The post. [volume] (Middleburg, Snyder County, Pa.) 1864-1883, 1873-10-09
A History and A warming.

out tho land rs the one man who's
forg geries, up 10 that period, had ne,
! or i'll the history of crime been sur
b passed. in magnitude Of amount, o
( skill of conception aud execution
Even Fauntleroy's were, as complr
ed with his, the merest trides. Tie,
rose to millions, and f6r severa
years were carried on with n colerity
lprecisipn AMI success that wer,
amlzing; nor in that particular
speciality Of crime has any successor
re e,chod The aggregate of onormit,
attained by him.
Benjamin Rlthbm in early lifo re
moved from Chenlng) county tc
Buffalo. He became proprietor ol
tho Eagle Tavern, and by cleanliness
order and discipline mado il famous
among the hotels of the country.--
Extending his business he became
in terestod in lines of stages between
Buffalo aud Albany. AMI started the
noted Telegraph Line, for six pas
songers only which was run Mt a
speed higher than had been previ
ously attained by ycoachiu the United
States, and made for it name among
travellers from tho West. But hotel.
keeping and staging failed 10 satisfy
his ambition.-lie embarked in spe
ciIation. Lots without number at
prices without limit were bought and
dwellings, stores and warehouses
were erected For the first time in
tho history Of the State fever OF
speculation broke out which for uni
vers ality and wildness has ncvcrbecn
approached by any other city in The
Union. Rathbun was in everything:
nothing dIuntol him; his example
was SO infections that tho graynst
and most timorou5 money grubbars
were drawn into the vortex anl in
II night made fabulous fortunes-on
paper.
The plan Of his forgorics was MS
ingenious as it was original. TO
ccrtain parties he would propose t.
buy certain property, or build GER
tain structures To rise tn neces-
slry funds with which to initiate the
enterprise, he would make his note
Tor five thousand dollars, payable in
New York city at three or siv months
and asked the party whose interests :
Were to be prompted to aiiorse the
sane. The Endorsement obtained.
he would resort to his counting room
and make from ten to fifty notes. of
the same date and amount, PAYABLE
at the same time and place, and his
clerk, an excellent ponman would
forge the endorsement. 70 such a
magnitude had these transactions
grown, that regular Office was
maintained in this city for the pur-
pose Of negotiating the paper, t h @
manager being his nephew.
the few years that the fraud was
kept mp the amount negotiated reach
ed millions of dollars. At len 9TH
one of the five thousand dollars notes
bearing tho forged Endorsement of
David f.. Evans, then agent of the
Holland Land Company ut Batavia.
was protested ndnotice sent to him.
Mr.. Evans paid the note. but on cx-
amining the back found to his dis
may, that his signature had baon
forged True. he had indorsel "A
note of that date aud for precisely
that amount, but it was not this
Investigation followed the plot was
discovered, and the whole iniluity
exposed to light. Rathbm was ar
rested, tried at Batavia, convicted,
sentenced to five years in State Pri
son, and served out his time. Sub
seluently he came to sthis city and
opened II hotel in Broadway, near
Courtland street, but was not very
successful. Afterward he kept. for
some years, the small hotel at the
corner of Broadway aud Forty-third,
street OF all the millicus that had
passed through his hands he never
put away dollar for himself. nor
could he at any time have called
himself, the honest possessor of fifty
thousand dollars.
The private life OF this remarkable
man was from his early manhood
reproachable. He was
modest to a fault, strictly temperate,
never chewed or smoked, never gam
bled, kept no equipage, had no ac>
quaintance with disreputable people
avoided public places, INDUCED in
no extravagances, but devoted him
self assiduously to his business. lie
had few acquaintances, fewer friends,
no companions. To the past he
never alluded. He realized to the |
full the result OF his acts and meekly
accepted the situation. Silently, pa
tiently, uncomplainingly he ploided
ON his weary, cheerless way, until
finally, ut the ripe old age of eighty
two, himself and his crimes almost
he fades away.
Ii would seem idle to recall these
incidents of felony committoi be
fore most OF our rerders were born,
if Il We're not to point moral as old
as society I; that the madness which
springs from a greed of sudden gain
leads naturally to crime, and that
it is rarely given TO the acatest of
human intellects to commit crime
and escape. The moral, We admit
is musty, but it never ceases to be
timely and, in general, effective. The
large majority of business men are
honest, aud the example of such Ia