St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-06-25
Defaulter, Forger, Fugitive.
GRAPHIC STORY OF A LONG CAREER OF
CONCEALED CRIME.
ISpringield Republican !


No other defalcation in Vermont
has begun to equal in gravity that of
Silas M. Waite of Brattleboro, which
became known Tuesday afternoon. To
stealing is added forgery, and the sum
total of iniquity exceeds even the first
rumors. By means of forged paper,
which he used to take the place of
genuine securities on the rare occasion
of official inspection, Waite has plum
dered the First national bank of Brat
tlebOro of over $4,000. BY negoti-
ating similar paper elsewhere, aud ap-
propriating all the available funds of
the bank, he has increased the forger-
les to at least 1922, 900, and the total
amount of stealing to $3.50, 900 or more.
1t is understood that his immediate
friends have received word that he is
on the way to Europe or some other
foreign region, and the theory of sui
eide which was current Tuesday even
ing has been generally abandoned.
Walte's peculations are supposed to
have been going on for 10 years, and
the bulk of the money is believed to
have been used up in the famous Bur-
dett-Estey suit over the right to the
patents on the Estey organ, in which
Waite has been practically the plaintiff
His personal habits and those of his
family have been expensive, and he is
not thought to have taken much money
with him, unless he secured some by
the use of his abundant forged paper
after he left Brattleboro. The defal-
cation leaves the bank hopeless wreck.
1t had a capital of 100000, of which
100000 is in government bonds at
Washington to secure the 100000 cir
culation. This left 100000 of the
capital, and a surplus of some 1000,
with small amount of ready meney,
as the funds of the bank, all but few
thousand dollars of which is gone. The
individual deposits in the bank amount
ed to only $40, 600 or thereabouts, which
1t Is expected the PrSPsirtHKe tHKeaFG Thfh fhhedt. bte
The stockholders lose their entire in
vestmont, and may have TO DO ooooosod
to make up the deficits elsewhere,
though probably not heavily. The
saddest thing about the crime is the
ruin which Waite has brought upon
stockholders and even directors in the
institution, some of whom are reduced
to absolute poverty. No man could be
looked up to with more implicit conf
dence in his integrity and business
ability than Silas NJ. Waite has beer
by large part of the people of hii
town and state. On the other hand
others have expected the crash for /;
long time.
HOW THE CRIME WAS COMMITTED.
Leaving for a moment the history o
the case, in order to show how the rob
berry was done, it must be understood
that Waite was an autOcrat of the banl
of which he was both president ant
cashier. No director till within a yea
or two ever attempted to look into tn
. condition of the institution for himself
5 no stockholder ever seriously question
ed Waite's statements; no bank exam
l iner has made more than cursory in
7 vestigati0n until driven to it by thos
! who suspected something wrong. Be
D ing left thus to his own devices, tn
!, problem was to abstract the genuin
s funds of the institution and replac
t them with worthless pieces of paper
e which could be palmed off on the care
: less director or examiner as geoi
s What the precise steps were no on
t can tell. When the directors, however
: woke up Tuesday afternoon to a sens
|. that they. had been robbed, they dis
: covered, or remembered, that whe
y they at last had formal examinatio
: in April the assets of the bank include
v certain papers which are known indr
: bitably to have been forged, but pa