Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1888-10-05
A Singular Story.

Singular story
The sReverend George Frederick
Wilfred Ellis, who was some months
ago a Suffolk rector with a stipend
of $500 a year, is now convict IN
dergOing seven years at hard labor
for forging the document by which ne
procured acceptance as a clergyman
of the Established Church. His trial
revealed one Of the most curious in
stances of lOng-continued successful
fraud that has ever been discovered.
Beginning life as the iIlegitimatec child
of a poor woman in Lincolnshire,
he worked as a labOrer and a tailor,
till, by attending to his education, he
secured a place as assistant teacher
in a Roman Catholic school. It ap-
pears that his first fraud was
in this connection, for he passed him
self on the Roman Catholic Bishop
as a Roman Catholic, though not
born or brought up in that creed.
After awhile ne left school and Sc
cured admission to the Church of
England from the present Archbishop
Of Canterbury, then Bishop of Truro.
without interference from anybo dY
he soon protested himself an Angeli-
can clergyman, officiated as curate
in several parts of England, and
married so well that his wife's father
was able to present him with the
Suffolk living. His difficulty then
was to secure the assent Ofthe Bishop
of Norwich. To effect that he repre-
scented himself as a converted priest,
having learned that the Church of
England viii admit converted priests
BithOut ceremony or re-OrdinatiOn.
but the ''ReV. George Frederick" had
to procure documents certifying to
his ordination as a Roman Catholic
priest. These he forged in Latin so
skillfully that they passed as genuine
for five years. At length suspicion
was somehow aroused, the R. G. Bis
hop whose name had been forged was
communicated with, and the whole
fraud exposed with the result above
stated.
It is remarked that the deceiver, for
all MS skill in fraud, was exceedingly
stupid in that he took far more
trouble to palm himself off as q con-
verified priest than would have been
requisite to obtain regular Anglican
orders. He had had to live with un-
blemished decency for many years; he
had educated himself sufficiently for
q clergyman's duties; he had acQuir-
ed very good Latin and passed mus
ter easily as q theOlOgian and preach
er. But it is an old, true story that
a man must take q great deal more
pains to succeed in rasCality for a
while than in responsibility to the
end of his days. With q small per-
centage Of the trouble a burglar takes
he might become a successful mech
anic. Some years ago an exceeding
ly bright and handy farmer in East
OptariOr set up as cOunterfeiteP,
displaying wonderful ingenuity in de-
vising machinery and inVenting al
Toys. Without the excitement Ofper-
petrating fraud he had no DISPOSE
ton to cultivate his mechanical
talents, though they we're of a
sort to yield him a large
income and fine position. The re
AJO4 70 VI u INT IL u OM NCNl WlUl SUCH
instances. To set their wits of guar
dians of the law seems an irresistible
temptation to many who appear
without wits except when so engaged.
Perhaps we have all known indiVid-
uals whose faculties seemed strength
ened by danger, by the stress of mis-
fortune, or by crisis far out of the
common. They rose to difficulty
and were possessed by d strange Joy
in their displays of force, skill or in
ventiOn. 1t is conceivable that some
men become habitual criminals by
discovering that their faculties are
so frightened as to give pleasure in
their exercise by the consciousness
Of running tremendous risks. How
else can one explain the strange con-
duct Of him who displays in crime
much more than the industry
and intellectual ability that
would, as he knows well, yield him
a great deal more than crime does?
But there may be truth in what the
alienists say-that all deliberate
criminals are essentially insane.
An Instantaneous Mental Process.