The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-12-04 00:00:00

The Baltimore Gazette gives the following interesting
sketch of this offender's care .r

" There is now in custody in Philadelphia an Ingenioua
gentleman who has lived for years, and lived well, on the
eredulity of the public. Ile has undergone ntany trans-
formations ; has been of both sexes, and of all sort, of
ages. home years back he was a teflon. Virginia widow,
with two orphan children. Her little Paradise had been
destroyed by the Federal. during the war ; her dear
husbaud, an officer in the Confederate service, had died in
England of his wourids, and had lett her nothing but
two pledge. of his effeerion arid a lot of 'relics '—auto-
graphs of Washington—which latter she offered for sale.
More than one of our kiedly-hearted citizens invested from
lets to twenty dollars in these spurious autographs, and there
I, one of the same sort, duly framed and glazed, in lade-
oendence Hall, Philadelphia, in which the people of that
city have, until recently, taken great pride. After the
forlorn widow and the spurious autograph dodge had
been exported, there appeared at, Montreal, Canada, a Miss
Minnie Pury, an Euglishwoman of nonle birth, whose
wings, as .he delicately phrased it, 'hail been scorched on
the Continent.' Reduced to great distress, she commenced
to write a multitude of letters to her 'lordly cousin' in
England, recalling the incidents of her career, recuurding
her sorrows, Bali soliciting as.istance until she came of
age, and touching the f triune of which she would Onn
come into possession My some mysterious mental obfus-
cation all these letters were misdirected. Instead of reach-
in the 'lordly cousin,' they found their way into the hands
of sundry American eitiz-ns, some of whom enclosed money
to the distressed damsel, and not a few of thorn gallantly
• invited her 'to rest on this bosom.' This quite lucrative and
half amatory correspondence was carried on for severe'
months. But, finally, inquiries were made, and the grasp of
a policeman, like the touch of Ithuriers spear, transformed
'the soiled dove' of sweet seventeen into a portly greldlaired
man, clad in the costume of the country, and sporting a felt
list mid a briar-wood pipe. This happenesi at the close of
Be,. To-day the same individual reappears again in
titerlecrunst'{Viydowolantsir thinoliaclein note Ilat"rlyilahettirrithi be has tiers
• playing the rale of an illegitimate son, and in this guise has
levied an untold number of coniributions from the widows,
execute., suit friends of deceased persons in England. The
evidence against him was so overwirelmlog that, «heti t tken
before the Recorder, he admitted Ids guilt. ... After giving
In detail the sums he had received during the past year, he
suggested to the Riscorder that his arrest was illegal. as the
letters sent to England were not written by him e iLhin the
limits of the United States. Allusion being made to his
arrest three years ago in t biladelphia on snuffer charges,
and his prompt release on giving a solemn pledge that he
would not resort to such tricks again, he piously protests
that I have performed nly promise truly and conscien-
tiously,' and with wellsimulated penitence for his misdeeds,
says, with all the unction of deep contrition, 'in tire
dreadful stillness ef the awful night I have vowed I woul•I
live to redeem the past. God permitting. I will do so.'
With there touching remarks, he threw himself upon the
sonsideration of the Court. But the Court has not yet
quite done with him. The Court is troubled about the
autograph of Washiegion, in Independence Ilall. Is it
gennine, or is it not I to this the prisoner demurely
but promptly replies, 'The autograph in Indeperideuce
Hall, I know, la one of mine.' Not content, however,
with this penitential avowal, he slyly deals a side
thrust at the credibility of the Philadelphian., by adiliog,
And it is rine of the worst I ever made ' Pl,l lie imitate
'the hand of the renowned dead' by tracing Oh, no; it is
one source of gratilicatton to him that he never ',dueled to
means so disreputable Althosgh he is a swindler, he has
a proper professional pride, and at the hare imputation of
resorting to the use of treeing paper to baiter° the autograph
of Washington, he breaks do en utterly. He declares, in broken
accents 'ln the many autographs I have male—and there
are scarcely two alike—the name of Washington has never
bees traced; rd—in a word, but that that truly good'
—here he became hysterical. Then, midi lenly recovering R tin-
sel!, he added, with a burst of enthusiasm which ought to
have electrified his h and secured his immediate dis-
charge from custody, 'I have not prostituted my nullities
iii that way I hope my hand will wither from my arm ff I
eversion There's honour for you!"
"Great credit is due to all parties concerned for the share
they have taken in urierarthing this accomplialied scrundrel,
including Mr. Westlake, eousul Thoms in, Postmaster'
General Creswell, and especially Mr. Petherbridge 'the
latter's labours were itelefatlgable and conducted with per-
sistent whims., following up from post-office to post-office,
through different States, obtaiiiing clues anti material, until
he finally tracked the offender to his lair In Philedelpina,
where he secured hie wreak"