The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1888-03-15
She gerala aaa gsars,
PUBLISHED
EVERY THURSDAY AT
NIiWBERRY, S. c..
A VAGABOSD.
Pen Picture of Type Not Confined to Ne"
England.

England.
TT. w. Hicginson in Harper's Maga-
zine.
@ He Henry Tufts, the subject OF this
sketch began his career IN the usual
manner of country boys who take to
bad courses, by robbing orchards and
henroosts. At fourteen he planned
with two companions to steal bread,
cheese and cucumbers, and hide them
in the woods. The Others provided the
bread and cheese, and he the cucum-
bers, stripping a whole patch. Being
dissatisfied with the provisions the
others had made, he resolved to fright
en- then out of their share, so he raised
an alarm so that they all took fright,
after which he came back and carried
offan the supplies. Not content with
this, he informed his companions that
the farmer they had robbed had cap
tured him, and had eNacted of hlm
three days labor, so that each of the
other boys gave him days work On
his fathers farm as their share OF the
imaginary penalty. This early Incl
dent gives the key to his whole life,
which was spent in first defraudlng
: Others and then his accomplices. When
s he was twenty-one he began the more
public practice of his profession by
stealing his fathers horse and selling 1t
for thirty dollars.
In the active practice of his profess
sion he travelled habitually between
Canada and Virginia, having line Of
eonfederates, like trapper's line OF
traps, through the whole route. His
system of living reached singular per-
lection. When he needed food he took
it. where ever he found it, not confin-
ing himself to the necessaries of the
! table, but adding the luXuries, as when
he stole beehive and carried it some
distance, on which occasion he must
s have discounted, so to speak, the stings
of Eemorse. When he needed a pair OF
. boots, he looked out for a shoemaker's
| shop, and contrived to be near it at
/ nightfall In respect to linen, for him
z the land seemed as covered with
clotheslines as now with telegraphic
wires, and once when he needed small
clothes he spied through the window
of a church suitable pulpit cushion,
stole it, sold the feathers and made
s breeches of the green plush.
It is needless to say that in him
honestealing has been in all
ages, as Scott says of treason, ''the
crime of a gentleman to the dig
nifty of fine art. Some fifty separate
thefts of this kind are recorded in his
book. He asserts that he could go into
stable at night and select particular
horse by his way of eating his hay. He
could so disguise horse by paint that
his former owner, riding by his side,
did not know him. He would steal a
horse, ride him twenty miles, and eX-
change him for another, and make two
more exchanges before reaching one OF
his homes again-for he had almost as
many homes as horses. In one case he
took neighbor's horse, sold it for fifty
one dollars, and on being detected,
guided the neighbor to the place where
it was sold, hoping to find it and steal
it back again. Not finding it, they
each stole another horse, were caught
and were punished with thirty-five
lashes each from cat-o-nine-tails. In
another case a man boasted that his
horse had special guard every night,
and could not be stolen. Tufts accepted
the challenge, gave the guards rum and
opium, and rode the horse away.
It was while he was deserter from
the army, in the year 17S0, that an
event occurred which throws much
light from below, as may say, on the
whole history of the continental cur
rency. He had rambled from West
Poit to Vermont, when the whim took
him, he says, to visit ''in rotation'-a
good name for his mode of life-the
town of Charlemont, in order to gain
sight of Sally Judd, whom he had
married when he-had another wife liv-
ing. He there put up at Spencer's tav-
ern- A stranger rode to the door, gem
teel, well-looking man, who dismount-
ed to refresh himself, but declined to
stay longer. On being pressed by Tufts,
who liked his company, he said that
his money was almost out, and he
must be getting home. Tufts, who de-
seribes himself as being always gener-
Gus when flush of money, offered to
pay his bill. So he staid all night, and
they shared the same room. In the
darkness of the night the stranger
made a confession. His name Was
Whiting, land he had long been an
agent for the British, who had engaged
him for an emissary to explore the
country and circulate counterfeit mon
ey." "As congress had issued paper
medium to raise armies and pay off
their troops, it invited their adversa-
ries to discredit the currency as much
as possible. And as much large guam
titles Of paper had been issued already,
the speediest way to effect the entire
dissolution of the system was to inun-
date the country with counterfeit bills"
Itaccordingly proved that this genteel
stranger, who had not enough good
money to pay his landlord had fifty
thousand dollars of counterfeit conti-
mental money in his pocket, and one
thousand # this he gladly transferred
to Tufts in exchange for "a little silver