The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1885-01-23
The Story of Lappin.

: whence he HlLueQ-u the worn 'ult
can be applied to so ponderous bod
> so many years ago; back again, AM
! so tired that he fell asleep as soon a
} he reached the shelter of his cell.
Lappin's case adds another to thu
million illustrations of the truth, 18Th,
: way of the transgressor is hard" II,
was ''well fixed'' when he was the
financial "boss" up in Nemaha coun
ty. He was big, gross, dull-eycd
man, eager for money and hard-faccd
in its accumulation, but many people
blindly associate bowels with bcncvo
lence, and in spite of his ficrceness fol-
money Lappin enjoyed sort of pop,i-
larity among his townsmen. He never
did any real, pure unsellish good tina:
we have heard of, but he was an sen
terprising citizen" (which may signify,
after all, only very mean man who
pushes the public along before him as
screen for his own covetousness; who
discourses on railroads, court houses.
and even churches, because they are
good for his own town lots. If all the
orthodox theologians are not mis-
taken, there has accumulated by this
time a great deal of enterprise" i'll
hell.
In time Lappin appeared in state
convention at Topeka as candidate
for state treasurer His face, and
such little scraps of his history as had
become public property, ought to have
warned the convention, but it did not.
He was nominated largely through the
efforts of man who was his direct
opposite in character; as big-hearted
as Lappin was narrow; as careless of
money as Lappin was tenacious about
it; as much beloved as Lappin was
disliked; as honorable as Lappin was
trickey; the late Nathan Price. 1t
was big, broad-shouldered honest
Price making speech about "honest
old Sam Lappin" that nominated lap
pin, a man of iron covered with tai |
low.
Lappin was hardly ensconced in
office till a change was noticeable in his
He became pre-occupied
and sombre, and one day it was dis
covered that ''honest old Sam Lappin"
was forger.
They put him in jail-he who had
been so much of man in Seneca, and
mad been intrusted by the state with
Ter treasure-but that jail was nothing
% what followed. There clung to him
n Jail and everywhere a soldier, or .
'ather child of fortune, whose !
ketches of life in South America the '
eaders of the Champion looked over e
ot many months ago, and to this man
.appin owed the miserable gift of lib v
rty. Better for him had he gone =,
trough it all; the trial, the verdict of d
Utility, the standing up in the court Ia
pom, pierced by a thousand eyes, to b,
ear the sentence of the Judge. He d,
ed from comfort and shelter, even tn
18th disgrace, to peril, wandering, Ri
lille, forlornness, and disgrace still. re
uided by his faithful friend, he went bs
)rth, then to Duluth, through the sic
ng chain of the ''fresh, unsalted of
as to Montreal, then to South
merica. He was heard of in vague. on
realistic way, much as we hear of co
e sea serpent, on the coast OF South re
merica, where there is no rain, where pr
e earth shivers, hot as it is, with pc
eekly earthquakes. Now he was in en-
ma, then at Valparaiso, then he had s sa
me to Uruguay, always wandering. Oh
the pitiful history of his family in pc
ese years we do not care to speak 20,
ce happy, by his act made infinitely ~ ~
serable. The only figure we regard s,s
the fugitive, wandering in deserts nr,
Andean SHOWS; thinking all the he,
ne of the pleasant homes, and the
de streets, and the rows of maple
es, and the court house and tho G
bic square in Seneca. de,
He was safe enough in South Ameri- CIR,
but he could not stay there, and SC act
some way he got away to the north G
I'd from below the equator to above Pre-
tropic of Cancer. He found him. pre-
in Washington territory, in his ma ple
e country at least, where he could ten
IT from his old home in a few DAYS, 81
l perhaps see once in a while the to q
1rzer or Tribune, wrinkled and ing
'asy and worn in the mail bags, or Is.
m being blown about the streets, ital.
still with enough legible to show A
the old familiar names in the legal the
ices and the advertisements. He Lave
I'D not wear his own name he nea'
led himself Richardson, and Rich man man
son, it may be, stood in a group n.e'
heard some 1nan from Kansas talk Wv ~,
ut the country. The story goes ,o.n ~
he went around and peddled books ated
pictures, and it maybe that in the
lie houses the women talked to him the
ut their homes in sunny Kansas, f,on
Oh they left to come to watery IN t
territory. Then he got Thel
and left the house and walked Grim
y; but ne met man from Kansas Mi
asst, by name issbach, once banl
ii politician out at Frankfort, and time
has gone to Washington territory, foun
with his office-seeking instinct had In IL
to be mayor of the little city of Ia wher
a. He saw Lappin, and hoping eago
self to get paid for trip back to thro'
sas, informed on the old weather. stole
EN- wanderer, and so he is back ideni
n where he started. oo'al
ansas people are not "old Romans"
ny means. They are kind hearted lie
rule, and know when a man has artic
enough. They do not seem at all qua {
ID OF Weissbach in his great anna. rupt'
detective act; and actually seem State
'mpathize with poor old Lappin s MUd i
his twenty thousand miles OF test
iering. The money he filched was s siaHg