The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1888-03-10
A New England Vagabond,

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 or
chards and hen roosts. At fourteen
he planned with two companions to
steal cheese, and cucumbers, and
hide them in the woods. The others
provided the bread and cheese, and
he found the cucumbers, stripping a
whole patch. Being dissatisfied
with the provision the others had
made, he at once resolved to
frighten them out of their share, so
he raised an alarm so that they all
took fright, after which he came
back and carried off all the supplies.
Not content with this, he informed
his companions that the farmer they
had robbed had captured him, and
had exacted of hirn three days labor
so that each of the other boys gave
him Il days work on his fathers
farm as their share of the imagina-
ry penalty. This early incident
gives the key to his whole life, that
was spent in first defrauding others
and then his accomplices. When
he was twenty-one he began the
more public practice of his profess
sion by stealing his fathers horse
and selling it for thirty dollars.
In the active practice of his pro-
fession he travelled habitually be-
tween Canada and Virginia, having
a line of confederates, like a trap
pers line of traps, through the whole
route. His system of living reach
ed a singular perfection. When he
needed food he took it, wherever he
found it, not confning himself to
the necessaries of the table, but ad-
ding the luxurious, as when he stole
a beehive and carried it some dis
tancef on which he must have felt
the stings of remorse. When he
needed pair of boots, he looked out
for Il shoemaker's shop, and contriv-
ed to near it at nightfall. In res
pect to linen, for him the land SEEM
ed as covered with clotheslines as
now with telegraphic wires, and
once when he needed smallclothes
he spied through the window of
church suitable pulpit cushion,
stole it, sold the feathers, and made
a pair of breeches out of the green
plush
1t is needless to say that in him
horse-stealing rose to the dignity of
Il fine art. Some fifty separate
thefts of this kind are recorded in
his book. He asserts that he could
go into a stable at night and select
a particular horse by his way of
eating his hay. He could so dis
guise a horse by paint that his for
mer owner, riding by his side, did
not know him. He would steal
horse, ride him twenty miles, and
exchange him for another, and make
two more EXCHANGES before reach
ing one OF his homes again-for he
had almost as many homes as hor-
ses. In one case he took neigh
Dors horse, sold it for fifty-one dol
lars, and on being detected, guided
the neighbor to the place where it
was sold, hoping to find it and steal
t back again. Not finding it, they
zach stole another horse, were caught
md were punished with thirty-fve
ashes each from a cat-o.nine-tails
In another case a man boasted that
his horse had a special guard every
hight, and could not be stolen.
tufts accepted the challenge, gave
he guards rum and opium, and rode
he horse away.
1t was while he was deserter
rom the army, in the year 1880, that
IN event occurred which throws |
much light from below, as | may /
say, ON the whole history of the Con- |
mental currency. He had rambled .
rom West Point to Vermont, when
he whim took him, he SAYS, to visit
lin rotation"-a good name for his I
node of life-the town of Charlie /
mont, in order to gain sight of Sally 7
Judd, whom he had married when
le had another wife living. He
here put up at Spencer's tavern. A
stranger rode up to the door, gen
eel, well-looking man, who dis
to refresh himself, but de- I
lined to stay longer. On being
PRESSED by Tufts, who liked his COM
'any, he said that his money was
Utmost out, and he must be getting
home. Tufts, who describes himself
IS being always generous when flush
If money, offered to pay his bill.
% he staid all night, and they shared
he same room. In the darkness of