The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1886-05-28
An OLD MANS STORY.
A GIGANTIC NEW YOFK ROB
Berry RECALLED.
A Brother OF william Cullen Bry.
ant Dying In Want and
DestltutiOn.

NEw YORK, May 27-An old, white
haired man, blind and bent with age
and hardly able to walk, was found
wandering simlessly in Charles street
when the storm was heaviest Mo ndaY
afternoon. He had no overcoat and
battered old h.t was set awry on
his snowy locks. He was so helpless
that policeman who saw him was
touched WITH pity, and led him into
the Charles street st tion-house. The
sergeant grew interested in HIM, I o,
and called an ambulance, which took
the old man 10 st Nincent's III spital
He told the policeman that he was
eighty five years old, and that he had
once been rich He said his name
was Luther {. Bryant. At the h s.
pitql House Surgeon Davis was called
to see the patient He started in as
constituent when the queer old man,
in a st mmering voice said, in ram
bling waS, that he was bryant, the
old coin collector" The old mans
words had recalled TO the doctor,
mind the curious old coin colleC tor
and the gigantic robbery OF which he
had been the ctim twelve years ago
At that time Bryant, then in his sew
enty-fourth year. kept little
stand opposite the old postoffice
building, at which he sold old
coins and stamps. He had kept the
stand for years. Everybody thought
he was pooc man, eking out very
modest living. He lived alone in two
little rooms on the thi d floor of a
cheap old tenement gu Forsyth street
A detective suddenly pounced down
on him ons night in October, in ls74,
in his rooms, and carried him of to
prison on a warrant charging him with
selling st len stamps. He was locsed
up in the Tombs on this cha ge. In
the middle OF the night three burglars
burst open the door OF the old man s
rooms and carried off the greater part
OF their contents The burglary was
the sensation OF the day. 1t was
shown that the old mans imprison.
ment was only part in an amazing
plot in which a detective took part, to
rob the coin collector Two noted
crooks, "Rat' Rel ly and Bobby, the
Welchman," the latter an employee Of
the Department of Charities and Cor
rections, had somehow discovere that
the old man had fortune OF gold and
greenbacss and / easures OF costly
brio a-brac stored awsy in his room.
The detective had trumped up the
charge of selling stolen prop
cry to get the old man
out of the way while the blu glars got
the plumber They stole over $4,000
in 500 gold pieces stored away in a
seer drawer in bureau In another
place was 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 lifetime in bank or trust COM
pany, and had hidden it away in his
miserable hotel, believ ng that no one
would discover his secret. He fell in
fit in his cell in the Tombs when the
news of the robbery was brought to
him, and struck his head. The blow
brought on PARA ysis OF the optic
nerves that made him totally blind.
He was hOnorably discharged the day
after the burglary, and Rat Reilly and
Bobby the Welchman were sent to
Sing Sing for twenty years The old
man never 7 covered any of the ttolen
money except few ofthe gold pieces.
He had marked every ote with pc
culiar punch, and gold pieces thus
punched we returned to him from
out of town banks a. odd times. The
banks got them in thu natural course
of business from innocent holders.
The old man is now destitute and dy.
ing. He claims to be brother of the
late William Cullen Bryant.