News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-10-28
TWO STORIES OF REAL LIFE.
All About Two Men Who Came to the
Same Bad End.
[From the New York Sun.l

From the New York SUM-
On the 25th of June last there sat st
one of the tables in the Hoffman cafe a
man of prodigious size. He was six
feet six in height, his neck was like
column, his shoulders more than three
feet broad, and his chest swelled like
the bulge of a hogshead. He was both
a gourmand and gourmet. His face
was smooth shaven, cheeks bloated, but
he had a pleasant smile and was the life
of the party with which ne was dining.
He was dressed in good taste and in the
latest fashion. He wore rather conspi-
cuous iewelry. He would have been
picked out for a rather fast club man,
and he was. His home was in Hartford,
where he has lived some twenty years
the ideal life = for Hartford of man
of the world. He kept fast horses he
was u cool poker player, he entertained
as no other bachelor in Hartford did,
and was regarded 6y the lively young
men here as the model good fellow. At
the same time business men respected
him. He had come from rich bust
ness family in Pittsfeld, and brought
some so, 500 to Hartford. He estab-
lished and managed several manufac-
turing enterprises. Last spring he went
to St. Louis with Edgar Wells in con-
nection with the purchase of the Wa
bash Railroad system, and his financial
suggestions were there deemed worth
considering. His name is Plunkett,
and he is now a wanderer and defaulter
for many thousand dollars He has been
living dishonesty no one knows how
long. When, three or four wee ago,
Plunkett ran away, people IN Hartford
said that another man was ruined by
fast and riOtous living, and that such a
course of life as Plunkett led was sure
to bring a man to Il dishonorable end.
That Is one story. Now for another:
On the very day that Plunkett was
dining and wining at the Hoffman with
his jovial, fashionable companions,
there hurried up Broadway a slender,
sharp-featured. sallow-f faced man who
entered the St. James Hotel and seated
himself in the lobby as though await
ing some one. His clothes were plain,
almost shabby. The front of his coat
was spotted as though he were careless
in his eating. His boots were not well
cleaned From under his bushy eye
brows there peered, however, a pair of
very bright, quick eyes, remarkably so
for man of his apparent years his
age was plainly not far from 70. A
prosperous business man came into the
lobby, and the respect with which he
treated the old man indicated that the
latter was person of some consequence
Notwithstanding his plain appearance.
he conversation between them having
been finished, the old man went to the
cloak room, called for a basket, and
then retiring to secluded place, took
out some bread and butter and cakes,
and ate his frugal meal He had spent
the night at reputable but cheap lOdg-
ing hotel, and he had brought food
enough in a basket from his home to
sustain him for two days. Yet his name
was power in the financial world. He
was reputed to be worth million. He
had served on railroad directories with
such men as Samuel J. Tilden. He was
president of half dozen great corpor-
atoms, and his credit was SO great that
banks eagerly accepted his paper and
called 1t gilt edged. Men accepted his
financial views as the best to be had,
and his name and experience alone had
tOated more than one company from
embarrassment to success. He, like
Plunkett, was a Hartford Conn., man;
but, unlike the younger man, he was a
person of singularly correct habits in
private life. His food was of the plain
est. He never knew the taste of wine
or stronger spirits. He never used to-
baccO. He never had fast horse. He
never visited theatres, nor, in fact ever
allowed himself milder forms of social
pleasures. He was very active in his
church, which he almost carried on his
shoulders. He was frequent delegate
to missionary and charitable gatherings.
He was an enthusiastic member of the
White Cross League, and ma many
addresses in favor of active efforts to
reclaim fallen women and to punish IN
chastity in men. When in New York,
where he spent much of his time, he
always declined invitations of his bust
ness colleagues to participate in dissipa-
tions, harmless or otherwise, and he
was everywhere regarded as a man of
model life. This was George NJ. Bar
tholomew, and recently he, too, was
admittedly defaulter for some $780,
900, taken from the funds of the grea
Charter Oak Insurance Company, of
which he was president. He has fled
like PIunkett, though Bartholomew
hiding place is known and Plunkett's is
not. His dishonesty has involved sew
eraI corporations, will cripple probably
a Dumber of banks, and cause loss to
many individuals.
Here, then, we find that the dissi-
pated, fashionable, fast-living, poker
playing man of the world, and the alb
stemious, plain living, moral man have
been doing the same Thing -embezzling
and absconding. 1t is no wonder that
Hartford people are somewhat dazed by
these very conspicuous revelations of
similar dishonest practices on the part
of a man of moral and a man of immoral