The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-08-28
A PRINCE OF ROGUES.
A GREAT EUROPEAN RASCAL NOW
ON HIS WAY EITEER.

How Swindler Of Plebeian Birth Became
the Intimate Of Nobility and Even OF
Eoyalty-Ee Has Recently Finished
Six Years Term Of Penal Servitude for
Series Of Extraordinary Frauds.
VIENNA, August 19.-I have been re-
quested by the chief of the Vienna po-
lice to warn Americans against one Of
the most dangerous and successful
swindlers ever set loose on an unsus-
pecting community. 1t is but year
ago that he issued forth from the pen
itentiary here on the completion OF his
term of six years imprisonment with
hard labor, to which ne had been SEN
fenced in 1882, and already every capi-
tai of Europe is again ringing with ac-
counts of his extraordinary exploits, his
victims including even royalty and I'M
perial personages. At the present mo-
ment he is believed to be in the United
States Or on his way thither, his object
being to exercise his profession in q
new and rich field, and to escape the
pressing attentions of the European po-
Ice. His real name is Charles Hoffman,,
which he occasionally transforms INTO
Won Hoffman,, Chevalier Won Hoffman,,
or Baron Henry de Courtier, the latter
being his favorite alias. He
describes himself as either an
English or Austrian colonel, a
statement which is borne out by his
military carriage and appearance: He
dresses with quiet elegance, is tall and
powerfully built, with black HAIR and q
thick gray moustache. His age IS about
AZ, and he is married to a charming
Russian princess, whom he has deserted
after squandering to the last cent her
once considerable fortune. The chief
Z. of police here adds that the pseudo
Colonel de Courtier" speaks English,
Freuch, German, Italian and Russian
without the slightest trace of any foreign
accent.
His history is indeed strange one.
Born in 1S43 at Prague, as the son OF a
respectable glass dealer named Hoff-
mann, he made his way to England in
1869, after his fathers death, and In a
very brief space of time spent every
penny of his portion of the inheritance,
In 1856 he made his appearance at Carts.
bad, where be figured as a member OF
Queen Victoria's bcdyguard of gentle
men alarms, every one of whom bears
the rank of Colonel. His fascinating
manners, the fortune which he ap-
peared to possess, and the rank which
be claimed in the British army, prnEc1
sufficient to capture the heart ana the
hand of princess, a wealthy and beau
tifnl young Russian widow. Shortly
after his marriage he took up his
residence on bis wife's estates IN
Russian Poland, and lived there with
great splendor for several years. Cards
and every other kind of extravaganza
soon made enormous inroads into his
-~fe,s fortune, and in 1872, after selling
every portion of her property for which
he could find a purchaser and mort
gagged the remainder, he deserted the
princess and moved to Berlin. While
there be acquired several hundred thou
sand dollars as negotiator OF more or
less fraudulent foreign railroad con-
tracts, but spent the money as fast as he
made it. BE insinuated that he was IN
constant and confidential intercourse
with FRINGE Bismarck, and that he was
frequently employed by him for conf
dental political missions. Although
this was believed to be the case at the
8 time by bis victims, and proved to be
source of material support to him IN
his swindling operations, yet it has
since been discovered that the chancel-
not even know him by sight.
lin at length became too hot o-heaa.s.
&SeuaRx lcaSsS,,snd fg'5 he took
London, where
he described himself asshe nephew
of Baron Won Hoffman,, who at that
time held the post of Minister of Finance
of the Austro- Hungarian Empire. 1t Was
due to a belief in the existence of this
relationship that he was made an honor.
ary member of several of the very best
London clubs, where the insouciance,
8 liberahty agd sangfroid with which he
lost large sums at cards sooa won for
him host of friends of the highest rank,
including even the heir apparent, a
number of whose letters were found
among his papers at the time of his ar
rest in 1882. It is probable that his
: losses at cards were Intentional, and that
he was shreWd enough to perceive that
money spent in that manner would en-
able him considerably to extend the
field of his swindling operations sen
qrond.n That the investment was of a
profitable nature is shown by the enor-
nous extent of the frauds which he per-
petrated in London, and by the fact that
: his acquaintances of the card table not
only invited him to their houses and
country seats, but also presented him to
their bankers, and even went so far as
to furnish him with letters Of recon-
mendatiop to the British representatives
at foreign courts
Hence it happened that he was fire.
ouently to be met at the tables of the
English ambassadors and ministers in
continental capitals, whose leading citi-
zens can scarcely be blamed for having
. accorded their confidence and considera-
ton to man whom they knew to be
treated with such marked cordiallty by
her Britarnic Majesty's ENJOYS. So IA
torable was the impression whichhe ere
ated both at Rome and at Lisbon that King
Eumbert conferred upon him the cross
of acavaher of the order of the Crown
the same which George II. Pullman
possesses, while the Portuguese sove-
reign made him knight Of tie oroer
of Christ. During one Of his visits to
Brussels he became acquainted with the
late Crown Prince Rudolph of Austro-
Hungary, who conceived great liking
for him. Fo1eseeing the advantages OF
an intimacy of this nature, Hoffman,
q announced his intention of presenting
D TO the archduke a magnificent yacht as a
wedding gift. The plans of the latter
were duly submitted to Prince Rudolph
and approved by him; and Crown