Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1873-10-09


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Metropolitan Bank Of New YORK.. 1880 %
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There can be no doubt that this great
scheme of fraud has been going on for
considerable period. The unlimited
confidence which every one of the
directors had in Mr.. Babbage seems to
have lullel them into the usual fatal
security, and made the business an
easy one for him. Up to the day of
examination, not a soul seems to have
had any idea that anything of the
kind existed. 1t must have passed
the eyes of the Bank Examiner, as
well, who now believes that every
thing was fixed for his visits in adj
vance. He was so well satisfied with
the condition of affairs that he has
heretofore reported the bank one of
the soundest in the State. That such
things can 60 on, and neither directors
or examiners be able to discover them,
properly strikes every one with special
wonder.
But this is not all that is shown in
this remarkable development. Special
deposits of securities have been used,
to the extent OF number of thou
sands Of dollars, in some instances one
deposit being taken to make good an.
other. Bonds and securities given to
Mr.. Babbagc for sale, have been nego-
tiatcd, and the money remorsclessly
swallowed up by him, and the securi-
ties represented as unsold. Nineteen
hundred dollprs worth Of bonds of the
Delhi School District were sent him
carly in September, with orders to
send the avails by express to Charles
Harger, Delhi. The bonds were sold
on the 18th of last month, but were
not accounted for until the day before
the suspension, when the avails were
credited on the books of the bank to
Charles Harger.
This is certainly most astounding
record. Embezzlement, theft, perjury
in man heretofore one of the most
honored and trusted of all our bust
ness men. While he has been living
in Ostentatious style in one of the
most palatial residences of the city,
entertaining his friends in princely
manner, sporting fine horses, and gor-
geons carriages, advertising far and
wide his wealth; opening up grand
farm of a thousand acres, and stocking
it with costly blooded stock of ali
kinds, these have been the methods by
which the man has been enabled to
operate. Gradually he has been abb
sorbing the money extended to his
care by confiding friends and neigh
bors, until he has carried down to
ruin once splendid financial institu-
ton, and brought distress and great
pecuniary difficulty, il not bankruptcy
upon many who were warmly his
friends.
We do not hold Mr.. Sheffield to the
same measure of dcnunciation as Mr..
Babbage, because there is no parallel
ism in their guilt. Mr.. Sheffield made
no false entries, stole no securities
placed in the safe, and absorbed no
such amount Of the banks property.
He is criminally liable for taking an
unlawful amount Of money from the
bank, in excess, as he knew, of his
ability to repay, and in allowing il to
be taken by Others. He is morally
delinquent that being entrusted with
the earnings Of other men, he did not
carefully look after them, as was his
duty. But he did nothing worse than
this, and has shown willingness and
anxiety to give up every dollar of his
own property to redeem his fault.
There is something in this to disarm
harshness. In the case of Mr.. Dab
bage, who holds tenaciously to pala-
tial homestead that of right belongs
to the men whom he has dcfrauded,
there is no redeeming feature. lie is
liable under the currency act, as also
is Mr.. Sheffield, for loaning more than
ten per cent. of the capital stock to one
person. Mr.. Babbage is liable under
the State law for cmbezzlement and
for perjury, and yet Mr.. Babbage sees
fit to destroy all sympathy for him
self by showing that he clings tenac.
ionsly to all that the law viii permit