly  expended,  fully 
a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars. 

On  one  occasion,  in  Omaha,  some  policemen,  having  a 
spite  against  Bill,  arrested  him  and  brought  him  before  a 
police  magistrate.  He  was  fined  fifty  dollars. 

Bill,  rising  in  the  box,  with  one  of  his  most  droll  and 
happy  expressions  of  voice  and  face,  asked  : 

'*  Jedge,  who  does  the  money  go  to  ?  " 

"  This  class  of  fines  goes  to  the  school  fund.  Why  ?  " 
replied  the  justice. 

"  Wall,  I  reckon  ef  it  goes  to  so  good  a  cause  as  that, 
you  can  chalk  her  up  to  a  hundred  and  fifty  jedge  !  "  and 
Bill  put  down  the  money  and  left  the  court. 

But  finally  his  prowess  became  so  great  and  the  win 


CANADA  BILL.  2O1 

nings  of  his  crowd  so  large  upon  the  Union  Pacific  Rail- 
road, that  a  general  order  of  the  strictest  terms  was 
issued  forbidding  any  monte-players  riding  or  playing  on 
the  trains  of  the  road,  and  instructing  conductors,  on  peril 
of  dismissal,  to  eject  them  from  the  cars  at  all  risks  and 
with  whatever  force  might  be  required.  It  was  upon  the 
appearance  of  this  order  that  Bill  wrote — or  caused  to  be 
written,  as  he  could  not  write  his  own  name — his  noted 
impudent  proposition  to  the  general  superintendent  of 
that  road,  in  which  he  offered  the  company  ten  thousand 
dollars  per  annum,  if  he  were  given  the  sole  right  to  thro\\ 
three-card  monte  on  the  Union  Pacific  trains,  and 
making  his  offer  more  attractive  by  pledging  his  word 
that  he  would  confine  his  professional  attentions  ex- 
clusively to  Chicago  commercial  travelers  and  Methodist 
preachers. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  add  that  Bill's  proposition  did 
not  receive  the  attention  which  he  imagined  it  de- 
served. 

After  this,  in  1874,  in  company  with  "Jim"  Porter 
and  the  veteran  gambler,  "  Colonel "  Charlie  Starr, 
Canada  Bill  proceeded  to  Chicago,  where,  by  means 
best  known  to  this  class,  he  secured  an  understanding 
with  the  police,  and  at  once  opened  A>ur  "joints,"  or 
playing-places,  and  soon  had  half  the  "  bunko  "  men  in 
Chicago  "  steering  "  for  him.  The  follc  wing  lines,  fr om 
the  Chicago  Tribune^  of  August  7,  1874,  were  in  his 
honor>  although  his  name  was  not  mentioned.  They  arc 

entitled  : 

9' 


CANADA  SILL. 


JONES  OF  KALAMAZOO. 

It  was  an  ancient  Farmer  Man 
Who  was  stopped  by  one  of  three. 

u  By  thy  black  moustache  and  oroide  ring, 
Now  wherefore  stopp'st  thou  me  ?  " 

*  Hail,  Mr,  Smith ;  hail,  Mr.  Smith  1 
What  news  from  Kankakee  ?  " 

Then  up  and  spake  the  Farmer  Man  : 

*  Mistaken  ye  mote  be, 
I  am  not  Smith,  nor  have  I  kith 

Nor  kin  in  Kankakee ; 
But  I  till  the  soil  in  Kalamazoo 

And  my  name  is  Jones — John  P.H 

The  Stranger  Man  apologized  : 

"  I'm  sorry  that  I  did 
Mistake  you,  sir,  for  my  friend  Smith  ; 

Excuse  me  I  "  and  he  slid. 

It  was  that  ancient  Farmer  Man 

Was  stopped  by  the  second  of  three ; 

•*  By  thy  blonde  moustache  and  Alaska  pis,, 
Now  wherefore  stopp'st  thou  me  ?  M 

*'  Why,  welcome  Jones,  of  Kalamazoo, 
Dost  thou  remember  me  ? 

k  Thou  dost  not  ? — not  remember  Btowa  f 
Strange,  strange  !  but  I  do  thee ; 

Nor  shall  thou  quit  me  till  thou  drain 
A  friendly  cup  with  me. 

Some  news  would  I  of  Kalamazoo, 
And  friends  that  thereat  be  I 


CANADA  BILL. 

•*  The  bar-room  doors  are  open  wide, 

And  we  must  go  therein  ; 
A  health  I  claim  J  come,  give  it  name  | 

Or  whisky,  beer,  or  gin  ?  " 
And  the  Farmer  hoar  his  fingers  fomi 
He  loyally  hoisted  in. 

•Twas  then  the  ancient  Farmer  Man 

Beheld  a  carl  *  full  drunk, 
Who  at  a  table  in  the  room, 

Had  negligently  sunk. 

His  hair  was  grizzled,  beard  unshorn, 

His  eyes  were  red  and  blear, 
His  whole  appearance  spoke  him  one 

That  drives  the  Texan  steer, 
And  full  well  grips  the  blacksnake  whipi 

A  merry  bull-whackeer. 

And  still  he  hiccupped,  still  he  reeled, 
And  muttered,  "  Woe  is  me  ! 

For  I  hare  lost  of  dollars  a  host 
A-bucking  the  paste-boards  three; 

Yea,  this  is  the  way  them  thieves  did  pl«y 
The  sinful  three-card  monte." 


And  still  he  shuffled  and  chuckled  eke  : 
"  There's  a  Jack,  a  Seven,  a  Three, 

And  spotting  the  Three,  the  Seven,  the 
Them  gamblers  they  plundered  me  ;  " 

While  under,  and  over,  and  under  again, 
He  threw  the  three-card  monte. 

*  *•  Carl  "  —  Countryman,  greeny. 


*O4  CANADA  BILL. 

And  youths  and  men  who  sat  around 

Did  wagers  with  him  lay  ; 
And  which  was  the  Jack,  the  Seven,  the  Three, 

Infallibly  did  say, 
While  he  lost  his  pile  with  maudlin  smile 

And  muttered,  "  Tharzer  way  1 " 

Who  was  it  then  but  pseudo  Brown 
To  the  Farmer  whispered,  "  See  I 

Drunk  as  a  loon  this  herder  of  mules 
And  possessed  of  much  monie. 

Others  already  are  in  the  field, 
Why  here  stand  idle  we  ?  " 

And  who  was  it  but  the  pseudo  Brown 

That  betting  did  begin, 
And  laid  a  C  with  the  Texan  clown 

And  eke  the  same  did  win, 
While  nudging  Sir  Jones  of  Kalamazoo, 

And  bidding  him  " go  in  I" 


Bnt  the  gentle  heart  of  the  guileless  Jc 

Rebelled  against  the  game  ; 
Quoth  he,  with  a  smile,  "  I'll  win  his  ril* 

But  will  not  keep  the  same, 
But  will  it  return  with  a  lecture  stern, 

And  put  him  thus  to  shame  i " 

And  lo,  the  merry  bull-whackecr 

A  card  did  careless  spill, 
And  his  nerveless  fingers  could  not  grasp 

The  Seven  and  Jack  until 
The  pseudo  Brown  had  marked  the  Thret 

PUin  with  his  lead-pencil. 


CANADA  BILL.  2O$ 

Then  up  and  spake  the  gallant  Jonts, 

"  These  bills  I  wager  thee, 
That  I  can  pick  the  Trey  from  out 

The  shuffled  paste-boards  three." 
And  the  Texan  clown  put  his  money  down 

And  said,  u  Thou  art  meat  for  me  I " 

Over  and  under  he  threw  the  cards, 

Under  and  over  and  back ; 
Jones  laid  his  finger  on  that  one 

Scored  with  a  cross  so  black ; 
"  'Tis  the  Three  ! "  he  cried,  with  honett  pride. 

But  lo  !  it  was  the  Jack  ! 

At  Kalamazoo,  a  Fanner  Man 

May  at  this  day  be  seen, 
Who  talks  of  Sodom  and  Babylon 

As  one  who  has  therein  been, 
And  frowns  at  the  sight  of  his  lambkins  white 

When  they  gambol  on  the  green. 


It  is  estimated  that  he  made  fully  one  hundred  an  1 
fifty  thousand  dollars  in  Chicago ;  but  as  he  was  an  invet- 
erate gambler  himself,  and  played  into  faro  banks  nearly 
all  he  took  at  monte,  he  left  that  city  comparatively 
u  broke,"  and,  in  company  with  "  Jim  "  and  Alick  Porter, 
went  to  Cleveland,  where  his  last  active  work  was  done. 

Countless  instances  are  related  of  the  shrewdness  and 
success  of  this  strange  man.  Among  his  kind  he  was  king 
and  I  have  only  given  this  sketch  of  him  as  illustrative  of 
a  striking  type  of  a  dangerous  class,  still  powerful  and 


K>6  REMARKABLE  PRISON  ESCAPES. 

cunning,  which  the  public  would  do  well  to  avoid  in 
whatever  guise  they  may  appear. 

Canada  Bill,  after  an  unprecedently  successful  career 
of  over  twenty  years  in  America,  died  a. pauper — as  nearly 
every  one  of  all  the  criminal  classes  do — at  the  Chant) 
Hospital,  in  Reading,  Pennsylvania,  in  the  summer  of 
1877. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

REMARKABLE    PRISON    ESCAPES. 

I  AM  certain  that  my  readers  will  be  interested  in  the 
recital   of  a   few   instances  within   my   recollection 
where   criminals,   either   convicts   or  prisoners    awaiting 
trial  for  general  offenses,  have  escaped  their  prison  con- 
fines in  a  most  ingenious  and  dramatic  manner. 

On  July  8,  1878,  the  city  of  Columbus,  Ohio,  was 
startled  by  a  report  that  some  forty  prisoners,  confined 
at  the  State  penitentiary  there,  had  escaped,  and  were 
"  making  a  lively  trial  for  tall  timber "  in  all  directions. 
A  visit  to  the  penitentiary  proved  that  the  reports  were 
greatly  magnified.  Only  three  prisoners  had  escaped, 
but  these  had  shown  an  amount  of  enterprise  in  getting 
outside  of  the  walls  that  was  truly  remarkable. 

It  was  found,  too,  that  e  yen  the  three  did  not  make 
their  escape  together,  but  that  one  had  got  out  the  pre- 
vious night.  He  had  been  recaptured,  and  was  once 
more  a  prisoner,  although  the  other  two  were  still  at  lil> 


REMARKABLE   PRISON  ESCAPES.  2O? 

erty  The  one  that  had  been  recaptured  had  occupied  a 
cell  in  one  of  the  tiers  of  cell-houses  on  which  the  State 
was  then  placing  a  new  roof.  He  managed,  in  some  way, 
to  dig  out  of  his  cell  and  gain  access  to  the  roof.  A 
large  derrick  for  elevating  stone,  used  in  the  walls  during 
the  day,  stood  against  the  prison,  but  at  night  was  pulled 
back  quite  a  distance  from  it.  The  prisoner  stood  on  top 
of  the  wall,  and,  calculating  the  distance  in  the  darkness, 
made  a  leap,  the  like  of  which  has  never  been  attempted 
by  any  acrobat  on  earth,  and,  after  descending  at  least 
thirty  feet  through  the  air,  caught  the  derrick-rope  and 
slid  down  the  remaining  distance,  making  his  escape 
unobserved. 

What  nerve  and  actual  bravery  vtzre  required  for  this  ! 
The  convict  risked  his  life  more  surely  than  if  taking  his 
chances  in  battle.  The  slightest  miscalculation,  the 
merest  mischance,  the  least  failure  in  estimating  his 
power  for  leaping,  would  have  caused  him  to  have  fallen 
a  mangled  corpse  upon  the  stones  below. 

But  all  this  daring  brought  no  reward  to  the  pooi 
fellow,  for  he  was  captured  on  the  Pan  Handle  Road, 
near  Summit  Station,  not  ten  hours  subsequent  to  his 
marvelous  escape. 

The  other  men  did  not  show  as  much  daring  in  theii 
escape,  but  even  more  shrewdness  and  ingenuity.  They 
were  engaged  cutting  stone  just  north  of  the  penitentiary, 
Through  the  aid  of  friends  they  supplied  themselves  with 
citizens'  clothing,  which  they  secreted  in  a  closet  neai 
where  they  were  working,  and  leaped  from  this  into  a  sewei 


208  REMARKABLE  PRISON  ESCAPES. 

leading  into  the  Scioto  River.  As  soon  as  they  re  ached 
the  bank,  they  stripped  off  their  prison  garb,  and,  don- 
ning their  citizens'  clothing,  strolled  leisurely  away.  For 
all  that  is  known,  they  are  still  leisurely  strolling,  as  they 
have  never  been  recaptured. 

Cne  of  the  most  desperate  prison  escapes  ever  known 
was  made  from  Sing  Sing  prison  on  the  morning  of  May 
14,  1875,  and  would  have  ended  disastrously  to  more 
than  a  score  of  lives  had  it  not  been  for  the  presence  of 
mind  of  Dennis  Cassin,  a  Hudson  River  Railroad  engi- 
neer. 

Just  north  of  Sing  Sing  prison,  between  the  extreme 
northern  guard-house  and  the  arched  railway  bridge,  as 
you  go  south,  is  located  the  prison  quarry,  on  the  east  side 
of  the  railroad  track.  From  it,  over  the  railroad  track, 
on  the  west  side,  extends  a  bridge  over  which  stone  from 
the  quarry  is  trundled  in  wheelbarrows  by  the  convicts. 

At  about  eight  o'clock,  on  the  morning  mentioned,  an 
extra  Leight  train,  bound  south,  slowly  approached  the 
prison  bridge.  The  train  was  drawn  by  "  No.  89,"  Den- 
nis Cassin,  engineer.  They  were  slowly  following  the 
regular  passenger  train  from  Sing  Sing  to  New  York, 
which  had  left  a  few  moments  before.  As  the  engine 
reached  the  trestle,  or  prison  bridge,  five  convicts  sud- 
denly dropped  upon  it,  from  the  bridge  above  ;  they  were 
led  by  the  notorious  "  Steve  "  Boyle  and  Charles  Woods. 

Four  of  them  ran  into  the  engineer's  cab,  while  the 
other  hastened  to  the  coupling  which  attached  the  train 
to  the  engine.  The  convicts  on  the  cab,  with  drawr 


REMARKABLE  PRISON  ESCAPES. 

revolvers,  ordered  the  engineer  and  fii  eman  to  jump  oft, 
which  they  did,  when  the  convicts  put  on  steam,  and  the 
engine  started  down  the  road  at  lightning  speed. 

Their  escape  was  detected  almost  immediately,  and 
several  shots  were  fired  after  them  by  the  prison-guard, 
but  without  effect.  Then  began  the  pursuit.  The 
superintendent  of  the  raiload  was  notified  quickly,  when 
a  telegraph  alarm  was  sounded  at  all  points  south  of  Sing 
Sing.  A  dispatch  was  sent  to  the  Tarrytown  agent 
directing  him  .to  turn  the  switch  at  that  station  on  the 
river  side,  so  as  to  let  the  engine,  with  the  convicts  on 
board,  jump  the  bank  and  plunge  into  the  river.  Danger 
signals  were  also  ordered  to  be  set  on  the  down  track,  and 
prompt  measures  of  every  kind  were  taken  to  prevent 
danger  from  collision  with  the  stolen  locomotive.  The 
trackmen  in  the  vicinity  of  Scarborough  saw  the  engine 
coining  like  lightning,  or  rather  saw  a  vast  cloud  of  smoke 
and  steam  and  water,  whirl  by  with  a  deafening  roar,  and 
gazed  with  terror  at  the  frightful  speed  the  engine  had 
attained.  At  Tarrytown  crowds  of  people  were  gathered, 
expecting  to  see  the  engine  dash  into  the  station,  and  ofl 
the  switch  into  the  river ;  but  it  did  not  arrive. 

After  waiting  a  short  time,  the  Tarrytown  agent  sent 
an  engine  cautiously  up  the  road  to  look  for  the  stolen 
property ;  and  "  No.  89 "  was  finally  found,  with  both 
cylinder-heads  broken,  three  miles  north  and  opposite 
the  ««  Aspinwall  Place."  The  boiler  was  full  of  water 
and  the  steam  down.  The  convicts  had  left  the  disabled 
engine  a  half  mile  fa  -ther  north,  and  had  disappeared  into 


216  *&MA*KABL&  PtifSOM  MSCAPSS. 

the  dense  Aspinwall  woods,  having  first  stoler  all  tht 
clothing  which  could  be  found  in  the  engineer's  und  fire 
man's  boxes  in  the  tender. 

Engineer  Cassin's  wonderful  presence  of  mind  un- 
doubtedly prevented  a  large  destruction  of  property  and 
human  life.  He  was  surrounded  by  the  four  convicti 
before  being  conscious  of  it,  and  conld  feel  the  cold  muz- 
zles of  their  revolvers  against  his  head.  Instantly  after 
he  realized  what  had  occurred. 

"  Get  off!  get  off!"  the  desperate  men  shouted.  They 
did  get  off,  and  that  right  lively ;  but  Cassin  did  not  turn 
from  his  place  until  he  had  prevented  disaster.  Just  before 
the  convicts  jumped  into  the  cab,  he  had  three  gauges  of 
watejr  in  the  boiler,  and  had  shut  off  the  pumps;  but, 
as  he  turned  to  go  when  ordered,  he  shoved  the  pumps 
full  on,  the  convicts  not  noticing  the  movement.  The 
desperadoes  undoubtedly  pulled  the  throttle-valve  wide 
open  when  they  started,  and  for  a  little  time  the  engine 
attained  a  terrific  speed  ;  but  finally  the  cylinders  got 
so  full  that  both  heads  were  blown  out,  or  broken,  and 
that  necessarily  ended  the  trip. 

None  of  the  daring  fellows  were  immediately  recap, 
tured,  but  the  eventual  return  of  the  leader  of  the  es- 
capade was  effected  through  my  office ;  and  how  it  all 
came  about  necessitates  a  short  sketch  of  "Steve"  Boyle, 
the  leading  and  most  desperate  spirit  in  the  escape  just 
narrated. 

Boyle  is  a  noted  "houseworker,"  or  house-burglar,  and 
general  thief,  and  has  nearly  always  been  brilliant  and 


REMARKABLE  PRISON  ESCAPES.  211 

successful  in  whatever  he  has  undertaken.  His  work  waj 
principally  done  in  the  East,  until  1867,  when  that  pan 
of  the  country  became  too  warm  for  him,  and,  in  com- 
pany with  his  "gang,"  consisting  of  "Bob"  Taylor, 
"  Torn "  Fitzgerald1,  alias  *'  Big  Fitz,"  and  William 
,  alias  "  Black  Bill,"  he  removed  to  Chicago. 

Their  first  operation  in  that  city  was  very  unfortunate 
for  Boyle.  They  were  "working"  a  residence  in  the 
West  Division,  and  Boyle  was  "doing"  the  rooms  and 
passing  the  plunder  out  to  his  confederates,  when,  being 
very  weak  from  a  severe  attack  of  the  asthma,  he  made  a 
misstep,  stumbled,  dropped  his  revolver,  and  caused  such 
a  noise  that  in  an  instant  the  gentleman  of  the  house  was 
upon  him  with  a  cocked  revolver  in  his  hand,  and  effected 
his  capture  easily. 

As  he  was  then  comparatively  unknown  in  the  West, 
on  the  plea  of  ill-health,  first  offense,  respectable  parents, 
and  the  like,  he  succeeded  in  escaping  with  a  sentence  of 
but  one  year's  imprisonment  at  Joliet,  Illinois. 

His  comrades  now  employed  every  effort  in  their 
power  to  secure  a  pardon  for  Boyle,  using  large  sums  of 
money  for  this  purpose ;  but  this  failing,  they  eventually 
found  a  way  of  conveying  money  to  him  within  the  peni- 
tentiary. Whether  or  not  this  was  more  powerful  than 
whatever  instruments  to  effect  his  escape  Boyle  may  have 
secured,  I  cannot  say;  but,  at  all  events,  a  plan  of  escape 
was  determined  on,  which  proved  successful ;  and,  on  a 
certain  night,  Boyle,  at  the  head  of  eleven  other  convicts, 
made  their  way  from  the  cells  up  into  one  of  the  guard 


kEMARKA&LE  PRlSOX  ESCAPES, 

towers  used  for  the  sentry,  and  thence,  in  some  mysteri- 
ous manner,  which  has  never  since  been  fully  explained, 
not  only  made  good  their  escape,  but  carried  away  all 
the  arms — quite  a  number — which  were  stored  in  the 
tower. 

Boyle's  hard  luck  seemed  about  equal  to  his  good  for- 
tune and  ability  to  conquer  difficulties. 

The  second  day  after  escaping  from  the  Illinois  peni- 
tentiary, as  he  needed  money,  himself  and  another  of  the 
escaped  prisoners  were  arrested  in  Chicago  while  in  the 
act  of  "  tapping  "  the  till  of  a  North  Side  German  gro- 
cery. They  were  locked  up  for  the  night  together  at  one 
of  the  North  Side  stations.  Boyle's  companion  was  pos- 
sessed of  a  terrible  fear  that  he  would  be  recognized  and 
returned  to  Joliet. 

"  Oh,  I'll  fix  all  that !  "  said  Boyle  jauntily ;  and  forth- 
with  he  set  to  work  and  gave  his  ex- convict  comrade 
such  a  pummeling,  disfiguring  his  face  and  blacking  his 
eyes,  that  his  own  mother  would  not  have  recognized 
him. 

The  next  morning  they  were  put  in  charge  of  separate 
policemen,  who  started  with  their  prisoners  for  the  police 
court  on  the  South  Side.  The  officer  in  charge  of  Boyle 
was  a  huge  German,  weighing  fully  two  hundred  and 
twenty-five  pounds.  When  the  two  had  arrived  at  a 
point  on  North  Wells  Street,  near  the  river,  Boyle's  keen 
eyes  discovered  a  house  of  disreputable  character,  which 
he  had  formerly  frequented.  A  negress,  a  servant  at  the 
establishment,  was  scrubbing  the  steps  in  the  e  iny  morn- 


REMARKABLE  PRISON  ESCAPES.         21  j 

ing  before  the  inmates  had  arisen,  and  the  basement-dooi 
stood  wide  open.  As  quick  as  thought,  Boyle  planted  a 
terrific  blow  squarely  in  the  big  Dutch  policeman's  beUy, 
doubling  him  up  like  a  stage  harlequin  going  backward 
through  a  trap,  and  then,  leaping  over  and  beyond  the 
horrified  black  woman  at  one  bound,  darted  into  the 
house,  and  shut  and  bolted  the  door  behind  him.  Then 
he  sped  through  the  basement  to  the  rear  of  the  house 
and  escaped.  His  companion,  who  had  been  herded  in 
the  "  bull-pen  "  along  with  the  regular  daily  collection  of 
petty  offenders,  was  finally  brought  before  the  police  jus- 
rice,  and  the  grocery-man  whose  till  had  been  robbed  fail- 
ing to  identify  him,  he  was  fined  five  dollars,  as  a  simple 
case  of  "drunk,"  on  general  principles.  The  fine  was 
paid  by  some  of  his  friends,  who  had  learned  of  his  pre- 
dicament, and  thus  he  too  escaped. 

About  this  time  the  other  portion  of  Boyle's  gang  had 
endeavored  to  rob  a  bank  at  Schoolcraft,  Michigan. 
They  had  succeeded  in  getting  into  the  vault,  and  had 
already  got  open  the  outer  door  to  a  large  safe  standing 
within  it,  when  a  sleigh-riding  party,  out  on  a  lark,  came 
dashing  up  to  a  point  near  the  bank,  shouting  and  halloo- 
ing in  a  boisterous  and  roystering  fashion.  The  thieves, 
thinking  they  had  been  discovered,  fled  from  the  place, 
leaving  their  tools  and  their  nearly  secured  booty  behind 
them. 

From  here  they  went  to  Kalamazoo,  Michigan,  and, 
securing  new  tools  from  Chicago,  made  an  attempt  to  rob 
a  bank  there,  but  were  all  arrested,  and,  being  recognized 


as  the  parties  engaged  in  the  unsuccessful  Schoolc  /aft  joU 
were  held  without  bail. 

Through  a  friend  in  Kalamazoo  who  was  then  close!) 
allied  with  rogues  of  this  class,  but  who  is  now  a  respected 
citizen  of  that  city,  word  of  their  misfortune  war  conveyed 
to  Boyle  in  Chicago,  who,  with  a  New  York  thief  named 
Harry  Darrah,  returned  the  cheering  intelligence  that  the} 
would  be  over  to  Kalamazoo  on  a  certain  night,  and  give 
them  "  a  break,"  that  is,  liberate  them. 

On  the  night  in  question,  true  to  their  word,  Boyle  and 
Darrah  got  so  far  toward  the  liberation  of  their  friends 
as  to  have  passed  pistols  and  small  steel  saws  in  to  them 
in  the  jail,  when  Colonel  Orcutt,  the  sheriff,  whose  apart- 
ments were  in  the  jail  building,  discovered  the  efforts  be- 
ing made,  and,  coming  upon  the  scene  en  dishabille,  with 
cocked  revolver  in  hand,  endeavored  to  arrest  the  jail 
b-  Bakers. 

The  men  instantly  fled,  Colonel  Orcutt  pursuing.  He 
ordered  them  to  halt,  but  they  did  not  comply ;  and  he 
began  firing  upon  them,  succeeding  in  shooting  Darrah' i 
hat  from  his  head.  This  only  had  the  effect  to  increase 
his  efforts  to  escape.  Boyle,  whose  chronic  asthma  made 
it  impossible  for  him  to  run  any  distance,  suddenly  dodged 
behind  a  tree,  unperceived  by  the  sheriff,  and,  when  the 
latter  passed  him  in  hot  pursuit  of  Darrah,  the  cowardly 
ruffian  Boyle  fired  upon  him,  shooting  him  through  the 
spine,  and  effecting  a  wound  from  which  Colonel  Orcutt 
died  twelve  hours  after.  Darrah  skulkeJ  about  the  place 
for  a  few  days,  and  finally  disappeared ,  \vhile  Boyle,  on 


tttSON  ESCAPES.  21 J 

the  same  night,  secreted  himself  upon  an  eastern-bound 
freight-train,  went  to  Detroit,  and  from  thence  into 
Canada,  where,  after  remaining  under  cover  for  a  few 
weeks,  he  proceeded  to  New  York,  being  soon  after  rt- 
ioined  by  Darrah,  who  was  subsequently  arrested  for 
pocket-picking,  and,  being  identified,  was  returned  to 
K.a!arnazoo,  where  he  made  a  full  confession,  implicating 
Boyle  in  the  murder  of  Colonel  Orcutt. 

He  eluded  arrest,  however,  for  nearly  a  year,  when,  hii 
bad  fortune  following  him,  he  was  captured  in  New  York 
Yfhile  attempting  to  do  what  is  known  as  the  "  butcher 
cart  job."  This  is  effected  in  the  following  manner  : 

At  a  time  of  the  year  when  street  doors  of  jeweler  shop- 
are  usually  closed  throughout  the  day  as  well  as  the  even- 
ing, a  common  grocer's,  or  delivery  wagon  of  any  sort, 
but  always  selected  for  its  easy-running  qualities,  and  to 
which  is  always  attached  a  fast  horse,  will  be  driven  up  to  the 
vicinity  of  some  jewelry-store,  which  has  already  been  fixed 
upon,  and  which  always  has  a  fine  display  in  the  window 
This  wagon  will  invariably  contain  one,  and  sometimes 
two  persons,  aside  from  the  driver  In  the  meantime  a 
confederate  of  this  "  butcher-cart  gang "  slips  up  to  the 
joor  of  the  shop  in  question,  and  deftly  inserts  a  wooden 
peg  or  wedge  beneath  the  door,  between  that  and  the 
sill,  driving  it  home  with  his  heel  or  in  any  other  manner 
possible.  The  moment  this  is  done  another  ol  the  gang 
at  one  stroke  smashes  in  the  entire  window,  and  the  two 
then  grab  whatever  they  can  lay  their  hands  upon,  always 
of  course  selecting  that  which  is  the  most  valuable,  and 


2l6  REMARKABLE  PRISON  ESCAPES. 

rush  to  the  covered  wagon  in  waiting,  when,  with  theii 
booty,  they  are  driven  rapidly  away,  nine  times  out  ot  ten 
getting  wholly  beyond  pursuit  before  the  astonished  and 
shut-in  shopmen  are  able  to  get  their  own  door  open. 

It  was  while  Boyle  was  conducting  an  operation  of  thij 
kind  that  he  was  captured,  and,  rather  than  be  conveyed 
to  Michigan,  to  answer  the  charge  of  murder,  he  made  no 
defense,  but  pleaded  guilty  to  everything  brought  against 
him,  and  was  finally  sentenced  to  twenty  years'  imprison- 
ment at  Sing  Sing. 

It  was  the  boast  of  himself  and  his  friends  that  no  prison 
had  been  built  strong  enough  to  hold  him,  arid  a  special 
guard  was  for  a  time  placed  over  him. 

Illustrative  of  the  man's  cunning  is  the  fact  that,  one 
day,  while  being  so  watched,  he  slipped  his  jacket  and  hat 
upon  a  broom  standing  near,  and  then,  noiselessly  placing 
it  where  he  had  sat.  stole  away  from  his  guard  entirely.  It 
was  some  minutes  before  the  watchful  guard  discovered 
the  trick  which  had  been  played  upon  him,  and  Boyle  had 
made  so  good  a  use  of  his  time  that  eight  hours  had 
elapsed  before  he  was  found.  He  had  secreted  himself 
in  the  prison,  with  the  hope  of  escaping  the  same  night. 

The  next  instance  in  Boyle's  career  worthy  of  note  was 
the  planning  and  execution  of  the  desperate  escape  from 
Sing  Sing  upon  the  engine  "  No.  89,"  as  has  been  related. 

In  company  with  Charles  Woods,  one  of  the  convicts 
escaping  with  him  on  that  occasion,  Boyle  then  secured 
&  "  kit "  of  burglar's  tools,  and  the  two  proceeded  to  3t 
Louis,  where  they  began  operating  upon  small  safes  in  real 


REMARKABLE  PRISON  ESCAPES.  2i; 

estate  and  brokers'  offices.  They  deposited  their  tools  in 
what  they  believed  to  be  a  deserted  carpenter's  shop.  The 
proprietors,  returning  unexpectedly,  discovered  the  tools, 
and,  informing  the  police,  a  detail  of  officers  was  at  once 
made  to  lie  in  wait  for  the  owners  of  the  suspicious  goods, 
who  returned,  and,  before  being  given  time  to  explain  any- 
thing, were  unmercifully  clubbed  and  taken  into  custody. 

The  men  being  utter  strangers  to  the  St.  Louis  author- 
ities, were  only  given  six  months  in  the  workhouse. 
Their  pictures  were  taken,  however,  and,  a  set  coming 
into  my  office,  that  of  Boyle  was  recognized,  when,  on  his 
being  fully  identified  by  my  son,  William  A.  Pinkerton,  he 
was  returned  to  Sing  Sing,  where,  fortunately  for  society 
in  general,  he  is  now  serving  his  unexpired  term  of  twenty 
years'  imprisonment. 

In  1870  George  White,  alias  George  Miles,  alias 
George  Bliss,  made  one  of  the  most  remarkably  brilliant 
prison  escapes  on  record. 

