Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-08-25
MIrKIEwfCz HAS A RECORD.
Conspicuous as an Adventurer for Nearly
Thirty Years.

NJ Y Sun
Count Eugene Mitkiewicz, of Wash
ington, has been figuring rather con-
spicuously in the papers of late through
a scandal that he was mixed up in at
the national capital, and through his
efforts to bunco Manager Frank P.
O'Brien, of the birmingham Age-Her-
aid, out of cool $4,000. 1t is four
years since Count Mitkiewicz startled
the financial world with stories Of Chi
nese concessions for railroad and tele-
phone systems all over the Flowery
Kingdom, which meant millions OF dol
lars of profit for investors. The Counts
effort to drag Manager O'Brien into his
net for $4,000 caps career which ex-
tends back for nearly thirty years, and
fully establishes Count Mitkiewicz's
right to be known as one Of the clever
est adventures the country has ever
seen.
1t was in 1883 that Count Eugene
Mitkiewicz first became conspicuous in
America. The role he played was a
very dashing one at first, and it was
right here In New York, too. He
lived at the Fifth Avenue Hotel and
spent money like lord. The Count
was young then and his personal charms
won the hearts of several New York
girls. He called himself Count then,
and said that his family were all mem
bers of the Polish nobility. Miss Julia
Lomolino, a niece of the late Nathaniel
H. Wolfe, ST., was one OF the young wo-
men who took special interest in the
handsome Count. One day, in spirit
of fun, Mitkiewicz slipped ring from
Miss Lomolino's finger and forgot to re-
turn it,
A few months later he was requested
to return the ring. He did, but paste
diamond had taken the place of the
valuable stone. The Count was prompt
| ly arrested and taken before Justice
| Richard Kelly in the Jefferson Market
Police Court. Then it came out that
the original diamond had been sold by
the Count to Jeweller Phillip Rein Of
Madison Square for about $3.50. Mitkie-
wicz was promptly sent to the tombs on
this evidence and indicted for grand
| larceny. He returned the money that
he had got for the stone, however, and
Mr.. Rien returned the stone to Miss
Lomolino. The prosecution was drop
ped then for fear that the names OF the
young women who had made much Of
Mitkiewicz might be dragged into print.
The Count was released on 81 900 bail
on his promise to enlist in the Union
army. He didn't enlist, though, but
quietly dropped out Of sight for ten
| years.
In the summer of 1873 Count Mitkie-
wicz met Miss Caroline Lester, the 10
year-old daughter of Ralph Lester, a
banker of Rochester. The Lester fam
| lily were returning from q European
tour and Miss Lester made the Counts
acquaintance on steamship. He told
her stories OF his noble pedigree and the
unreasonable girl was completely car
ried away. Mitkiewicz turned up in
Amherst in the summer OF 1873 to re-
sumo the courtship, for Miss Lester was
| there with her uncle, William s. Tyler,
professor of Greek at Amherst college.
Mltkiewicz was "a then, and great
billiard player, as the Amherst students
soon found out. The Testers never liked
the Count, and they sent to Europe 10
| find out IL his stories about himself were
true. They discovered that his family
were simply plain tradespeople, with no
pretcntions to nobility, and that the
| Count was generally considered the
black sheep of the family. 1t was finally
arranged BY the Lesters that Mitkiewicz
a.