The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1886-06-02
FORTUNES CHANGES.
Death of a Former Wealthy Citizen of Few
York in a Hospital.

New YORK, May 27.-An old, white haired
man, blind and bent with age and hardly
able to walk, was found wandering aimless-
" in Charles street when the storm was
heaviest on Monday afternoon. He was so
helpless that policeman who saw him was
touched with pity and led him into the
Charles street station house. The sergeant
grew interested in him, too, and called an
ambulance which took the old man to st.
Vincents Hospital. He told the policeman
that he was eighty FIVE years old, and that he
had once been rich. He said his name was
Luther c. Bryant. At the hospital House
Surgeon IDavin was called to see the
patient. He started in establishment when
the queer old man in stammering
voice said in a rambling way, that
he was bryant the old coin collector"
The old mans words had recalled to the
Doctors mind the curious old coin collector,
and the gigantic robbery of which he had
been the victim twelve years ago. At that
time Bryant, then in his seyenty-fourth
year, kept a little stand opposite the old
Postoffice building, at which he sold old
coins and stamps. He had kept the stand for
years. Every body thought he was a poor
man eBing out a very modest living. He
lived alone IN two little rooms on the third
floor OF a cheap old tenement on FORSYTH
street. detective suddenly pounced down
on him one night in October, 1874, in his
room and carried him of TO prison, on a war
rant charging him with selling stolen stamps.
He was locked up in the Tombs on this
charge. In the middle of the night three
hrrr b11rc n 10 nj 1or,ic
room and carried of the greater part OF Its
contents.
1t will be shown that the old mans impris-
onment was only part OF an amazing plot
in which a detective took part, to rob the
coin collector. Two noted crooks, Rat
Reilly and Bobby, the Welshman," the lat
ter an employe of the Department of Chart
ties and Correction, had somehow discovered
that the Old man had fortune of gold aud
greenbacks and treasures of costly bric-a-
brac stored away in his room. The detective
had trumped up the charge of selling stolen
property 10 get the old man out of the way
while the burglars got the plumber. They
stole over $40 600 in $50 gold pieces, stored
away in a secret drawer in a bureau In au-
other place was a pile Of nearly $4,000 in
greenbacks. The gold was packed in silk
and brown paper. The foolish old man had
feared to put the savings of a life
time in a bank or trust company,
and bad hidden it away in his
miserable hole, believing that no one would
discover his secret. lie fell in fit in his
cell in the Tombs when the news of the rob
berry was brought to him, and struck his
head. The blow brought on paralysis of the
optic nerves which made him totally blind.
He was hOnorably discharged the day after
the burglary, and Rat Reilly and Bobby,
the Welshman,' were sent to Sing Sing for
twenty years. The old nan never recovered
any of the stolen money except few of the
gold pieces. He bad marked every one with
a peculiar punch and gold pieces thus
punched were returned to him from out of
town banks at odd times. The banks got
them in the natural course of business from
innocent holders. The old man has been
destitute of late years and claims to be a
brother of the late William Cullen Bryant
He died yesterday.