He  had,  in  company  with  one  Joe  Howard,  another 
bank  burglar,  robbed  the  bank  of  an  interior  New  York 
town,  and,  securing  a  noted  race-horse  of  the  locality  in 
escaping  from  the  place,  ran  the  inimal  nearly  thirty 
miles  at  its  fullest  speed,  until  it  fell  to  the  earth  from 
sheer  exhaustion.  The  men  then  brutally  cut  the  throat 
of  the  horse,  leaving  it  dying.  The  men  were  subse- 
quently captured,  convicted,  and  incarcerated  in  Sing 
Sing.  While  here,  White  made  the  acquaintance  and 
friendship  of  a  noted  character,  named  Cramer,  familiarly 
called  Doctor  Dyonissius  Cramer,  or  "  the  Long  Doctor," 
10 


2l8  REMARKABLE  PRISON  ESCAPES. 

now  a  reformed  thief,  but  in  his  day  one  of  the  cleverest 
known  "  stalls  "  of  the  "  bank  sneak  gangs.  '  This  "  Long 
Doctor"  had  a  peculiarly  inventive  genius,  and  I  am 
happy  to  say  that  now,  as  he  has  become  an  honest  man, 
it  is  securing  for  him  considerable  wealth. 

His  familiarity  with  White  resulted  in  his  inventing — 
more  as  a  curious  experiment  than  anything  else — a  hollow 
rubber  apparatus,  which,  when  completed,  had  the  exact 
appearance  of  a  very  large  decoy  duck.  This  was  also 
provided  with  rubber  tubes  for  breathing  through  ;  and 
one  morning,  when  a  party  of  convicts  were  working 
along  the  docks  by  the  side  of  the  river,  White,  who  had 
secreted  the  contrivance  in  his  clothing,  at  an  opportune 
moment  adjusted  it,  and,  slipping  into  the  water,  calmly 
floated  down  the  Hudson,  passing  within  twenty  feet  o( 
the  guards,  thus  making  his  escape. 

His  recapture  would  have  been  certain,  but  Colonel 
Whitley,  then  Chief  of  the  Secret  Service,  made  such 
strong  representations  to  the  Government  authorities  that 
his  use  by  the  Government  in  ferreting  out  several  impor 
tant  counterfeiting  cases  would  be  valuable,  that  he  evea 
tually  secured  for  him  from  the  Governor  of  New  York  A 
free  pardon.  The  value  of  his  subsequent  service-  may 
be  inferred  when  it  is  stated  that  Colonel  Whitley  used 
him  as  one  of  the  chief  actors  in  the  infamous  sham  rob- 
bery of  the  safe  of  the  district  attorney's  office  in  Wash- 
ington, when  it  was  sought  to  ruin  the  Hon.  Columbus 
Alexander,  who  was  nobly  fighting  th?  Washington  ring 
its  corruptions, 


A  N  INSURANCE  CONSPIRA  C  Y  FOIL  A/}.       21  $ 
CHAPTER  XIV. 

AN    INSURANCE    CONSPIRACY   FOILEI1. 

OF  al  species  of  business  there  is  none  so  liable  to  the 
machinations  of  dishonest  persons  as  the  insur- 
ance. The  large  sums  which  are  often  secured  from  death 
or  loss,  with  the  undeniable  obligations  which  the  com- 
panies labor  under  to  cancel  their  indebtedness,  upon  the 
showing  of  good  and  sufficient  causes  for  the  same,  arc 
incentives  that  have  often  urged  men  to  employ  their  in- 
genuity and  villainy  in  endeavors  to  defraud  insurance 
companies.  There  may  be  something  like  a  law  of  com- 
pensation about  this  kind  of  swindling,  as  the  insurance 
business  itself  has  harbored  most  accomplished  scamps, 
and  presented  to  the  world  about  as  brilliant  schemes  of 
commercial  piracy  as  have  come  to  light  in  any  other 
kind  of  business.  Of  these  instances  Dickens  has  given 
us  the  type  in  "  Martin  Chuzzlewit,"  in  the  operations  of 
Montague  Tiggs,  Anglo-Bengalee  Disinterested  Loan  and 
Life  Insurance  Company ;  and,  as  an  illustration  of  the 
consummate  plans  for  defrauding  honestly-conducted  in- 
surance companies,  the  following  case,  where  I  was  fortu 
nately  able  to  defeat  an  exceedingly  clever  scheme  of 
fraud,  will  stand  as  an  interesting  illustration  cf  conspira- 
cies against  such  corporations. 

In  the  month  of  June,  1866,  one  Monroe  Rigger,  a 
sailor,  at  that  time  a  resident  of  Chicago,  called  at  thf 


2 2O       AN  INSURANCE  CONSPIRA  C  Y  FOILED. 

office  of  a  certain  life  insurance  company,  and  effected  an 
insurance  upon  his  life  for  the  sum  of  five  thousand  dol- 
lars. For  this  policy  he  paid  the  sum  of  thirty  dollars. 
This  was  an  ordinary  case  of  insurance,  and  compre- 
hended only  such  accidents  and  disasters  as  one  is  ordi- 
narily exposed  to  on  shore. 

A  few  days  afterward  he  returned  to  the  insurance 
office,  and  expressed  a  desire  to  have  the  terms  of  the 
policy  altered,  as  he  wished  to  sail  upon  the  lakes  during 
the  months  of  September  and  October.  This  permission 
was  granted  upon  the  payment  of  an  extra  ten  dollars, 
and  a  new  policy,  covering  accidents  on  the  lake  during 
those  two  months,  was  issued.  On  the  very  next  day  he 
returned  to  the  office,  and  informed  the  officers  that  he 
had  concluded  to  sail  during  the  entire  season,  having  se- 
cured a  position  on  a  vessel,  and  that  he  wished  the 
policy  changed  from  a  special  to  an  extra-hazardous  one, 
in  order  to  guard  against  his  increased  liability  to  acci- 
dents and  dangers.  Upon  "the  payment  of  twenty  dollars 
additional,  the  extra  guarantee  was  granted,  and  Rigger 
took  his  departure.  This  was  the  last  the  company  ever 
saw  of  him. 

On  August  8th  following,  Mrs.  Susan  Rigger,  the  wife 
of  itonroe  Rigger,  called  at  the  office  of  the  insurance 
company,  and  informed  the  officers  that  her  husbam1,  who 
held  a  policy  in  their  company,  had  been  drowned.  This 
lady  was  dressed  in  mourntng,  and  'old  a  straightforward 
story. 

She  stated  that  her  husband  had  been  drowned  in  Lake 


AN  INS  UR  ANCE  CONSPIRA  C  Y  FC  \LED.        22 1 

Erie  on  the  night  of  July  2oth,  about  fifteen  miles  north 
west  of  Cleveland,  while  sailing  on  the  brig  "  Mechanic,' 
James  Todd,  master.  There  was  no  constraint  or  indica- 
tions of  dishonesty  in  her  statement.  She  further  said 
that  on  the  evening  in  question  her  husband,  acting 
under  instructions  from  his  superior  officer,  had  gone  out 
on  the  bowsprit  of  the  ship  to  adjust  the  rigging ;  that 
his  foot  suddenly  slipped,  precipitating  him  into  the  lake  ; 
and  that  efforts  were  made  to  save  him,  but  all  in  vain. 

To  substantiate  her  story,  she  furnished  several  affi- 
davits, duly  attested  and  authenticated,  corroborating  the 
details  of  her  husband's  death.  These  affidavits  were  fur- 
nished by  persons  who  professed  to  have  seen  Rigger  fall 
into  the  lake,  and  were  signed  by  the  owner  of  the  brig — 
an  old  and  respectable  citizen  of  Chicago,  largely  identi- 
fied with  shipping  interests — the  captain,  the  mate,  the 
helmsman,  and  several  others,  all  evidently  trustworthy 
and  reliable  persons.  Their  affidavits  certainly  were  de- 
serving of  consideration ;  but,  in  accordance  with  their 
usual  custom,  the  officers  desired  time  to  look  into  the 
matter,  and  they  dismissed  the  lady,  requesting  her  to 
call  again. 

This  was  all  the  information  that  came  to  me  about 
the  matter,  with  a  request  from  the  company  that  I 
should  make  a  speedy  and  most  rigid  investigation  ;  and 
I  confess  that,  when  I  first  gave  the  subject  a  cursory 
examination,  I  saw  nothing  about  it  which  did  not  have 
A  clean  and  straight  appearance.  But  upon  perusing 
the  affidavits,  certain  little  disci  epancies  therein  began 


222       AN  INSURANCE  CONSPIRA^  y  FOILED. 

to  excite  my  curiosity.  I  began  to  see  that  the  namr 
of  a  certain  Joseph  Wagner,  mate  of  the  brig  "Mechanic,1 
from  which  it  was  alleged  that  Rigger  had  been  lost,  ap- 
peared with  a  frequency,  which,  to  say  the  least,  was 
noticeable. 

The  affidavits  were  taken  before  a  magistrate  in  Buffalo ; 
and  I  at  once  dispatched  a  keen,  careful  man  to  that 
city,  who  soon  returned  with  the  information  that  this 
Joseph  Wagner,  mate  of  the  brig,  who  had  become  fixed 
in  my  mind  as  in  some  way  mixed  up  with  the  matter,  if 
it  should  be  found  that  it  was  tainted  with  fraud,  had 
been  chiefly  instrumental  in  procuring  the  affidavits.  He 
had  been  present  when  they  were  made,  had  signed  one 
of  them  himself,  had  defrayed  the  expenses  of  executing 
them,  and  had  finally  brought  them  to  Chicago  to  Mrs. 
Rigger-  Here  was  a  circumstance,  trivial  enough  in  it- 
self, easily  accounted  for  on  the  ground  of  solicitude  for 
the  widow  of  a  deceased  comrade,  and  might  seem  to 
have  no  special  relation  to  the  case  ;  but  it  continued  to 
strongly  impress  me.  I  felt  that  this  man  had  exhibited 
too  great  an  officiousness.  He  had  been  at  too  much 
trouble  ;  he  had  expended  too  much  money  for  a  wholly 
disinterested  party. 

.  Besides  all  this,  the  haste  which  had  been  exercised  in 
securing  the  affidavits  was  worthy  of  notice.  It  occurred 
to  me  that  sailors,  as  a  rule,  are  easy-going  fellows,  and 
they  seldom  do  things  in  a  hurry.  The  "  Mechanic " 
had  hardly  reached  Buffalo  before  Wagner  had  set  about 
securing  evidence  of  Rigger*  5  death.  These  papers  had 


AN  INSURANCE  CONSPIRACY  FOILED.       22$ 

been  immediately  forwarded  to  Mrs.  Rigger,  so  that  she 
had  been  able  to  call  at  the  insurance  office  within  a  very 
few  days  after  the  alleged  drowning  of  Rigger  and  some 
time  before  the  "Mechanic"  returned  to  Chicago.  In 
my  mind  this  was  another  noticeable  feature  of  the  case. 
It  might  be,  I  even  reasoned,  that  there  had  been  mur- 
der done ;  that  Mrs.  Rigger  had  conceived  an  unlawfu1 
affection  for  this  mate,  Joseph  Wagner ;  that  the  two 
had  not  conspired  against  the  insurance  company  so 
much  as  against  the  life  of  the  husband  whom  the  woman 
had  urged  to  become  insured,  so  that  should  he  happen 
to  fall  overboard  while  in  Wagner's  company,  there  would 
be  a  snug  little  sum  coming  to  the  two ;  and  that  the 
whole  thing,  from  beginning  to  end,  was  a  terrible  plan 
to  both  get  rid  of  an  obnoxious  person  and  secure  a 
small  fortune. 

In  any  event,  I  could  not  but  couple  the  mate  of  the 
"  Mechanic "  and  Mrs.  Rigger  in  a  conspiracy,  either 
against  the  company,  in  which  case  Rigger  himself  had 
joined  in  a  conspiiacy  against  the  life  of  the  latter  ;  or, 
indeed,  in  a  consiiracy  against  the  company,  in  which 
Rigger  had  readily  joined,  but  which  might  not  have  been 
wholly  understood  by  him,  and  which  was  wedded  to  the 
darker  crime  that  had  been  privately  planned  by  his  wife 
and  friend,  and  too  well  executed  by  the  friend. 

In  casting  about  for  a  starting-point  in  detective  oper- 
ations, wherever  a  crime  is  to  be  unraveled,  one  of  the 
most  essential  things  to  be  done  is  to  determine  what 
motives  probably  caused  the  commission  of  the  crime. 


224       AN  INSURANCE  CQNSPIXAC  f  FOILED. 

When  the  causes  leading  to  a  crime  are  fully  known  half 
your  work  is  done,  for  you  then  at  once  know  how  to  gt 
to  work. 

I  determined  to  ascertain  what  relations  existed  be- 
tween Mrs.  Rigger  and  the  mate  Wagner.  I  found  that 
Mrs.  Rigger  lived  in  a  quiet,  respectable  manner,  as  be- 
fitted the  wife  of  a  sailor,  and  no  suspicious  circumstance 
could  be  developed  against  her,  although  I  felt  that  the 
facts  justified  keeping  a  strict  surveillance  upon  her. 

The  reader  will  recollect  that,  on  account  of  Wagner's 
great  haste  in  securing  proof  of  the  sailor's  death,  there 
had  been  both  time  for  Mrs.  Rigger  to  make  her  applica- 
tion  at  the  insurance  office  for  her  five  thousand  dollars, 
and  for  me  to  get  a  man  to  Buffalo  and  return  with  the 
information  referred  to. 

I  had  also  taken  means  to  ascertain  that  Wagner  had 
left  Buffalo  on  the  return  trip  in  the  "  Mechanic,"  and 
of  the  date  of  her  probable  arrival  in  Chicago.  So,  fird- 
ing  the  owner  of  the  brig,  I  easily  made  arrangements  to 
be  informed  of  her  arrival  in  port,  as  well  as  to  ship  a  naau 
as  a  common  sailor  upon  her,  on  her  second  trip  to  Buf- 
falo, should  I  so  desire. 

When  the  "Mechanic"  arrived,  Wagner,  as  soon  as 
hi*  duties  would  permit,  went  straight  to  Mrs.  Rigger's 
house.  He  remained  inside  but  a  few  hours,  and  made 
his  exit  upon  the  street  with  a  thoughtful,  anxious  face, 
In  the  little  time  he  had  been  in  the  house  I  had  taken 
measures  which  conclusively  proved  to  me  that  no  crimi 
nal  intimacy  existed  between  the  mate  and  the  allegea 


AN  INSURANCE  CONSPIRACY  FOILED. 

*idow  Rigger,  and  this  clearly  demonstrated  that  no  con- 
spiracy by  the  two  against  the  life  of  the  missing  sailor 
had  been  entered  into. 

If  there  had  been  a  conspiracy,  I  concluded  that  it  ha'1 
been  between  the  entire  three  against  the  company  ;  ai 
as  a  persistent  watching  of  the  house  had  failed  to  dis 
cover  the  arrival  of  Rigger,  who,  I  hoped,  might  secretly 
reappear,  I  knew  that  the  only  way  to  get  a  hold  upon 
the  shrewd  trio  was  to  fall  back  upon  my  old  and  suc- 
cessful plan  of  placing  some  person,  capable  of  winning 
and  holding  Wagner's  confidence,  with  him,  which  I  had 
already  provided ;  for,  as  will  presently  be  seen,  in  the 
person  of  an  operative  named  Dick  Hamilton — since  lost 
at  sea,  poor  fellow  ! — who  seemed  to  possess  a  combina- 
tion of  every  known  interesting  trait  of  the  Irish  charac- 
ter. 

Generous,  brave,  faithful,  cunning ;  full  of  unconquer- 
able antics  and  irrepressible  humor ;  quick  as  lightning  at 
repartee  or  jest ;  but  possessing  good  judgment ;  a  great 
traveler  and  salt-water  sailor ;  and  withal  the  biggest  liar 
on  earth  when  it  came  to  a  cock-and-bull  story,  or  to  a 
match  at  story-telling :  this  was  the  man  I  had  detailed 
to  operate  upon  Wagner,  and  that  individual,  with  a  woi- 
ried  look  upon  his  face,  had  not  been  absent  from  Mrs. 
Rigger's  humble  dwelling  half  an  hour  when  the  two  had 
become  firm  friends. 

Wagner,  with  his  worry  upon  him,  had  stepped  into  one 
of  those  saloons  along  the  wharves  of  great  cities  wheic 

sfcilors  and  their  friends  congregate,  to  get  a  glass  of  grog, 
10* 


AN  INSURANCE  CONSPIRACY  FO1LKD. 

and,  being  in  a  rather  ugly  frame  of  mind  from  receiving 
the  ill-tidings  from  Mrs.  Rigger  that  there  was  a  suspi- 
cious delay  in  the  payment  of  the  insurance  money,  was 
in  no  mood  for  joking.  As  the  place  was  full  of  carous- 
ing  sailors,  some  silly  drunken  remark  was  made  to  him, 
which  he  resented.  In  a  moment  the  place  was  in  an 
uproar  ;  Wagner  was  violently  assaulted,  and  only  rescued 
from  a  hard  drubbing  by  Hamilton,  who  laid  out  the 
assailing  parties  right  and  left,  and  finally  got  Wagner 
away  in  safety. 

He  was  very  grateful  of  course,  and  finding,  according 
to  Hamilton's  story,  that  he  was  a  salt-water  sailor  and  a 
great  fellow  altogether,  and  had  come  to  Chicago  with  a 
little  money  ahead,  not  caring  where  his  fortunes  took 
him,  a  great  friendship  immediately  sprang  up  between 
the  two;  and  it  was  arranged,  over  many  and  copious 
glasses,  that  Hamilton  and  Wagner  should  pass  the  time 
together  while  in  port,  and  that  my  operative  should  then 
ship  with  Wagner  on  the  brig  "  Mechanic  "  for  the  trip 
to  Buffalo  and  return ;  when,  if  everything  still  went  well 
between  them,  they  would  join  fortunes  and  sail  regularly 
together. 

The  "  Mechanic "  and  its  crew  remained  in  port  but 
three  days ;  but  during  that  time  enough  came  to  the 
surface  to  show  me  conclusively  that  I  was  upon  the  right 
track,  and  that  it  was  but  a  question  of  time  when  my 
shrewd  Irish  operative  would  unearth  the  mystery,  en- 
shrouding the  sailor's  supposed  death. 

Hamilton  became  a  welcome  visitor  at  Mrs.  Rigger'i 


AN  INSURANCE  CONSPIRA C  Y  FOILE O.       22? 

cottage  the  next  day  after  making  Wagner's  acquaintance. 
Not  a  single  thing  could  be  seen  to  warrant  a  suspicion 
of  wrong  between  the  woman  and  the  mate,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  several  private  and  earnest  interviews  between 
the  two,  during  which  an  occasional  unguarded  word  was 
let  fall  which  showed  that  some  new  move  was  on  hand. 
This  was  made  plain  on  the  third  day,  just  before  the 
vessel  left,  when  Wagner  and  Mrs.  Rigger  visited  a  law- 
yer's office  and  began  suit  against  the  company  for  the 
payment  of  the  policy.  They  felt  so  certain  of  the 
strength  of  their  plans  that  they  were  either  willing  that 
the  whole  matter  should  be  raked  up,  or  they  hoped  to 
force  the  payment  of  the  money  by  a  show  of  fight. 

In   the   meantime  Wagner   and   Hamilton  got  along 
famously. 

Dick,  who  had  become  acquainted  with  the  entire 
brig's  crew,  from  captain  to  cook,  made  things  lively  for 
them  all.  A  book  would  not  have  held  the  infernal  lies 
that  he  told,  and  not  all  of  the  sparkling  "  Irish  Dra- 
goon" contains  such  irresistible  wit  and  ilroll  hun.or  as 
he  was  capable  of,  on  the  least  pretext,  so  that  before 
the  "  Mechanic "  sailed  every  man  on  board  was  in  love 
frith  Dick  and  congratulating  Wagner  on  finding  such  a 
capital  fellow  for  the  voyage.  Of  course  Wagner  felt 
flattered  and  glad  at  the  turn  matters  had  taken,  and 
seemed  to  begin  to  place  great  confidence  in  his  new 
found  friend.  When  drinking,  as  is  quite  common  with 
sailors  when  ashore,  he  made  greaf  promises  for  himself 
and  friend,  and  hinted  in  various  ways  that  before  th« 


AN  INSURANCE  CONSPIRA  C  Y  FOILED. 

season   was  over  he  would  command  a  first-class  vessel 
himself,  and  would  make  Hamilton  no  less  than  mate. 

One  trip  was  made  to  Buffalo  without  result,  so  far  as 
the  operation  was  concerned,  save  that  Wagner  seemed 
diawn  closer  and  closer  to  his  companion.  They  be- 
came greater  friends  than  ever ;  but  Wagner  had  not  got 
wholly  ready  to  trust  him.  In  a  hundred  ways  he  en- 
deavored to  test  him  as  to  his  being  one  he  could  trust 
and  usf,  and  during  the  trip  gradually  unfolded  a 
scheme  to  rob  a  brother-in-law  of  Mrs.  Rigger's,  an 
honest  and  hard-working  mechanic  in  Milwaukee. 

The  wife  of  this  man  frequently  visited  her  sister,  Mrs. 
Rigger,  in  Chicago,  and  Wagner  had  in  some  way 
learned  that  the  couple,  by  years  of  hard  labor,  had 
saved  several  hundred  dollars,  and  kept  the  same  in  a 
certain  bureau  drawer.  As  the  husband  was  compelled 
to  leave  the  house  at  an  unusually  early  hour  in  the 
morning  to  reach  his  work,  and  was  so  kind  and  consid- 
erate to  his  wife  that  he  never  awakened  her,  it  would  be 
an  easy  matter  to  leave  Chicago  on  the  late  train  for 
that  city,  watch  the  party's  house  until  he  had  left  for  his 
laily  toil,  and  then,  easily  gaining  access  to  the  house, 
secure  the  money,  and  return  to  Chicago  on  the  next 
train.  The  whole  thing  could  be  done  inside  :>f  twelve 
hours,  and  there  was  certainly  four  or  five  hundred  dol 
lars  apiece  for  them. 

Hamilton  entered  into  the  scheme  with  all  hi*  heart, 
and  suggested  so  mar,y  capital  ideas  concerning  carrying 
out  the  robbery,  that  Wagner  was  more  in  love  with  him 


A N  INSURANCE  CONSPIRACY  FOILED.       22$ 

than  ever ;  and  he  hinted  at  many  other  schemes  which 
they  would  mutually  profit  by. 

On  the  arrival  of  the  brig  in  Chicago,  the  plan  Ox  this 
projected  robbery  was  immediately  laid  before  me.  I 
indorsed  what  Hamilton  had  done,  as  a  means  of  winning 
Wagner's  thorough  confidence,  and  also  as  a  measure  of 
establishing  the  character  of  the  man;  while  I  at  once 
arranged  matters  in  Milwaukee,  so  that  when  the  rol  >bery 
was  attempted,  a  sham  policeman  would  be  on  hand  to 
prevent  the  actual  robbery.  I  believed  it  necessary  to 
permit  this  to  seem  to  go  on,  as  I  knew  that,  should 
the  two  attempt  anything  criminal  together,  this  would 
prove  the  last  bond  of  confidence  required  to  enable  my 
operative  to  compel  a  revelation  of  his  connection  with 
the  conspiracy  against  the  insurance  company. 

As  luck  would  have  it,  however,  the  "  Mechanic  "  only 
remained  in  Chicago  one  night  and  a  day,  and  the  rob- 
bery of  the  honest  Milwaukee  workingman  was  necessa- 
rily postponed.  But  Wagner  was  now  certain  of  his  man. 

There  had  been  two  or  three  interviews  between  Mrs. 
Rigger  and  Wagner,  which  Hamilton  could  not  secure  the 
gist  of,  and,  just  as  the  boat  was  leaving  her  slip,  a  small 
Jad  brought  a  large  package,  evidently  containing  clothing, 
which  Wagner  quickly  received  and  stored  snugly  away 
under  his  bunk. 

Hamilton  had  also  laid  in  a  package  for  this  particulai 
trip,  but  it  contained  something  more  to  the  liking  of  sail 
ors  than  clothing.  It  was  two  gallons  of  the  best  of  liquo^ 
and,  as  himself  and  Wagner  were  sampling  the  article; 


23O       AN  INSURANCE  CONSPIRA',  ,'  FOILED. 

while  a  grimy  little  tug  was  pulling  the  *  Mechanic  "  swiftly 
out  past  the  Chicago  lighthouse  to  the  broad  expanse  of 
the  lake,  where  the  regular  evening  breeze  from  the  land 
should  speed  the  brig  on  its  trackless  way,  Wagner,  after 
filling  a  glass  unusually  full,  touched  it  against  the  rim  of 
Hamilton's  glass  in  a  most  friendly  way,  and  remarked : 

"  Dick,  old  boy,  you've  been  the  great  story-teller  of  this 
craft  ever  since  you  came  aboard  her.  Before  we  get  to 
Buffalo  I'll  tell  you  a  better  story  than  you  ever  heard." 

"  Give  it  to  us  now,  while  the  brig  is  gettin'  her  wind," 
replied  Hamilton,  with  a  knowing  wink. 

"  No,  no  ;  not  yet — not  before  we  get  almost  to  Buffa- 
lo. And,  Dick,  if  you're  the  man  I  take  you  for,  and 
the  friend  I  believe  you  to  be,  before  the  last  chapter  of 
the  story's  done — it'll  be  only  two  or  three  chapters,  I'll 
tell  you  then — there  may  be  a  little  *  spec  '  in  it  for  you. 
This  is  no  gammon  story.  There's  a  live  corpse  in  it, 
and  a  stiff  one  to  be  got ! " 

"All  right,  then,  me  hearty,"  responded  Hamilton, 
clinking  the  glasses  again  ;  "  I'm  your  boy  for  any  lively 
game,  and  here's  luck  to  ourselves  and  both  corpses,  God 
rest  "em  1  " 

The  liquor  was  drunk,  and  the  two  shook  hands  heart- 
ily, and  went  on  deck. 

There  never  was  a  finer  trip  than  that  from  Chicago  to 
Buffalo,  "  around  the  lakes ;  "  and  this  one  proved  a  lovely 
one  to  the  "Mechanic"  and  all  on  board. 

Dick  was  in  his  happiest  vein,  and  kept  everybody  .on 
board  roaring  with  laughter  with  his  mad  pranks  and  ri 


AN  INSURANCE  CONSPIRACY  FOILED.       2  3 I 

diculous  yarns.  Through  the  long  sunny  days  it  was 
story  and  joke  and  trick,  and  yet  always  so  harmless  and 
jolly  as  to  cause  no  feeling  of  antagonism  or  offense,  and, 
through  the  moonlit  evenings,  the  same  round  of  pleasure*, 
so  that  the  slight  labor  involved  in  handling  the  vessel 
amounted  to  nothing  but  a  desirable  change  from  what 
would  otherwise  have  been  a  surfeit  of  enjoyment. 

At  last,  one  night,  when  within  a  few  miles  if  Buffalo, 
Wagner  came  on  watch  and  Hamilton  with  him.  Aftei 
everything  had  become  quiet  for  the  night,  Wagner,  after 
a  liberal  supply  of  liquor,  in  a  low,  careful  tone,  told  Ham- 
ilton the  following  story : 

"  You  know  about  the  Rigger  case,  of  course  ;  you  have 
heard  the  men  talk  about  it,  and  know  that  Mrs.  Rigger 
has  begun  suit  against  the  insurance  company  for  five 
thousand  dollars. 

"  Well,  Dick,  we  three  put  that  up  /  " 

"  Faith,  is  that  where  the  corpses  come  in  ?  "  asked 
Hamilton,  with  a  well-assumed  look  of  cunning  praise 

"  That's  it,  Dick.     I'll  come  to  that  shortly." 

"  We  were  just  about  this  distance  from  Buffalo,  about 
thirty  miles,  and  Rigger  and  I  were  on  watch.  The  night 
was  fearfully  foggy,  and  I  run  her  (the  boat)  into  withir. 
half  a  mile  off  shore.  Then  I  had  Riggei  40  forward  ind 
fix  a  line  on  the  bowsprit,  taking  pains  to  have  one  01 
two  of  the  crew  on  deck.  He  kinder  weaved  when  he  go! 
to  the  timber,  and  I  yelled  out :  *  Take  care,  Rigger, 
mind  your  footing ! '  I  hadn't  more  than  said  that,  wbei 
up  he  slips  and  pitches  headlong  into  the  lakt  1 


232       AN  INSURANCE  CONSPIRACY  FOILED. 

"  It  was  all  in  the  game,  you  know,  and  he  had  two  bifl 
life-preservers,  a  couple  of  biscuits,  and  a  little  compass, 
fast  on  him.  But  I  raised  a  fearful  rumpus,  got  the  boats 
out,  and  for  an  hour  we  tried  awful  hard  to  find  him,  I 
sending  the  boats  in  the  opposite  direction  from  which  he 
fell  in  and  struck  out  for  shore.  After  a  time  we  give  it 
up,  and  by  the  time  I  took  hold  of  the  brig  again,  and 
set  her  out  into  deep  water,  Rigger  was  ashore  !  " 

"Tare  an'  ages  1  but  you're  a  slick  one  !"  ejaculated 
Hamilton  ;  "  an'  won't  the  hay  then  insurance  company 
pay  up  like  men  ?  " 

"  No  ;  that's  just  what's  the  matter.  Mrs.  Rigger  has 
begun  suit  against  them ;  and  now,  Dick,  I  want  you  to 
help  us  out !  " 

"  I'm  your  buck  !     What's  the  game  ?  " 

"You  remember  that  big  bag  I've  got  under  my 
bunk?" 

"Faith,  Idol" 

"  Well,  that's  the  very  suit  of  clothes  Rigger  wore  when 
he  went  over.  He  skipped  back  to  Chicago,  changed  his 
togs,  and  left  for  California  on  the  next  train.  We're  all 

going  out  there  after  we  beat  the  d d  company  out  of 

the  money." 

"Yes;  splendid!" 

"  Now,  when  we  get  down  to  Buffalo  I  want  you  to 
help  me  look  up  a  convenient  cemetery,  and  then  we'll  dig 
up  some  fellow  that's  been  under  the  sod  a  month  or  so., 
take  the  body  out  along  the  shore,  and,  after  mashing  it 
Up  so  the  very  devil  wouldn't  recognize  it  save  by  tht 


AN  INSURANCE  CONSPIRACY  FOILED.       233 

clothes,  chuck  it  in  the  lake,  let  it  wash  ashore,  and  be 
found — his  letters  and  papers,  and  all  that  are  in  the 
rlothes.  And  then,  by  the  Eternal !  we've  got  'em  fixed  i 
Are  ye  in,  Dick  ?  " 

"In  ! — in  !  Bedad  I'm  in  for  any  fun  of  that  kind,  and 
we'll  have  -the  corpse  in  the  water,  W  out  of  it,  upon  the 
shore  and  discovered,  before  even  a  fish  can  get  a  smell 
of 'em!" 

With  a  hearty  hand-shake  and  a  parting  glass  of  grog, 
the  two  turned  in  as  the  next  watch  came  on  ;  and  I  had 
won  the  case. 

The  next  morning  the  "Mechanic"  arrived  at  Buffalo, 
and  Hamilton  had  not  been  on  shore  thirty  minutes  be- 
fore Wagner's  confession  and  plans  came  spinning  ove- 
the  wires  to  me  at  Chicago. 

