Smyrna times., 1873-08-06
mise eILU ID e D II s.
A History and a Warning.

There died, recently, at Fort Washington,
n. y, man who sixty y-and-thirty years ago
was notorious throughout the land as the one
man whose fOrgerles, up to that period, had
never in the history of crime been surpassed
in magnitude of amount, or skill of cOncep-
tion aud execution. Even FaunterOy's were,
as compared with his, the merest trihes. They
rose to millions, and for several years were
carried on with celebrity, precision and sue
cess that were amazing; nor 10 that .particu-
lar speciality OF crime has any successor reached
the aggregate of enormity attained by him.
Benjamin Rathbun in early life removed
from Chenango County to Buffalo. He be-
came proprietor of the Eagle Tavern, and by
cleanliness, order, and discipline made it
famous among the hotels of the country.
Extending his business he became interested
in lines of stages between Buffalo and Albany,
and started the noted Telegraph line, for
| six passengers only" which was run at a
speed higher than had been previously at
tanned by coach in the United States, and
made for it name among travellers from the
West. But bookkeeping and staging failed
to satisfy his ambition. He embarked ia
! speculation. Lots without number at prices
without limit we're bought, and dwellings,
stores, and warehouses were erected For the
| first time in the history of the State fever
of speculation broke out which for universally
and wildness has never been approached by
any other city in the Union. Rathbun was
| in everything; nothing daunted him his ex-
ample was so infectious that the gravest and
most timorous mOney-grubbers were drawn
into the vortex and in night made fabulous
! tOrtunes-on paper.
The plan of his fOrgeries was as ingenious
as it was original. 70 certain parties he would
propose to buy certain property, or build GER
| faIn n no dc
with which to initiate the enterprise, he would
make his note for five thousand dollars, paya-
! bic in New \ ork City at three or six months,
and ask the party whose interests were to be
promoted to indOrse the same. The indOrSe-
ment obtained, he would resort to his count
ing-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 expert
penman, would forge the Endorsement To
such magnitude had these transactions
grown, that regular office was maintained in
this city for the purpose of negotiating the
paper, the manager being his nephew. Dur
ing the few years that the fraud was kept up
the amount negotiated reached millions of dol
lars. At length one of the five thousand dol
lar notes, bearing the forged Endorsement of
the late David +. Evans, then Agent of the
Holland Land Company at Batavia, was pro-
tested, and notice sent to him. Mr. Evans
paid the note, but on examining the back
found to his dismay that his signature had
been forged. True, he had endorsed a note of
that date, and for precisely that amount, but
it was not this. Investigation followed, the
plot was discovered, and the whole iliquity
exposed to light Rathbun was arrested
tried at Batavia, convicted, sentenced to five
years in State Prison and served out his time
Subsequently he came to this city and opened
hotel on Broadway near Cortlandt-st., but
was not very successful. Afterward he kept
for some years the small hotel at the corner O
. Broadway and Forty third-st. OF all the mil
lions that had passed through his hands, hS
never put away dollar for himself, nor could
he at any time have called himself the homes
possessOr of fifty thousand dollars.
The private life of this rcmarkab man wa
! from his early manhood singularly irreproach
, able. lie was modest to a fault strictly TEN
perate, never smoked or chewed, never gam
E bled, kept no equipage, had no acquaintance
i; with disreputabe people, avoided public
e places, INDUCED in no extravagances, but de
e voted himself assiduously to his business III
0 had few acquaintances, fewer friends, no com
I panions. To the past he never alluded. FL
! realized to the full the result of his acts ant
}, meekly accepted the situation. Silently, pa
# tiently, uncOmplaininGly he plodded on hi
weary, cheerless way, until finally, at the ripC
e old age of eighty-two, himself and his crimes
= !, almost forgotten, he gently fades away.
!, 1t would seem idle to recall these incident
/, of felony committed before most of our read
e ers were born, if it were not to point a mora
" as old as society; that the madness whicl
n \ springs from a greed of sudden gain lead
naturally to crime, and that it is rarely given t
;. the acutest of human intellects to commi
= crime and escape. The moral, we admit,
e musty, but it never ceases to be timely and i
general effective. The large majority of busi
ID ness men are honest, and the example of sue
Z lamentable lapses as those we have recent
y seen undoubtedly is lesson to the young an
); a warning to the wavering. Tribune.
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