The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1885-04-04

country in the world, among the same class
of men. The Ancient Order of Hibern.ans,
while numbering in its membership some
of the richest and most influential Irish
men in the land. is- largely composed of
men whose sole means of support are the
lowest and severest and most poorly paid
forms of labor; but among the thousands
on the march of St. Patrick's day it was
the exception to see man who had not a
suit of clothes. The regalia of the Order is
the most expensive and snowy of any society
in America. Yet here every man has on his
magnificent sash trimmed with costly gold
bullion, and almost giving the lie to the
cry of oppression of labor and hard times.
The times may be hard for the United States,
ard they are, but they are not the hard
times of England nor the starving poverty
of Ireland, and if any one thinks differently
I am quite willing to leave it to st. Patrick
to settle the question.
For simon-pure unadulterated viilainy
we have had nothing for years to equal the
revelations brought forth on the trial of
Fish, the President of the defunct Marine
Bank. 1t fills one with amazement to think
that in the year of our Lord 1884, on Wall
Street, above ali places in the world, that
such things could have been done. We
cannot but ask ourselves care they all
thieves, or all fools, OF what?" Ward
wants a hundred or a hunderd and fifty
thousand dollors, so he goes to Fish for the
money; Fish says All right, have you got
securities?" Ward said, "Yes, plenty of
them, and to make the transaction per-
factly secure, I'll keep them myself" So
these precious rascals took an empty en-
volope and marked it with the amount, and
that was all the bank had to show for its
entire capital. If some clever burglar had
cracked the bank safe and stolen $1O,0GO
they would send him to States prison for
twenty years, if they caught him; but Fish
and his pals got away with a million.
Many poor depositors were ruined. What
will they do with Fish? Is the confidence
game played by Fish any better than the
petty larceny game which Hungry Joe plays
on an unsuspicious countryman? 1t is Il
nice question for the courts to decide
whether thes9 sanctimonious robbers can
do in open daylight what an expert thief
would hardly dare do at night. We will
await the result with patience, but sincerely
hope that this slippery Fish will not escape
through the mashes of the law.
Mrs. Eleanor Peck comes to the front
again this week, although for some time
past she has been luxuriating in the
Tombs. Mrs. Peck will be remembered as
one of the smartest confidence women in
the country, and as the woman who swim
died Babbitt, the:soap man, out of $4,000.
Her swindles have been so large and SO
numerous that no regular account has been
kept of them. Diamonds, gold, silver,
houses, lands, horses, carriages, dry goods,
of all kinds, silks, satins and laces. all was
fish that came to her net, but somehow she
slipped through every time and her unfor-
tunate dupes got left. Some months ago
she got some diamonds from diamond
merchant down town to show to wealthy
friend of hers, and the next day she pawned
them for several hundred dollars. She
then tried to swindle the pawnbroker, and
this brought her 10 grief, and as | re-
marked, she has been in the Tombs for
several months. But though hemmed in
by stone wall, her light is not hidden under
bushel, for on Monday Mr.. Peck, the
happy husband of this household treasure,
made application to the court to have a
mortgage on his house for $4,000 declared
void, on the ground that he was no party to
its execution. While Mr.. Peck was hunt
ing for pirates treasure OIL the Pacific
coast, Mrs. Peck got short of money, SO she
thought of mortgage on her house Ill
Brooklyn. Mr.. Peck was out Of the way
but that made little difference to q woman
of her inventive genius, SO she got gentle
man named Lawrence to personate Peck,
and she raised the cash. It was done so
easily that she tried once more but failed:
and then the husband appears on the scene
TO have the mortgage declared void. Mrs,
Peck is a wonderful woman and mas had
many narrow escapes, but it now looks as;
if she was about to become an admirable
illustration of the trite old adage, "The
pitcher that goes often to the we'll gets
broken at last"
Brooklyn has been greatly exercised at
the arrest and imprisonment in the peni-
tentiary of Paul Bauer, the popular Coney
Island man, for pool selling. Mr.. Bauer is
very rich and when warned that he must
stop gambling on his premises, he exclaimed
like Tweed, "What are you going to do
about it?'' Brought to the bar of JUSTICE
he looked upon the matter as a good joke
He pleaded ssu;its AID pat his hand III his
well-fl.ed pocket to pay his the, bat when
the Judge, Ill solemn tanas said, penlten-
tiarv, three mouths, his euuiite1saiiee feli'
and when they bundled him into the Black
Maria, along with tramps and thieves, he
began to realize that the way of the trans
gressor is hard. It is well enough for the
people to know that there is only one law
for the rich and the poor, and that veal
thy gambler When ne violates the law may
expect the same punishment as a Lod
carrier Or scavenger.
The sensation caused by associating the
name of talented young Episcopal minis
ter with that of noted female swindler of
Boston was scarcely three days wonder.
There is no question but that minister
made fool of himself when he allowed
himself to be drawn into correspondence
with fascinating widow of whose antece-
dents he was ignorant. Had he been wise
as serpent though harmless as dove, he
would have looked suspiciously on silk lined
dressing gowns, velvet smoking caps and
embroidered slippers. The highway to social
ruin is trodden by more velvet slippers than