I  at  once  laid  the  information  before  the  company, 
and  requested  that  its  officers  permit  me  to  arrest  both 
parties,  and  that  they  would  prosecute  them  to  the  fullest 
extent  of  the  law,  for  I  have  always  bitterly  opposed  any 
compromise  with  criminals.  But  it  seemed  to  be  theii 
policy  to  keep  out  of  the  courts  and  the  newspapers,  and, 
with  what  had  been  got,  with  which  they  were  highly 
elated,  Mrs.  Rigger  was  confronted ;  and  scared  and  half- 
crazec]  with  the  turn  things  had  taken,  she  at  once  pro 
ceeded  to  the  Circuit  Court,  and  signed  a  waiver  and  re- 
lease of  all  obligations  held  by  her  against  the  company. 

This  much  done,  Hamilton  was  recalled  by  telegraph, 
And  I  subsequently  learned  that  Wagner,  becoming 
alarmed  at  his  co-conspirator's  sudden  disappearance, 


*34  QUICK   WOAX. 

left  the  "  Mechanic  "  at  Buffalo  never  to  reappear  amonp 
his  sailor  friends  at  Chicago  ;  while  the  bogus  widow  evi- 
dently quickly  took  honest  old  Horace  Greeley's  ackice, 
and  went  West  to  grow  up  with  the  country,  for  the  little 
cottage  was  utterly  deserted,  and  *'  For  Rent  "  but  two 
days  after. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

QUICK  WORK. 

BANG,  bang,  bang  !  " 
There   was  no  response  to  this  impatient  knock- 
i/ig  upon  the   heavy  door  of  the   small  Adams  Express 
Company  building  near  the  end  of  the  Columbus,  Ohio, 
Union  Depot,  that  night. 

There  stood  the  train  with  all  its  usual  bustle  about  it, 
the  engine  snorting  like  a  spirited  steed  impatient  to  be 
out  upon  the  road  again,  but  the  Adams  Express  clerk 
and  assistant  had  not  made  their  accustomed  appearance. 
The  express  messenger,  John  Gossman,  had  become 
greatly  alarmed,  for  but  a  few  moments  more  elapsed 
before  the  train  would  pass  on,  and  it  was  one  of  his 
guards  who  had  been  sent  to  awaken  the  two  careless 
employees  and  hasten  their  regular  visit  to  the  train. 

"  Bang,  bang,  bang  ! "  This  time  *ouder  and  more  per- 
sistent than  before  upon  the  heavy  oaken  and  riveted 
door.  But  there  was  still  no  answer  from  within. 


QUICK  WORK.  ,  235 

Then  the  guard  took  hold  of  the  door-knob,  and, 
throwing  his  whole  weight  against  the  loor,  shook  and 
rattled  it  frantically.  Still  no  answer,  and  the  guard 
rushed  back  to  the  train. 

:     "  Can't  wake  'em  up,  John.     Mebty  they  ain't  there  at 
all!" 

Not  daring  to  leave  his  car,  the  messenger,  now  fearing 
that  foul  play  of  some  kind  had  transpired,  directed  the 
guard  to  return  to  the  express  building  and  get  into  it  if 
he  had  to  break  in.  In  a  moment  more  he  was  at  the 
door,  and,  turning  the  knob,  as  he  ordinarily  would  have 
done,  the  door  swung  readily  upon  its  hinges,  and  he 
walked  into  the  room. 

It  was  very  dark  inside,  and  striking  a  match,  he  went 
to  the  ^as-light,  where  he  found  that  it  had  been  turned 
very  low.  Letting  on  the  full  light,  it  was  seen  that  the 
papers  and  packages  lay  about  the  floor  in  the  wildest 
confusion,  while  the  clerk  and  his  assistant,  who  were  ly- 
ing in  bed  but  a  few  feet  from  the  safes,  seemed  to  be  in 
a  sort  of  stupor  ;  for,  although  the  guard  had  hallooed  lus- 
tily to  them  after  entering,  he  was  obliged  to  give  them  a 
pretty  thorough  shaking. 

It  was  evident  that  the  two  men  had  been  chloroformed 
—the  sickening,  deathly  aroma  of  that  drug  still  pervad- 
ing the  atmosphere  of  the  room — and  that  the  company 
had  been  robbed.  The  agent  ef  the  company  at  Colurn 
bus,  although  it  was  about  two  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
immediately  informed  the  officers  of  the  company  of  the 
affair,  who  called  upon  me,  by  telegraph,  for  help,  and  J 


WORK. 

was  able  to  put  Superintendent  War  ner,  of  my  Cnicagc 
office,  upon  the  ground  during  the  next  forenoon  after  the 
robbery,  with  t\vo  shrewd  operatives  in  the  background 
ready  for  any  possible  emergency  which  might  arise  in  me 
case. 

But  little  information  had  been  forwarded  with  the 
brief  telegram,  but  I  was  familiar  with  the  working  of  the 
express  company's  matters  at  Columbus,  and  I  could 
hardly  imagine  how  any  thief  or  thieves  could  approach 
•this  building  in  so  public  a  place,  chloroform  the  inmates, 
and  rob  the  safes,  without  attracting  notice. 

The  main  office  of  the  company  was  located  in  the 
more  business  portion  of  the  city,  a  considerable  distance 
from  the  depot,  and  it  had  been  for  a  long  time  necessary 
to  keep  a  clerk  and  assistant  at  the  depot  to  deliver  and 
receive  express  matter,  and  the  custom  was  for  the  clerk 
to  leave  the  down-town  office  at  about  six  o'clock  in  the 
evening,  proceed  to  the  depot,  put  everything  snugly 
away  in  the  safes,  and  then  retire  until  the  arrival  of  the 
late  night  trains,  being  awakened  to  attend  to  his  duties, 
by  the  depot  watchman;  and  I  could  not  shake  off  the 
feelings  which  I  impressed  upon  Mr.  Warner  before  he 
took  his  departure,  that  this  robbery  could  hardly  hav» 
been  committed  without  the  complicity  of  some  one  of  the 
express  employees  at  Columbus. 

A  searching  investigation  by  my  superintendent  devel- 
oped the  following  facts : 

On    the   evening  before  the  roubery,  May  16,    1871, 
John  Barker,  the  depot  express  clerk,  left  the  main  office 


QUJC  r  WORK.  237 

on  Broad  Street  for  the  depot  office  at  six  o'clock,  with 
seventy-two  thousand  dollars  for  different  points,  thirty- 
two  thousand  of  which  was  in- revenue  stamps,  and  all  oC 
which  was  put  into  the  safes.  On  the  arrival  of  th-  late 
tiain  at  twenty-five  minutes  past  two  m  the  morning,  the 
clerk  did  not  make  his  appearance,  although  he  h.id  been 
called  as  usual  by  the  watchman  who  was  not  certain  that 
he  had  been  answered,  but  who  supposed  Barker  had  been 
awakened.  The  guard  had  found  the  door  open,  as  pre- 
viously explained,  and  on  gaining  an  entrance,  and  turn- 
ing on  the  light,  the  keys  had  been  found  in  one  of  the 
safe  doors;  everything  seemed  to  be  in  confusion  in  the 
office  ;  and  Barker  and  his  assistant  were  still  in  their 
bed,  apparently  stupefied  from  the  effects  of  chloroform. 
A  bottle  still  containing  a  small  amount  of  chloroform  was 
discovered,  as  also  a  sponge  used  in  applying  it  to  the 
faces  of  the  sleeping  employees.  When  they  had  finally 
been  awakened,  Barker  was  the  first  to  speak,  and  he 
remarked  :  "  Why,  we've  been  robbed  !  "  and,  after  noti- 
cing the  package  of  revenue  stamps,  "  I'm  glad  they  left 
that  much  !  " 

Both  Barker  and  his  assistant  acted  in  a^  .lonest. 
straightforward  manner,  and  readily  answered  all  ques- 
tions put  to  them.  A  casual  investigation  would  hardly 
have  developed  anything  save  that  the  office  was  entered, 
the  men  chloroformed,  and  the  safes  robbed ;  but  a  thor- 
ough examination  did  show,  among  other  things,  that  the 
bolt  on  the  door  had  been  bent  back,  as  if  the  door  had 
been  forced  open.  Unfoitunatcly  ror  this  theory,  how 


238  QUICK:  WORK 

ever,  the  butt,  which  ran  from  the  frame  &.c:  }ss  the  edge 
of  the  door,  had  been  bent  considerably  further  than  neces 
sary,  to  permit  the  edge  of  the  door  to  pass  it,  while  ther ? 
was  no  evidence  of  a  "jimmy  ''  or  other  instiument  hav- 
ing been  used  to  force  the  door  open  and  thus  bend  the 
bolt.  It  had  been  done  from  the  inside;  and  the  very 
important  query  was  :  Who  did  it  ? 

This  trifling  circumstance,  which  an  amateur  detective 
would  be  likely  to  wholly  overlook,  clinched  the  convic- 
tion in  both  my  own  and  Mr.  Warner's  mind,  that  one  of 
the  t\vo  employees  in  the  little  office,  or  possibly  both, 
had  some  criminal  knowledge  of  the  robbery,  if,  indeed, 
they  had  not  done  the  work  themselves. 

While  the  investigation  was  progressing  the  two  men 
w-ere  kept  under  constant  espionage,  and  it  was  very  soon 
discovered  and  communicated  to  me  by  Mr.  Warner  that 
John  Barker,  the  express  clerk,  had  a  brother  named 
Henry  Barker,  who  had  been  seen  at  Columbus,  and  in  a 
way  to  indicate  that  he  had  made  every  possible  effort  to 
prevent  being  seen  in  the  city.  It  was  also  learned  that 
this  mysterious  brother  was  from  Chicago.  These  two 
facts  ascertained,  I  soon  learned,  in  Chicago,  that  Henry 
Barker  had  borne  a  rather  unpleasant  reputation,  and  had 
been  discharged  from  the  employ  of  the  Adams  Express 
Company,  as  also  from  service  on  the  Chicago  and  Alton 
Railroad.  This  might  not  amount  to  muc.'i,  but  taken  iu 
connection  with  other  circumstances,  it  looked  suspicious. 

I  was  also  informed  by  Mr.  Warner  that  the  express 
clerk,  when  questioned  about  his  brothe  ,  at  first  denied 


WORX.  239 

all  knowledge  of  him  :  but  after  a  time  he  confessed  that 
his  brother  had  been  in  Columbus,  but  was  there  merely 
on  a  little  friendly  visit  !  He  also  laid  great  stress  on  the 
fact  that  his  brother  was  wealthy,  or  rather  that  he  had 
married  a  wealthy  Chicago  lady,  and  had  no  need  to  work. 
Following  this  out,  I  found  that,  instead  of  the  wife  01' 
Henry  Barker  being  a  respectable  and  wealthy  Chicago 
lady,  she  was  neither.  She  proved  to  be  merely  che 
daughter  of  a  noted  proprietress  of  a  Chicago  house  of 
ill-fame,  who  had  given  her  the  choice  of  marrying  Bai 
ker,  or  being  sent  to  the  Reform  School  in  that  city  ;  and 
that  she  was  then  living'a  disreputable  life  in  mean  apart 
ments,  and  without  a  dollar  of  honestly  acquired  money 
on  earth. 

I  judged  that  all  these  facts  warranted  the  conclusion 
that  the  brothers  were  guilty  of  the  robbery,  or  at  least, 
had  planned  it,  and  had  largely  participated  in  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  same.  I  accordingly  intrusted  Mr.  Warnei 
to  at  once  cause  the  arrest  of  the  express  clerk,  and  use 
every  effort  to  wring  from  him  a  confession,  while  his 
assistant  and  brother  should  be  remorselessly  watched 
Olid  followed,  hoping  that  they  might  in  this  way  betray 
some  evidence  of  guilt  which  would  give  me  the  truth  of 
the  whole  matter. 

It  is  a  principle  in  criminal  matters,  which  almost  in- 
variably holds  true,  that  successful  detection  of  crime  is" in 
nearly  every  instance  defeated  when  all  suspected  parties 
are  at  once  incarcerated.  Let  one  or  two,  as  the  case 
raay  be,  be  held  so  closely  that  they  car,r ->t  be  approacne.1 


24O  QUICK  WORK. 

?>r  communicated  with,  and  their  accomplices  will  theh, 
if  they  are  watched  by  keen  detectives,  always  make  some 
move  which  will  betray  them.  But,  if  all  parties  are  ar- 
rested, all  mouths  and  sources  of  information  are  in- 
stantly closed,  and,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  though  the 
authorities  may  be  morally  certain  that  they  have  the 
right  parties,  their  discharge  or  acquittal  will  be  the 
result,  simply  because  no  evidence  of  their  guilt  can  be 
secured. 

So,  applying  the  result  of'my  experience  to  this  particu- 
lar case,  I  reasoned  that  if  the  express  clerk  was  arrested, 
and  put  where  he  could  secure  no  'assistance  and  sympa 
thy,  his  accomplices  would  at  once  exhibit  a  nervousness 
and  alarm  which  would  definitely  betray  them. 

According  to  this  programme,  Mr.  Warner  caused 
John  Barker's  arrest,  formally  charging  him  with  the  rob- 
bery, and  intimating  that  the  whole  plan  of  his  operations 
was  known,  and  in  every  possible  way  endeavoring  to 
secure  from  him  a  statement  which  would  implicate  others. 
But  the  young  man  was  obdurate,  and  nothing  save  that 
which  might  be  learned  from  an  utterly  innocent  person 
could  be  got  from  him.  He  very  naively  admitted  that 
he  could  readily  see  how  he  might  be  reasonably  sus- 
pected ;  how  the  bending  of  the  bolt  apparently  from  the 
inside  might  be  attributed  to  him,  but  he  argued  in  the 
same  breath  that  it  might  have  been  done  by  the  party 
who  did  the  woik  for  the  purpose  of  casting  susticion 
upon  him. 

The  closest  of  watching  could  develop  nothing  of  a 


QUICK  WORK.  24.1 

luspicious  nature  against  the  assistant.  He  was  a  simple, 
hard-working  fellow,  who  seemed  to  be  merely  dazed  and 
stunned  by  the  robbery,  and  it  seemingly  had  not  once 
entered  his  head  that  he  could  be  suspected  of  any  man- 
ner of  complicity  in  the  matter. 

But  the  results  from  watching  Henry  Barker,  who  had 
married  the  "  wealthy  Chicago  lady,"  were  far  different. 

He  endeavored  to  keep  quietly  at  home  in  Columbus, 
und  it  was  observed  that  he  never  left  his  mother's  house 
for  any  purpose  until  after  night  had  wrapped  its  protect- 
ing folds  around  the  city.  Neither  did  he,  after  his 
brother's  arrest  and  incarceration,  vi'sit  him,  or  attempt 
in  any  manner  to  communicate  with  him,  and  I  was  more 
than  ever  satisfied  of  his  guilt. 

On  the  evening  of  the  fifth  day  succeeding  the  robbery, 
Henry  Barker  suddenly  took  a  train  for  Chicago.  He 
did  not  leave  Columbus  like  an  honest  man,  but  sneaked 
about  the  depot  until  the  train  was  well  under  way,  when 
he  sprang  aboard,  giving  my  operative  all  he  could  do  to 
accomplish  the  same  thing  and  accompany  him.  At  t* 
way  station  the  detective  telegraphed  me  the  condition 
}f  affairs,  and  I  had  two  men  at  the  depot  in  Chicago 
awaiting  their  arrival,  one  to  relieve  the  man  accompany 
ing  Barker,  and  another — my  son  William,  to  get  a  thor 
ough  look  at  Barker,  so  that  he  might  be  able  to  rendei 
any  assistance  necessary. 

Barker   at   once    proceeded   to   his  "wealthy  wife's" 
rooms  in  a  disreputable  quarter  of  the  city.     Here  he 
remained   well  closeted  from  observation,  but   so   thor* 
ii 


243  QUICK  WORK. 

oughly  guarded  that  his  escape  was  impossible,  /or  OM 
day.  Then,  with  a  small  valise  which  his  wife  had  been 
seen  to  purchase  for  him  at  a  pawn-shop  near  their  habi- 
tation, he  set  out  leisurely  in  the  morning,  considerably 
changed  in  personal  appearance  but  perfectly  self-pos- 
sessed and  evidently  with  no  fear  of  pursuit,  for  the  Mich- 
igan Central  depot. 

Arriving  here  he  purchased  a  paper  and  a  cigar,  and 
smoking  the  one  and  occasionally  glancing  at  the  other, 
he  sauntered  about  the  locality  for  a  short  time,  when  he 
walked  to  the  ticket  office  and  purchased  a  ticket  for 
Canada,  via  the  Michigan  Central  and  Grand  Trunk 
railroads.  This  much  done  and  he  went  to  the  train, 
took  a  seat  in  the  smoking-car,  and  resumed  the  reading 
of  his  paper  as  pleasantly  and  nonchalantly  as  though  a 
reputable  business  man  starting  out  on  a  summer  trip  to 
the  Thousand  Islands. 

His  presence  at  the  depot  had  been  reported  to  me 
immediately,  and  I  authorized  my  son,  William  A.  Pinker- 
ton,  to  make  the  arrest.  A  carriage  took  him  to  the 
depot  from  my  office  in  five  minutes,  and  he  arrived  at 
the  train  at  the  same  time  as  young  Barker.  Following 
him  into  the  car,  he  waited  until  Barker  had  seated  him- 
self comfortably,  when  William  approached  him  and  said, 
pleasantly  : 

"  Barker,  sorry  to  annoy  you,  but  you  will  have  to  delay 
your  trip  to  Canada  until  later  in  the  season.  The  expresi 
folks  down  at  Columbus  want  you." 

He  made  no  resistance  at  all,  but  came  along  quietly, 


WORK.  243 

seeming  to  feel  grateful  that  he  had  been  arrested  in  a 
gentlemanly  manner. 

He  was  then  placed  in  the  carnage  which  had  conveyed 
'-Villiam  to  the  depot,  and  my  son,  taking  a  seat  beside 
inn,  and  an  officer  riding  on  the  box  with  the  driver,  the 
*hole  party  were  in  my  private  office  in  a  few  minutes. 

He  made  no  noise  and  seemed  in  no  great  degree 
alarmed.  He  submitted  to  being  seai^L^^  .vith  the  best 
i)f  grace,  not  over  fifty  dollars  being  found  upon  his  per- 
son. I  was  beginning  to  fear  we  had  made  a  mistake, 
when  1  ordered  one  of  the  men  to  remove  the  lining  of 
the  valise.  Barker  grew  deathly  pale  when  I  said  this, 
but  he  said  nothing. 

This  precaution  rewarded  me  by  discovering,  neatl) 
secreted  within  the  lining,  fourteen  thousand  dollars. 
Even  then  he  had  nothing  to  say,  and  I  concluded  to  let 
him  think  the  matter  over  for  a  little  time  while  on  the 
train  to  Columbus,  which  he,  an  officer,  and  myself  were 
on  board  of  the  same  night,  Barker  pretty  well  ironed, 
more  for  the  effect  I  hoped  it  would  have  on  him  than 
from  any  fear  that  l.e  would  attempt  to  escape. 

I  gave  strict  orders  that  no  word  should  be  spoken  to 
the  man  by  any  person,  and  engaging  a  stateroom  of  the 
sleeper  for  our  party,  shut  him  and  the  officer  within  it, 
compelling  the  officer  to  sit  there  like  a  sphinx,  looking 
wise  as  an  owl,  but  uttering  never  a  word. 

Laie  in  the  night,  Barker  could  stand  the  silence  and 
suspense  no  longer,  a:u1  he  begge  \  piteously  of  his  guard 
to  permit  him  to  speak  to  me.  For  a  time  he  silentlj 


244  QUICK  WORK. 

shook  his  head,  but  at  last  called  ire,  when  the  poor  follow 
broke  down  altogether,  begged  piteously  for  mercy,  and 
reveal  d  where  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  of  the  stolen 
money  could  be  found  buried  in  a  vacant  lot  next  that 
occupied  by  his  mother's  house,  and  gave  me  the  whole 
particulars  of  the  robbery, 'which  I  telegraphed  in  advance 
to  Mr.  Warner,  who,  with  this  aid,  had  secured  a  like  full 
and  free  confession  from  the  incarcerated  express  clerk, 
before  our  a/rival  at  Columbus  at  noon  of  the  next  day. 

The  robbei/  had  been  planned  by  Henry  Barker,  and 
was  the  simplest  thing  in  the  world  after  his  brother,  the 
clerk,  had  consented  to  his  share  in  it.  The  door  was 
conveniently  left  open  ;  the  assistant  was  given  a  heavy 
dose  of  chloroform ;  then  the  clerk  himself  opened  the 
safes  and  selected  the  packages  of  value  for  removal. 
Then  the  appearance  of  general  confusion  was  arranged, 
and  after  the,  bolt  had  been  bent  to  give  the  impression 
that  the  door  had  been  forced  from  the  outside,  Henry 
had  given  his  brother  a  mild  dose  of  chloroform,  and  de- 
parted with  every  dollar  that  the  office  contained,  twenty- 
five  thousand  of  which  he  had  buried,  and  fifteen  thousand 
of  which  he  had  taken  with  him  from  Columbus,  it  beii.g 
the  intention  of  the  express  clerk  to  join  his  brother  in 
Canada  when  the  storm  had  blown  over  a  little. 

But: 

"  The  best  laid  schemes  o'  mice  and  men 
Gang  aft  agley  1 " 

and  the  two  robber*  were  subsequently  given  four  year* 


COST  OF  BUSINESS  ARROGANCE,       24  b 

each  in  the  penitentiary,  while  the  company  was  highly 
elated  that  I  had  been  the  means  of  recovering  for  them 
thirty-nine  thousand  dollars,  out  of  what  seemed  an  abso 
lute  loss  of  forty  thousand  dollars,  and  that,  too,  all  withiu 
eight  days. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE    COST   OF    BUSINESS   ARROGANCE. 

SOME  time  in  September,  1871,  there  was  presented 
at  the   banking  house  of  Henry  Clews   &  Co.,  in 
New  York  City,  a  draft  for  the  sum  of  $55  dollars.     In 
the  usual  course  of  business,  the  draft  was  stamped  thus : 


ACCEPTED. 

Payable  at  the  Fourth  National  Bank. 

HENRY  CLEWS  &  Co. 


Two  or  three  days  afterwards,  the  draft  was  presented 
to  the  Fourth  National  Bank  for  payment.  The  f  gure? 
had  been  altered  to  $5500,  but  not  so  as  to  attract  atten- 
tion. 

The  man  who  presented  the  check,  however,  was  so 
nervous  that  the  suspicions  of  the  paying  teller  were 
troused.  He  detained  the  man  who  presented  the  draft 
and  sent  a  messenger  to  the  house  of  Henry  Clews  & 
Co,  to  see  if  it  was  good  After  soi^  trouble  the  me? 


THE  COST  OF  BUSINESS  ARROGANC&* 

senger  forced  an  interview  with  the  junior  member  of  the 
firm.  That  young  gentleman  seized  the  check,  drew  :t 
through  his  jeweled  fingers  and  said  : 

"  Young  man,  there's  our  stamp  on  that  draft  right 
before  your  eyes.  If  that  stamp  was  a  bear,  it  would  bite 
you.  Tell  your  payfng  teller  that  time  is  valuable  to  ui, 
and  if  we  are  to  be  interrupted  in  our  business  hours 
through  his  stupidity,  the  Fourth  National  Bank  will  have 
to  make  some  other  arrangements  so  far  as  Henry  Clews 
&  Co.  are  concerned  !  " 

So  saying,  he  seized  a  pen,  and  before  the  messenger 
had  recovered  from  his  surprise  and  could  tell  him  of  the 
suspicions  of  the  teller  of  the  Fourth  National,  he  wrote 
across  the  face  of  the  check  : — 


Good  for  $5500. 

HENRY  CLEWS  &  CD. 


This  he  handed  to  the  young  man,  again  rebuked  him 
for  bothering;  the  great  firm  of  Henry  Clews  &  Co.,  an..: 
vanished. 

The  messenger  returned  to  the  bank,  ana  the  paying 
teller  indignantly  paid  the  money  without  more  question. 
The  gentleman  who  altered  the  figures  went  on  his  way 
rejoicing,  and  but  two  days  afterwards  the  'irm  of  Clews 
&  Co.  discovered  the  fraud. 

They  had  lost  exactly  five  thousand  four  hundred  and 
forty- fV'e  dollars  for  the  exhibition  of  a  little  arrogance. 


Of  CIRCUMSTANTIAL  £  riDENCE.      247 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

A   CURIOUS    CASE    OF   CIRCUMSTANTIAL   EVIDENCE, 

A  CURIOUS  case  of  circumstantial  evidence  waa 
tried  before  Judge  Paxon,  in  the  New  York  Court 
of  Quarter  Sessions,  some  time  since.  A  shoe  manufac- 
turer, named  George  Bruder,  was  tried  for  the  alleged 
theft  of  three  thousand  dollars,  which  was  in  charge  of  a 
bank  messenger,  named  Brooks.  The  latter  left  the  Se- 
curity Banking  House  with  certain  securities  and  money 
for  the  Clearing  House,  and  on  the  way  stopped  at  the 
shop  of  the  shoemaker  named,  to  pay  a  bill. 

The  messenger  laid  his  pocket-book  and  the  package 
on  the  counter,  and  placed  his  arm  upon  them  while  he 
wrote  out  a  bill.  When  he  got  to  the  Clearing  House,  a 
count  of  the  securities  and  money  was  had,  and  then,  for 
the  first  time,  it  was  discovered  that  there  was  a  deficit  of 
three  thousand  dollars.  The  messenger  at  once  returned 
to  Bruder'  s  shop  and  made  known  his  loss.  The*shoe- 
maker  denied  having  seen  it,  and  a  search  was  made 
of  the  place.  Had  the  case  rested  here,  there  would 
have  been  very  little  upon  which  to  base  a  belief  that  the 
shoemaker  handled  the  money.  The  Commonwealth 
called  a  witness  to  prove  that  he  was  in  the  shop  of 
George  Bruder,  the  day  after  the  loss,  when  his  daughtei 
came  in  bearing  a  package  of  money,  saying  that  the 
shop-boy  had  found  it  in  the  cellar  ;  whereupon  the  de 


248      CASE  Of  c  tR  C  UMS  TANTtAL 

fendant  claimed  that  it  wa  3  his,  that  he  had  put  it  thert 
for  safe-keeping,  and  that  he  supposed  his  dog  had  lug 
it  out  of  its  place  of  concealment.  The  shop-boy  also 
testified  to  finding  the  money  in  the  cellar,  to  which  he 
had  gone  to  chop  wood.  The  package  of  money  was 
upon  the  ground,  and  was  done  up  in  an  air.  ost  precisely 
similar  manner  to  that  of  the  bank  package. 

There  was  proof  that  Bruder  had  a  fire-proof  safe  in  the 
store,. which  made  it  all  the  more  strange  that  he  should 
have  his  treasure  lying  around  loose  in  the  cellar.  The 
only  evidence  offered  by  the  defense  to  meet  this  case 
was  that  of  good  character,  and  the  fact  that  he  did  not 
keep  a  bank  account.  The  jury  were  together  for  some 
time,  and  then  rendered  a  verdict  of  not  guilty. 

I  think  it  would  not  be  possible  to  make  out  a  stronger 
case  on  circumstantial  evidence  than  here  presented. 
The  remarkable  fact  of  a  package  of  money  of  the  same 
amount,  and  in  every  other  particular  closely  resembling 
the  lost  one,  being  found  in  the  cellar  by  the  shop-boy 
the  day  aftei  the  alleged  loss,  and  the  shoemaker's  ex 
planation  that  he  supposed  his  dog  had  found  it  anj 
dragged  it  from  its  place  of  concealment,  would  be,  it 
seems  to  me,  strongly  indicative  of  guilt.  But  the  little 
instance  is  simply  one  of  thousands  which  every  year  con 
trive  to  throw  a  strange  fascination  and  interest  of  possi 
bility  and  doubt  around  all  cases  of  circumstamial  evi 
deuce. 


A  PRIVATE  ASSURANCE  COMPANY.  249 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

A    FRTVATE   ASSURANCE    COMPANY   AND  A   PUBLIC     INSUR- 
ANCE COMPANY. 

THIS  sketch  relates  to  an  insurance  company  and  an 
assurance  company.     The  former  got  the  worst  o 
it,  and  the  latter  were  the  worst. 

The  insurance  company  in  question  was  the  Royal 
Fire  and  Life  Insurance  Company  of  Liverpool  and -Lon- 
don, whose  American  office  was,  at  the  time  I  write  of, 
located  at  No.  56  Wall  Street,  in  New  York  ;  and  the 
Assurance  Company  was  composed  of  the  eminent  Dan 
Noble,  Jimmy  Griffin,  Frank  Knapp,  and  Jack  Tierney, 
sneak-thieves;  and  while  New  York  was  their  general 
headquarters,  it  may  be  truthfully  said  that  their  opera- 
tions extended  into  all  cities  of  the  United  States,  while 
their  risks  were  high  and  their  profits  very  large. 

Dan  Noble  himself  has  always  been  noted  as  a  bril- 
liant and  gentlemanly  rascal  of  the  confidence  game, 
sneak-thief  01  der,  and,  at  about  the  time  he  organized  the 
company  of  precious  rascals  referred  to,  was  at  the  height 
of  his  business  prosperity  as  \  professional  sneak-thief. 
Noble  never  did  much  of  the  actual  "  sneaking  "  himself, 
trit  he  was  a  most  brilliant  general  of  these  matters,  and 
was,  nearly  always  successful  in,  first,  planning  a  huge  rob- 
bery ;  second,  in  biinging  the  right  parties  together  tc 
u* 


2$G  A  PRIVATE  ASSURANCE  COMPANY. 

assiot  in  doing  the  work  ;  and,  third,  in  having  immediate 
and  direct  charge  of  ail  the  neat  little  work  of  the  rob 
bery  itself. 

Even  as  far  back  as  during  the  early  period  of  the  wai 
Noble  was  a  noted  criminal,  but  had  always,  through  hi 
splendid  appearance,  ready  money,  and  fine  generalship, 
managed  to  elude  the  several  clutches  of  justice  grasping 
for  him  from  all  directions  ;  and  in  those  instances  where 
he  had  been  compelled  to  taste  the  legitimate  fruits  of  his 
villainous  life  the  bitter  experience  had  been  short,  and 
was,  through  the  lavish  use  of  his  money,  rendered  as  little 
disagreeable  as  possible. 

Accidentally  I  was  the  cause  of  a  little  practical  joke  on 
Noble,  which,  although  it  occurred  many  years  since,  still 
clings  to  him  with  unusual  freshness,  and  which  created 
great  merriment  among  sporting  and  criminal  classes  of 
the  more  polished  order ;  and  even  to-day,  among  this 
class,  whenever  "  Dan  Noble's  steerers  running  oLl  Pinker- 
ton  into  a  faro-house"  is  mentioned,  a  laugh  at  Dan's  ex- 
pense is  the  result,  and,  referred  to  in  his  presence,  is  in- 
variably as  good  as  an  order  for  a  bottle  of  wine. 

The  incident  referred  to  happened  in  this  way : 

During  the  war,  while  I  was  at  the  head  of  the  Secret 
Service  of  the  Government,  although  here,  there,  and 
everywhere,  my  real  headquarters  were  with  General 
McClellan  in  the  field,  although  official  business  frequent- 
ly took  me  to  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Boston,  and  New 
Vork. 

