Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-06-03
AT THE STATE CAPITAL.
Archibald Orme's Shot the Sequence of
the Embezzlement of $4,000.


ATLANTA, GA, June 2.-The most in
teresting point of information in connec-
tba tion With suicide, particularly where
| asce"r acIor is a man of sound mind, is to
the Lo1, a'n the cause, which is generally
| dow the I'm - lhe whole story. All of Satur-
- - tsesn Jason for Orme,s sending a buI-
Ie' ih'o ni7 mead with suicidal intent v.as
n mystery. Love sc,o-'1lul IoIus'l AneehI was
| shortage and other causes - Dad heaIth,
but nothing definite coulG GTere h advanced,
that would settle the probIe,aer arrtVed az
dispute. To-day the real cansn beyond
ascertained. 1t appears that he ss te 9een
about $4,000. Ten thousand doiIaSnnao snort
| this belonged to the Afiartal 81
and West Point Railroad ana w
about $1,000 was to have gone into the
Golfers of the Richmond and Danvine
Road. Auditors of these roads have been
in the ticket.office all day examining the
books and counting the tickets. This is
about the amount of shortage, as it comes
through an intimate friend of the de-
faulter who has spent the greater portion
of the daV in the office. Among the assets
in the cash drawer are due bills, signed
by boys about town, amounting to 81, 900.
Upon good authority it is stated that the
Richmond and Danville Railroad was the
first to unearth the shortage in Orme's
accounts. For nearly a month Orme
had been written TO from
Richmond almost daily and urged to make
remittance. Thursday last repre-
sentative of the company came to Atlanta
to force settlement out of Orme. He
was informed that on the following after
noon settlement would be made in full.
Orme at the appointed hour failed to fill
the engagement. and on the following
morning used his pistol with the effect
already known. The railroads whose
patronage was supplied with tickets at
the Union Passenger Depot, it seems, re-
quired Orme to make deposits promptly.
The Central settled with him daily. he
making out statements showing the sales
and furnishing with it a check for the full
amount Of the sales.
The Richmond and Danville exacted
their accounts weekly, and the Atlanta
and West Point nearly as often. The
Georgia Pacific had a policy similar to
the Richmond and Danville in collecting
their money. The combined salaries paid
Orme by the railroads represented by him
as their agent footed up $400 per month,
out of which he had to pay an assistant.
What became of his money is yet deep
mystery. The popular theory is that some
adr0It poker player must have gathered
i'll the greater portion of il, while the re-
mainder was dealt out to satisfy pleasure
and comfort. 1t is common talk here that
good portion of the amount of shortage
was won by popular and prominent
citizen and capitalist of Atlanta. who
worked marked deck on his unsuspect-
ing victim. Orme's condition tonight is
unchanged. The wound has not been
pr0bed and the ball remains where il first
imbedded itself. Those who appear best
informed as TO his condition think his re-
covery exceedingly doubtful.
PRIVATE GAMING BEFORE THE GRAND
JURY.
During the past week or ten days the
NEWS correspondent has frequently been
importuned by representatives OF the
upper circle of Atlanta, who wanted to
TO know if the grand jury had adjourned,
or when they would adjourn. There
seemed to be great anxiety among these
people to keep up with the movements of
the body. One OF these information hunt
ers wanted to know, so that he could an
sWer letter of inquiry received that
morning upon the subject. All of this
anxiety the correspondent could not ac-
count for, owing to the fact
that it came from quarter not
usually interested in such matters.
To-day the cloud disappeared, and the
bright sunshine developed the fact that
the grand jury has indicted about forty
leading citizens, some portion OF them be-
longingto the Peachtree street arstocra-
cy,upon a charge of gambling through the
channel of draw poker Among the
crowd Of unfOrtunates are politicians,
wOuld-be politicians, members OF
the Young Mems Christian Asso-
citation, one or two directors of the Young
Mems Library, high church men and other
standard bearers Of morality and good
citizenship. The findings of the grand
jury have created quite a stir.
One of the indicted parties. who
aspires to represent Georgia in
national politics, it is said, has already
put damper upon the bill found against
him by some means known only to those
most closely interested. 1t appears that
for some time past in different portions of
the city select poker parties have been in
existence where players INDUCED in the
game purely for pleasure. Recently some
member who was we'll Informed as to the
games made his knowledge known to
the authorities, and this resulted in the
grand jury taking hold of the matter.
Many of these games were played at
private residences. and IN consequence
there is some feeling among those in
dicted against the action of the grand
jury and their well informed spotter.