Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-01-08
swINDLED BY A GYPSY QUEEN.
How a Citizen Of Roanoke County, Va,
Parted with $4,000.

Parted with $4,000.
There died last Wednesday, near Salem, Va.
Mr.. David Z. Trout, a well-known and once a
well-to-do farmer of Roanoke county, brother
of Hon. Henry s. Trout, who represented that
district in the senate Of Virginia from 1882 to
1886. MIR. Trout owned one of the best farms
in the county, lying about midway between
Salem and the city of Roanoke, Immediately on
the Norfolk and Western railroad. Though
somewhat reserved and quiet in his manners
he was popular man and one in whom every
one had confidence, the best evidence of which
is that he had been elected one of the super
visors of the county during several successive
terms, and was chairman of the board at the
time of his death. He was regular and tenn
perate in his habits, strict church member.
and was looked upon a prudent, industrious
and thrifty man, supposed not only to be ont of
debt, but to have money laid up. In 1877 a
gang of strolling gypsies came into his neigh
bOrhood and made an encampment about a
mile from his house. and while the men spent
their time going around swapping horses, the
women occupied themselves in fortune-telling.
Matilda t. Worton, the gypsy queen, was one
of the gang, though it was not known at the
time.
MR.. TRoUT's SILVER MINE.
Three years afterwards, on the 9Th day of
April, 1880 ID .E.Troutappeared before of the
courts in Brooklyn, accompanied by Detective
John Wren, of Richmond, and the mayor of
Newark y. j., to identify Matilda L. Worton,
(who was then confined in the Brooklyn Jail on
a charge of swindling one William Jessup, of
Princeton, Ind, out of S2,25O), and who was
charged by David E. Trout with swindling him
out of Sl0, 900 in greenbacks IN the year 1877.
MIR. Trout swore positively as to her identity,
and proceeded to state that in the year 1877,
while the gypsies were encamped near his resi-
dence, he received through the post-office at
Salem a note or letter signed NJ. L. Worton, in
forming him that she had discovered ON his
farm. very near his house. a silver mine. worth
at least a million dollars, and appointing time
and place where she would meet him and give
him further particulars. The meeting was
held according to appointment, and she pro-
ceeded to give him further account of this
silver mine, which at some former and perhaps
remote date had been worked by two Indian
ing the secret of the existence and value of the
mine, aud which she was willing to communi-
cate to him. He
PROMISED TO GIVE her oNE-HALF
if she would take him to the place and satisfy
him of its value. To this she replied that all
she would expect in the way of compensation
was to have $4,000 in bank-notes that she
could see and handle. When he told her that
he did not have that much money by him. but
few days. she said that would be sufficient and
he Immediately made "a note which. being well
Endorsed. was discounted BY one of the banks
i'll Lynchburg; and few days afterward he
and the gypsy woman met at his own house,
where he exhibited the package of bank notes.
which she took into her hands. examined and
counted carefully, and returned to him after
making various incantations and prayers over
1T. This was repeated on several different oc-
casions. on the last of which she said to him
that everything was working right; that the
charm was almost ready to be broken, and that
by the naxt time they met
THE SPELL WOULD BE BROKEN,
and she would be prepared to conduct him to
the silver mine. but she must have the pack
age of bank-notes in her hand again. At the
time appointed they met at his house in a room
where there was a large family Bible on table
and the package of bank notes was presented
and placed in the gypsys hands. when. after
praying over 1t and getting Mr.. Trout to pray
over it. she said that everything right
but he must make solemn oath on the Bible
that he would not open the package for three
days after she left the house, when he could
open it and he would find paper indicating
the precise spot where the silver mine was
Leaving the package in her hands, he turned
round for single moment to make oath on the
Bible. and Immediately turned to her again.
when she handed him a package of exactly the
moment before placed in her hands She then
left the house, charging him not to open the
package until the expiration of three days,
which he, not suspecting any trick. promised
her to do. and kept his promise. But at the
end of the three days he opened the package,
in which he found nothing but slips of brown
paper resembling bank-notes in size, but that
was all. and the whole of his $4,000 was gone.
HE DIED POOR AND HOMELESS.
MIR. Trout began a search for the woman who
had fled, and it was only after three years of
diligent inquiry and search, with the aid of a
detective and a shrewd lawyer, that he traced
her to the Brooklyn Jail. where he fully identi-
fed her, but did not recover dollar of his
money. He began to go down hill from the
day he lost his money, pecuniary troubles came
upon him, ending in his mortgaging his fine
farm, and finally being sold out of house and
home. Then his health began to fail; he be-
came detected, care-worn and died on Wednes-
day last poyerty-stricken and homeless