On  one  occasion,  when  I  was  :'n  the  latter  city  for  the 


A  PRIVATE  ASSURANCE  COMPANY.  251 

purpose  of  seeing  Colonel  Thomas  Key,  whose  head 
quarters  were  then  at  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel,  having  nol 
as  yet  established  my  large  New  York  agency,  I  took 
quarters  at  the  St.  Nicholas,  on  Broadway. 

I  had  arrived  late  in  the  afternoon,  with  the  intention 
of  seeing  the  Colonel  during  the  evening,  which  would 
permit  of  my  return  to  Washington  the  same  night,  or,  at 
least,  the  next  morning  ;  and,  having  secured  a  hearty  sup- 
per and  purchased  a  cigar — for  I  was  a  great  smoker  then 
— I  strolled  aimlessly  and  leisurely  about  the  rotunda  and 
public  rooms  of  the  hotel. 

I  had  been  enjoying  this  solitary  promenade  but  a 
few  minutes,  when  one  of  two  gentlemen  came  uj;  to  me 
with  extended  hand  and  smiling  face,  and,  heartily  grasp- 
ing my  hand,  which  I  readily  gave  him,  most  enthusiastic- 
ally ejaculated : 

"  Why,  Colonel  Green,  this  is  a  pleasure  !  When  did 
you  get  in  ?  Why,  here,  Edwards,  you  know  the  Col- 
onel ?  " 

"  Certainly,  certainly,"  promptly  responded  that  gen- 
tlemen. "  We  had  no  idea  of  meeting  you  here,  Colonel 
Are  you  stopping  at  the  St.  Nicholas  ?  " 

Of  course  I  understood  the  whole  matter  in  an  instant. 
The  game  was  old,  very  old,  and  besides,  I  knew  the 
men.  My  first  thought  was  to  have  the  couple  arrested, 
but  I  saw  a  capital  chance  for  a  little  fun  at  the  expense 
of  the  two,  who  were  regular  "steerers"  for  the  house 
where  Dan  Noble  was  "  dealing "  a  faro  game,  and 
pretty  fa/'r  confidence  men.  So  I  perrn'tted  the  game  tc 


252          A  PRIVATE  ASSURANCE  COMPANY. 

go  on,  and,  assuming  an  air  of  opulent  rural  simplicity 
f  responded : 

4<  My  friends,  you   have  the  advantage  of  me.     DOD' 
believe  I'm  the  man  you're  lookin'  for." 

"Why,  you're  Colonel  Green,  aren't   you?"  persisti 
the  scamp,  with  a  beaming  face   and  a  look  which  wav 
intended  to  convey  the  impression  that  he  would  forgive 
any  pleasant  raillery  like  that  from  his   dear  old   friend, 
the  Colonel  from  Hackensack. 

"  No,  you're  wrong,"  said  I,  pleasantly  ;  "  my  name's 
Smith — Major  Smith,  of  the  Quartermaster's  Depart- 
ment." 

"  And  you  positively  say  that  you're  not  Colonel 
Green?  "said  the  roper,  with  a  very  handsomely  gotten  up 
look  of  perplexity,  wonder,  and  amazement  stealing  over 
his  features. 

*  Not  much,"  said  I,  tersely. 

"Well,  I'm  damned!"  he  retorted,  turning  to  his 
friend.  *'  Edwards,  I  never  made  a  mistake  like  that 
before  in  my  life  !  " 

"Well,  /  have,  once  or  twice,"  remarked  Edwards, 
thoughtfully  ;  "  but,  by  Jupiter!  it  is  the  most  remarkable 
likeness  I  ever  saw — most  remarkable  !  " 

"Remarkable!  Well,  I  rather  think  so.  Why,  Major 
Smith — beg  pardon,  would  you  favor  me  with  a  light  ? 
Thank  you.  Do  you  know,  I've  sold  this  Colonel  Green 
goods  right  along  for  fifteen ^ears,  every  season,  until  this. 
But  come,  let's  sit,  and  you  must  pardon  me  for  being 
so  rude.  Here's  my  card.  I  am  the  '  Preston  '  of  the 


A  PRIVATE  ASSURAXJE  COMPANY. 

firm  ;  and  this  is  my  friend,  Mr.  Edwards — same  business, 
but  another  house  ;  and,  do  you  know,  I'd  have  bet  an 
?ven  thousand  dollars  that  you  were  Colonel  Green  ?  " 

"  Yes,  and  I'd  have  gone  you  '  halves  '  on  that.  What 
lepartment  did  you  say  you  were  in,  Major  Smith?" 
isked  Edwards,  carelessly. 

"  Quartermaster's,"  I  replied ;  "  'Swindling  the  Govern 
tent,'  the  newspapers  call  it." 

"  Indeed ! "  ejaculated  the  roper  calling  himself  Mr. 
jvveston,  attentively  noting  every  word  I  uttered. 

"  Yes,  I  am  over  here  to  New  York  now  for  a  thousand 
cavalry  horses." 

Now,  it  would  take  a  good  deal  of  money  to  buy  a 
thousand  cavalry  horses;  and  Mr.  Preston's  eyes  fairly 
sparkled  as  he  thought  of  the  rich  lead  he  had  struck.  I 
was  dressed  roughly,  was  very  much  tanned  by  exposure 
in  the  field,  *nd  undoubtedly  looked  the  character  of  the 
rough  Quartermaster's  Department  man  I  had  assumed  to 
perfection,  and  I  led  the  two  men  to  believe  me  easy 
prey. 

"  Let's  have  another  cigar,  Edwards,  and  then  take  a 
stroll  up  to  the  clubhouse,"  said  Preston  ;  and  then  ad- 
dressing his  conversation  more  particularly  to  me,  he 
asked  :  "  Major  Smith,  won't  you  walk  up  with  us  \  We 
merchants  have  got  %  cozy  little  place  up  here  a  few 
blocks,  where,  after  the  business  and  down-town  banging 
of  the  day  are  over,  \r?  can  go  and  n^ve  a  quiet,  sociable 
time,  all  by  ourselves.  Won't  you  take  *  walk  up  with 


254  A  PRIVATE  ASSURANCE  CO 

"Well,  I  don't  mind,"  I  implied  reflectively.  "But  i 
can't  stay  long,  for  I've  got  to  attend  to  part  of  my  buyin 
to  night." 

At  this  remark,  indicating  to  Preston  that  I  probably 
had  a  good  supply  of  ready  money  on  my  person,  as  well 
as  large  resources,  being  an  army  contractor,  his  eyes 
snapped  again,  and  I  could  just  imagine  the  fellow  de- 
vouring me  in  his  mind  and  thinking :  "  Oh,  won't  we 
have  a  sociable  time  carving  up  this  old  stuffed  turkey — 
oh,  won't  we  though  !" 

A  moment  later  we  were  on  the  street,  ami  within  fiv* 
minutes  were  entering  what  appeared  to  be  a  most  ele- 
gant private  mansion,  on  the  east  side  of  Broadway,  and 
but  a  few  blocks  from  the  hotel. 

"  Fine  place  you  have  here,"  I  observed,  as  we  stood 
in  the  vestibule,  and  the  alleged  Preston  stepped  to  the 
bell-knob  and  gave  it  a  pull. 

"It's  one  of  the  most  complete  'club-rooms'  in  the 
country.  The  boys  have  good  times  here  occasionally." 

While  he  was  replying  to  me,  I  distinctly  heard 
the  soft  tinkle  of  another  bell  besides  the  one  that  the 
"steerer"  had  rung,  and  I  at  once  conjectured  that  it 
was  a  signal,  given  perhaps  by  Preston's  companion,  to 
those  within,  that  another  fool  with  a  fat  purse  had  been 
captured,  and  that  everything  should  be  ready  within  for 
a  proper  reception  of  him  ;  and,  although  I  had  not  the 
slightest  fear  of  personal  harm,  I  dexterously  whipped  out 
my  revolver  from  my  hip-pocket  and  slipped  it  down  intc 
«;y  front  pantaloons  pocket,  where  J  conveniently  held 


A  PRIVATE  ASSURANCE  COMPANY.  2$$ 

its  handle  with  my  light  hand,  quite  ready  for  anything 
that  might  occur ;  and,  with  my  hands  in  my  pockets  and 
my  hat  on  the  back  of  my  head,  quite  countrified  T 
appearance,  I  strolled  in  after  the  two  precious  scamos, 

It  is  needless  to  give  my  readers  any  detailed  descnp 
tion  of  the  place  into  which  we  were  now  ushered.  It 
was  a  magnificent  gambling-house,  and  that  was  all  there 
was  of  it. 

When  we  had  arrived  within,  quite  a  pleasant  scene 
was  presented.  To  one  uninitiated  it  would  have  ap- 
peared to  be  just  what  the  "roper"  stated  that  it  was — 
a  business-man's  resort,  where  he  could  enjoy  himself 
among  clever  companions.  Here  sat  a  group  of  persons 
talking  of  stocks  and  bonds,  and  gravely  discussing  the 
effect  of  certain  war  movements  upon  securities ;  at 
another  place  were  a  couple  chatting  on  social  topics ; 
and,  again,  a  little  party  seemed  to  have  some  connection 
with  ne^paper  matters.  Everything  was  beautifully 
arranged  to  create  a  fine  impression  upon  a  rural  stran- 
ger, and,  as  the  bank-note  reporters  used  to  say,  was 
"well  calculated  to  deceive." 

In  the  rear  room  of  the  suite  stood  a  regular  far> 
table,  and  several  gentlemen  were  gathered  about  this, 
chatting  and  laughing,  and  occasionally  making  a  play, 
After  introducing  me  to  several  of  the  inmates  and  re- 
lating the  incident  bringing  us  together,  vhich  he  termed 
'*  a  most  ludicrous  though  agreeable  error,"  Preston  led 
the  way  toward  the  gaming-table. 

I  did  not  follow  him  immediately,  but,  with  my  handi 


A  PRIVATE  ASSURANCE  COMPANY. 

still  in  my  pockets,  and  my  hat  still  upon  my  Head,  1 
lounged  about  the  place  in  a  very  lawless  and  countij 
fashion,  curiously  examining  and  handling  different  arti 
cles  of  bijouterie  and  ornamentation,  and  occasional!) 
asking  information  about  the  cost  or  quality  of  any  arti- 
cle which  struck  my  fancy,  as  it  appeared,  of  whoevei 
might  be  standing  near  me. 

Finally  Preston  carelessly  remarked :  "  Come,  Ma 
jor,  step  over  here  and  have  something." 

"  Well,  I  believe  I  will,"  I  replied,  making  a  lunge 
toward  the  magnificent  sideboard.  A  half-dozen  other 
persons  followed,  and  were  introduced  in  a  high-sounding 
manner,  while  the  spruce  negro  attendants  served  to  each 
of  us  such  liquor  as  we  might  fancy  ;  and  I  recollect  that 
the  whisky  I  got  was  some  of  the  finest  I  ever  drank. 

During  this  pleasant  diversion  I  heard  the  voice  of  the 
elegant  Dan  Noble,  who  was  dealing  the  game — and  right 
here  let  me  say  that  I  could  not  have,  for  my  life,  told 
whether  it  was  faro,  keno,  or  any  other  game,  for  I  never 
played  a  game  of  cards  in  my  life,  and  never  expect  to — 
urging  the  "  cappers  "  and  "  steerers  "  to  lose  no  time, 
but  bring  me  to  the  table  and  begin  the  operation  of 
if -it  ing  me ;  while  they,  evidently  somewhat  impressed 
with  my  stubbornness,  protested  in  low  tones  that  there 
was  plenty  of  time,  and  that  they  would  "  work  me " 
shortly. 

After  this  refreshment,  I  resumed  my  appearance  of 
curiosity,  and  again  began  my  strolling  ;  while  several  of 
the  pretended  gentlemen  crowded  arpund  the  gaming 


A  PRIVATE  ASSURANCE 

&ble,  and  made  heavy  winnings — all  of  which  of  course 
was  for  the  purpose  of  arousing  my  curiosity  and  tempt- 
ing me  to  join  the  game  ;  while,  without  appearing  to  do 
so}  I  noticed  that  the  keen,  sharp  eyes  of  Dan  Noble 
followed  me  wherever  I  went,  and  he  appeared  anxious 
to  try  his  hand  at  fleecing  me  so  thoroughly  that  I  would 
remember  it  so  long  as  I  lived. 

The  appointments  of  the  place  were  simply  magnifi- 
cent, and  I  took  my  own  time  to  examine  them,  while  the 
two  "  steerers  "  I  had  met  at  the  St.  Nicholas,  by  every 
manner  in  their  power,  persistently  sought  to  induce  me 
to  join  the  parties  playing;  and  I  could  not  help  enjoy- 
ing a  hearty  laugh  internally,  so  hearty,  in  fact,  that  I 
could  at  times  scarcely  repress  a  roaring- out  burst  to 
see  the  ingenuity  of  the  men  so  handsomely  yet  so 
fruitlessly  exercised,  while  I  mentally  noted  the  interest 
exhibited  by  their  confederates  and  the  chances  they 
seemed  to  take  in  their  own  minds  as  to  the  probability 
of  gaining  my  supposed  wealth  from  me,  although  they 
each  and  all,  true  to  their  habits  and  profession,  made  a 
great  effort  to  support  the  character  of  being  elegant 
business  or  other  gentlemen,  at  ^eisure  for  the  evening, 
and  bent  on  having  a  good  time  nil  to  themselves. 

Finding  that  I  resisted  all  these  ingenious  attacks,  re 
course  was  again  had  to  the  sideboard  ;  but  this  time,  to 
the  dismay  of  the  gamblers,  I  only  took  a  cigar.  The 
cigar  was  as  fine  as  the  liquor,  and,  enjoying  its  splendid 
iroma,  1  now  straggled  up  to  the  table. 

Everybody  was  now  in  high    spirits.      Jokes  and  wu 


2$ 8  *  PRIVATE    iSSURANCE  COMPAtfV. 

flowed  freely,  and  the  betting  began  to  run  high,  those 
risking  their  money  very  singularly  winning  largely ; 
while  the  magnificent  Mr.  Noble,  slick  and  trim  as  a 
bishop,  and  with  a  solitaire  diamond  as  large  as  a  big 
hazel-nut  gleaming  from  his  shirt-front,  greeted  my  pres- 
ence among  the  gentlemen  around  the  green  cloth  with 
a  nod  and  a  smile  of  welcome. 

"Gentlemen,  won't  you  please  make  room  for  Majoi 
Smith  ?  "  said  Noble,  with  a  voice  as  sweet  and  pleasant 
as  a  blooming  country  schoolma'am's;  while  instantly  at 
least  three  chairs  were  made  ready  for  my  occupancy. 

But  I  stood  there  very  provokingly  disinclined  to  be 
made  a  victim  of,  and  remarked,  extremely  innocently 
after  a  little  time  : 

"  Well,  I  guess  I  won't  play  any  to-night.  I  don't  un 
derstand  the  game." 

Immediately  I  was  appealed  to  from  all  sides  with  ; 
"Do,  Major  ;  just  one  play,  Major  !  "  "  Major,  try  youi 
luck  with  the  rest  of  us  ! "  and  all  that  sort  of  thing  ; 
while  Noble  himself  remarked  pleasantly  :  "  You  must 
remember,  Major  Smith,  that  we  are  all  gentlemen 
here  ! " 

At  this  I  looked  at  Dan  a  few  moments  in  a  quizzical, 
comical  way,"  and  finally,  as  if  suddenly  being  struck  by  4 
remarkable  recollection,  I  blurted  out : 

"  Come  over  here,  dealer,  and  have  a  drink,  ard  then 
I'll  tell  you  something  funny." 

There  was  a  noticeable  confusion  about  the  table 
E^erybody  wa?  surprised  and  some  bewildered.  Novie 


A  PRIVATE  ASSURANCE  COMPANY.          259 

at  first  hesitated  ;  but  as  I  led  the  way  to  the  sideboard 
he  fol.owed  me  mechanically,  and  his  face  began  to 
express  wonder,  perplexity,  chagrin,  and  even  rage,  in 
rapid  succession.  Several  of  the  gamblers  followed,  and 
the  liquor  was  swallowed  by  all  in  silence.  Scarcely  had 
I  set  my  glass  upon  the  sideboard,  when  Noble  said,  in  a 
perplexed,  curious,  and  half-alarmed  tone : 

"  Who  in  hell  are  you,  any  how  ?  " 

I  seized  him  by  the  hand,  and  gave  it  a  squeeze  that 
made  his  fingers  crack,  from  which  he  writhed  as  if  hurt. 

"  Why,  Dan  Noble,  don't  you  remember  me  ?  You 
ought  to,  Dan  !  How  long  since  you  came  from  Elmira  ? 
Are  you  going  to  get  out  of  that  scrape,  Dan  ?  You 
don't  know  how  glad  I  am  to  see  you,  Dan  !"  and  I 
gave  his  hand  another  powerful  grip,  that  made  him 
squirm  again. 

"  But  damn  it,  who  are  you  ?  "  he  said  hotly. 

"  Come  over  here,  Dan,  and  I'll  tell  you,"  and  I  jerked 
and  dragged  him  aside,  and  then  whispered  in  his  ear  : 

"  Allan  Pinkerton." 

"You  know  me  now,  Dan,"  I  continued  uproariously. 
"  You  see  I  know  you,  and  you"  I  roared,  grasping  the 
hind  of  Jim  Laflin,  the  gambler.  "  How  long  have  you 
been  away  from  Chicago,  Jim  ?  I'm  damned  glad  to  see 
all  you  good  fellows  !  And  you,  Sears,"  said  I,  crossing 
to  another  gambler  whom  I  knew  ;  "  how's  luck  beer, 
with  you  lately  ?  And  you,  and  you,  and  you  I "  said  I 
rapturously,  nodding  to  half  the  people  in  the  place,  and 
calling  each  one  of  them  by  name,  and  clinching  th$ 


A  PRIVATE  ASSURANCE 

knowledge  of  each  by  some  little  reference  to  their  pre- 
vious criminal  acts.  "  Why,  boys,  this  ii  a  surprise  tt 
me ;  so  glad  to  see  you  all,  you  know.  Perhaps  you  re 
all  a  trifle  surprised.  But  don't  mind  me.  I'm  just  a 
common  sort  of  a  fellow.  Come,  Dan,  old  boy,"  said  1, 
turning  to  Noble,  who  stood  there  as  though  a  bomb- 
shell had  exploded  in  the  room  ;  "  lef's  all  have  a  good, 
sociable,  friendly  old  drink  together." 

"  But  you  don't  want  me,  do  you  ?  "  gasped  Noble  trem- 
blingly, after  the  liquor  had  been  drank,  with  many  toasts 
to  Mr.  Pinkerton,  instead  of  to  "Major  Smith,  of  the 
Quartermaster's  Department." 

"Oh  no,  not  just  now;  but  remember,  Dan.  if  ever  I 
do  want  you,  it  will  not  be  a  hard  matter  to  get  you." 

"  I  know  that,  I  know  that,"  said  Noble,  in  a  concilia- 
tory tone  ;  "  but  are  you  after  anybody  else  here  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no,  I  guess  not ;  not  just  now,  anyhow.  It 
would  be  a  pity  to  disturb  a  party  of  so  eminent  gentle- 
men— bankers,  newspaper  men,  society  people,  etc. ;  and, 
as  I  have  had  a  very  pleasant  call,  I  think  I'll  go  and  at- 
tend to  buying  those  thousand  horses." 

My  identity  had  leaked  out  by  this  time  to  all,  and  sev 
eral  of  the  scamps  took  occasion  to  slip  out ;  but  most 
of  the  inmates  gathered  about  me  with  great  protestations 
of  friendship  and  admiration  ;  and,  after  lighting  a  fresh 
cigar,  I  left  the  place,  having  caused  the  greatest  sensa- 
tion it  had  ever  known,  and  left  to  Dan  Noble  the  legacy 
of  a  practical  joke  that  his  criminal  companions  will  jest 
him  upon  to  the  day  of  his  death. 


A  PRIVATE  ASSURANCE  COMPANY.          26 1 

But  his  ingenuity  and  ability  to  plan  and  assist  in  the 
execution  of  "  sneak  "  <vork  were  of  the  highest  order,  as 
the  robbery  of  the  Royal  Fire  and  Life  Insurance  Com- 
pany of  Liverpool  and  London  evidenced. 

On  December  10,  1866,  all  New  York  was  thrown  into 
a  great  state  of  excitement  by  the  announcement  that  the 
office  of  the  company  in  question  had  been  robbed  of  a 
quarter  of  a  million  dollars ;  and  the  public  interest  in  the 
matter  was  none  the  less  when  the  manner  of  the  robbery 
became  known. 

A  meeting  of  the  American  directors  of  the  company 
had  been  announced  to  be  held  at  their  office,  at  noon  of 
the  day  in  question,  and  at  about  half-past  ten  o'clock  of 
the  same  forenoon  a  tin  box,  usually  deposited  for  safe 
keeping  in  the  vaults  of  the  Merchants'  Bank,  and  con- 
taining about  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars  in  Government 
bonds  and  negotiable  securities,  had  been  sent  for,  to  be 
used  or  inspected  by  the  directors  in  the  event  of  any 
change  in  stock,  as  was  the  usual  custom  at  such  meet 
ings 

The  box  with  its  contents  was  placed  in  the  vault  open- 
Ing  from  the  inner  or  back  room  of  the  office  of  Mr 
Anthony  B.  McDonald,  the  agent,  and  the  inner  iron  dooi 
usj(  the  safe  closed,  but  not  locked. 

\t  about  a  quarter  past  eleven  two  well-dressed  and 
apparently  respectable  men  called,  and,  expressing  a  de 
sire  to  be  informed  regarding  the  conditions  of  life  insur- 
ance, were  shown  into  Mr.  McDonald's  apartment. 

One  of  them,  a  young  man  about  thir'y  years  of  age 


A  PRIVATE  ASSVRAVCE  COMPAtfV. 

and  having  the  appearance  of  an  able  commercial  travelei 
on  a  fine  salary,  immediately  entered  into  conversation 
with  the  agent ;  and,  taking  a  seat  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  table,  inquired  the  terms  on  life  policies,  stating 
that  he  and  several  other  individuals  wished  to  effect  an 
insurance  on  their  lives,  as  they  were  about  leaving  to  go 
down  the  Mississippi  to  New  Orleans  on  a  quite  extended 
trip  for  their  different  houses. 

He  then  made  some  remarks,  to  the  effect  that  they 
were  undecided  as  to  whether  they  would  take  a  traveler's 
risk  or  insure  for  a  life  period,  and  stated  that,  as  he  had 
just  been  married,  he  felt  an  additional  anxiety  to  secure 
his  wife  against  prospective  poverty. 

During  the  time  this  business-like  conversation  was 
going  on,  the  other  gentleman,  from  occasional  timely  re- 
marks, indicated  to  Mr.  McDonald  that  he  was  one  of 
the  commercial  travelers  desiring  insurance,  and  that  the 
person  talking  to  him  was  the  spokesman  for  the  whole 
party.  After  a  little  time,  while  the  agent  and  the  in- 
quirer  after  rates  and  terms  were  busily  employed  to- 
gether, the  friend  remarked  that  he  thought  he  would 
step  out  for  a  few  moments,  and  would  return  shortly. 

The  vault  was  situated  to  one  side  and  to  the  rear  of 
where  Mr.  McDonald  was  at  work  upon  his  tables  and 
statements,  and  the  young  man  who  remained  entered 
into  the  business  so  arduously  that  Mr.  McDonald  made 
some  calculations  from  a  table  of  risks  to  satisfy  his  in- 
quiries regarding  the  policies  for  his  friends. 

During    this    time    the    yomvu;    m  in    who  had  left  the 


A  PRIVATE  ASSURANCE  COMPANY  263 

resumed  hi*  careless  manner  :>f  walk* 
ing  aoout  tne  room  and  mtciefteaiy  examining  the  pio 
tures  and  other  articles  of  ornamentation  hanging  upon 
the  walls. 

After  a  little  time  he  made  some  casial  remark  about 
not  being  able  to  keep  a  certain  appointment  unless  his 
friend  excused  him  then ;  and,  after  agreeing  to  meet  him 
at  a  later  designated  hour  at  the  house  of  a  prominent 
business  firm,  he  bade  the  two  gentlemen  good-day  and 
left  the  office. 

A  few  minutes  later  the  gentleman  who  had  been  such 
an  interested  inquirer  in  insurance  matters,  after  thank- 
ing Mr.  McDonald  for  his  kindness  and  attention,  and 
promising  to  consult  his  friends  and  call  again  after  so 
doing,  also  withdrew. 

The  meeting  of  the  directors  was  held  according  to  the 
call.  Those  gentlemen  gravely  considered  such  matters 
as  required  their  attention,  and  finally  desired  an  exami- 
nation of  the  bonds  and  stocks.  The  tin  box  was  sought ; 
but  lo  !  it  was  gone.  The  greatest  consternation  pre- 
vailed ;  but  it  was  soon  seen  that  the  company  had  been 
robbed  in  a  most  brilliant  manner,  and  that  the  two  gen- 
tlemanly pretended  travelers,  who  wished  to  provide  for 
their  wives  so  tenderly,  were  the  skillful  sneak-thieves  who 
did  the  work. 

Now,  Dan  Noble  haJ  planned  the  whole  matter,  knew 
that  the  directors'  meeting  was  to  be  held,  knew  that  the 
an  box  which  traveled  so  frequently  between  the  insur- 
ance office  and  the  Merchants'  Bank  contained  bonds  01 


264          *  PRIVATE  ASStiRAtfCE 

other  valuables,  and  also  had  learned  all  about  the  habits 
and  methods  of  conducting  the  inner  office. 

He  therefore  organized  a  "  gang,"  as  it  is  called,  con* 
sisting  of  Frank  Knapp,  Jimmy  Griffin,  and  Jack  Tierney, 
to  do  the  work.  Himself  and  Jack  Tierney  were  to  dc 
the  "  piping  "  on  the  outside,  as  also  to  hold  a  carriage 
in  readiness,  either  to  remove  the  plunder  or  enable  the 
"  sneaks "  to  escape,  should  their  object  be  discovered 
before  it  should  have  been  consummated. 

Frank  Knapp  represented  the  inquiring  commercial 
traveler,  and  Jimmy  Griffin  was  the  "  sneak  "  who  repre- 
sented the  friend  who  was  compelled  to  go  out,  and  then, 
after  his  return,  was  unable  to  remain  on  account  of  keep- 
ing a  certain  appointment. 

Knapp  took  a  seat  at  agent  McDonald's  table,  so  that 
the  latter's  back  was  toward  the  vault,  and  then  Knapp 
shrewdly  kept  him  so  thoroughly  engaged  that  he  paid  no 
attention  whatever  to  the  supposed  friend,  who,  with  an 
overcoat  thrown  lightly  over  his  arm,  carelessly  walked 
about  the  place,  apparently  whiling  away  the  time  in  a 
cursory  examination  of  the  ornaments  on  the  walls. 

During  this  sort  of  thing  Griffin  slipped  into  the  vault, 
noiselessly  opened  the  safe,  abstracted  the  tin  box  con 
Jaining  the  bonds,  arranged  his  coat  over  it  neatly,  and 
then  came  back,  standing  within  two  feet  of  the  agent 
and  Knapp  when  he  stated  to  them  that  he  would  have 
to  go  out  for  a  few  minutes. 

He  went  out,  gave  the  box  and  the  overcoat  to  Noble 
tnd  Tierney  in  the  carriage — the  latter  instantly  leaving-- 


A  PRIVATE  ASSURANCE  CO^fPANY.  26$ 

Mid  then,  after  a  short  delay,  returned  to  the  insuiancc 
office  to  make  his  excuses  and  leave  the  second  time. 

The  leaving  of  Knapp  has  already  been  described,  and 
no  one  can  question  that  the  scheme,  in  its  planning  and 
cool,  leisurely  execution,  was  one  of  the  most  perfect  and 
brilliant  in  the  entire  annals  of  crime. 

Knapp  and  Griffin  at  once  fled  to  Canada/ being  urged 
to  that  course  by  Noble,  who  only  gave  these  men  twenty- 
seven  thousand  dollars  out  of  a  booty  of  over  a  quarter  of 
a  million ;  and  this  unfair  deal  at  last  led  to  troubles  be- 
tween the  thieves,  resulting  in  Noble's  arrest,  conviction, 
and  partial  punishment  for  this  particular  crime.  Fifty- 
five  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  the  bonds  were  recovered 
by  the  company,  on  payment  of  a  premium  or  reward  of 
fifteen  per  cent. 

Noble  eluded  punishment  for  over  four  years,  but  was 
finally  convicted  at  Oswego,  New  York,  in  February, 
1871 — his  great  wealth,  entirely  secured  by  crime,  having 
been  utterly  exhausted  in  his  long  battle  with  justice. 

He  was  sentenced  to  ten  years'  imprisonment  at  Sing 
Sing,  but  escaped  from  there  in  1872,  having  served 
"  prison  time "  but  a  little  over  one  year,  and  then  fled 
to  Europe,  where  he  began  anew  his  career  of  crime.  He 
attempted  to  perpetrate  a  daring  ll  sneak "  job  on  the 
Paris  Bourse  in  1873,  on  a  broker's  office,  but  was  caught 
in  the  very  act,  convicted,  and  sentenced  to  five  years' 
penal  servitude,  which  full  time  he  served,  only  being 
liberated  in  the  summer  of  1878,  just  in  time  to  attend 
the  Paris  Exposition,  and  continue  his  brilliant  conspira- 
12 


266     A  BIT  OF  DE  TEC  TJ^E- OFFICE  ROMANCE. 

sies.  But,  as  I  have  said,  wherever  Dan  NoLle  goes,  01 
whatever  luck  he  may  have  in  a  criminal  way,  the  story 
of  his  "  steerers  running  old  Pinkerton  up  to  his  brace 
game  "  will  always  remain  a  practical  joke  upon  him, 
which  can  never  be  run  away  from  and  never  shaken  off. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

A   BIT   OF   DETECTIVE-OFFICE    ROMANCE. 

OF  the  tens  of  thousands  of  strange  and  interesting 
incidents  connected  with  prolonged  and  far-reach- 
ing detective  service,  undoubtedly  that  portion  contain- 
ing the  richest  veins  of  romance,  the  brightest  humor,  and 
the  deepest  pathos,  is  comprised  in  the  demands  made  on 
the  detective  agency  for  numberless  kinds  of  assistance 
by  men  and  women  who  ire  unfortunate  enough  to  be- 
come complicated  in  family  troubles  involving  the  sup- 
posed unfaithfulness  of  the  husband  or  the  wife. 

I  wish  to  say,  at  the  beginning  of  this  bit  of  romance, 
that  I  am  bitterly  and  irrevocably  opposed  to  touching 
that  kind  of  work.  No  honest  and  honorable  detective 
will  soil  his  hands  with  it.  For  thirty  years,  and  through 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  applications  for  the  services  of 
myself  and  my  men,  I  have  shunned  and  avoided  it  for 
the  unclean,  poisonous  thing  that  it  is.  In  all  modesty, 
and  for  the  purity  and  honor  of  the  detective  service  of 
ftnierica,  as  one  who  has  spent  the  best  half  of  his  life  in 


A  BIT  OF  DETECTIVE-OFFICE  KOMANCE.       26? 

its  elevation  and  bettering,  I  wish  to,  here  and  at  all  times, 
urge  upon  those  younger  and  less  experienced  than  my- 
self, who  may  be  at  the  threshold  of  their  life-work,  the 
absolute  necessity  of  turning  a  deaf  ear  to  applications 
for  this  class  of  assistance. 

