The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1891-05-23
An INTELLECTUAL NEGRO.

Lewis in the State Penitentiary at
Lansing, Kas., who but for one little
slip in a cleyerly contrived plot Of bis
would be at liberty now and the pos
sessor Of $4,000 belonging to the Mer-
camille National Bank Of this city. His
brightness and shrewdness made him
a marked man and he was transferred
to the War Department.
Early in 1889 he forged papers in
that Office and was convicted and sem
fenced TO ten years in the State Peni-
tentiary at Lansing. lie is fine pen
man and at last he was assigned to
write the letters for conyicts. The
convicts occasionally send money TO
relatives and friends outside, and the
custom was to buy at the First National
Bank of Leavenworth drafts on the
Mercantile Bank of New York. On
February 10 last one Of the convicts
got draft for 81 and gave it to Lewis
to be forwarded in a letter. Lewis
raised the draft from 81 to $4,000
and sent II to the Fountain Savings
Bank of Richmond, Va. lie sent the
draft for deposit to his own order.
He also sent Mr.. Hill, the cashier, a
letter dated Hardness, kas. This letter
stated that the draft which had been
forwarded represented the price re-
ceived by Lewis for a ranch In Kansas.
He said that he had sold the ranch to
an English nobleman, Lord Rsndlet,
through John ii. Scott. Lewis in
closed letter from Scott dated Lon
don, January 20, 1891. Lewis sent to
the Richmond bank another letter
signed by Scott, in which 1t was said
that Lord Randlet would soon leave
England In his yacht and join Lewis in
San Francisco. This letter of Lewis
requested Cashier Hill to have the
draft for $4,000 on the Mercantile
Bank certified. Cashier Schenck of
the Mercantile Bank looked over the
First Nationals account and saw the
Leavenworth Bank had balance of
$4,000 and he notified Hill that the
Leavenworth Banks draft $4,000 was
all right and would be honored. 1t
was forwarded and paid. BY this
time it was approaching March /.
Right here steps in an accomplice of
Lewis, negro, who is known In the
Lansing Penitentiary as Sam Bryant.
lie was sentenced from Shawnee
County, Kansas, for robbery, and his
term OF five years expired on March 4.
After his release Bryant went to Dod-
worth n Co., printers, at Leavenworth,
presented an order purporting to come
from Capt. Hilliers, U. S. A., and let
ter head of the Judge Advocate Gen
erals office. The letter ordered twenty
five copies of the engraved letter head
to be printed as nearly in fac slmile as
possible. Bryant reached Richmond
and on check of Lewis secured $3.50
of the $4,000, and went on to WASH
ington to put through the last chapter
of the Lewis swindle. Warden Chase
received on one of the letter heads of
the Adjunctant-G Generals office an
order on him signed William Reeves.
Warden Chase took Reeves to be a
clerk in the War Department. The
order appeared to be certified by the
Assistant Secretary of War and 1t
notified Chase that Lewis had been
pardoned and directed his release. 1t
is needless to say that the order had
been forged on one of the spurious let
ter heads delivered to him in jail by
the second accompllce and by Lewis
sent to Bryant in Washington. All
that Bryant had to do was to send it
bask to Chase in War Department
envelope.
BY way of preparing Chase's mind,
Lewis had already written to himself
a letter from Reeves, saying that Lewis
friends in Washington were working
for his pardon and that no doubt in a
few days happy decision would be
reached. That letter he had forward
ed to Bryant for transmission back to
him. The letter was read by the war
den, as all convicts' letters are, and
two days later Chase received tele-
gram from Washington saying a par
don had been made out for Lewis and
was on its way. This telegram was
signed "Reeves.'
BY the next mail came the forged
official announcement Of Lewis par
don. Just here the plot broke down.
Lewis was little bit too smart. In
an appendix to the official letter was
a request that the warden should hand
the document over to Lewis so that
Lewis might use 1t to identify himself
at the War Department and get any
back pay due him. Warden Chase
wrote to the Department that he did
not like to hand over the pardon to
Lewis, as 1t was his only voucher for
the convict's release. lie asked the
War Department to suggest some 9th
er means of helping Lewis to receive
proper Identification.
The officials wrote back to Chase
that no pardon had been issued for
Lewis. The jig was up. Chase
searched Lewis cell and found the
twenty-three unused letter heads.
Lewis system of communication with
the outside world It may be presumed
was considerably abridged after that.
The $l9,750 lay untouched in the saw
ings bank in Richmond. May 4 was
settling day between the Leavenworth
Bank and the Mercantile National.
The bank IN Leavenworth was deblted
with $l9,999 too much. Tclegraphic
inquiries and answers passed aud the
$19,750 was recovered by the Mercan-
tile from the savings bank in Rich
mond. From Lewis $3.50 more was
recovered. Bryant got away with his
little bit of money.