Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1875-12-27
DOES IT PAY+


of Worcester, Mass, who was supposed
to have been drowned until lis forgeries
came to light was brought back to Wor-
cester. on Friday of week before last, by
the officers who had tracked him to Cal
ifornia. He was arrested at San Fran
cisco the day before he expected to SAIL
for Australia. He had been wandering
in Canada and the Western States un-
der assumed names. trying to elude pur-
suit and apprehension. A day or two
before his arrival at Worcester, one of
his former transfers, W. W. Stevens.
committed suicide. He had loaned all
the money he had saved up, some ST.
800, to Mr.. Pond, and the disappoint-
ment and encouragement on account of
it probably led to the rash act.
''GOd and myself only know what l
have suffered in the last few months"
These words were uttered. week be-
fore last, by man who had been a flu
gitive from justice and who was brought
back from California to his home in
Massachusetts,. to undergo his trial for
crime. He had been a prominent citi-
zen in q large town. had been q promi-
nent member of the Methodist church
but becoming involved In financial trou-
bles had resorted to forgery to make bet
ter his fortunes, and was led on from
one act of crime to another. Two or
three months ago he disappeared. 1t
was thought at the time that he had
fallen overheard from steamer on Long
Island Sound and was drowned. But all
this time he had been wandering hither
and thither under assumed names, "a
fugitive and q vagabond on the earth. F"
AT length he reached the Pacific coast
and just as he was about to embark for
Australia he was confronted by the off,
Ger who had been Oh his track, and he
is now brought back to be tried by his
neighbors and to suffer the penalty Of
the law.
But he has been enduring a worse
punishment than being shut up within
the walls of a prison. He has been suf
fering the tortures of a guilty conscience
carrying this scorpion within him while
trying to elude the pursuit of the off
GERS of the law, and now he comes bacl
to his home disgraced, degraded, wreck
This case is only one of a thousand
There are great numbers of criminals a
large, who have found refuge in foreigl
countries, or hiding places in their own
but who have already been overtakel
by the Nemesis which tracks every Grim
inal-a guilty conscience. Many o
them are suffering the torments of d
inquisition, and all are conscious of
moral degradation and desert of pun
ishment which must almost make ther
loathe their existence. We have not
doubt that from Tweed down to tn
smallest class of robbers, those who hav
been guilty of fraud and peculation an
other kindred crimes by which they hav
obtained ill-gotten wealth, would Civ
all they have gained hundred time
/
over, if they could but have the chanc
to start again in life with nothing but
clean record and a clear conscience
Robbery does not pay, no matter whs
are the inducements offered.
These cases should be warning |
our young men never to attempt by
dishonest act to obtain what is not the
, own. 1t is far better. even taking tn
life into the account. to be poor, than
. have the envenOmed sting of console,
guilt within ones breast. 1t cannot
got rid of-not even by suicide, to viii,
SO many have resorted in their self-a
cusing despair.