There  may  be,  there  often  are,  exceptions  in  this  le 
gard,  where  men  and  women,  from  the  highest  and  most 
honorable  of  motives,  desire  and  have  a  right  to  certain 
information,  which  may  more  thoroughly  establish  a  wife, 
a  husband,  or  a  near  friend  in  their  regard  and  esteem,  01 
permit  a  decision  which,  though  hard  and  heart-breaking 
to  make,  is  the  only  dignified  and  honorable  thing  to  be 
done,  when  the  one  under  suspicion  proves  himself  or 
herself  utterly  unworthy  of  confidence  or  respect ;  but 
these  are  unusual  exceptions,  and  Dearly  every  instance 
where  women  apply  to  the  detective  to  watch  the  hur- 
band,  or  the  husband  the  wife,  the  mistress  the  man,  01 
her  "  friend  "  the  mistress,  there  will  be  found  something 
disreputable  and  degrading  behind  it. 

To  put  detectives  on  such  low  errands  of  espionage  is 
to  demoralize  them  and  utterly  unfit  them  for  highei 
work.  The  detective  must  have  a  clean  mind  and  clean 
nands,  or  he  sinks  to  the  level  of  the  criminal,  and  is  no 
better  than  he  ;  and  there  is  no  way  in  which  he  can 
become  so  completely  corrupt  and  unbalanced  as  to  place 
him  where  he  becomes  the  spy  and  tht  football  between 
animal  passion  and  revenge. 

The  instance  1  am  about  to  relate,  where  I  took  a  case 
«f  {his  kind,  is  only  an  exception  proving  the  general  rujf 


A  BIT  OF  DETECTIVE-OFFICE    ROMANCE. 

which  I  have  laid  down,  and  was  one  so  pitiable,  and  yet 
so  ridiculous,  that  I  cannot  restrain  a  hearty  laagh  whe.i- 
e  /er  I  recall  it.  It  occurred  but  a  few  years  since,  and  is 
still  as  fresh  in  my  mind  as  though  it  happened  but  yes- 
terday. 

One  summer  afternoon,  about  three  o'clock,  a  pretty 
ioupe  halted  in  front  of  my  present  offices  on  Fifth  Av- 
enue, Chicago.  The  sweet  face  of  a  young  woman 
appeared  at  the  window  and  looked  up  at  the  large  build- 
ing with  evident  trepidation  and  fear.  Even  the  negro 
footman,  that  quickly  descended  to  serve  the  lady,  seemed 
possessed  of  a  certain  solemnity  and  awe,  which  indicated 
at  least  some  well-defined  unpleasantness  in  the  household 
where  he  was  employed,  and  momentous  importance  at- 
taching to  this  visit.  Alighting  upon  the  sidewalk,  the  lit- 
tle lady  looked  nervously  about  her,  peered  into  the  open 
door  of  the  fine  station  on  the  first  floor,  where  my  large 
night  watch,  the  preventative  police,  are  quartered,  where 
she  saw  a  few  officers  and  patrolmen  quietly  sitting  about 
on  day  duty;  and  then,  seemingly  quickly  satisfying  her 
self  that  this  was  not  the  detective  department,  hastened 
rapidly  up  the  broad  stairs. 

She  had  determination  in  rfer  manner;  but  in  eveiy 
feature  of  her  fine  face  there  was  a  quiver  and  tremoi 
that  told  of  acute  suffering.  It  was  not  common  that  so 
remarkably  fine-looking  a  lady,  so  distinguished  in  ap- 
pearance, sought  the  mysteries  of  detective  service  ;  £Jid, 
as  she  swept  into  the  main  office,  casting  a  flushed  and 
Startled  look  about  her,  the  groups  of  sub-officers  and 


A  BIT  OF  DETECTIVE- (Jt-r'CE  RO&ANt£.       269 

bevies  of  clerks,  by  long  custom  grown  quick  and  keen 
in  judgment  of  such  things,  knew,  without  being  told, 
something  of  what  the  case  might  be,  and  in  their  minds 

unanimously  pronounced  it :   "  Particularly  pitiable." 

My  office-boy — also  taking  in  the  situation  at  a  glance, 
and  seeming  to  understand  that  the  lady  was  much  con 
fused  by  the,  to  her,  unaccustomed  surroundings — at  once 
conducted  her  into  my  superintendent's  consulting-room, 
and  proffered  her  a  seat  opposite  Mr.  Warner  himself. 

Superintendent  Warner,  who  has  been  in  my  employ 
for  nearly  twenty  years,  is  a  very  staid,  sober  gentleman, 
one  who  has  a  reputation,  among  my  other  officers  and 
men,  of  never  looking  at  a  woman  save  sidewise,  and  then 
only  for  the  tenth  part  of  a  second — (a  man  who  is  so 
proverbially  modest  in  this  particular  that  it  is  even  re 
ported  of  him  that  he  passes  words,  when  reading,  unless 
certain  that  they  are  of  the  masculine  gender)  ;  but  the 
very  woe  that  spoke  from  his  visitor's  face  affected  him  so 
strongly  that  he  looked  up  over  his  gold-rimmed  quizzers 
from  his  papers  and  dispatches,  and  regarded  her  curi 
ously  with  his  cold  gray  eyes  for  fully  three  seconds. 

Then  the  handsome,  elegantly-dressed,  beautiful  lady 
began  sobbing  and  talking. 

Superintendent  Warner,  looking  straight  out  of  the  win- 
dow, adjusted  his  quizzers,  and  began  listening. 

The  lady — whom  I  will  call  Mrs.  Saunders — after  severa' 
sobs,  which  she  finally  mastered  with  a  great  effort,  said 
in  a  voice  of  repressed  emotion  : 

*  Mr.  Warner,  1  am  in  great  trouble — great  trouble/' 


2/0      A  BIT  OF  DETECTIVE-OFFICE  ROMANCE. 

He  could  see  it ;  and  he  hinted  as  much,  resuming  hit 
attitude  of  attention. 

"  Is  it  necessary  to  tell  my  name  ?  n 

"  Most  certainly." 

"  And  tell  you  where  I  live  ?  " 

"Yes." 

"  Oh,  this  is  awful ! "  she  said,  more  AS  if  speaking  to 
herself  than  the  superintendent.  "  Well,  I  live  at  No.  — 
Indiana  Avenue  "(a  very  aristocratic  thoroughfare).  "  My 
husband  is  tbe  senior  member  of  the  firm  of  Saunders, 
Rice  &  Co.,  on  State  Street." 

Yes,  Mr.  Warner  knew  them  very  well. 

"  And  you  know  about  our  trouble  ?  "  she  asked,  in  a 
way  showing  that  the  poor  woman  felt  certain,  as  people 
always  do,  that  her  grief  was  certain  to  occupy  the  atten- 
tion of  all  the  world. 

"  Well,  I  think  it  would  be  better  for  you  to  give  me 
your  version  of  it,"  he  replied  quietly,  but  already  nervous 
at  the  probable  prorpect  before  him. 

"  Oh,  dear  ! — well — "  she  began,  with  a  flushing  and  pal- 
ing face.  "  My  husband  is  rich.  We  have  a  beautiful 
home  ;  it  seemed  as  though  the  world  was  very  bright  be 
fore  this  I  "  (Sobs.)  "  He  always  came  home  to  dinner 
and  never,  never  passed  the  evening  away  save  with  me  1 " 

"  How  long  have  you  been  married,  riadam  ?  "  re. 
•pectfully  asked  the  superintendent 

"Only  eighteei  sfyprt  months,"  she  replied,  crying  &it 
terly. 

"H*ye  you*  child?" 


A  BIT  OF  DETECTIVE-OFFICE  ROMANCE.       2?l 

"  One  darling  babe."     Another  sob. 

«  Well  ?  " 

The  superintendent  was  getting  anxious  for  particulars, 
ind  troubled  for  the  result. 

"  Well,  sir,  about  two  weeks  ago  we  had  a  slight  misun 
derstanding." 

Mr.  Warner  nodded  his  head,  as  though  he  knew  what 
that  meant. 

"  But  it  wasn't  much,  sir  ;  truly  it  was  hardly  a  quarrel, 
But  we  began  taking  our  meals  separately,  each  too 
proud  to  make  any  concession,  each  full  of  spirit,  and 
thinking  the  other  was  in  the  wrong,  but  both  gradually 
growing  away  from  each  other  until  finally " 

Here  the  good  little  lady  paused  and  blushed  deeply. 
It  hurt  her  to  say  what  was  on  her  tongue,  but  it  had  to 
come. 

"  Well  ?  "  queried  Mr.  Warner,  wiping  his  quizzers  and 
blusning  to  the  very  top  of  his  bald  head. 

"  Until  we  finally  occupied  sleeping  apartments  in  quite 
opposite  parts  of  the  house  1 " 

Mr.  Warner  saw  it  was  the  old  story,  one  that  had 
floated  ten  thousand  times  into  the  office,  ever  since  he 
had  been  in  it,  and  he  began  to  fidget  about  in  his  chair 
as  the  lady  resumed  her  weeping. 

"  Well,  sir,  he  acts  so  strangely.  He  slams  the  doors, 
and  won't  even  look  at  the  baby.  I  hold  up  in  my  arms  for 
him  to  see  ;  and,  about  a  week  ago,  I  noticed  that  he  did 
not  get  into  the  house  until  two  or  three  o'clock  in  the 
piorning.  J  CQu'.dn't  gei;  tiyit  a  glinipe  of  his  face,  but  fee 


2J2      A  BIT  OF  DETECTIVE-OFFICE  ROMANCE. 

looked  guilty  /  I  hate  to  tell  you  this,  sir,  but  I  am  \ure 
some  bold,  bad  woman  is  at  the  bottom  of  it  all.  He  has 
been  away  from  home  for  three  whole  nights,  sir — for 
thiee  long,  dreary  nights.  I  know  he  is  with  this  woman. 
Oh,  sir  !  I  don't  know  what  to  do  !  I  don't  know  what 
to  do  !  But  if  you  can  only  some  way  get  iry  husband  to 
realize  what  a  terrible  thing  he  is  doing,  and  then  capture 
this  bad  woman,  and  do  something  awful— -just  awful  I — 
with  her,  you  shall  have  any — yes,  any  sum  you  have  a 
mind  to  name  !  " 

Here  the  poor  lady,  seeing  that  there  was  but  little 
hope  for  her  in  my  superintendent's  face,  pleaded  pite- 
ously,  between  really  heart-rending  sobs,  that  her  "  dear 
hubby  "  might  be  brought  back,  and  this  horrible  woman 
completely  annihilated,  and  explained  how,  for  several 
days,  she  had  been  dodging  about  the  city  herself,  to 
ascertain  where  the  supposed  cause  of  her  husband's 
misdoing  lived,  and  how  she  might  wreak  a  deserted 
wife's  vengeance  upon  her,  and,  finding  that  she  could 
accomplish  nothing,  discouraged  and  disheartened,  she 
had  come  to  my  office  hoping  for  help. 

Superintendent  Warner  really  pitied  his  fair  visitor,  and 
hardly  knew  what  to  do.  He  glanced  for  courage  along 
the  wall,  where  one  of  the  framed  mottoes  from  my  "  Gen- 
eral Principles "  for  detective  work  hung  in  its  frame. 
The  motto  read  : 

"  These  Agencies  will,  under  no  circumstances,  operatt 
in  cases  arising  from  marital  difficulties  1 " 

He  tried  to  get  courage  and  brawry  enough  from  this 


A  BIT  OF  DETECtlVL  OFFICE  ROMANCE.    '.73 

but  the  misery  of  the  little  woman  got  the  better  of  him  ; 
and,  trying  to  look  very  sympathetic  and  at  the  same 
time  severe,  he  stammered  out,  as  he  rose  to  indicate  the 
termination  of  the  interview  : 

''  Sorry  ;  d very  sorry,  madam  !    But  much  as  I  dei 

plore  your  trouble — pardon  me  for  saying  this — is — well- 
ha,  hum  ! — well,  one  of  that  kind  of  cases,  you  see,  wher  £ 
I  will  have  to  confer  with  Mr.  Pinkerton  before  giving 
you  any  answer  of  a  definite  character.  I  can  hold  out 
no  hope  for  you  whatever  to-day.  Mr.  Pinkerton  will 
be  in  shortly.  I  will  lay  the  matter  before  him.  You  may 
call  at  the  same  hour  to-morrow.  I  can  give  you  a  deci- 
sion then." 

The  little  woman  dried  her  eyes,  thanked  the  superin- 
tendent as  best  she  could,  and  was  shown  out  the  private 
door  of  the  outer  consulting-room,  Mr.  Warner  mur- 
muring sympathetically : 

"  Good-day,  madam  ;     good-day.     Sorry ;     d very 

sorry!" 

It  is  a  custom  of  mine,  which  has  been  observed  with- 
out exception  for  several  years,  to  ride  in  my  carriage, 
rain  or  shine,  snow  or  sleet,  for  from  two  to  four  hours 
of  every  afternoon.  I  find  not  only  genuine  ^asure  in 
it  but  health  and  vigor,  and,  above  all,  a  relief  from  a 
crush  of  business,  which,  with  me,  seems  never  to  be  done, 
and  to  increase  beyond  measure  as  I  advance  in  life. 

These  rides  are  taken  in  ever)  direction  from  my 
office  ;  sometimes  through  and  through  the  heart  of  tnt 
city ;  sometimes  to  some  outlying  suburb  ;  and  often  ten 

12* 


274   A  BIT  OF  DETECTIVE  JFFICE 

twenty,  and  frequently  thirty  miles  straight  out  into  the 
country.  I  have  thus  formed  a  regular  acquaintance  with 
little  roadside  inns,  where  I  always  find  my  bevy  of  beg- 
gars and  vagabonds  ready  to  hold  or  water  my  horses, 
for  the  change  they  as  invariably  expect  ;  and  I  have 
thus  come  to  know  every  sign  in  the  city,  every  alley  or 
by-way,  every  nook  and  corner ;  and,  in  numberless  in- 
stances, the  almost  perfect  information  so  secured  of 
ivery  peculiarity  of  Chicago  and  its  surroundings  has 
proven  of  invaluable  service  in  facilitating  whatever  work 
of  a  local  nature  I  might  have  in  hand. 

On  the  day  in  question  I  had  been  out  over  the  roads 
adjacent  to  Chicago's  beautiful  North  Shore,  and  had  de- 
termined to  return  through  Lincoln  Park  along  the  wide, 
smooth  boulevard  which  borders  the  white  beach  where 
the  waves  come  tumbling  in.  It  was  one  of  those  rough, 
raw  days  when  the  clouds  go  scurrying  across  the  sky, 
and  the  water  upon  the  broad  expanse  of  Lake  Michigan 
had  a  steely-blue  color  intervening  between  the  scudding 
white-caps.  The  park  was  deserted,  and  not  a  carriage 
save  my  own  was  to  be  seen  down  the  miles  of  drive, 
level  as  a  floor.  Turning  from  the  highway  into  the 
drive,  I  saw,  a  mile  beyond,  like  a  dark  silhouette  against 
the  water,  the  form  of  a  solitary  man,  pacing  rapidly  back 
and  forth  upon  the  sands.  Swiftly  he  sped  up  and  down 
the  shore,  like  one  with  no  purpose,  but  impelled  by 
some  strong  and  overwhelming  excitement. 

As  I  neared  him,  he  took  no  notice  of  either  myself  oi 
carriage,  and  I  saw  that  his  face  was  pale,  and  that  all 


A  BIT  OS  DETKCT1VE-OFFICE  ROMANCE.       2?$ 

jf  his  actions  betokened  great  mental  trouble.  My  de 
tective  instincts,  or  curiosity,  or  whatever  it  may  be 
called,  were  at  once  aroused,  and  I  directed  my  drivel 
to  pass  the  man  slowly.  Arriving .  opposite  him,  as  *ve 
were  now  going  in  opposite  directions,  I  noticed  at  once 
that  he  was  a  young  business  man  of  my  acquaintance. 

"  Hallo,  Saunders  !  "  said  I. 

"Well,  what  do  you  want?"  he  returned,  in  a  hard, 
hurt  kind  of  a  way. 

"  I  want  you  to  get  right  in  here  with  me,"  I  replied 
sternly,  knowing  that  the  man  required  a  superior  will  to 
manage  him. 

He  got  in  the  carriage  and  sat  down  beside  me  without 
a  word. 

"  What  is  the  matter,  Saunders  ?  "  I  abruptly  asked. 

"  I'm  all  gone  to  pieces,"  he  answered,  with  a  moan. 

"  In  a  business  way?"  I  asked. 

"  No,  at  home,"  he  replied  bitterly. 

"  Now,  tell  me  the  truth — nothing  else ! "  said  I,  se- 
verely. 

<c  Well,  friend  Pinkerton,"  he  answered  slowly,  and  as 
though  his  whole  life  and  heart  were  in  the  reply,  "my 
wife  is  going  wrong  !  " 

"  I  don't  believe  it ! "  I  replied,  warmly. 

"Yes,"  he  said,  after  a  pause  ;  "yes,  it's  true.  A  few 
weeks  ago  we  had  one  of  those  family  quarrels  that  curse 
married  people.  It  was  a  little  thing  at  first — a  littlt 
thing — just  one  of  those  family  misunderstandings  that 
bring  hell  between  a  couple.  I  wou  dn't  give  \i\  nor 


A  BIT  OF  DETECTIVE-OFFICE  ROMA  VC£. 

would  she.  At  first  we  were  very  proud,  and  would  noi 
recognize  each  other.  Soon  we  took  separate  meals. 
Then  my  wife  got  high-toned,  and  took  a  bed  in  anothet 
part  of  the  house.  I  followed  suit,  and  took  my  bed  as  far 
away  from  her  as  I  could  get  it  in  the  house.  For  nearly 
a  week  past  she  has  been  spending  the  days  and  nights 
out.  I  have  been  trying  to  get  at  the  secret  of  her  estrange^ 
merit.  For  the  last  three  days  and  nights  I  have  been  out 
constantly.  I  have  had  several  of  our  most  trustworthy 
employees  watching  the  house  and  following  her,  but  I 
am  entirely  at  a  loss ;  some  human  devil  is  taking  advan- 
tage of  our  family  trouble  to  ruin  her.  Pinkerton,  I  made 
up  my  mind  to  come  to  you.  But  I  recollected  that  you 
never  touch  these  matters,  and  I  had  about  determined 
to  do  something  desperate  !  " 

My  heart  opened  at  once  for  the  man,  and  I  concluded 
to  break  over  my  rule  at  any  cost,  get  at  the  bottom  of 
the  trouble,  which,  I  could  see,  he  had  only  made  worse 
by  his  attempting  to  play  the  detective,  and  then,  if  it 
were  possible,  show  the  wife  the  wretchedness  and  mis- 
ery she  was  causing,  and  in  some  way,  not  then  quite 
clear  to  me,  but  which  I  felt  assured  would  in  good  time 
transpire,  bring  about  a  reconciliation  and  peace  to  the 
family  of  my  young  friend. 

I  told  him  this  ;  and  it  made  a  new  man  of  him  at  once. 

We  were  soon  at  the  agency,  and  we  proceeded  to- 
gether at  once  to  my  own  private  office.  1  immediately 
summoned  Mr.  Warner,  and  began  explaining  matte) s 
with  a  view  of  having  him  get  a  thorough  un  lers'anding 


A  &IT  OF  DETECTIVE-OFFICE  ROMANCE.       2j? 

of  it  with  me,  and  then  make  a  detail  of  men  when  neces 
sary  for  thorough  investigation. 

This  had  hardly  been  entered  into  when  I  observed 
that  my  superintendent  was  conducting  himself  very 
strangely.  He  "hummed"  and  "hawed,"  cleared  hi? 
throat  a  half-dozen  times  as  if  to  speak,  but  each  time 
seemed  to  change  his  mind  and  repress  himself  by  the 
greatest  effort.  On  several  occasions  I  came  near  asking 
him  the  reason  for  his  singular  action,  but  refrained  on 
account  of  the  presence  of  rhy  friend. 

No  sooner  had  he  departed,  with  the  understanding 
that  I  should  pick  him  up  at  a  designated  spot  on  the 
next  afternoon,  and  before  he  had  hardly  reached  the 
street,  than  Mr.  Warner  burst  into  such  an  irrepressible  fit 
of  laughter  that  I  could  not  resist  joining  him,  although  I 
confess  the  whole  proceeding  was  quite  beyond  my  power 
of  comprehension  ;  but  when  he  had  sufficiently  recovered 
to  explain  himself  and  relate  the  interview  with  the 
beautiful  lady  an  hour  previous,  the  ludicrousness  and 
complete  absurdity  of  the  entire  situation  came  over  me 
with  such  force  that  I  am  afraid  I  was  quite  as  badly  af- 
fected as  my  superintendent,  and  certainly  myself  indulged 
in  a  roar  of  laughter  which  must  have  been  heard  *.o  the 
remotest  part  of  the  great  building,  and  possibly,  as  I  have 
capital  lungs,  beyond  into  the  street. 

But  my  readers  may  be  very  sure  that  the  cases  were 
taken. 

The  next  afternoon  the  lady  called,  was  informed  that 
Mr.  Pinkerton  had  deviated  from  his  fixed  rule  in  hei 


278      A  SIT  OF  DETECTIVE-OFFICE  ROMANCE. 

Lehalf,  and  such  necessary  information  was  secured  as 
ftould  give  color  to  the  evident  planning  of  a  thorough 
Investigation.  Superintendent  Warner  also  gave  her  such 
hope  and  courage  as  he  could ;  and  the  little  woman  went 
away  with  the  understanding  that  she  should  call  at  the 
same  hour  on  the  next  day,  and  looking  much  brighter 
and  happier  for  the  hope  that  had  risen  within  her.  He 
also  elicited  the  fact  that  her  husband  had  returned  to  his 
home  early  on  the  previous  night,  had  retired  early,  and 
had  certainly  remained  in  the  house  during  the  whole 
night. 

On  the  same  afternoon  I  had  my  young  friend  in  my 
carriage  for  an  hour,  gave  him  some  hint  that  the  object  of 
our  search  would  be  captured,  possibly  by  the  next  day, 
and  in  all  probability  everything  would  terminate  murh 
better  than  I  had  at  first  feared — in  fact,  wholly  as  it 
should.  I  was  also  able  to  learn  that  his  wife  had  cer- 
tainly passed  the  preceding  night  at  home.  He  was 
sure  of  it,  but  did  not  seem  to  wish  to  tell  me  how. 
Altogether,  he  had  become  sunnier  and  more  hopeful. 

On  the  third  afternoon  the  little  woman  came  as  true 
as  time  to  the  minute  of  her  appointment  with  my  supei 
intendent. 

"  Well,  we  have  the  truth  of  the  matter  at  last.  I  hope 
it  won't  prove  too  bad !  "  he  continued,  reassuringly,  as 
the  little  lady,  womanlike,  now  that  the  suspense  of  it 
all  was  nearly  over,  burst  into  tears. 

"  Tell  me,  tell  me  all  about  it !  Do  tell  me  !  If  if 
tills  me,  I  must  know  it  all  !  "  she  sobbed  violently. 


4  MT  OF  DETECTIVE-OFFICE  ROMANCE.      2/Q 

"  My  dear  madam  !  "  replied  Mr.  Warner  in  a  sooth- 
ing tone,  "  you  must  compose  yourself.  I  am  not  at  lib- 
erty to  give  you  the  particulars.  I  can  only  say  this  much  : 
We  shall  in  a  few  minutes  have  this  party  who  has  caused 
the  trouble  in  our  office.  You  are  to  take  a  seat  in  one 
of  the  parlors.  We  will  then  have  the  party  introduced 
to  you,  and  you  can  then,  having  everything  in  your 
power,  secure  a  confession  as  we  have  done,  and  extort 
a  lasting  pledge  !  " 

With  this  the  lady  was  conducted  to  one  of  the  several 
small  parlors,  or  reception-rooms,  near  my  own  private 
office,  frequently  found  necessary  in  my  business.  The 
room  was  conveniently  somewhat  darkened,  and,  on  leav- 
ing the  superintendent  at  the  door,  she  said,  with  some 
trepidity  and  evident  fear : 

"  Oh,  what  shall  I  do  alone  with  this  fiend  ?  " 

"Just  use  your  very  best  judgment,  madam,"  Mr. 
Warner  replied  ;  "  nothing  shall  harm  you." 

With  this  the  door  closed,  and  the  little  woman  was 
alone.  What  were  her  feelings  and  thoughts  I  cannot 
attempt  to  picture.  One  thing,  however,  was  certain. 
As  she  paced  the  floor  with  a  quick  stride  for  the  few 
minutes  which  should  intervene,  her  fingers  worked 
nervously,  as  though  her  spirit  and  indignation  could  not 
be  restrained,  and  that  she  must  wreak  vengeance  upon 
the  fiend  who  had  come  between  her  and  all  that  she 
loved. 

Half  an  hour  before  I  had  left  my  young  friend  ;  t  his 
itore.  I  had  informed  him  that  I  had  "run  in  th« 


A  BIT  Of  DETECTIVE-OFFICE  ROMANCE. 

party  he  "  most  wanted  to  see ; "  that  the  person  was  then 
in  my  office ;  that  I  had  extorted  a  full  confession,  the 
details  of  which,  however,  I  declined  to  gi\e,  as  I  had 
determined  he  should  be  given  an  opportunity  to  confront 
the  person  himself  and  see  with  his  own  eyes  and  heai 
with  his  own  ears  the  object  of  his  fruitless  detective  ser- 
vice and  the  whole  story.  He  was  greatly  moved,  and 

said  he  feared  he  would  do  the  d d  villain  bodily 

harm.  I  told  him  that  if  he  did  he  would  forever  for- 
feit my  friendship ;  and  he  pledged  himself  solemnly  to 
confine  his  indignation  and  punishment  to  his  unexpected 
presence  and  words  alone. 

The  last  words  of  mine  to  him,  as  he  alighted  from  my 
carriage  at  his  store,  were  : 

"  Now,  Saunders,  if  you  bring  a  revolver  or  anything 
of  that  sort,  or  in  any  way  break  faith  with  me,  I  wiil 
make  you  suffer  for  it.  /  won't  have  any  scenes  in  my 
office  /  " 

I  had  arranged  that  he  should  take  a  certain  course  to 
get  to  the  agency.  This  brought  him  to  the  second  floor 
and  near  my  room  by  a  private  entrance,  so  that  there 
might  be  no  danger  of  any  of  his  friends  seeing  him. 

I  shortly  heard  his  footsteps  upon  the  stairs.  He 
halted  occasionally,  as  if  to  gain  strength  for  his  terrible 
meeting.  At  last  he  entered  my  room,  and  said  : 

"  Pinkerton  !  My  God  !  this  is  too  much  !  Where — 
where  is  he  ?  " 

"  There  !  "  I  replied,  pointing  to  a  sliding-door,  through 
which  a  parlor  was  reached. 


BOGUS  AND  WCULD-BE  DETECTIVES.       28 1 

He  stepped  to  the  door,  put  his  hand  upon  the  knob, 
paused  a  moment  nervously,  then,  drawing  himself  to  his 
fullest  height — and  looking  so  much  the  man,  every  inch  of 
him,  that  I  was  proud  of  the  fellow — strode  into  the  room. 

There  was  silence  for  a  moment — 1  confess  that  to  me 
it  was  an  awful  silence.  It  was  a  thrilling  moment,  and 
had  a  thousand  times  more  in  it  than  I  ever  hoped. 

Then  there  was  a  little  shriek,  a  strong  voice  tremu- 
lously choked  and  stifled,  a  rush  of  a  true  husband  and  a 
devoted  wife  across  what  had  seemed  an  impassable  gulf, 
safe  and  sure  into  each  other's  arms. 

I  did  not  disturb  them.  For  an  hour  they  were  there 
together.  What  love  had  been  renewed,  quickened, 
doubt  dispelled,  hopes  brightened,  everything  that  is  ten- 
der and  true  in  life  resurrected  and  bettered,  I  cannot 
tell ,  but  I  do  know  that  two  more  grateful  people  never 
existed  on  the  face  of  this  green  earth. 

And  I  also  know  that  they  both  went  home  in  the  little 
ccufe  together,  and  have  never  occupied  "  separate  apart- 
toents  "  since. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

KOGUS   DETECTIVES   AND   WOULD-BE    DETECTIVES. 

IN  my  upward  of  a  quaiter  of  a  century's    detective 
career  many  strange  circumstances  have   continu- 
ally arisen,  and  are  constantly  arising,  to  make  the  experi- 
ence of  my  every -day  life  both  rerr.arkably  painful  and 


232       BOGUS  AND  WOULD-BE  DETECTIVES. 

pleasantly  romantic.  The  position  which  I  occupy  gives 
me  an  unusuai  opportunity  to  see  life  from  the  undei  side, 
and  the  worst  as  well  as  the  best  phases  of  human  charac 
ter  are  forced  upon  my  notice,  until  they  become,  by  sec 
ond  nature,  a  matter  for  study. 

Among  the  peculiar  experiences  which  are  forced  upon 
me  ar-e  some  from  a  class  which  have  risen  directly  from 
the  world- wide  reputation  which  has  been  secured  for  my 
agencies  and  my  methods  of  detection.  Many  unthink- 
ing people  have  come  to  believe  that  there  is  something 
mysterious,  wonderful,  and  awful  about  the  detective. 
All  my  life,  and  in  every  manner  in  my  power,  I  have 
endeavored  to  break  down  this  popular  superstition,  but 
it  would  seem  that  it  could  not  be  done. 

Many  persons  seem  -to  desire  to  believe  that  a  detective 
holds  some  supernatural  power,  or  yet  is  possessed  of 
some  finer  instinct  or  keener  perception  than  other  mor- 
tals ;  and  hence  the  bogus  detective  has  the  elements  of 
success  as  a  swindler  when  he  even  makes  the  shabbiest 
pretense  of  being  a  detective. 

This  foolish  fancy  as  to  the  power  of  the  detective 
comes,  I  am  aware,  from  that  element,  nearly  akin  to  fear 
in  all  of  us,  for  anything  mysterious  or  unexplainable. 
But  I  have  always  contended  that  the  criminal  could  not 
best  be  brought  to  justice  by  the  criminal,  but  by  the 
clean,  healthy,  honest  mind,  using  clean,  healthy,  hones! 
methods,  and  those  persistently  and  unceasingly. 

It  is  undoubtedly  trie  tnat  the  successful  detective 
be  possessed  of  faculties  fitting  mm  for  his  peculiar 


BOGUS  AND  WOULD-BE  DETECTIVES.        285 

character  of  work,  and  ten  thousand  men  may  possess 
those  who  live  and  die  without  the  slightest  hint  of  such 
capabilities.  Into  nearly  every  prominent  profession  01 
vocation  men  drift  because  they  are  by  nature  best  suited 
to  fit  them.  The  successful  merchant  becomes  so  not,  as 
a  ruie,  through  good  fortune,  but  by  keeping  his  work  well 
in  hand,  being  capable  of  managing  a  large  number  of 
employees,  making  his  investments  safe  and  certain,  and 
being  content  with  gradually  acquired  credit  and  wealth. 
But  he  must  have  the  disposition  and  the  ability  to  do  all 
this,  or  he  is  quite  likely  to  fail.  And  so  with  every  other 
profession  or  business ;  and  the  detective  must  possess 
certain  qualifications  of  prudence,  secrecy,  inventiveness, 
persistency,  personal  courage,  and,  above  all  other  things, 
honesty;  while  he  must  add  to  these  the  same  quality  of 
reaching  out  and  becoming  possessed  of  that  almost 
boundless  information  which  will  permit  of  the  immedi- 
ate and  effective  application  of  his  detective  talent  in 
whatever  degree  that  may  be  possessed. 

