Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-06-27

3.)er Of men In this city, who
were customers Of Mr.. Thomas,
bogus Thomas did all the talking.
. very smooth-tongued fellow and
[Iked In q business-like way. He told
Eo1most the same story to everybody. He
aald that he had recently returned from
4 ChIifornia, where he was growing fruit, and
his brother Edward had instructed him to
. come to Lancaster and other towns to sell
foods. He said that they Intended run
u ming a car load Of bananas, pineapples,
; lemons, &c, here each week or every other
veck, according to how the demand was.
H6 gave the prices to the dealers and they
were 10 far below what they had been
& paying for goods that several of them. gave
heir orders. lAfter selling r. goods
Z the men returned 70 The -hSs'seht. persons
!, they bae quay s conduct as o bsceriain
father il not specially a'',5iiaas a'5ia any, any
sc"ier is Rfncce a siellg iellg. compllm,ee,rting to be
from Mr.. Thomas, in which lie stated that
4 - the goods were being sold at such very
low figures he would ask the purchasers to
nettle up their old accounts before the
nhipments were made. The man who
gave his name as Thomas had this letter,
but did not show it to anyone, and afler
raNding II ho would endeavor to collect The
bills.
Tho two men called upon II. l.. Mel
linoer, grocer, on North Queen street, one
day last week and sold him lot of lemons.
The goods were to arrive in q few days,
but they did not come. The two rascals
did, however, and when they returned the
s0-called Thomas asked Mr. Mellinger
whether he did not owe tho house small
bill. Mr.. Mellinger told him that he did,
but he did not feel pleased at that kind Of
4qeestion, as he had never been talked to
1ntfIat manner by any representative of the
! arm before. The man Thomas talked very
nicely and said that his brother was cranky
and he probably wanted old bills settled
tlrst. Mr.. Mellinger said he could easily
pay the bill, so he gave him a check for the
4 tnll amount, s24, at the same time telling
him that he did not care whether he sent
else lemons or not. The men went ut once
10 the Northern bank. on which the check
Was drawn. and procured the money. The
man who gave his name as Thomas wrote
The name of Edward Thomas across the
s hack of the check and drew the money, In
4 the same manner the mon procured check
+ for S23 from IL. +. Weber, but they did not
yet II cashed. During their stay here tho
men called upon G. w. Eckert, who Is
an intimate friend of the real Mr.. Thomas.
Mere they told the same old story about
fruit, but Mr.. Eckert did not think that
The fellow who claimed IL WAS a brother of
Mr.. Thomas. They also called upon
Samuel Clarke, who bought an order of
goods which were to have been here last
+ Saturday, but did not come. 1t was on
Wednesday that the men obtained the
4 and then they disappeared.
Mr.. Weber wrote 10 Mr.. Thomas in
Philadelphia that he had given their agent
check, but as they did not receive 1t Mr..
Bunting, a clerk for Mr.. Thomas, came to
Lancaster yesterday. He began an investi-
Z CATION, and found out all that is stated
above. He examined the name of Edward
Thomas on the check, given by Mr.. Mel
npger, and at once pronounced It a forgery.
He also said that the man who gave his
name as Thomas is a fraud of tho first
water. A full description of the fellow
was given him, hui he could not tell who
he was. He said that Grant was their
agent, but he had been with them only n
couple of weeks, and he knew little about
him. He thought that the two men were
sorking together, and that the bogus
Thomas sSabtained his information concern
ing the business Of the house from Grant.
Inquiry was made hare and II was
learned that the men went to Columbia
from Lancaster and thence started for Bal
timore by way of Perryville. They paid
their board at the Stevens house with a
check on West Chester party, which was
afterwards foun to he good.