New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-07-07

nor did Wood attempt 10 show any acquaintance or
intercourse between him and this Thomas Larkins,
of whom, SO far as appears, all that he knew was
the having found his death recorded in California
paper, whence Woods fertile brain seems to have
conceived the idea of athering this Legitimate let
ter upon him.
The mercantile adventure, thus based on false
and forged letter, was prosecuted BY Wood IN
style worthy of such beginning. Mr. MarVine
having agreed to join Wood in the enterprise as an
equal partner, the first thing wa, to get vessel.
Wood had vessel, the John w. Cater, which he
had bought for $4,000, aud which, being very old
and hardly seaworthy, was dear purchase at tnas'
Yet be produced to Marvine bill OF sale, from
which it would appear that he had given Si2'ooo
for her. and be put her into the adventure 81 tna'
rate, Marvne agreeing, upon the strength OF Inese
representations, to pay 5000 for his hail. Wood
acted as ships -husband in equipplDg the vesse''
and rendered bill of his expenditures amounting
to SO. $50 60, of which amount $1,O5o 6o were
fraudulent oyercharees We will give few speci-
mems: For small bill of groceries purchased Of
John R. Woolsey, of 81 II, Wood rendered bill
for S35 81. For another small bill of WOOsey, tor
fish and oil, of 50 IS, he rendered ab of $39 50,
making $53 70on the two bills which in the aggre-
gate only amounted to Sl7 OF. The fraud in
these cases was effected by adding to the bills
80 gallons Of oil and kegs of lard neve
purchased, and never put on board of the bark
He rendered bill of Hagadorn & Elliott for
painting the bark, work done long before Marvine
became part owner. He rendered bills to Msrvine
for poultry, fresh beef ducks, turkeys, eggs, oys.
tiers, pork vegetables, tongues cider, porter lard
and other articles. which were never purchased,
nor put on board of the bark md Marvine
| paid him the one half of these fraudulent bills.
| Wood also bought portion Of the cargo, amount
ing according the invoice ard to the bills rendered
to Msrvine, and upon the face of which he settled
with Wood, to $3.50; but this amount, as was
shown by the evidence, was sweled by overcharges
to the extent of Sl,26l %.
In some cases, as appeared from the evidence,
Wood persuaded the sellers or their clerks to make
out duplicate false bills. Thus Mr.. Wintringham
was persuaded to alter cider from 81 the dozen to
So %. and porter from 81 rs TO 50, thus making
an Oyercharge to the amount Of $25, and John
Thursbys clerk, year after the bill had been ORR
ginaly rendered. was persuaded to add ten per cent
to it, In other cases the bills themselves seem to
have been tempered with to an extent amounting
to forgery. Thus, S. Nichols sold Wood the follow
| ing bill:
IG-iDch upper. box leathered. .-...........$l 50
| l6-inth lower pump-boxes stapled and
| nailed. .........s.............. W
| Total. .........................S35 ~
Whsh was converted into a bill for $36 so by
forging after the in the first item and after
| the in the second item. The nature Of the
| changes in several other of the bills would show
that they had been tempered with the same way.
| The referees to when the case was referred
awarded against Wood the sum of s., 629 %,
which award was accepted by the Court and judg
ment rendered thereon.
Our readers may well wonder that a person
found upon judicial proofs to be guilty ofsuch gross
and deliberate rauds did not bring up in the State
Prison or the House of Correction instead of the
MayOralty. What saved him from that was the
Statute Of Limitations restricting to three years from
the time of the commission of the fraud prosecu-
tons for obtaining goods by false pretenses bill
was actually found against Wood on the 9TH of No
vember 1851 for fraud in selling the bark but the
ofiense was charged in the Indictment to bave been
committed on the eth Of November, 1S4S, Wood
took refuge behind the Statute Of Limitations, and
the Court decided that point in bis favor. =.
Having thus escaped his deserts in the Peniten.
tiary, and no longer content with mere private
Frauds Wood pursued with fresh zeal his great OBJ.
ject of using his influence with all the cheats,
blackguards and bnaves of the City, with whom,
naturally enough, be was hail fellow well met, and
great favoIite to raise himself TO the MayOralty,
and thus to have the vast plumber of the City
Treasury placed at his disposal. Through divis-
ions on other topics, chiefly of national politics,
among the respectable part of the inhabitants
of this city, this cheat and swndler, who ought to
have been in the State Prison, has twice, by mi
nority VOTE and, by the aid of all the desperadoes
in the City, succeeded in obtaining his election
the first time il ought to be observed, however,
before these gross frauds had been judcialy estab,
lished against him. That every cheat, thief bag
gage smasher, policy seller, shoulder-htter, pimp,
gambler, owner and keeper of houses of prostitu.
tion and low ogshops, should have strained their
utmost 10 promote Woods election, is perfectly
natural; ncr have we been at all surprised to find
The Journal Of Commerce and The Herald CO.
operatir to the full extent of their ability in the
object Of placing Wood in a position to rob and
plupder the city. Birds of feather will flock to-
gether. But We must express our surprise, nay,
our utter astonishment that a number of our citi-
Gems, well known at least in business circles and
having iome character to lose, should have allowed
themselves to have been made tools of toward
nlscinn q cheat suindler and dasnarado at the