And  this  is  all  there  is  to  the  very  best  of  detectives. 

If  there  is  mystery  attached  to  his  movements,  it  is 
simply  because  secrecy  is  imperative,  and  that  will  never 
consist  in  vague  hints  and  meaningless  intimations. 
These  are  the  surest  signs  that  he  is  an  impostor.  If  he 
is  a  detective,  and  an  able  one,  he  will  not  go  about  pub- 
lishing the  fact.  Any  thinking  person  can  readily  see  how 
utterly  useless  would  be  the  efforts  of  such  a  person  to 
iccomplish  anything  worthy. 

I  have  been  led  to  say  this  much,  not  only  to  dispel  the 


284       BOGUS  AND  WOULD-BE  DETECTIVE!*. 

popular  idea  concerning  detectives,  but  to  also  call  th* 
attention  of  my  readers,  and  the  public  generally,  to  the 
almost  countless  instances  where  business  men  and  pri- 
vate citizens  are  imposed  upon  and  subjected  to  every 
manner  of  indignity  and  annoyance  by  the  veriest  swin- 
dlers extant,  who  pursue  petty  thievery  or  petty  blackmail 
ing  schemes  through  the  pretense  of  being  detectives,  and 
particularly  of  being  "  Pinkerton's  detectives." 

One  of  these  scamps  will  call  at  some  little  provincial 
town,  where  communication  with  large  cities  is  poor, 
and,  after  getting  "  the  lay  of  the  land,"  will  call  upon 
some  business  man  of  the  place — the  more  ignorant  the 
better — and  vaguely  intimate  that  he  is  there  in  his 
interest.  If  the  person  should  fail  to  understand,  the 
bogus  detective  will  buttonhole  him,  take  him  into  a 
quiet  corner,  when  the  following  conversation  is  likely  to 
ensue : 

"  Pinkerton,  you  know  ?" 

"  Pinkerton  ? — Pinkerton  ?      Well,  what  about  him  ?  * 

"  I'm  one  of  his  men  !  "  the  alleged  will  reply,  with  an 
air  of  great  importance. 

"Well,  I've  heard  of  Mr.  Pinkerton  cften;  but  what 
may  your  business  be  ?  " 

"  That's  just  what  concerns  you  I " 

Here  the  assumed  detective  will  probably  show  some 
forged  letters  or  some  cheap  star,  or  something  of  the 
kind,  with  a  pretense  that  it  is  his  "  authority  "  for  acting 
in  the  business. 

By  this  time  the  country  merchant  is  half-frightened, 


ROGUS  AND  WOULD-BE  DETECTIVES        285 

wholly  curious,  and  altogether  mystified,  and,  very  natu- 
rally, wishes  to  know  what  the  nature  of  the  man's  busi- 
ness is,  and  what  is  about  to  happen. 

Upon  this  the  bogus  detective  branches  forth  into  a  talk 
about  Mr.  Pinkerton  having  discovered  that  on  such  and 
such  a  bight  his  store  is  to  be  broken  into  and  robbed, 
and  that  he  has  been  sent  there  to  inform  the  merchant 
of  the  proposed  burglary,  and  to  act  with  him  in  prevent 
i'ng  the  same. 

Now,  nothing  will  more  work  upon  a  man's  fears  than 
the  conviction,  of  impending  danger — some  evil  which 
still  lies  in  the  dark,  but  which  seems  certain  to  transpire ; 
and  so  soon  as  the  bogus  detective  has  laid  this  foun- 
dation, nothing  is  easier  than  for  him  to  get  upon  the  most 
confidential  terms  with  his  unsuspicious  victim. 

In  the  meantime  the  impostor  has  taken  board  at  the 
best  hotel  in  the  place — if  he  has  had  assurance  enough  for 
that — and  soon  lets  his  pretended  business  be  known  iii 
certain  quarters,  though  always  exhorting  the  strictest 
secrecy,  and  he  soon  has  the  reputation  about  town  of 
being  "  one  of  Pinkerton' s  men  !  " 

He  will  now  probably  begin  operations  by  making  a 
pretense  of  communicating  with  me,  and,  in  the  presence 
of  some  party  whom  he  is  desirous  to  impress  with  hib 
i/nportance,  will  seal  and  direct  a  massive  "  report "  or 
letter  to  me,  which,  however,  he  is  very  careful  not  to 
mail.  He  will  then  hint  at  mysterious  comrades — all  my 
men — who  are  close  at  hand,  ':>ut  under  cover,  and  who 
*rill  be  ready  to  assist  him  at  the  necessary  moment,  and 


286       BOGUS  AND  WOULD-BE 

that  he  proposes  to  make  a  clean  job  of  the  thing,  and 
forever  rid  that  place  of  robbers  and  criminals. 

In  this  manner,  and  in  various  other  ways,  he  gradually 
worms  himself  into  public  confidence.  And  this  class  of 
a  fraud  has  sometimes  even  the  audacity  to  telegraph  me, 
in  meaningless  jargon,  unintelligible  combinations  of 
words  or  sets  of  figures,  until  everything  is  ripe;  and 
then,  on  the  strength  of  my  reputation  as  a  business  man 
and  a  detective,  strikes  right  and  left  for  money  or  any 
other  thing  he  can  get,  and  leaves  the  place  between  two 
days,  having  beaten  everybody  possible. 

Others  of  this  class  will  accidentally  ascertain  some 
foible,  or  possibly  criminal  act,  of  the  private  citizen,  and 
will  at  once  make  known  his  object  to  be  the  arrest  of 
the  party  on  a  certain  charge — also  quietly  hinting  that  he 
is  sorry  for  the  publicity  which  must  ensue,  but  that  he 
feels  compelled  to  do  his  whole  duty.  Perhaps  he  will 
inform  the  victim  that  he  may  be  allowed  his  liberty  for  a 
day  or  two,  in  order  to  arrange  his  business  affairs,  and, 
in  the  interim,  pretend  to  keep  a  close  watch  upon  him. 
By  this  time  the  party  is  in  a  proper  condition  to  be  bled, 
and  shortly  is  so  worked  upon  that  a  snug  sum  is  got, 
when  the  villain  immediately  decamps. 

This  pretending  to  be  in  my  employ  is  a  favorite 
dodge  of  impecunious  wanderers  and  "  dead-beats  "  who 
find  themselves  stranded  at  hotels.  I  have  a  large  per- 
sonal acquaintance  among  hotel-keepers  and  other  public 
business  men,  so  that,  in  my  kind  of  business,  circum- 
stances might  occur,  as  they  have  frequently  occurred, 


BOGUS  AND  WOULD-BE  DL  .EC  CIVES.        287 

ahere  courtesies  and  favors  from  them  "iave  been  of  great 
benefit.  The  dead-beat  has  found  this  of  use,  and,  with 
his  keen  insight  into  possible  chances  of  extending  his 
stay,  or  of  getting  away  without  the  detention  of  his  bag- 
gage, should  he  have  any,  he  has  frequently  made  sutj" 
liberal  use  of  my  name  as  to  permit  his  peaceful  depar- 
ture. 

Even  in  communities  where  citizens  are  usually  well 
informed,  and  perhaps  I  had  recently  brought  some  im- 
portant case  to  a  successful  termination,  some  unprinci 
pled  lawyer  or  official,  possessing  a  petty  spite  or  grudge 
against  a  neighbor,  has  dimly  hinted  that  he  and  myself 
understood  each  other  ;  that  when  the  proper  time  came 
he  would  cause  an  explosion,  and  that  Pinkerton's  men 
were  then  in  town,  and  keeping  their  eyes  open  too  ! 

Slouching  individuals  of  all  manner  of  kind,  traveling 
to  or  stopping  at  all  manner  of  places,  when  the  last  re 
sort  tus  failed  for  raising  the  wind,  or  carrying  out  some 
miserable  scheme,  immediately  transform  themselves  intc 
pseudo-detectives,  and  nearly  as  often  make  a  pretense  of 
some  near  or  remote  connection  with  my  business  for  as 
many  various  purposes  as  there  are  different  swindlers. 

But  a  short  time  since  a  mysterious  individual  appeared 
at  the  residence  of  a  wealthy  family  of  Iowa  farmers,  who 
are  immediate  relatives  of  a  gentleman  prominently  con- 
nected with  the  Philadelphia  Inquirer.  He  txnibited  a 
letter  purporting  to  be  from  my  office,  authorizing  him  to 
follow  and  hunt  down  certain  Missouri  outlaws,  and  also 
called  their  attention  to  an  item  from  a  Chicago  papsr 


288       BOGUS  AND  WOULD-BE  DETECTIVES. 

relating  an  affray  between  one  of  my  operatives  and  * 
criminal  whom  he  was  arresting,  where  the  operative  lost 
his  finger  from  a  pistol-shot.  The  name  of  the  detectiv-e 
was  given,  and  it  corresponded  with  that  of  the  bogus 
letter ;  while,  sure  enough,  the  impostor  had  lost  just  that 
finger  spoken  of. 

The  vagabond  intimated  that  he  wished  to  remain  with 
them  for  a  short  time  for  his  "  detective  "  purposes,  and 
also  stated — which  secured  his  admission  to  the  family — 
that  while  he  was  there  he  would  q-uietly  keep  his  eye 
upon  the  members  of  a  neighboring  family  with  whom  the 
former  had  been  at  feud  for  nearly  fifteen  years. 

The  actions  of  the  man  were  incomprehensible.  He 
was  of  course  mysterious,  and  made  a  pretense  of  being 
*out  much  of  nights,  and  keeping  very  closely  within  the 
house  during  the  day.  He  told  great  tales  of  miraculous 
doings  with  criminals,  exhibited  many  wounds  he  had  re- 
ceived in  the  assumed  pursuit  of  his  duty,  and  in  various 
other  ways  played  the  r61e  of  a  detective  according  to 
the  stage  rendering  and  the  popular  conception  of  that 
character,  remaining  with  the  family  several  weeks.  But 
at  last  the  real  character  of  the  man  became  known. 

A  brother  of  the  farmer  was  a  wealthy  stock-man,  and, 
§ft?r  his  trips  to  Chicago,  always  returned  to  the  farm 
for  a  few  days'  visit,  generally  with  a  considerable  amount 
pf  money  in  his  possession.  On  his  first  arrival  there 
after  the  appearance  of  the  bogus  detective,  the  lattei 
conceived  a  cock-and-bull  story  about  having  discovered 
a  counterfeiter's  cave  in  the  woods  near  the  farm, 


BOGUS  AND  WOULD-BE  DETECTIVES.     . 

was  occupied  during  the  day,  but  always  deserted  at 
night,  and  he  endeavored  to  induce  the  stock-dealer  to 
accompany  ham  on  a  tour  of  inspection.  At  first  he  con- 
sented to  go ;  but  his  suspicions  finally  became  aroused, 
and  he  refused  unless  also  accompanied  by  his  brother. 
This  the  scamp  opposed,  offering  some  excuse,  which 
further  inclined  the  people  to  believe  he  was  an  impostor. 
The  same  night  the  rogue  suddenly  left,  and  the  parties 
found  that  every  pistol  or  revolver  in  the  house  had  been 
so  tampered  with  that  its  effective  use  would  be  simply 
impossible. 

It  had  been  this  particular  bogus  detective's  plan  to  get 
into  the  good  graces  of  the  family  until  such  a  time  as  the 
drover  appeared,  and  then  decoy  him  into  the  woods  at 
night,  where  he  might  rob  him  or  murder  and  rob  him  at 
leisure. 

Not  succeeding  in  this,  and  finding  that  the  locality  was 
becoming  too  warm  for  him,  he  decamped.  The  same 
night  he  robbed  the  post-office  in  the  village  near  at 
hand,  and  was  captured.  He  got  one  year  in  the  peniten- 
tiary for  this.  But,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  I  was  nevei 
informed  of  his  pretensions  concerning  being  in  my  em- 
ploy until  after  he  had  served  his  term  and  been  dis- 
charged, when,  evidently  out  of  mere  curiosity,  the  gentle 
man  referred  to  as  prominently  connected  with  the  Phila- 
delphia Inquirer  gave  me  a  history  of  the  matter  and 
desired  information  as  to  the  man  s  genuineness. 

I  could  give  the  reader  hundreds  of  similar  instances 
irhefe  people  are  daily  permitting  themselves  to  be  im 


290  *    BOGUS  AtfD  WOULb-BK  DETECTIVES. 

posed  upon  by  these  shrewd  tramps  and  petty  swindlers 
who,  under  the  guise  of  "  Pinkerton's  detectives/'  carry 
on  their  villainous  schemes  of  blackmail,  and  exasperat- 
ing, although  paltry  swindles.  I  am  continually  receiv- 
ing telegrams  and  letters  asking  if  such  and  such  persons 
are  in  my  employ  ;  whether  they  have  been  authorized  to 
take  certain  proceedings,  or  whether  I  will  be  responsible 
for  any  indebtedness  they  may  incur.  And  I  am  certain 
that  a  modest  estimate  of  the  sum  I  have  expended  in 
running  down  these  pests  and  assisting  in  bringing  them 
to  justice  would  not  fall  short  of  ten  thousand  dollars. 

But  if  "  bogus  detectives  "  have  proven  of  constant  an 
aoyance  and  occasional  absorbing  interest,  there  is  an 
jther  class  of  persons  that  have  been  still  more  persist 
ent   in  endeavoring  to  attract  my  attention,  and  at  all 
times  a  source  of  infinite  amusement. 

My  mails  are  daily  burdened  with  their  communica- 
tions. I  am  run  down  and  cornered  most  ingeniously^ 
I  never  have  peace  from  their  obstinate  endeavors. 

These  are  the  would-be  detectives. 

They  are  legion. 

They  exist  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  are  in  all  sorts  of 
positions  or  conditions  of  impecuniosity,  and  have  every 
manner  of  ability  imaginable.  They  will  be  detectives 
whether  or  no ;  and,  if  I  do  not  give  them  a  chance,  they 
threaten  to  distinguish  themselves  on  their  own  account. 
Every  time  word  comes  to  the  public  of  my  agencies  hav 
ing  succeeded  in  an  operation  of  any  magnitude  these 
applications  come  in  shoals,  although  the  daily  receipt  is 


BOGUS  AND  WOULD-BE  DETECTIVES.       291 

so  laige  in  number  that  the  Government  at  least  must 
be  greatly  benefited.  I  try  to  have  them  all  suitably 
answered  ;  but  many  of  them  defy  a  sober  consideration 
and  even  a  translation.  These  are  turned  over  to  Chief 
Clerk  Robertson,  and  consigned  to  what  I  have  appropri- 
ately named  the  "  Lunatic  File  ;"  and  I  ana  sorry  to  con- 
fess that  this  is  a  wonderfully  large  monument  to  detective 
aspiration. 

There  seem  to  be  three  things  which  are  the  ambition 
of  a  very  great  class  of  men  and  women  who  have  arrived 
at  a  point  where  they  are  desperately  in  need  of  employ- 
ment. They  wish  to  go  upon  the  stage,  become  an 
author,  or  turn  detective ;  and  it  is  about  an  equal  chance 
which  way  they  go. 

One  of  these  people  writes  me : 

"  l  am  traveling  around  a  great  deal,  and  want  you  to  send  me 
a  roving  commission  as  one  of  your  detective? .  I  see  many  instances 
where  the  power  of  such  authority  would  tx.  c  t  great  benefit  to  me." 

Now,  here  was  an  individual  who  really  and  honestly 
believed  that  I  in  some  way  had  tlw  power  to  grant  him 
a  "roving  commissior  '  TJ  m&ke  art  vtss  of  himself  on  any 
occasion  which  miy>'.  r/-r ;  anr!  if  there  was  one  thing  in 
the  world  that  the  prxlous  scurjp  yas  sincere  about,  it 
was  that  I  would  go  ;nio  f.ctfsifj-.jj  over  being  able  to 
secure  just  such  talent  as  lik. 

A  benighted  female  wr.cfo  f.o'.n  Detroit  that  she  is 
"  alone  in  the  world ; "  th'*t  J.e  >  certain  of  being  "  born 
a  detective  ; "  that  she  is  at  r  /  ;f/c  at  boarding  at  a  certain 


BOGUS  AND  WOULD-BE  DETECTIVES. 

respectable  boarding-house,  where  there  is  a  thin  partition 
separating  her  room  from  another,  in  which  she  is  sure  a 
noted  gang  of  burglars  have  their  rendezvous  ;  that  in  the 
silent  and  witching  hours  of  the  night  these  men  talk  over 
the  situation  in  deep  and  solemn  voices,  and  arrange 
future  plans  for  depredation  and  robbery ;  and  that  her 
:ar  is  constantly  applied  to  this  partition,  until  she  has 
become  a  sort  of  an  Edison  phonograph — in  fact,  a  reposi- 
tory of  wonderful  secrets,  which  she  will  divulge — like  the 
machine,  give  forth  when  she  is  unwound ;  and  that  all 
that  is  necessary  for  me  to  become  possessed  of  such  in- 
formation as  will  enable  me  to  distinguish  myself  and  win 
fame,  is  to  send  her  forty  dollars.  Think  of  it !  only  forty 
dollars  !  This  will  enable  her  to  liquidate  a  slight  out- 
standing indebtedness  at  the  aforesaid  boarding-house 
with  a  thin  partition,  when  she  will  proceed  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth,  if  necessary,  and  dog  the  footsteps  of  this 
band  of  robbers,  and,  by  getting  into  rooms  at  hotels,  and 
otherwise,  will  continue  the  phonographic  business  in- 
definitely. 

Now,  here  was  a  genius  that  ought  to  have  received  en- 
couragement; but  unfortunately  she  did  not  set  a  suffi- 
ciently high  value  upon  her  service.8 

A  gentleman,  addressing  me  from  the  Grand  Hotel, 
San  Francisco,  relates  that  he  is  writing  a  book  from  ob« 
servation  on  the  Pacific  coast,  and  that  he  thinks  a  com- 
mission from  me,  authorizing  him  as  a  detective  in  that 
section,  would  prove  of  great  ber^efit  to  him.  In  return 
for  this  he  solemnly  promises  to  give  me  and  my  busi- 


*OGUS  AND  WOULD-BE  DETECTIVES.        293 

ness  a  "splendid  puff"  in  his  book,  which  he  is  sure  (what 
author  was  ever  not)  will  "  sell  like  hot  cakes." 

I  felt  a  sympathy  for  the  man,  but  was  compelled  to  de- 
dine  becoming  responsible  for  his  hotel  and  other  bills, 
even  at  the  risk  of  losing  so  excellent  an  opportunity  for 
a  place  in  his  swiftly-selling  book. 

A  party  from  a  large  town  in  Kentucky,  who  is  in  the 
piano  and  organ  trade,  writes  that  his  income  is  becoming 
small,  through  the  cutting  on  prices  of  base  interlopers, 
and  that,  as  his  business  is  fast  going  to  the  devil,  he  has 
made  up  his  mind  to  fling  himself,  as  it  were,  body  and 
soul,  into  the  detective  business ;  and,  while  certain  that 
his  services  are  worth  to  any  employer  or  corporation 
from  four  to  five  thousand  dollars  a  year,  he  will  sacrifice 
himself  to  the  cause  of  justice  at  a  mere  pittance.  He 
concludes  his  interesting  application  with  this  naive  and 
spicy  remark  : 

"As  I  am  a  married  man,  with  six  cherubs,  my  mother-in-law 
oeing  a  permanent  fixture  with  me  now,  I  can  leave  home  indefi- 
nitely." 

It  might  have  been  that  here  was  the  secret  of  a  man, 
<vorth  four  or  five  thousand  dollars  to  any  employer,  being 
villing  to  leave  home  indefinitely  for  a  mere  pittance. 

Motbers-in-law  have  been  the  cause  of  even  greater  in- 
stances of  desperation  than  this. 

Away  up  from  the  cotton-fields  of  Texas  I  receive  an 
Application  from  a  party  who  says  he  is  with  me  every 
day  and  hour  in  my  fight  against  criminals  and  law-break 


294       BOGUS  AND  WOULD-BE  DETECTIVES. 

ing.  He  says  he  is  "nothing  hut  a  common  cotton- 
picker,"  but  confesses  that  he  has  a  great  mind,  and  that 
to  a  massive  intellect  "  cotton-picking  has  its  drawbacks." 
He  bids  me  God-speed  in  my  good  work,  and  remarks 
that  he  knows  a  thing  or  two  that  I  am  not  "up  to," 
even  if  I  did  come  from  Scotland,  closing  his  letter  with 
the  proposition  that,  whenever  I  want  a  man  who  can  get 
right  at  the  bottom  of  things,  he  will  leave  the  fair  fields 
of  Texas  at  a  moment's  notice. 

Poor  fellow  !  I  could  almost  see  a  man  who  had  had 
better  fortune  in  the  years  before,  and  who  had  written 
me  more  as  an  outburst  of  his  own  desperation  at  his 
cotton-picking  fate  in  the  burning  sun  of  Texas,  than  be- 
cause he  had  the  remotest  idea  that  he  could  be  of  any 
service  to  me  or  that  I  could  more  than  kindly  reply  to 
him. 

Another  person,  writing  from  a  southern  Illinois  town, 
puts  the  matter  in  this  concise  manner  : 

u  There  is  a.  band  of  burglars  here.  Fm  going  to  hunt  them  out, 
if  you  can' t.  I'll  come  to  Chicago  for  fifteen  dollars  a  week,  twenty 
dollars  advanced." 

In  the  man's  efforts  to  appear  wise  and  terse,  he  neg- 
lected to  sign  his  name,  and  so  I  could  not  forward  him 
the  amount  required. 

Another  would-be  detective,  with  an  inventive  turn, 
writes  me  : 

**  I  have  a  sure  method  of  detecting  crime  or  persons.  I  will  di» 
close  the  same  to  you  for  two  thousand  dollars  in  money  ,  or  I  wil 


BOGUS  AND  WOULD-BE  DETECTIVES.       295 

accept  a  position  under  you  in  your  force,  at  a  salary  commensurate 
with  the  importance  of  my  discovery,  and  use  the  system  in  connec- 
tion with  my  operations." 

Out  of  mere  curiosity  I  looked  into  this  matter,  and 
found  the  applicant  to  be  an  impecunious  half-crazy 
"mind  reader"  and  spiritualist. 

A  party  from  Pittsburg  explained  some  of  his  abilities 

as  follows  : 

"  In  the  character  of  a  common  laborer  or  Irishman  I  can  handle 
a  pick  and  shovel  admirably.  As  a  negro  I  can  transform  my  ap- 
pearance and  dialect,  so  that  I  could  pass  undetected  among  negroes 
themselves.  I  can  pass  in  the  best  society  as  a  titled  foreigner,  or 
play  'coachy'  in- a  gentleman's  household.  I  can  take  any  charac- 
ter to  perfection,  and,  if  you  will  indicate  anything  you  wish  assumed, 
I  will  put  up  a  forfeit  of  any  reasonable  amount  that  I  can  assume  it, 
or  enact  it  so  as  to  even  deceive  yourself.  Salary  is  no  object. 

"  I  know  I  would  love  the  detective's  life  ;  and  if  you  don't  want 
me,  I  shall  go  it  alone." 

Never  having  made  a  bet  in  my  life,  I  could  not  consci- 
entiously take  this  wager,  and  therefore  was  compelled 
tc  inform  the  Pittsburg  aspirant  for  detective  honors  that 
he  would  have  to  u  go  it  alone." 

The  district  attorney  of  one  of  the  wealthiest  counties 
in  Wisconsin  recently  wrote  me,  asking  to  become  a  de- 
tective. He  stated  that  he  had  a- lucrative  practice;  had 
Deen  ver)  successful  in  his  office ;  could  give  the  highest 
commendations  from  lawyers,  members  of  the  Wisconsin 
Legislature,  senators,  and  from  the  JAOSS  ;  but  that  he  had 
become  fascinated  with  his  idea  of  the  life  of  a  detective^ 


BOGUS  AND  WOULD-BE  DETECTIVES 

and  that  he  felt  that  he  must  enter  my  service.  He  agreed 
to  leave  his  business  entirely,  devote  himself  honestly  and 
earnestly  to  the  work,  and  prove  himself  in  every  way  wor 
thy  of  my  best  respect  and  esteem. 

Now,  here  was  an  application  worthy  of  all  considera- 
tion; but  I  saw  that  the  man  was  simply  momentarily 
flushed  with  the  supposed  romance  of  the  work,  had  never 
considered  the  numberless  instances  of  ill-success  and 
hard,  grinding  labor ;  in  fact,  that  he  had  had — as  a  per- 
son will  witness  a  grand  theatric  performance  and  become 
momentarily  "stage-struck" — his  mind  fixed  upon  some 
brilliant  achievement  of  the  detective  order,  and  was  foi 
the  time  being  actually  "  detective-struck,"  if  that  term  is 
admissible.  And  I  frankly  told  him  so,  showing  him  that 
his  course  did  not  lie  in  that  direction.  The  result  was  : 
second,  sober  thought ;  and  the  man  to-day  thanks  me  for 
an  honorable  standing  among  the  legal  fraternity  of  Wis- 
consin. 

Now,  these  are  but  a  few  samples,  at  random,  out  of 
thousands  of  applications  from  would-be  detectives  the 
country  over.  They  are  before  me,  as  I  write,  in  huge 
piles ;  from  women  who  have  a  mission  ;  from  men  who 
want  a  commission  ;  from  traveling  preachers,  who  confess 
that  there  is  much  roguery  even  among  church  people 
which  they  wish  to  bring  to  light — always  providing  they 
can  make  a  few  dollars  out  of  the  business ;  from  country 
bumpkins,  who  are  dissatisfied  with  the  plain  ways  of  the 
village  or  the  farm,  and  who  imagine  there  is  great  glor) 
and  perennial  romance  in  the  detective's  career ;  from  al1 


BOGUS  AND   WOULD-BE  DETECTIVES. 

iurts  of  men,  who  imagine  they  have  a  scent  of  all  sorts 
of  crime,  and  who  only  want  my  indorsement  and  a  little, 
just  a  little,  money  to  make  the  thing  a  grand  success  j 
from  authors,  who  wish  to  become  familiar  with  crime,  in 
order  to  depict  it,  and  who  absolutely  need,  so  they  say, 
a  connection  with  my  agencies  to  accomplish  it;  from 
sailors,  who  promise  to  climb  to  the  cross-yards,  stand  on 
their  heads,  and  do  other  daring  nautical  feats  while  scat- 
tering circulars  to  advertise  my  business ;  from  wander- 
ing pedlars ;  from  strolling  tinkers  ;  from  traveling  clock- 
repairers  ;  from  gypsies,  and  even  from  thieves  in  count- 
less numbers ! 

Each  one  and  all  have  abilities — on  paper — that  are 
simply  marvelous.  Each  and  all  show  me  what  a  sacrifice 
they  are  making  to  take  upon  themselves  such  a  life,  and 
how  brilliantly  successful  they  will'  be  in  my  service.  And 
each  and  all  want  money,  immediately  and  continuously. 

Now,  I  have  just  this  advice  to  offer  to  all  with  detect- 
ive aspirations:  Let  well  enough  alone.  If  you  are  in 
any  employment,  remain  in  it ;  attend  to  it  faithfully  and 
honestly.  You  might  become  a  detective  ;  but  where  one 
becomes  a  successful  detective,  a  thousand  fail  utterly  and 
completely — or,  worse,  become  blackmailers  and  vaga* 
bonds,  if  not  actual  thieves  and  criminals. 


2Q8  EXTRA  O  R DINAR  Y  SELF-RQBBR&  X 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

EXTRAORDINARY  SELF-ROBBERY. 

ONE  day  in  December,  1870,  the  president  of  one  of 
the  Chicago  national  banks  called  at  my  office 
and  desired  a  private  interview  with  me. 

His  statement  was,  that  the  deputy  county  treasurer  of 
a  county  in  Iowa,  while  alone  in  his  office,  had  been 
assaulted  by  some  unknown  ruffians,  nearly  murdered,  and 
sixteen  thousand  dollars  taken  out  of  his  safe. 

It  was  desired  by  some  correspondent  of  the  bank's,  at 
the  county  seat  where  the  assault  and  robbery  had 
occurred,  that  the  bank  president  should  confer  with  me 
and  secure  my  assistance. 

Having  but  these  bare  outlines  of  the  matter,  I  could 
do  no  more  than  at  once  dispatch  one  of  my  most  able 
men  to  the  point,  with  such  general  instructions  as  at  that 
lime  could  be  given.  This  man — a  keen,  shrewd  Irish 
American  named  Hanlon,  upon  whom  had  previously 
dev^.^u  the  successful  working  up,  under  my  direction, 
of  several  heavy  bank  and  safe  robt^ries — proceeded 
immediately  to  the  place,  and  there  met  a  gentleman 
named  Wooster,  who  had  authorized  the  operation,  and 
who,  being  on  the  deputy  treasurer's  bonds,  was  naturally 
very  anxious  that  the  burglars  and  would-be  murderer* 


E  X  TRA  Of  OINA  R  Y  SELF-  R  OBBER  Y. 

should  be  apprehended,  and  the  large  amount  of  money 
taken — or  at  least  a  portion  of  it — recovered. 

The  result  of  a  careful  preliminary  examination  into 
the  matter  was  telegraphed  me  as  follows: 

On  the  night  of  the  ninth  of  December,  in  the  year 
mentioned,  a  gentleman  named  Newcomb,  desiring  to 
purchase  a  county  bond  for  some  customer,  went  to  the 
court-house,  where  the  deputy  treasurer,  a  gentleman 
named  Benton  Emery,  was  accustomed  to  remain  unti" 
about  nine  o'clock — his  office  being  a  sort  of  general  ren- 
dezvous for  a  few  of  the  county  officials  and  several  busi 
ness  men  of  the  town. 

On  entering  the  treasurer's  office,  Mr.  Newcomb  was 
startled  to  find  a  prostrate  form  upon  the  floor.  He 
immediately  procured  a  light,  and  found  a  man  covered 
with  blood,  and  apparently  dying.  Blood  was  upon  the 
floor  and  flowed  from  several  wounds  of  the  presumably 
murdered  man.  The  room  betrayed  evidences  of  a  severe 
struggle ;  the  lamp  had  been  thrown  upon  the  floor,  and 
the  odor  of  the  oil  showed  that  it  had  been  broken  in  the 
fall.  The  chairs  were  thrown  about  and  broken,  and,  what 
was  more  conclusive,  and  seemed  to  give  some  little  clue 
to  the  mystery,  was  the  circumstance  that  the  door  to 
the  safe  stood  wide  open,  and  papers  and  parcels  were 
scattered  in  every  direction  around  it. 

Mr.  Newcomb  took  all  this  in  at  a  single  glance,  and, 
half  suspecting  what  was  to  follow,  found  the  wounded 
man  to  be  no  other  than  Benton  Emery,  the  deputy  treas- 
4rer  himself.  He  was  immediately  taken  home,  and  in  9 


JOO  EXTRA ORDINAR  Y  SEL3 -ROBBER  Y. 

few  days,  though  he  barely  lived  through  the  terrible 
wounds  he  had  received,  was  able  to  give  an  account  of 
the  robbery,  as  it  undoubtedly  was. 

