The Arkansaw traveler., 1886-03-20
Admired and Then Amazed.
lTowle, in Boston rrayeller.1


 The sensation of the day at Washing ton has been an incident, or rather a series of incidents, which have been oc- curing at the Ebbitt house. Not long ago man appeared there with his wife and occupied very expensive apartments He was one of the handsomest specimens of physical manhood ever seen in this town. Nov the EboiIt house iS the headquarters of the army and navy off, cets-consequently there are always a large number of young ladies boarding there. The handsome stranger made an instantaneous hit. The ladies fairly idol ized him, notwithstanding the fact that he was known to be a married man. So far was this admiration carried that a number of the ladies were in the habit of waiting in the reception room to sec him pass in to take his meals. The stra nger then began to throw money right and left, as though he had millions at his beck and call. Although little was known in regard to his antecedents he apparently found no difficulty in gaining admission into the best society. Alter he had been around awhile he invited a few friends to dine with him. There were twelve plates laid, and the dinner cost nearly SI 600. E EAch of the six gen. tlemen fouAd at his plate an elegant solid silver matchbox with his initials set in diamonds, and each lady a mag. nihcent shawl pin containing diamond and ruby. Alter the dinner, which was a most elegant affair, the guests were driven to one of our leading theatres, where couple of boxes had been en- gagged. As soon as the play had been concluded the party was whiTied back to the Ebbitt house and sat down to a dainty supper. The whole affair was voted to be one of the most delightful transformation. The next morning a stout man, slightly inclined to badness, with pronounced nose and still more pronounced mustache and goatee, walked into the Eooltt house and nodded pleas antly to the clerk. The clerk smiled and laid section of his ear across the coun- ter so that the stout man could whisper in it. The more he whispered the paler the clerks face became, until at last it looked as though somebody had dashed some -four over him. The stout man was Detective Block, and his business was with the handsome stranger. He didn't go through the formality of sending up his card, but went up to the stanger's room and knocked; a cherry Come in /" was the response, and the detective en- tered. He merely said: "Whelan want you. Come with me-" Whelan, for such was the handsome strangers name was handcuffed and taken to police head quarters. He is held on the charge of swindling and aged Baltimore lady out of $8 900 worth of Wabash bonds. upon winch he had realized S6 900. Whelan, at the time of his arrest, had an order for $rI 900 worth additional, which was taken from him. He is one of the best known confidence men in the country. He tailed in Milwaukee once for 5000 900. He has been arrested in London, New York, and almost all the principal cities of the United States. The last time he was arrested was for defrauding the St. James hotel in New Yotk out of a board bill. The very mention of the fact that Washington society has been taken in and done for" by a common everyday vulgar swindler will set the leaders'rteeth m edpe