Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1891-07-02
esaDsLEY's STORY.

Philadelphia's Defaultfns Treasurer Re-
lates the Story Of His Downfan-He
Blames the Bank Examiner.
PHILADELPHIA, June 24.-John Bards-
ley, ex-city treasurer, who several days
ago pleaded guilty of embezzlement of
public funds, was brought from prison
to court for sentence yesterday, but on
motion of District Attorney Graham
sentence was suspended indefinitely.
The throng of regular attendants at
the court of quarter sessions was sup
plemented by men prominent in every
walk of life, who had gone into the hot
court room to witness what they
thought was to be the browning degra-
dalton of the man whom a few months
ago they gladly acknowledged as their
friend-John Bardsley, the faithless
treasurer of the city and self-confessed
violator of the law.
Two weeks ago when Bardsley pleaded
guilty to the charges against him. the
court fixed yesterday as the time to
pass sentence upon him and public ex-
pectation had been wrought up by a
promise that when brought into court
he would make full and free confess
! sion of his malfeasance. By many it
was thought that in his statement or
high in business and official life, whose
names had been limited at but who were
supposed to have been his confederateS
Such expectations proved groundless.
The confession was in line of de-
Tense of his own conduct, giving in de-
tail his various transactions 1t bristled
throughout with figures and showed
where every dollar he had been accused
of Incorporating had gone. The
| charges to which he had pleaded guilty.
of loaning public funds at interest and
to specializing with them, he frankly
acknowledged, but he emphatically de-
MED that he had benefited by his trans
actions to the extent of one dollar.
National Bank Examiner Drew came
in for severe scoring at the hands Of
Bardsley and he laid it to his door that
he sunk his money in the keystone
bank. Bardsley said that it was due
| to Drew's plausible statements of the
| banks condition that he had deposited
his money there. He further charged
Drew, through an acknowledgment by
President Marsh, of the Keystone bank,
that Drew knew of the conditions; that
Drew was under obligations to John c.
i Lucas, the dead president of the bank,
/ for money loaned and for valuable
, fayors received.
Bardsley implicated Henry Yard in
| his transaction by stating that it was
| through him he had loaned money to
banks. According to his statement his
| present plight may be accounted for by
| trusting too much in the statements of
others and he epitomized in his own
words in telling the history of his de.
| posits in the Keystone bank: 81 didn't
| get the money and have never gotten
any part of it and it is still in the bank,
or should be there. I know that the
| closing of the bank meant loss to the
| city and state and personal destruction
| to myself. [ therefore made every
effort to sustain the bank, and its clos
| ing has resulted in my absolute ruin.
During the time 1 was in the offieo
| of city treasurer I never had any trans
! actions with Postmaster-GeneralW Wanna
| maker, nor have I any personal know
| ledge of his transactions with the Key.
| stone bank have seen it stated prior
| to the run on the bank and between
| that time and March 20 that Mr..
Thomas Il. Wanamaker, son of John
Wanamaker, Mr. Marsh and myself
were very frequently seen together.
! This is absolutely false