He  stated  that  just  after  dark  two  men  in  oil-cloth  coats 
called  at  his  office,  and  stated  that  they  desired  to  pur- 
chase some  revenue  stamps.  They  asked  for  five  dollars' 
worth,  and  tendered  a  one  hundred  dollar  bill  in  payment. 
He  took  up  a  glass  to  examine  it,  and,  after  scrutinizing  it 
and  becoming  satisfied  of  its  genuineness,  turned  to  open 
the  safe.  No  sooner  had  he  done  so  than  one  of  the 
men  sprang  upon  him,  drawing  a  dagger,  and  grasped  him 
violently  by  the  throat.  He  was  unable  to  utter  a  sound, 
but  struggled  with  his  assailants,  clutching  the  dagger  by 
the  blade.  The  ruffian  drew  the  dagger  through  his  hand, 
and  inflicted  an  awful  gash,  nearly  severing  the  thumli 
at  the  ball.  Weakened  from  his  struggles  with  his  burl} 
foe  and  the  pressure  on  his  throat,  he  was  compelled  to 
gradually  relax  his  efforts,  when  he  received  several  stabs 
in  his  side.  He  then  fell  to  the  floor  insensible. 

An  examination  of  the  wounds  proved  that,  though  they 
were  dangerous,  they  were  not  necessarily  fatal.  There 
was  a  gash  on  the  hand,  as  stated,  and  four  wounds  around 
the  heart,  which,  though  deep,  were  not  dangerous.  The 
throat  was  wounded,  and  a  frightful  cut  in  the  head  dis 
closed  the  skull  underneath. 

The  safe  was  overhauled,  and  sixteen  thousand  dollars, 
chiefly  county  funds,  with  a  few  small  sums  placed  in  the 
safe  by  merchants  for  safe-keeping,  had  been  taken. 

Now,  these  were  the  outlines  of  the  matter,  and  it  woultf 


EX  TRA  ORDINAR  Y  SELF-ROBBER  Y.  3O1 

reasonaoly  be  supposed  that  a  bold  and  outrageous  rob- 
bery had  occurred  and  a  brutal  murder  almost  committed. 

in  fact,  hardly  any  other  theory  could  account  for  the 
terrible  wounds  which  Mr.  Emery  sustained. 

Some  delay  had  ensued  before  I  had  been  called  upoii, 
so  that  by  the  time  my  operative  had  arrived  in  the  village 
Alt.  Emery  had  so  far  recovered  from  his  wounds  ao  to 
be  able  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  endeavor  to  detect 
the  perpetrators  of  the  crime.  He  was  a  man  of  wealth, 
was  engaged  in  no  speculations  which  might  have  embar- 
rassed him,  so  that  while  no  possible  clue  to  the  robbers 
could  be  secured  at  that  time,  and  with  the  information  I 
then  possessed,  the  last  thought  to  enter  my  mind  was 
any  possible  suspicion  that  the  deputy  treasurer  himself 
had  the  remotest  connection  with  the  robbery. 

But  every  other  possible  theory  and  clue  were  finally 
exhausted. 

I  reasoned  that  professional  criminals  of  the  sort  capa- 
ble of  so  daring  a  crime,  in  nearly  every  instance  leave 
some  clue  by  which  their  character  as  criminals  can  be 
established,  and  subsequently  their  identity  pretty  clearly 
Arrived  at.  In  my  thirty  years  of  detective  work  t  se 
things  became  so  marked  and  fixe'1  that,  on  reading  a  'tele- 
graphic newspaper  report  of  a  la.ge  or  small  robbery, 
with  the  aid  of  my  vast  records  and  great  personal  experi- 
ence and  familiarity  with  these  matters,  I  can  at  once  tell 
the  character  of  thn  work,  and  then,  knowing  the  names, 
history,  habits,  and  quite  frequently  the  rendezvous  of  the 
doing  that  class  of  work,  am  able  to  detciinine,  witfc 


3O2  EXTRA ORDINAR  Y  SELF-JOBBER  Y. 

almost  unerring  certainty,  not  only  the  very  parties  who 
committed  the  robberies,  but  also  what  disposition  they 
are  likely  to  make  of  their  plunder,  and  at  what  point* 
they  may  be  in  hiding. 

I  hardly  believed  this  robbery  to  have  been  committed 
by  professional  bank  robbers.  This  conviction  was  veri- 
fied by  the  fact  that  the  closest  inquiries  failed  to  show 
that  any  strangers  who  could  not  be  accounted  for  had 
been  seen  in  the  village  for  weeks  before.  The  town, 
though  the  county  seat,  did  not  contain  at  that  time  a 
population  of  over  five  hundred,  and  in  a  place  of  that 
size  the  face  of  a  stranger  is  always  closely  scanned,  and 
he  cannot  remain  in  the  place  without  being  quizzed  and 
questioned. 

I  could  not  believe  the  robbery  had  been  done  by  any 
of  the  class  of  outlaws  who  generally  commit  depredations 
upon  express  "companies,  isolated  banks,  and  the  like,  in 
the  more  sparsely  settled  portions  of  the  West ;  for  a 
scouring  of  the  country,  in  every  direction,  fai'ed  to  dis- 
cover the  slightest  clue  to  any  persons  having  ridden  to 
or  from  the  place,  or  reached  or  departed  from  it  on  foot 
or  by  any  manner  of  conveyance. 

This  consequently  narrowed  the  investigation  to  the 
townspeople  of  the  place  itself.  So  here  I  directed  my 
operative  to  dig  away  persistently,  and  leave  i/o  stone  un- 
turned toward  the  solving  of  the  mvstery.  But  it  was  of 
no  use.  The  history,  antecedents,  cecupation,  habits,  and 
financial  condition  of  every  male  person  in  the  village 
vas  secured,  and  where  any  person  was  found  who  migh! 


EXTRA  ORDINAR  Y  S ELF-ROB BL  R  Y.  3OJ 

jave,  bv  the  remotest  possibility,  been  connected  with  the 
affair,  he  was  made  to  give  a  thorough  account  of  himself. 
But  at  last  this  course  utterly  failed  to  develop  anything 
material  to  the  case,  and  I  found  myself  balked  in  every 
direction. 

One  day,  while  sitting  in  my  private  office,  puzzling  my 
brain  over  the  matter,  and  going  through  and  through  my 
operative's  reports  from  beginning  to  end,  with  the  vain 
hope  of  picking  out  of  it  all  some  slight  thread  upon  which 
to  hang  even  a  theory  of  the  robbery,  I  came  to  this  sen- 
Lence  in  one  of 'the  reports  : 

"  Mr.  Emery  is  ceaseless  in  his  efforts  to  assist  me,  but  seems  to  be 
very  much  opposed  to  my  going  so  hard  upon  some  of  the  people  of 
the  village,  as  he  constantly  insists  that  it  was  done  by  professional 
robbers  from  a  distance." 

In  the  mood  I  then  was,  my  mind  continually  reverted 
to  this.  Why  was  Mr.  Emery  so  solicitous  about  his 
fellow-townsmen  while  there  remained  the  barest  chance 
of  the  robbers  being  found  among  them  ?  And  why  did 
Mr.  Emery  desire  to  constantly  impress  my  operative 
with  the  idea  that  the  robbery  was  done  by  professional 
robbers  from  a  distance  ? 

Pass  this  paragraph  as  often  as  I  might,  I  always  came 
around  to  it,  stopped  at  it,  and  began  asking  myself  these 
questions  about  it.  I  could  not  rid  myself  of  the  feeling, 
the  longer  I  studied  over  it,  that  the  'impression  was 
gradually  but  surely  becoming  fixed  in  my  mind 
there  was  behind  all  this  a  motive, 


3O4  EXTRA ORDINAR  Y  SELF-ROBBER  Y. 

Now  what  was  that  motive  ? 

I  felt  that  the  suspicion  which  was  gradually  creeping 
into  my  mind  was  unjust  to  Mr.  Emery;  but  the  line  of 
investigation  it  suggested,  and  which  I  now  determined 
upon,  was  the  dernier  ressort. 

I  therefore  immediately  instructed  my  operative  to  con- 
tinue his  investigations  as  zealously  as  ever,  but  to  af"  once 
devote  more  attention  to  noting  every  act  and  expression, 
as  well  as  the  manner  and  bearing  of  Mr.  Emery,  without 
in  the  slightest  degree  betraying  to  the  deputy  treasurer 
his  double  duty. 

The  result  of  this  was,  that  in  a  few  days  I  had  before 
me  reports  which  fully  justified  the  course  taken. 

Emery  seemed  to  be  worried  and  anxious,  and  to  relax 
his  interest  in  endeavoring  to  track  the  robbers.  There 
was  a  great  load  of  some  kind  upon  his  mind.  He 
appeared  to  have  relapsed  into  a  listless  condition,  from 
which  any  newly-proposed  plan  by  my 'operative  would 
awaken  him  into  a  state  of  genuine  nervousness  and  ex- 
citement, and  it  soon  came  to  be  his  half-expressed  desire 
that  the  operation  should  be  abandoned. 

At  this  point  I  decided  to  further  test  my  new  theory 
of  the  robbery. 

I  arranged  that  an  anonymous  communication  should 
be  forwarded  to  the  place  from  Dubuque,  intimating  that 
two  suspicious  characters  could  be  found  at  a  certain 
designated  place  in  that  city,  whom  the  writer  had  reason 
to  believe  were  the  two  persons  that  had  committed  the 
robbery.  The  descriptions  sent  tallied  exac.tly  with  those 


EXTRAORDINARY  SELF-ROBBERY.  J05 

given  of  the  robbers  by  the  deputy  treasurer  himsell  j  and 
accoidingly  my  operative  and  Mr.  Emery  set  out  for 
Dubuque  to  endeavor  to  secure  an  identification  of  the 
suspected  parties. 

But  my  operative  found  it  hard  work  to  even  get  him 
away  from  home.  He  protested  that  he  had  no  faith  in> 
anonymous  letters,  and  would  wager  any  amount  that  it 
would  all  prove  a  fool's  errand  ;  and  although  he  finally 
consented  to  make  the  trip,  nearly  every  remark  made' 
by  him  concerning  the  matter  tended  to  show  that  Mr. 
Emeiy  knew  as  well  as  I  did  that  no  robbers  of  his  treas- 
ury were  to  be  found  in  Dubuque. 

I  had  instructed  operative  Hanlon  to  insist  both  that 
the  parties  were  to  be  found,  and  that,  if  there  was  any- 
thing like  an  excuse  for  doing  so,  he  should  arrest  the 
men  and  take  them  back  with  him.  When  this  was  said 
pretty  forcibly  and  decidedly,  Emery  seemed  to  be  utterly 
at  a  loss  for  an  opinion  ;  but  finally,  as  if  overwhelmed  by 
the  possible  complications  which  such  a  course  might 
involve,  very  hotly  urged  the  injustice  of  such  a  step  ; 
and  finally,  just  before  reaching  the  city,  came  out  flatly, 
\nd  said  that  he  had  been  thinking  the  matter  over,  and 
had  come  to  the  conclusion  that,  if  the  real  robbers  were 
brought  before  him,  it  wa:j  very  doubtful  whether  he 
would  be  able  to  identify  them  at  all! 

Ail  of  this  and  much  other,  tending  to  show  a  guilty 
knowledge  of  the  robbery  on  Emery's  part,  and  a  great 
anxiety  to  be  rid  of  the  whole  matter,  was  telegraphed 
me  from  Dubuque  ;  and  I  instantly  decided  to  arrange  a 


&XTRA  ORDINAR  y  SELF- A  OBBER  Y. 

ruse  by  which  Emery  could  be  brought  right  into  tvj 
office,  where  I  could  watch  him,  converse  with  him,  per 
haps  play  upon  him  a  little,  but,  at  all  events,  where  I 
might  be  able  to  form  a  better  judgment  of  the  man,  and 
conclude  whether  he  was  in  any  way  connected  with  this 
affair,  which,  in  looking  at  it  from  any  standpoint,  I  could 
not  but  regard  as  very  mysterious. 

I  could  scarcely  imagine  what  connection  Emery  had 
with  the  matter.  I  confess  that  I  suspected  he  had 
robbed  himself.  But  how  were  the  horrible  wounds  that 
had  nearly  caused  his  death  to  be  accounted  for  ? 

Surely  no  sane  man  in  Emery's  position  in  life  would 
cat  his  hand  nearly  off,  stab  himself  a  half  dozen  times 
most  desperately  over  and  about  the  heart,  and  lay  open 
his  skull  as  a  fearful  sabre  stroke  would  do ! 

I  could  hardly  imagine  any  solution  to  the  mystery. 
Possibly  he  had  not  been  guilty  of  the  actual  robbery, 
but  perhaps  it  had  been  done  by  persons  who  had  since 
approached  him,  and  represented  to  him  that  they  were 
too  shrewd  to  be  punished,  and,  having  convinced  him 
of  this,  for  a  liberal  share  of  the  stolen  funds,  secured 
from  him  a  pledge  that  he  would  prevent,  as  far  as  possi- 
ble, the  efforts  which  were  being  made  for  their  capture. 

In  any  event,  I  had  decided  that  Mr.  Emery  was  guill) 
tf  something  / 

I  therefore  at  once  telegraphed  operative  Hanlon,  at 
Dubuque,  that  the  parties  he  had  expected  there  nad  got 
an  inkling  that  their  whereabouts  had  been  discovered, 
had  fled  to  this  city  ;  that  I  had  had  them  arrested,  and 


EXtRA  OR  DINAR  Y  SEL  F-ROBBhR  Y.  fcj 

*ras  now  detaining  them  ;  and  directing  him  to  leave 
there  at  once  for  Chicago  with  Mr.  Emery,  whose  pr?s- 
^nce  would  be  absolutely  required. 

This  done,  I  set  about  preparing  matters  at  my  office 
>o  as  to  give  color  to  the  genuineness  of  the  arrest  when 
Mr.  Emery  arrived. 

I  selected  two  stalwart  men  from  among  my  force, 
and,  by  change  in  dress  and  sundry  other  little  manoeuvres, 
made  them  answer  the  description  of  the  supposed  bur- 
glars who  had  robbed  and  nearly  murdered  Mr.  Emery. 
They,  were  heavily  ironed  and  strongly  guarded,  and  cer- 
tainly, under  the  circumstances,  presented  a  very  hard 
and  desperate  appearance. 

The  next  morning  operative  Hanlon  and  Mr.  Emery 
arrived  in  Chicago. 

The  very  moment  1  set  my  eyes  upon  the  man  I 
knew  him  to  be  guilty. 

He  was  a  gentleman  of  fine  appearance  naturally,  but 
in  every  movement  of  his  person,  in  every  feature  of  his 
face,  in  every  changing  tone  of  his  voice,  in  every 
startled  look  from  his  downcast  eyes  as  they  met  nay 
own,  there  was  as  strong  an  evidence  of  guilt  as  I  evei 
had  looked  upon,  and  as  true  a  proof  that  Emery  waa 
the  criminal  as  though  he  had  been  a  robber,  had  robbed 
and  half-murdered  another  man,  and  come  into  my  office 
under  arrest  rather  than  as  a  guest. 

I  saw  all  this  at  once,  and  endeavored  to  reassure  hirr 
with  the  belief  that  we  had  at  last  captured  the  light  par 
ties. 


3O8  EXTRA  ORDlhAR  Y  'SELF-R^&BEk  Y. 

He  hoped  so,  he  said ;  and  this  was  all  that  could  b« 
got  out  of  him. 

Soon  we  proceeded  to  the  apartment  where  the  pre- 
tended desperate  criminals  were  guarded. 

They  played  their  parts  well,  and  made  every  possible 
apparent  effort,  without  overdoing  the  matter,  to  prevent 
recognition.  Emery  was  white  as  a  ghost  when  he  was 
brought  before  them.  He  seemed  at  an  utter  loss  of 
knowledge  how  to  act,  but  finally  ventured  to  say  that, 
while  he  might  have  seen  them,  he  could  not  swear  to 
their  being  the  parties. 

Returning  to  my  private  office,  I  invited  Mr.  Emery  to 
a  seat,  directed  the  door  to  be  closed,  and,  seating  myself 
before  him,  remarked  pleasantly  : 

"  Mr.  Emery,  we  are  having  pretty  hard  luck  in  this 
matter?" 

"  Very  ! "  he  replied,  with  a  dry  throat  and  a  good  deal 
of  huskiness  in  it. 

"  What  would  you  say,  Mr.  Emery,"  I  remarked,  with  a 
meaning  smile,  "  if  I  should  tell  you  that,  although  you 
fail  to  identify  the  parties  under  arrest  here,  I  now  have 
the  perpetrator  of  this  crime  within  my  office." 

His  face  grew  livid  and  white  by  turns,  and  his  eyes 
seemed  starting  from  their  sockets. 

"  Yes,"  I  continued,  with  great  severity ;  "  and  what 
would  you  say  if  I  would  show  you  the  man  in  this  very 
room  ?  " 

"  Where  ?  where  ?  "  he  gasped,  giving  a  startled  look  ir 
everj  direction. 


ZXTRAORDINAR  Y  SELF-ROB&ER  Y.  309 

"  There  !  there  !  See  him  !  Look  at  him  !  "  1  almost 
shouted,  turning  him  at  one  motion  in  the  revolving  chaii 
where  he  -sat,  and  bringing  the  poor  fellow  squarely  in 
front  of  a  huge  pier-glass,  and  then  forced  him  squarely 
upon  his  feet  against  it  by  main  strength. 

I  never  saw  a  more  ghastly  face  than  that  of  this  self- 
robber's. 

He  sank  into  his  seat  and  gasped  : 

"  For  God's  sake,  Mr.  Pinkertori,  you  don't  mean " 

"  You  know  what  I  mean,  Emery.  You  know  it !  No-* 
out  with  the  truth,  like  a  man  !  " 

There  is  but  little  more  to  tell.  Emery  now  knew  that  I 
knew  he  committed  the  robbery,  and  the  poor  man  went 
right  at  it,  confessing  the  whole  matter  in  a  few  minutes. 

It  was  to  the  effect  that  he  had  no  need  for  the  money, 
was  wealthy  and  beyond  any  possible  want  for  life,  but, 
being  there  in  the  office,  shut  up  with  so  large  a  sum  oi 
money  so  long,  he  had  first  thought  of  the  ease  with  which 
he  might  be  robbed ;  then,  revolving  this  in  his  mind  so 
frequently,  he  finally  conceived  the  idea  of  robbing  hiai- 
self.  At  last  this  became  a  sort  of  all-absorbing  idea  with 
him,  which  he  could  not  by  any  possibility  shake  off,  until 
actually,  to  give  himself  relief  from  it,  he  stole  the  money, 
hid  it  under  the  side-walk  in  front  of  the  office,  broke  up 
the  office  furniture,  and  scattered  papers  and  things,  so  as 
to  give  an  evidence  of  a  struggle,  and  at  last  inflicted 
upon  himself  the  terrible  wounds  from  which  he  had  nearly 
died  in  order  to  give  color  to  the  story  he  was  obliged  to 
tell  of  being  assaulted. 


310       CONFIDENCE  SWINDLE  IN 

But  the  saddest  part  remains  to  be  told.  Emery  ttrfcl 
put  in  charge  of  the  same  operative,  and  returned  to  Iowa 
a  prisoner,  where  he  had  left  three  days  before  a  respect 
able  citizen  and  a  trusted  officer.  The  money  w£..s  all 
found  just  where  Emery  had  said  it  was  hidden.  But  the 
shame  and  disgrace  of  it  all  was  more  than  the  deluded 
man  could  sustain,  and  the  second  day  after  his  arrival 
home  he  ended  all  his  troubles  by  committing  suicide ;  thift 
tragedy  terminating  one  of  the  strangest  incidents  of  my 
detective  career. 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

A   BRILLIANT   CONFIDENCE    SWINDLE    IN    HIGH    J./FE. 

IN  looking  over  the  events  of  my  most  eventful  life, 
as  the  frequency  of  criminal  occurrences  of  similar 
character  often  compels  me  to  do,  I  cannot  but  icflect 
over  the  strange  gullibility  of  the  general  public,  and 
wonder  at  the  great  fertility  of  schemes  and  successful 
conspiracies  on  the  part  of  criminals.  Every  day  of  the 
year  some  apparently  new  development  in  the  way  <  t 
criminal  ingenuity  is  apparent,  and  the  best  detective 
minds  of  the  time  are  const:  ntly  kept  at  their  keenest 
friction  to  devise  some  means  and  expedients  to  cope  with 
the  advanced  and  apparently  cultivated  brains  that  are 
forever  busy  with  fresh  devices  for  living  a  life  of  elegance 
tnd  ^ase  without  honest  labor. 


CONt  WMNCE  S  WltfDLE  IN  HIGH  LIFE.      3 1 1 

And  v«-  :0  onc  wno  has  spent  the  greater  part  of  hu 
•ife,  A,  r.  Save  done,  in  conscientiously  studying  the  phi- 
losopk/  of  crime  and  the  peculiar  traits  and  chan-cteris- 
tics  of  criminals,  there  appears  to  be  nothing  startlingly 
new  in  all  these  matters.  There  is  change  in  manner  of 
operation,  there  may  be  fresh  method  in  execution,  but 
the  main  principle  of  crime,  as  well  as  of  its  detection,  al- 
ways remains  the  same  ;  and  with  the  thousands  upon  thou- 
sands of  wa  :nings  and  public  lessons  coming  to  light  every 
year,  it  wo  tld  almost  seem  that  respectable  citizens  refuse 
to  profit  I  /  the  bitter  experience  of  others,  and  by  their 
apparent  implicity  and  unguardedness  really  invite  upon 
themselv  »  the  manipulations  of  keen  rogues  and  edu- 
c^^ed  ra'/.als ;  and  so  true  is  this  of  people  of  all  grades 
of  society,  that  frequently,  while  doing  everything  in  my 
power  to  assist  those  who  have  been  almost  ruined  by 
their  own  foolishness,  I  could  not  resist  the  reflection  that 
they  had  been  served  as  they  deserved. 

An  instance  of  carefully- prepared  planning,  neat  work, 
and  successful  swindling  of  this  kind  came  under  my 
notice  in  Baltimore,  a  few  years  since ;  and  whenever  it  is 
recalled  to  my  mind  I  am  ir  doubt  whether  I  shall  more 
admire  the  handsome  manner  in  which  the  scheme  was 
done,  or  condemn  the  foolishness  of  the  educated  victim, 
who,  after  I  had  unearthed  the  scoundrels  that  had 
cruelly  deceived  and  swindled  the  party,  refused  to  prose- 
cute them,  out  of  some  mawkish  sentiment  or  fear  of  pub 
lie  ridicule. 

Iti  1868  an  old  gentleman  —  v.^o.u  I  will  call  Willet — 


3 1 2      CONFIDENCE  S  WINDLE  IN  H1G.  f  LIFE. 

died  in  Baltimore,  leaving  behind  him  a  young  and  char»M 
mg  widow  and  a  big  fortune.  After  a  year's  becoming 
retirement  and  mourning,  Mrs.  Willet  reappeared  in 
society,  and  was  warmly  received  within  her  circle,  as  her 
accomplishments  were  apparent  and  her  wealth  well 
known.  Her  grief  was  very  easily  drowned  in  a  moder- 
ately gay  society  life,  and  consequently  many  real  admirers 
and  more  genuine  adventurers  came  in  contact  with  her. 

Among  those  with  whom  she  became  acquainted  was 
one  Henry  Halliot,  a  son  of  a  retired  officer  of  the 
Union  army  during  the  rebellion.  He  was  at  one  time, 
and  was  supposed  then  to  be,  a  young  gentleman  of 
promise,  wealth,  and  good  connections,  and,  being  a  hand- 
s^Mie,  pleasant  sort  of  fellow,  he  possessed  just  those 
traits  and  habits  to  easily  captivate  impressible  women. 

Halliot  had  been  introduced  to  Mrs.  Willet  by  a  French 
lady,  named  Mile.  Villiers — a  recent  arrival  in  the  society 
in  which  Mrs.  Willet  moved,  but  reputed  wealthy  and  as 
being  very  select  in  her  society.  This  Jeannette  Villiers 
was  unmarried,  vivacious,  witty — in  fact,  fascinating  as 
only  spirited  and  handsome  French  women  can  be.  She 
was  a  charming  brunette,  full  of  blood,  vitality,  and  posi- 
iiveness,  and  soon  began  to  exercise  a  certain  magnetic 
influence  over  Mrs.  Willet,  with  whom  she  soon  became 
very  intimate,  and  who  was  a  dreamy-faced  blonde,  with 
but  little  strength  of  character. 

Perfectly  charmed  with  the  young  and  volatile  French 
woman,  Mrs.  Willet,  after  an  acquaintance  of  three 
months,  took  her  to  her  home  as  a  guest,  to  remain  there 


CONFIDENCE  SWINDLE  IN  HIGH  LIFE.       313 

just  as  long  as  she  pleased,  and  share  the  luxuries  of  the 
splendid  house,  the  servants,  the  plate,  and  the  rich  wine 
of  the  cellars,  which  Mrs.  Willet  had  previously  had  all  to 
herself. 

Of  course  young  Mr.  Halliot  called  occasionally  to 
visit  the  widow  and  her  charming  protegee.  But  his  atten- 
tions were  for  a  purpose,  as  will  be  shown,. most  marked 
towaid  the  wealthy  widow.  It  was  not  long  before  the 
handsome  fellow  made  an  impression  upon  the  heart  of 
.Mrs  Willet ;  and  it  was  not  much  longer  before  it  be- 
came evident  that  two  years  would  not  pass  and  leave 
Mrs.  Willet  a  widow.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  Mile.  Vil- 
Hers  appeared  to  look  favorably  upon  the  suit  of  the 
young  soldier.  Indeed  she  had  been  instrumental  in 
forwarding  the  courtship,  but  had  done  so  rather  under 
cover,  so  that  no  complicity  could  appear  between  her 
self  and  young  Halliot. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  splendid  French  woman  had 
gained  a  complete  mastery  over  the  rich  widow.  She 
was  her  inseparable  companion.  She  guided  her  in  all 
things,  even  down  to  the  last  minute  of  going  and  coming. 
She  selected  her  books.  She  managed  her  servants,  and 
what  was  more  to  her  purpose,  advised  her  regarding  the 
disposition  of  certain  large  and  valuable  pieces  of  city 
i  ;al  estate  in  the  hands  of  a  joint  executor.  In  fact,  the 
wily  giil — for  she  could  hardly  be  called  a  woman — so 
\\ound  herself  about  the  widow's  affection  that,  if  it  is 
possible  for  one  woman  to  be  in  love  with  another,  Mrs. 
Willet  was  in  love  with  Mile.  Villiers. 


§14       CONFIDENCE  SWINDLE  IN   HIGH  LIFE* 

Mrs.  Willet  imagined  that  all  her  troubles  were  re 
moved  whenever  her  friend  was  at  ham7 ;  qn.l  Hallior,  t\ie 
handsome  young  ex  officer,  w  .o  still  paid  ais devoted atteu 
tions  to  the  widow,  often  jokingly  remarked  that  ne  lu<l  luf 
one  rival  in  all  the  world  to  fear,  and  that  one  was  the' 
dear  little  French  woman  who  had  brought  them  together. 

Mile.  Villiers-  also  seemed  pleasantly  jealous  of  Halliot; 
but,  without  seeming  to  do  it,  she  always  put  in  a  good 
word  for  Halliot,  and  brought  the  couple  together  on 
every  possible  occasion.  In  a  few  months  they  had  be- 
come three  inseparables,  and  the  executor,  who  had  been 
a  life-long  friend  of  the  deceased  husband,  looked  on  yrith 
a  smiling  approval  as  long  as  money  was  not  needed  and 
his  young  charge  seemed  to  be  so  happily  situated. 

In  September,  1869,  Mrs.  Willet  disposed  of  a  valuable 
piece  of  real  estate,  and  received  a  cash  payment  of  forty 
thousand  dollars.  Her  husband  had  left  her  everything. 
and  she  was  perfectly  free  to  sell  or  lease  any  or  all  or 
none  of  the  property,  and  duly  appropriate  the  proceeds 
to  her  use  as  she  saw  fit.  It  was  not  supposed  that  the 
officer-lover  knew  of  the  widow's  vast  wealth,  or  cared  to 
know  the  same  ;  but  Mile.  Villiers  did  know  it,  and  took 
good  care  that  Mrs.  Willet,  who  knew  nothing  of  law  or 
business,  should  not  be  troubled  with  details  or  dry 
fig'ires,  and  she  generously  performed  all  the  labor  ot 
looking  after  the  property  for  her  friend.  Kind  soul* 
she  expected  no  reward.  Not  she  !  Had  she  not  plenty 
of  her  own  ?  Did  she  not  own  an  entire  castle  full  of  re- 
tainers, all  in  the  south  of  la  belle  France  ?  So  she  harf 


CONFIDENCE  SWINDLE  IN  HIGH  LIFE,       3*5 

told  the  widow,  along  with  other  delightful  and  bewitching 
romances  of  her  sunny  land  beyond  the  sea ;  and,  besides,. 
her  industry  and  good  management  of  the  Willet  mansion 
were  proverbial 

"How  shall  I  ever  repay  you?"  Mrs.  Willet  would 
ask,  with  an  impulsive,  affectionate  enthusiasm. 

"  Oh,  mon  amie,  speak  never  more  of  so  little  things  !  " 
the  handsome  French  swindler  would  respond,  throwing 
HCT  arms  around  her  friend's  neck  and  adding  the  grace 
of  impetuous  ingenuousness  to  the  pretty  charm  of  hei 
bewitching,  broken  English. 

And  so  the  fine  French  drama  went  on,  with  its  gushing 
affection,  its  pretty  wit,  and  its  splendid  intrigue. 

Mile.  Villiers  was  always  provided  with  funds  from 
some  mysterious  bank  account,  and  very  frequently 
dropped,  as  if  by  accident,  casual  remarks  concerning 
Parisian  bills  of  exchange,  the  rents  of  her  tenantry,  and 
the  like,  which  quite  bewildered  any  of  her  chance  ac- 
quaintances, and  wholly  deceived  the  poor  dupe,  upon 
whose  bounty  she  was  almost  entirely  living. 

For  all  that  could  be  seen  by  Mrs.  Willet,  Halliot  and 
Mile.  Villiers  were  merely  friends — her  friends,  and  her 
tiue  and  steadfast  friends  ;  but  if  her  eyes  could  have  wit- 
nessed their  secret  meetings,  and  what  occurred  at  them, 
and  if  her  ears  could  have  overheard  the  cold  blooded 
I'lanning  and  scheming  and  comparing  of  notes,  concern- 
ing the  plucking  they  were  soon  to  give  her,  there  would 
have  been  an  awakening,  and  that  soon  enough  to  pre- 
vent her  from  suffering  great  loss. 


3 1 6       CONFIDENCE  S  WIXDLE  IN  HIGH  L  IF£. 

Soon  after  the  sale  of  the  property  in  September,  wLer, 
the  forty  thousand  dollars  had  been  invested  in  Govern 
ment  bonds,  Halliot,  who  had  now  become  the  recognized 
lover  of  Mrs.  Willet,  was  taken  suddenly  ill.  He  occu 
pied  fine  apaitments  at  an  up-town  hotel,  and  thithei 
Mile.  Villiers  and  the  sorrowing  widow  proceeded  to  find 
the  handsome  ex -officer  terribly  emaciated  in  appearance. 
No  words  could  express  the  sorrow  of  Mrs.  Willet  and 
her  friend.  Ascertaining  that  a  considerable  bill  was 
standing  against  Halliot  at  the  hotel,  Villiers  only  had  to 
hint  that  his  illness  had  probj-bly  caused  it,  when  every 
penny's  indebtedness  was  J'^uidated  as  well  as  a  month's 
advance  payment  made.  v,nile  orders  were  left  ihat  every 
attention  possible  should  be  shown  the  invalid. 

