The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-08-14
A R0GUE'S END.
A MELoNoHoLy DEATH IN PRISON,
"coionef' Ralph Rolling, the Cham.
bersburg, Pa. RObber. Dies within
The Cold. Gray walls OF Cherry
Hill Prison, which He Failed
TO Penetrate by Guile,

Philadelphia, Aug. l3.-The troublesome
career of Lewis l.. Clermont, alias Ralph l..
ROLAND, alias Colonel Ralph Rollins, conf.
dence operator, forger, swindler and atem, t.
ed bank robber, terminated with his death in
anarrowc Il of the eastern penltentiary, be.
hind thevalls of which he had vsinly attempt.
ed oget outside by every artifce known
to desperate convcts within tho thru wears
during which he was confined. The malady
which took him of is sot down by the doctors
as Bright's disease of the kidneys, but disap.
pointment nd desperation a. the failure of
all his schemes TO obt9in liberty had much
and probably more to do with his decease
than the mere bodily it's Howss one of the
most insinusting, skillful rogues of the age,
and biz career is like romance. Ho was 10
yosrs of age when he diAd, aud presented but
few vesliges tf the remarkable masculine
beauty he possessed when he first became
tenant of y cell in Cherry Hill.
He was the son of Sheriff Clermont.
of SCio'o county, Ohio, who afterwards
removed to Schoocralt Michigan. Young
Lewis started out in life with tn Advantages
OF handsome person. a good education and
his fathers Influence to back him. He was
a skillguI book-keeper aud pennan. and
when no enlisted in an Illinois regiment, at
the outbreak of the rebellion. and reached
Nashville, his skillfuluess with the pen and
accounts obtaired Tim frst-class position
IN the quartermaster's department.
A DANGEROUS FoRGER.
In Al
cotton speculation, and realized 5000, O.,
snyhow, al mo expense Of cor lding con-
sgnees in New 70 X, who honored hi. drat, s
TOR cotton alleged TO be in transit With
this fund he fled. He is ext heard of at St.
| Louis, where he opened banRing house,
WIN correspondents At Chicago and San
Francisco. Tho s.. Louis house honorcu
drafts from Chicago aud San Francisco un.
( I'll favorable day came for the
sharper, and then he laid down
heavier drafts than usual in Chicago,
which were cashed, and when presented at
81. Louis the firm Of Rollins & ca was non
est, vi sb az $4,000 or 50 clear. With
ibs "spoi" the swinaler took trp 10
Europe aad the Holy land, taking his wife
N.hHm, "d'e IA Ga nanvpe w.s the guest
otBNonS linqie,c.hegWse Maxmili4a Shin
66Vrne, one Of IHe Nothamp IN 'Di Dec" l
Bank robbers, who was living
a Guided eXis, ngo on his boronial
| esla' at Stuttgart, Wurtomburg. Pin
kerton's detectives who had got wind of the
real character Of Clermont, the distinguished
Am rican, swooped down upon him Tor the
Chicago aud st. Louis forgeries. He hired
the best legal talent in all Germany and beat
the detectives on atechncality about the <
tradition. He was afraid, ho Vever, TO returo
to the United States, aud wen. dowl to
South America, where he had spe1ta short
time subsequent to the cotton escapade.
firing of South America, he
went to Chicago again and then to
New York, where he bloomed out as
Louis La Dezina, a foreig her with baghls OF
ducsts, who was going to astonish Wei street
with his stock iobbing operations. He was
covertly associated with Walter Patterson
and other exper. forgers, who had given him
lessons at st. Louis and Chicago it is asserted.
Most of the securities he gave as collaterals
are said to have been United States bonds,
which bad been the produce of big bank
robberics.