, 1891-03-15
TWO OF A KIND
The Son Of a Famous Swiudler
Steals $4,000.
Exciting Career of thu Hand .
some CheValier PaTaf.
Some of His Schemes for Filling
His Purse.
Liz Enthcr, Like sor.

for TubbIRg the residence Of his grand
father, Mr. B~uiubudge Smith, Of about
5000 worth OF j~ewclry. Alfred is not
yet Is years old How be lcft his grand
fathers house and chose the Bowery 10
preference; how be made the acquaint-
ancc Of crooks aud preferred their society
to his home at No. S57 Fifth avenue.
where his grandfather lives. and how he
came 20 rot his aged relative country
residence at Bargan Point, was told in a
curious mixture Of B,wcry slang and cor
rect English.
Like father, like son. Who shall
say that the old liagc is trite aud out
worn ia these latter days2 The father Of
this Alfred Paral-this I6-year old mon
strosity of criminal incliuatiou-was an
other Alfred Parai, whose criminal pro
ptnsitY was as largely marked as the
boy and whose career as an aiYenturer
and swIudler stands out as one Of the
most audaciaus and brilliant, as such
may be brilliant. ever k1Own to America
Many a New NOrkcr, many a Partisan,
hundreds Of persons on our own Pacific
coast, aud still other hundreds in South
America. will remember the King of
%Swindlers. ' tins boy prodicy's father.
who, ten or a dozen years ago, dazzled
aud deiGauded one community after
another. Alfred Parai, the cid r, appeared
first in New York IN June. 1867. The
CheyuIier Alfred Parai he called himself.
sometimes varying the spelling oil his
name by the more Frenchificd style of
Alfred d Paraife.
THE ELDER PARAF's CAREER
The Chevalier Paraf was a native OF
Alsace, handsome, polished, well-educa'ed
and fascinating in speech. While travel
ing 10 Scotland 10 1868 he suddenly found
himself pennies. Calls upon his father,
who had been a wealthy PMisiau, met
with no response, aud the young mar
soon learned that the elder Plrai bad
been swept uudyTIn a financial panic. 10
these straits the young man went to
Glasgow and established himself IN
elegant quarters. There he put to use a
kuowlcdge OF chemistry by selling TO a
wealthy firm Of clothing manufacturers
the alleged secret Tor a new and cheap
dye, and he received E4OJO from the
liral. The $4,000 was soon di-sipated
aud young Parti knowing that the de-
tecliun of the fraud by which he had
produced the dye must soon follow, dis
appeared and returned to Paris, where he
sold to his uncle of Paraf, laval & Co,
Rue de Satier. the same bogus dye secret
for $1,000 francs.
Taking the money he came to New
York aud for a tune riyaled the lavish
ness of Coal Oh johnny Steele, One
OF his habits was TO force loans OF 81 200
10 -, 900 upon his friends about town.
refusing to accept even an 81. U. u
He had rooms at the Everett house for
which be paid 1925 a week. One of his
freaks for a time was to keep q cab in
waiting at the hotel door. night and dav,
at a cost Of 81 an hour, 10 case he should
wish to ride ia 4 hurry. Baths with $50
to $50 worth of periumcry in them were
another of his iads. Dinners at Delmon
ICO's, theatGr parties, and similar enter
tninmeuts, all in sumptuous style, were
daily and nightly events of his life. This
pace soon exhausted his funds, Of course,
and then Parai turned a trick to re-
pieuish his purse. 1t was his first Grim
inal venture in America, and was anOrher
operation in dyes. He sent up to New
England and sold to manufacturer there
m '%aniline black dye for S6O,OUO.
INTRODUCED OLEOMARGARlNE.
lie returned to New York and began
to live as extravagantly as before. Mean
time be had been introduced to Prof
Chandler Of Columbia college and had
gained access to the college laboratory,
where he conducted experiments on a
process which he claimed to have discov-
cred for making butter out of animal
fat without using milk. THIS was really
the Introiu itlon OF olcomargarine in
America, the process which had been dis
covered by a Frenchman several wears be-
fore and which Paraf had. of course,
stolen, not having become known here.
Prot. Chandler, Prof. Doremus and
others were charmed with the result OF
Parat 5 experiments, and a stock COM
pany with James Mckenzie as the princi-
pal organizer was formed with a capital OF
5000. 900.
While these operations were under way,
however, Parat had again run out of
money. and to carry on his magnifi 'ent
style of living had gone down to Rhode
Island, and, inducing Gov. Sprague, then
the largest calico manufacturer in the
country to visit a laboratory which
Paraf had fitted up in Providence,
showed him a wonderful ''madder dye"
which the daring adventurer claimed to
rave invented. Gov. Sprague saw a for
tune in the new dye and paid S25, 900 for
the exclusive right to the secret. OF
course. as had been the case with all
Pirats other marvellous dye discoveries,
it subsequently came out that the dyes
were patented in tins country aud Europe
by foreigners, and Paraf had simply sold
rights that he did not own. Paraf's
high living was continued on a still
grandGr scale.
SKIPs FOR II COAST.
But the "madder dye" bubble burst at
last, and then the oleomargarine swludle
came to light, and the American company
which had been getting rich rapidly max
ing the stuff from beef fat at a cost of 3
cents a pound and selling it for 10 was
only able to avoid ruin by sending Prof
Doremus to PARIS 10 purchase the right
from MeEe Mouncz, the real inventor,
Tor $4,000 New York became too warm
Tor the Chevalier Paraf about this time,
and he jumped to the Pacific coast, taking
with hun the charming American wife
that he had won in Miss Leila Smith,
daughter of G. Bainbridge Smith, the
well known and wealthy lawyer The
marriage of beautiful Miss Smith to the
heartless but fascinating swindler was the
most pa hetic incident connected with his
s~coundrelly career. She was fifteen years
his junior and had Implicit faith in him
She went with him to San Francisco and
afterwards Travelled over South America
before she would believe that he was not
nm huneaf man When at last tho truth