The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1877-03-07
THE INSANE FORGER.
The Feeling in Franklin Over Its
Quarter of a Million Loss.
Interesting Details OF Taylor's Personal
History and Long Continued Crime.
Especial Correspondence of the Sentinel J

the concern show that Taylor must have
squandered not less than a quarter of q
million of dollars, and when the people
come to stare that fact squarely in the face
they begin to realize the magnitude of
their loss. How many men had set apart
enough money to pay their taxes and had
the same deposited in the vaults of the
First National do not know, but enough
to swell the voice of complaint into loud and
prolonged wall. How many had deposited
therein sums that they were owing and
which they had promised themselves if not
their creditors, to hand over to such cred
itOrs at convenient season, no man can
tell; but both depositors and creditors are
bewailing with prodigious fervor the I'M
timely disaster The evil consequences
Reach not only those who have been "de-
ceiyed and sucked in" as stockholders and
customers of the now defunct concern, but
are widespread in their results, and reach
the entire immunity around Franklin, if
not the entire county. The poetaster hits
the situation here precisely when he says:
aft the hindmost steer but feels the spear
The next one gets the horn;
II sues b, why BIZ sue G,
And GU push on the Storm"
Taylor, as you are aware, has been sent to
the insane asylum. All persons here who
do not believe that he is shamming hope tor
his early restoration for there is a great
curiosity to know how he managed to gulp
down the whole concern without being sus-
pected.
Some believe that he was acting with con-
tederates, and some that he was going it
alone. Whether acting in concert or alone,
one thing is certain, Taylor was man of in
different natural ability, and has been great
ly overrated by newspaper correspondents
and others. Isuppose this is natural, for it
would seem that a man who could steal
quarter of million ought to be a genius;
L..4 f. = r
very ordinary ability, but he was without
education other than general knowledge
of the merest rudimentary branches of learn
ing. He was reared in the country, and
after receiving such a smattering of the
"three RS, readin, 'ritin' and 'rithmetic,"
as was common to boys of ordinary ability
in his day, he spent a short time in Frank
lin college, where he took a little course, no
doubt, in English grammar, elementary al
zebra, and possibly little
Latin grammar and natural philosophy.
He also took course in bookkeeping and
as he wrote a rather fair hand and was able
to calculate interest and cast up accounts,
there were many who came to regard him as
a man of ability, if not of learning.
When found by the bank management in
1871 he was transferred from a tailoring es-
Enlistment to the cashiership of the First
National. The story of that find has never
been written, and most likely never will;
but right here | feel inclined to suggest Just
this much concerning 1T, and no more. 1t
is understood in well-informed circles here
that Taylor's predecessor was pressed to re-
sign his trust by the then directors, in obedi-
ence to positive demand made by an Indi-
annapolis bank directory. could write much
more concerning that miserable business,
but forbear. Hinc lilac Lachrynde Hence
all our tears.
Had Taylor been let alone, it is the cur
rent opinion that he would have remained
honest to the day of his death. But he was
weak and easily fiattered and persuaded, and
hence when the templer approached, whis-
pering into his ear words in commentator
OF his financial ability and foresight, and
held out to him the hope of large rewards
and great wealth, the vain, weak, covetous
man lost his balance, fell and was ruined,
and in his fall and ruin pulled down the
fairest financial fabric in our country.
The case in many of its aspects differs from
all others of which the records of crime give
an account, but in this difference the man
displayed his weakness of character The
money lost to the bank was recklessly fool
ishly, childishly thrown away, or rather
given away, to men who hac no
who had taken him out of the little
store he was in and made him their cashier
he was under great obligations, and in all
his letters written since he fled he recognizes
and acknowledges that obligation; and yet
their money was hawked out by him to the
last cent and more to Chicago dealers in
margins. Was there ever just such another
silly piece of business as this? Had he stolen
the money outright and ran off with it a
motive could be found for the act; but this
case is very applicable upon the theory that
the man was of very ordinary ability and
exceedingly weak.
In all his letters land he seems TO have
written freely after it was too late) he be-
walls the work of the last seven years. Why
he should put it at seven when he had been
in the bank only six to month, | am sure
/ do not know. 1t may be mistake of his
as to the time-a mistake which Dick Tay
lor could and would easily have made.
But it is not 10 be supposed that
his defalcations have extended throughout
| all the years of his connection with the
bank. | understand that the evidence thus
far points TO period covered by about three
years During these three years the world
can never know what agony and remorse he
must have suffered. Up 10 about six months
| ago. or a little less he seems to have toiled
on In his crime in the vain hope that he
would by lucky turn of the wheel be able
| TO make up in whole or in part for his losses,
but from that time up TO the day of his de-
parture all hope must have fled, and Taylor
was In our midst day In and day out, wait
ing for the storm 10 burst. He knew II was
| coming He knew the bank was ruined lie
knew that he was powerless and could do
nothing, and he knew that the end might
come any moment. To me he said, after
| his return, that he had many time walked
the streets OF Franklin at the hour OF mid
night, not knowing which way to turn or
winch way to CO. In one of his letters he
says that he had hour after hour paced the
pavement in front OF the bank with cigar lit,
trembling at what the next day or the next
hour might bring forth. Since his flight
many remember his restlessness OF manner,
his unsteadiness OF nerve and his inatten'
ton TO business for weeks and even months
preceding. He was member of a masonic
society, and as such had charge OF the secre-
| A. = =. IL. lsaa.