Word  kept  coming  to  the  Willet  mansion  that  the  sick 
man  was  growing  worse  and  worse ;  and  the  little  French 
rascal,  Villiers,  so  artfully  worked  upon  the  widow's  fears, 
sympathies,  and  love,  that  she  became  nearly  beside  her- 
self with  grief  as  well  as  utterly  helpless  and  pliable  in 
the  hands  of  her  pretended  friend. 

Soon  Mrs.  Willet  received  a  message,  signed  "  your 
dying  lover,"  summoning  her  to  Halliot's  bedside.  She 
begged  and  entreated  Mile.  Villiers  to  accompany  her. 
No,  LO  ;  she  could  not,  she  would  not ;  she  knew  some- 
thing terrible  was  about  to  happen.  Finally  Mrs.  Willet 
went  alone,  half  frantic  at  the  sudden  overwhelming  cloud 
that  had  fallen  upon  all  she  held  dear,  and  nearly  fainted 
at  the  door  of  Halliot's  room. 

Rushing  to  his  bedside,  she  took  him  impulsively  in  hei 


CONFIDENCE  SWINDLE  IN  HIGH  LIFE.       31? 

arms,  and,  sobbing  like  a  child,  I  egged  that  he  might  be 
spared  to  her. 

Some  touch  of  pity  for  the  woman's  fidelity  must  have 
corne  over  the  shamming  scamp  as  he  lay  there  upon  the 
white  pillows,  propped  up  in  a  picturesque  position,  for 
it  was  a  long  time  before  he  seemed  to  dare  to  speak  of 
the  subject  uppermost  in  his  mind ;  but  finally  it  came, 
and  after  the  following  manner  : 

While  holding  the  betrayed  woman  to  his  heart,  he 
confessed,  in  a  seeming  agony  of  remorse,  that  he  had 
cruelly  deceived  her ;  that  he  had  long  loved  Jeannette 
Villiers,  the  beautiful  French  woman,  and,  worse  than  all 
that  the  woman  was  his  wife  ! 

He  was  on  his  death-bed.  He  could  not  die  without 
Mrs.  Willet's  forgiveness,  nor  would  he  give  up  the  ghost 
unless  Mrs.  Willet  would  swear,  upon  her  bended  knees, 
that  his  wife  and  soon-to-be-born  child  should  be  hej 
care,  her  wards  through  life.  The  broken-hearted 
woman  took  the  oath,  and  departed.  She  meant,  in  all 
honesty,  to  keep  it  too.  She  vowed  that  she  should 
never  let  this  woman  suffer,  and,  in  her  simplicity  and 
loyalty  to  an  honest  friendship,  was  not  altogether  dis- 
pleased that  events  had  so  culminated  that  she  could 
now  show,  in  a  practical  manner,  her  kind  feeling  to  the 
beautiful  French  girl,  who  was  now,  the  simple  Mrs. 
Willet  thought,  in  a  pitiable  condition  of  dependency, 
and  would  soon  be  in  a  more  pitiable  plight  with  a  father- 
less babe  in  her  arms. 

On  her  return  to  the  now  miserable  mansion,  there  wai 


3 1 8       CONFIDENCE  SWINDLE  IN  HIGH  LIFE. 

a  sad  scene  of  reproach,  forgiveness,  an  i  sobbing  ;  but  it 
all  resulted  in  Mrs.  Willet's  taking  Villiers  into  her  heart 
and  affection  again,  and,  although  both  women  were  un- 
dergoing great  anguish  and  grief,  yet  both  women  were 
happy.  Mrs.  Willet  was  happy  because  she  had  done  a 
magnanimous  act.  The  French  woman  was  happy  be- 
cause the  French  drama,  of  which  she  was  "  leading 
lady,"  was  getting  on  so  successfully. 

The  next  day  the  young  ex-officer  died — so  Mrs. 
Willet  was  informed  ;  and  the  Baltimore  newspapers  con- 
tained notices  of  his  death,  while  the  obituary  editor  of 
the  Philadelphia  Ledger  wailed  out  (at  a  dollar  a  line)  a 
fitting  stanza  of  grief.  This  information  and  the  previous 
excitement  completely  prostrated  Mrs.  Willet,  and  she 
did  not  attend  the  funeral.  But  Jeannette  Villiers  did. 
At  least  she  went  where  Mrs.  Willet  supposed  the 
funeral  of  Halliot  occurred,  and  the  charming  rascal 
wore  the  deepest  of  mourning  and  looked  more  charm- 
ing than  ever.  She  also  evidently  mourned  deeply  and 
Telt  keenly  the  loss  of  her  husband,  while  Mrs.  Willet 
was  simply  inconsolable  —  the  whole  matter,  if  it  had 
been  real  on  the  part  of  Villiers,  presenting  the  almost 
inconceivable  instance  of  two  handsome  and  intelligent 
women,  one  the  wife  and  the  other  the  denied  lover, 
both  mourning  the  loss  of  the  same  man,  and  both  con- 
tinuing an  ardent  affection  for  each  other. 

About  a  month  after  the  supposed  death  of  Halliot 
Mrs.  Willet  consulted  an  attorney,  and  thence  went  to 
g\e  executor  of  her  husband's  estate,  where  she  received 


CONFIDENCE  SWINDLE  IN  HIGH  LIFE.       3I£ 

ten  thousand  dollars.  With  this  she  proceeded  to  a 
prominent  hotel  with  Villiers,  where,  in  the  presence  of 
witnesses — which  had  of  course  all  accidentally  been  pro 
vided  by  the  latter — she  placed  this  large  sum  of  money 
in  the  hands  of  the  French  woman  as  a  free  gift.  This 
was,  as  she  said,  partially  fulfilling  the  solemn  vow  she 
had  taken  before  Halliot  on  his  death-bed. 

In  three  months  more  there  was  a  birth  at  the  Willet 
mansion.  The  sprightly,  vivacious,  charming  Villiers,  or 
Mrs.  Halliot,  as  she  was  now  called,  had  become  the 
mother  of  a  healthy  boy.  The  heart  of  Mrs.  Willet  was 
further  touched,  and  the  strange  fascination  upon  the 
woman  still  pursued  her  and  prompted  her  to  still  greater 
generosity.  As  soon  as  the  mother  dare  leave  the  house, 
Jie  was  once  more  taken  to  the  hotel,  and  there  again, 
before  witnesses,  presented  with  forty  thousand  dollars 
in  Government  bonds. 

Jeannette  Villiers  wept,  and  protested  that  her  dear 
mend  was  too  kind ;  but  Mrs.  Willet  insisted  that  she 
had  it  to  spare,  and  felt  that  she  was  only  keeping  the 
binding  oath  she  had  taken. 

Strange  to  relate,  however,  one  week  from  the  day  when 
the  last  presentation  was  made  Mrs.  Halliot  and  the 
child  went  out  in  a  carriage  for  an  airing. 

Mrs.  Willet  pressed  the  use  of  her  own  coupe  upon  her  ; 
but  no,  she  could  not  think  of  such  a  thing,  and  secured 
one  on  hire.  Night  came,  and  the  mother  and  child  did 
not  return. 

^  They  will  surely  come  tomorrow!'     ?aid    the   dc- 


J2O       CONFIDENCE  SWINDLE  IN  HIGH  LIFE. 

serted  widow.  And  she  fairly  wept  herself  to  sleep  that 
n'ght  for  lonesomeness  at  being  separated  from  her  "  Jear 
Jeannstte."  But  "  to-morrow"  came,  and  another  to- 
morrow, and  a  week  sped,  but  no  charming  little  French 
woman  came. 

Mrs.  Willet  was  now  nearly  insane,  at  least  so  the 
story  went.  Weak  and  tractable  in  the  hands  of  a  design- 
ing French  woman  before,  now  she  was  apparently  wild 
with  dread  that  something  terrible  had  happened  to  her 
prottgtes  ;  and  it  was  not  until  she  had  consulted  her  exe- 
cutor that  her  eyes  were  opened.  He  had  not  been  made 
aware  of  the  last  gift  of  forty  thousand  dollars  in  Gov- 
ernment bonds.  When  Mrs.  Willet  gave  the  ten  thou- 
sand-dollar check,  he  made  no  objection ;  but  now  he  was 
utterly  dismayed  at  the  turn  things  had  taken,  and  at 
once  applied  to  me  for  assistance  to  unravel  the  mystery, 
although  the  widow  bitterly  protested  against  such  a 
course. 

I  felt  that  little  could  be  done,  simply  because  the  vic- 
tim of  the  conspiracy  was  unwilling  to  take  any  steps 
toward  exposing  the  villainy  of  the  rascals  who  had  duped 
her;  and  I  imagined  I  could  see  behind  all  more  than  the 
mere  desire  to  shield  persons  whom  she  had  once  held  in 
high  regard,  and  consequently  pursued  my  investigations 
with  no  possible  hope  of  bringing  two  precious  rascals  to 
justice,  but  with  a  personal  interest  in  fathoming  the  ause 
of  Mrs.  Willet' s  peculiar  tenderness. 

For  some  time  my  researches  were  balked  in  every  par- 
ticular. To  begin  with,  Mrs.  Willet  was  very  chary  of 


CONFIDENCE  SWINDIE  IN  HIGH  LIFE.       32 1 

giving  information.  Not  only  this,  but  Jeannette  Villiers, 
on  leaving  the  Willet  mansion,  had  taken  the  precaution 
to  not  only  remove  her  handsome  photograph  from  Mrs. 
Willet's  album,  but  had  also  destroyed  or  removed  every 
little  keepsake  or  article  of  virtu  by  which  some  possible 
clue  of  her  whereabouts  might  be  secured. 

I  let  this  feature  of  the  matter  drop  for  a  time,  and 
finally  turned  my  attention  to  Halliot's  rather  myste- 
rious death.  Quite  accidentally  (through  my  extensive 
acquaintance  among  army  officers)  I  learned  that  he  hac 
been  seen  in  the  West,  but  my  info.mant  could  not  recol- 
lect where  or  under  what  circumstances.  Being  con- 
firmed in  my  opinion,  however,  that  the  dashing  ex-army 
officer  was  alive  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  as  good  health 
as  myself,  I  next  turned  my  attention  to  the  circum- 
stances attending  his  alleged  death. 

Pursuing  this  line  of  investigation,  a  certain  hotel  clerk 
was  found,  who  had  been  discharged  for  irregularities,  and 
who,  for  an  enticing  remuneration,  freely  confessed  to 
assisting  Halliot  in  pretending  to  die  He  stated  that 
Halliot  had  represented  to  him  that  the  sham  was  neces- 
sary to  prevent  a  marriage  which  he  loathed.  He  had 
helped  him  simply  as  one  good  fellow  would  help  another 
out  of  such  a  scrape,  and  had  been  given  a  handsome 
present  for  his  trouble.  I  further  ascertained  from  this 
man  that  Halliot  was  living  in  elegance  in  St.  Louis,  and 
had  recently  married  a  French  widow,  who  had  a  very 
young  child  ;  but  that  Halliot  was  now  living  under  the 
assumed  name  of  Hilliers,  which,  the  reader  will  recollect, 

14* 


CONFIDENCE  SWINDLE  IN  HIGH  LfF£. 

bore  a  striking  similarity  to  Villiers,  the  tame  of  the 
chaiming  French  woman  who  had  so  mysteriously  dis- 
appeared from  Mrs.  Willet's  home  in  Baltimore. 

I  could  not  but  put  these  names  together  in  my  mind, 
and  was  now  certain  that  I  had  found  a  clue  to  the  shrewd 
pair,  who  were  probably  living  in  elegance  in  St.  Louis 
on  the  proceeds  of  the  generous  woman  they  had  both 
wronged ;  but  still  I  was  unable  to  wholly  account  for  the 
singular  determination  of  the  wronged  widow  to  let  them 
live  in  peace  wherever  they  might  be ;  for  by  this  time  she 
was  as  fully  convinced  as  myself  and  the  executor  that  she 
hatl  been  coolly  and  deliberately  swindled  by  the  couple. 

The  executor  was  determined  to  probe  the  matter  to 
the  bottom,  whether  or  not  any  of  the  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars could  be  recovered ;  and  I  confess  that  my  profes- 
sional interest  and  curiosity  made  me  quite  as  anxious  for 
the  same  result. 

It  was  a  matter  now  of  no  difficulty  to  ascertain  defi- 
nitely that  Halliot,  or  Hilliers,  as  he  now  called  himself, 
was  living  with  the  beautiful  and  fascinating  French  lady 
as  his  wife  in  St  Louis  ;  that  the  man  was  in  a  lucrative 
business ;  that  the  woman  was  supposed  to  be  a  handsome 
and  wealthy  Parisian  widow,  who  had  smitten  the  husband 
while  traveling  in  Europe ;  and  that  both  were  very 
lappy  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  ill-gotten  gains  :  and  it 
was  a  matter  of  scarcely  greater  difficulty  to  place  an 
operative,  a  dashing  man-of-the-world,  in  Halliot's  society 
in  such  a  way  that  he  soon  won  his  conf  lence  and  com- 
pelled the  revelation  of  what  is  the  most  interesting 


CONFIDENCE  SWINDLE  /A  £j&£ LIFE.       $2 1 

romantic,  and  dramatic  feature  of  the  wnc^e  affair,  show 
irig  that  the  shrewdness  of  the  two,  their  boldness,  their 
cunning,  and,  above  all,  their  supreme  assurance,  were  all 
supremely  incredible. 

Piece  by  piece  the  revelation  was  made  that  Halliot  haJl 
exhausted  the  means  left  by  his  family,  had  in  the  mean- 
time married  the  beautiful  Jeannette  Villiers,  but  had  kept 
such  marriage  secret,  and  that  both,  for  purposes  of  plun- 
der, had  pretended  in  society  to  being  single  ;  that,  as 
soon  as  the  acquaintance  of  Mrs.  Willet  was  formed  by 
Mile.  Villiers,  the  conspiracy  to  relieve  the  widow  of  her 
surplus  wealth  was  arranged ;  that  Villiers  then  won  her 
confidence  and  esteem,  then  introduced  Halliot,  who  won 
her  affection  to  an  overwhelming  degree  ;  that  then  Halliot 
pretended  to  die,  having  made  the  dying  confession  and 
secured  the  oath  that  Villiers  should  remain  Mrs.  Willet's 
care,  knowing  that  the  latter's  generosity  would  be  touched, 
and  that  she  would  do  the  handsome  thing,  which  she  had 
done  to  the  extent  of  a  ten  thousand  dollar  check  ;  and 
that  then,  after  this  much  had  been  secured,  Halliot  sud- 
denly came  to  life,  before  Mrs.  Willet,  at  a  place  where 
Villiers  had  shrewdly  arranged  to  have  the  widow  so  that 
A  scene  should  be  prevented;  and  that,  though  Mrs. 
Willet  nearly  died  of  fright  and  astonishment,  she  was  so 
overjoyed  at  his  being  alive,  that  the  scoundrel  moulded 
her  to  his  purposes  like  putty,  and  then  and  there  agaiia 
made  a  confession  that  he  had  pretended  to  die  so  that  ht 
might  relieve  himst  If  of  Jeamutte  Villiers^  who  had  never 
been  his  wife,  but  only  his  mistress,  and  that  he  loved  the 


324      CONFIDENCE  SWINDLE  IN  HIGti 

widow  to  distraction,  and  could  never  be  happy  without 
hei. 

Then,  in  the  joy  and  happiness  of  this  reunion,  the 
Double-dyed  scoundrel  so  worked  up  the  woman's  feelings 
and  real  love  for  him,  that,  before  they  had  left  the  roorr 
where  Jeannette  Villiers  had  brought  them  together,  Mrs. 
Willet  had  agreed  to  a  scheme  to  get  rid  of  her  little  French 
friend  by  giving  her  the  forty  thousand  dollars,  which  had 
been  given,  as  already  related ;  and,  when  the  entire  fifty 
thousand  dollars  had  been  secured,  the  scheming  and 
brilliant  couple  quietly  left  Baltimore  and  the  doubly- 
wronged  and  deceived  widow,  to  begin  life  in  the  West 
under  the  circumstances  previously  recited. 

But  it  was  all  of  no  use.  Mrs.  Willet  positively  refused 
to  prosecute  the  parties ;  and  the  operation,  while  a  suc- 
cess in  reaching  the  parties  sought  and  securing  the  in- 
formation desired,  failed  to  bring  to  justice  two  of  the 
keenest  unprofessional  swindlers  I  have  known. 

Halliot,  alias  Hilliers,  is  now  a  hale,  hearty  man  oi 
forty,  well-to-do  in  the  world,  while  Jeannette  Villiers, 
his  wife,  is  a  magnificent-appearing  woman  of  a  fevi 
years  younger ;  and,  stranger  than  all  of  the  strange 
things  connected  with  this  romantic  affair,  the  Hallioti 
family  and  the  family  of  Mrs.  Willet— who  was,  a  few  yiars 
since,  happily  remarried — are  on  the  best  of  terms  and  as 
good  friends  as  though  this  villainous  though  brilliant 
confidence  swindle  had  neve-  "been  performed. 

THE    END,. 


G.    W.  DTLLTNGH A M  CO.'S  PUBLICATIONS. 


Augusta  J.  Evans'  Novels. 

M  Who  has  not  read  with  rare  delight  the  novels  of  Augusta  Evans  ?  H-r  strange, 
tronderful.  and  fascinating  style ;  the  profound  depths  to  which  she  sinks  the  probe  into 
human  nature,  touching  its  most  sacred  chords  and  springs  ;  the  intense  interest  thrown 
around  her  characters,  and  the  very  marked  peculiarities  of  her  principal  figures,  conspire 
to  give  an  unusual  interest  to  the  works  of  this  eminent  Southern  authoress." 


Beulah $i  75 

Macaria 175 


Inez  ......................   i  75 

At  the  Mercy  of  Tiberius.  ..  200) 

Popular  Editions. 

Macaria..  ... 


St.  Elmo $2  oo 

Vashti. 200 

Infelice..  200 


oo 


Beulah  ....................  $i  oo 

Inez  ......................   I  oo 

ST.  ELMO,  Magnolia  Edition,  2  vols.  8z/0.,  Magnificently  Illustrated 
with  30  Photogravure  and  Half-tone  Engravings.    Per  set,  $6.00. 

Julie  P.  Smith's  Novels. 

**  The  novels  by  this  author  are  of  unusual  merit,  uncommonly  well  written,  clever, 
and  characterized  by  great  wit  and  vivacity.  They  are  growing  popular  and  more  popular 
every  day." 


Widow  Goldsmith's  Daugh- 
ter  $ 

Chris  and  Otho 

Ten  Old  Maids 

Lucy .„ 

His  Young  Wife 


CQ 

The  Married  Belle 

"50 

Courting  and  Farming.  . 

CQ 

Kiss  and  Be  Friends  .    . 

CQ 

50 

50 


50 


Marion  Harland's  Novels. 

*'  The  Novels  of  Marion  Harland  are  of  surpassing  excellence.  By  intrinsic  powef 
Of  character-drawing  and  descriptive  facility,  they  hold  the  rtader's  attention  with  the 
most  intense  interest  and  fascination. 


Alone $i  50 

Hidden  Path I  50 

Moss  Side 150 

Nemesis 150 

Miriam I  50 

Sunny  Bank 150 

Ruby's  Husband i  50 

At  Last i  50 


My  Ltttle  Love 
Phemie's  Temptation 
The  Empty  Heart 
From  My  Youth  Up 
Helen  Gardner 
Husbands  and  Homes 

Jessamine 

True  as  Steel.,. 


50 
50 
50 
So 
50 
50 
50 


6.   fir.  DtLLTNGHAM  COSS 


Albert  Ross'  Novels. 

New  Cloth  Bound  Editions. 

**  There  is  a  great  difference  between  the  productions  of  Albert  R«ss  and  those  of 
Borne  of  th«  sensational  writers  of  recent  date.  When  he  depicts  vice  he  does  it  with  an 
artistic  touch,  but  he  never  makes  it  attractive.  Mr.  Ross'  dramatic  instincts  are  strong. 
His  characters  become  in  his  hands  living,  moving  creatures-" 


Thou  Shalt  Not 

His  Private  Character. . 

Speaking  of  Ellen 

Her  Husband's  Friend 

The  Garston  Bigamy 

Thy  Neighbor's  Wife. 

Young  Miss  Giddy. 

Out  of  Wedlock 

Young  Fawcett's  Mabel. . . . 

His  Foster  Sister 

The  Naked  Truth 


oo 


00 


In  Stella's  Shadow $i  oo 

Moulding  a  Maiden I  oo 

Why  I'm  Single . . .  „   I  oo 

An  Original  Sinner i  oo 

Love  at  Seventy i  oo 

A  Black  Adonis i  oo 

Love  Gone  Astray i  oo 

Their  Marriage  Bond i  oa 

A  New  Sensation i  oo 

That  Gay  Deceiver  !.,,....    i  or 
Stranger  Than  Fiction  (New)  i  ou- 


John  Esten  Cooke's  Works. 

I*"""  *'  The  thrilling  historic  stones  of  John  Esten  Cooke  must  be  classed  among  the  BEST 
and  most  POPULAR  of  all  American  wricers.  The  great  Contest  between  the  States  was  the 
theme  he  chose  for  his  Historic  Romances.  Following  until  the  close  of  the  war  the  for- 
tunes of  Stuart,  Ashby,  Jackson  and  Lee,  he  returned  to  4  Eagle's  Nest,'  his  old  home, 
where,  in  the  quiet  of  peace,  he  wrote  volume  after  volume,  intense  in  dramatic  interest," 


Surry  of  Eagle's  Nest $i  50 

Fairfax 150 

Hilt  to  Hilt 150 

Beatrice  Hallam i  50 

Leather  and  Silk i  50 

Miss  Bonnybel i  50 

Jut  of  the  Foam I  50 


Hammer  and  Rapier $i  50 

Mohun i  50 

Captain  Ralph 150 

Col.  Ross  of  Piedmont. ....  i  50 

Robert  E.  Lee i  50 

Stonewall  Jackson i  50 

Her  Majesty  the  Queen ....   i  50 


A.  S.  Roe's  Novels. 


"  There  Is  no  writer  of  the  present  day 
fiction.     He  is  distinguished  by    his  fidelity  to  nature,  his  freedom  from  affectation,  his 


ho  excels  A.  S.  Roe,  in  his  particular  line  of 
to  nature,  his  freedom  from  affectation,  his 

sympathy  with  the  interests  of  everyday  existence  and  his  depth  and  sincerity  of  feeling 

His  stories  appeal  to  the  heart,  and  strengthen  and  refresh  it." 


True  to  the  Last $ 

A  Long  Look  Ahead 

The  Star  and  the  Cloud 

I've  Been  Thinking 

How  Could  He  Help  It 

Like  and  Unlike. 


To  Love  and  To  Be  Loved.. $ 

Time  and  Tide 

Woman  Our  Angel 

Looking  Around 

The  Cloud  on  the  Heart. . . . 
Resolution 


5° 


5° 

CO 


6*.    W*   DILLINGHAM  CO.'S  PUBLICATIONS. 


Arthur  Henry  Veysey» 

••  Mr.  Veysey's  mode  of  expression  shows  the  Spirit  and  faculty  of  an  artist.  His 
manner  of  developing  an  idea  and  leading  up  to  a  situation  is  boldly  dramatic  and  of  fasci- 
nating originality." 

Cheque  for  Three  Thousand. $ i  oofA  Pedigree  in  Pawn $i  25 

The  Two  White  EJephants. .   i  25JHats  Off  (New.) i  25 

Wm.  L-e  Queux. 

*'  Since  the  day  of  Wilkie  Collins  there  has  not  been  a,  writer  able  to  keep  up  a  mys- 
tery as  cleverly  as  Mr.  William  Le  Queux.  He  possesses  the  art  of  weaving  romances  that 
enthral  tl*e  reader  to  the  last  page* 

If  Sinners  Entice  Thee $i  5o|The  Day  of  Temptation $i   50 

The  Bond  of  Black. I  50! 

Josh  Billings. 

His  Complete  Writings,  Biography  and  100  Illustrations 2  oo 

Artemus  Ward. 

Complete  Comic  Writings— Revised  Edition,  with  28  full  page 

Illustrations  and  Photogravure  Frontispiece 2  oo 

Celia  E.  Gardner's  Novels. 

**  Miss  Gardner's  works  are  becoming  more  and  more  popular  every  year,  and  they 
will  continue  to  be  popular  long  after  many  of  our  present  favorite  writers  are  forgotten/* 


Stolen  Waters  (In  verse) 
Broken  Dreams      do     . 
Compensation         do     . 
A  Twisted  Skein     do 
Tested.. 


..$ 


Rich  Medway $ 

A   Woman's  WiJes 

Terrace  Roses 

Seraph — or  Mortal 

Won  Under  Protest  (New). 


50 
30 

50 
50 


Captain  Mayne  Reid's  Works. 


11  Captain  Mayne  Reid's  works  are  of  an  intensely  interesting  and  fascinating  character. 
Nearly  all  of  them  being  founded  upon  some  historical  event,  they  possess  a  permanent 
value  while  presenting  a  thrilling,  earnest,  dashing  fiction  surpassed  by  no  novel  of  the 
day." 


The  Scalp  Hunters , .  .$ 

The  Rifle  Rangers 

The  War  Trail 

The  Wood  Rangers. 

The  Wild  Huntress 

The  Maroon 

The   Headless  Horseman. . 
The  Rangers  and  Regulators 


The  White  Chief $i  50 

The  Tiger  Hunter 


The  Hunter's  Feast 

Wild  Life 

Osceola,  the  Seminole.. . . 

The  Quadroon 

The  White  Gauntlet 

Lost 


50 


50 

5° 


G.   W.  DILLINGHAM  CO.'S  PUBLICATIONS,  7 

Victor  Hugo's  Great  Novel. 

Les  Miserables — Translated  from  the  French.     Unabridged.  .$i  50 

Mother  Truth's  Melodies. 

A  Kindergarten  of  the  most  useful  knowledge  for    children, 

with  450  Illustrations.     Mrs.  E.  P.  Miller I  50 

Children's  Fairy  Geography. 

With  hundreds  of  illustrations.     Cloth  bound 125 

Bound  in  boards I  oo 

Miscellaneous  Works. 

Gettysburg,  Then  and  Now.     By  J.  M.  Vanderslice 3  50 

The  Story  of  The  Rough  Riders.     By  Edward  Marshall 

A  Village  Ophelia.     By  Anne  Reeve  Aldrich 

A  Princess  of  Vascovy.     By  John  Oxenham 

The  Return  of  The  O'Mahony.     By  Harold  Frederic 

Andree  at  The  North  Pole.     By  Leon  Lewis 

Waters  that  Pass  Away.     By  N.  B.  Winston 

Helena.     By  H.  S.  Irwin 

Hollow  Bracken.    By  Hanson  Penn  Diltz 

Not  on  the  Chart.     By  Algernon  Sydney  Logan 

His  Own  Image.     By  Alan  Dale 

As  the  Hart  Panteth.     By  Hallie  Erminie  Rives. 

Bound  by  the  Law.     By  Kate  Thyson  Marr 

God 's  Pay  Day.     By  Edgar  Clifton  Bross 

Merivale,  or  Phases  of  Southern  Life.    By  James  Robertshaw. 

Cyrano  de  Bergerac.     By  M.  Rostand 

The  Rainbow  Feather.     By  Fergus  Hume 

Houses  of  Glass,     By  Wallace  Lloyd,  M.  D. 

Rondo.     By  Cyril  Norman 

The  White  Devil  of  Verde.     By  Lucie  France  Pierce 

Flames  and  Ashes.     By  Alice  de  Carret 


8  6.    W.  DILLINGHAM  CO.' 3  PUBLICATIONS. 

Miscellaneous  Works,  Continued. 

Regret  of  Spring.     By  Pitts  Harrison  Burt.     Illustrated i  50 

With  Gyves  of  Gold.     By  Henry  Athey  and  Herbert  Bowers  i  50 

The  Cheery  Book.     By  Joe  Kerr.     Illustrated i  50 

The  World  Over,  Comic  Lessons  in  Geography.     By  Joe  Kerr  i  oo 

The  Worst  Boy  in  the  School.     By  M.  J.  A.  McCaffery 75 

The  Drones  Must  Die.     By  Max  Nordau 2  oo 

Near  a  Whole  City  Full.     By  Edward  W.  Townsend 125 

Cleo  the  Magnificent.     By  Louis  Zangwill .-. . .    i  50 

Maylou.     By  Frances  Raymond i  50 

Poems.     By  Belle  R.  Harrison , i  25 

The  Night  Before  Christmas.     By  Clement  C.  Moore 75 

Sabre  and  BayoneU  Stories  of  Heroism.  T.  F.  Rodenbough  i  50 
Twentieth  Century  Cook  Book.  Mrs.  Moritz  and  Miss  Kahn  i  50 

The  Washington  Cook  Book,  Statesmen's  Dishes i  oo 

Everyday  Home  Advice.     Valuable  for  every  household i  oo 

Philosophers  and  Actresses.     By  Houssaye.     2  vols 4  oo 

Men  and  Women  of  the  i8th  Century.  By  Houssaye.  2  vols.  4  oo 
Hawk-Eye  Sketches.  Comic  Book  by  "  Hawk-Eye  Man.". . .  i  50 
The  Bravest  500  of  '61.  By  T.  F.  Rodenbough.  Illustrated.  .350 

Horace  Everett.     By  the  Marquise  Clara  Lanza i  50 

The  Day  of  Resis.     By  Lillian  Frances  Mentor.     Illustrated..    150 

Lion  Jack.     By  P.  T.  Barnum i  50 

So 

oo 

00 
00 

50 

looo  Legal  Dont's.     By  Ingersoll  Lockwood 75 

600  Medical  Dont's.     By  Ferd.  C.  Valentine,  M.  D 75 

Mrs.  A.  P.  Hill's  New  Southern  Cock  Book i  oo 

On  the  Chafing  Dish.     By  Harriet  P.  Bailey 50 

The  Globe  Treasury  of  Universal  Knowledge i  oo 

Pole  on  Whist — English  Standard  With  "  Portland  Rules  ".  75 
Fifty  Years  among  Authors,  Books  and  Publishers.  Derby. . .  5  oo 

Laus  Veneris,  and  other  Poems.     By  Swinburne i  50 

Culprit  Fay.    By  Joseph  Rodman  Prake.    Illustrated.. . ,  j  00 


Jack  in  the  Jungle.     By  P.  T.  Barnum 

Dick  Broadhead.     By  P.  T.  Barnum 

Habits  of  Good  Society.  Points  of  taste  and  good  manners. . 
Art  of  Conversation.  For  those  who  would  be  agreeable  talkers 
Arts  of  Writing,  Reading  and  Speaking.  Self-Improvement 
Carleton's  Hand- Book  of  Popular  Quotations 


14  DAY  USE 

RN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

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tsss 


CMC  D£fT 


IEC.  C!R    JAN  21 


LD21A-50m-2,'71 
(P200lslO)476— A-32 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


LD  9-SOw-4,'70(N5 


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