The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1893-05-04

only brother, Henry Levinson, when she
married and had never been reconciled
to him; that her husband had forsaken
her before my birth, whereupon she had
renounced his name, and that he had
afterward died.
Irepeat that do not know whether
that was true or not. am inclined TO
think that my father was such man as
/ am, and that my mother was his VIC
tim. care nothing about ii one way or
the other, as my mother never displayed
any affection for me that / remember
and never inspired me with any for her.
was interested in only one clause in
her letter, and that was the mention Of
my uncle. Henry Levinson, of whom /
had never heard before. That interested
me because / thought Icould get money
from him.
/ did not. On the contrary, / discov-
cred that he had long been dead and
had left all his fortune by will to his
only son, Arthur, who was then travel
ing on the continent somewhere. con-
suited lawyer as to the possibility Of
breaking the will, and on his advice
abandoned the idea.
was then working the cardrooms on
some of the crack ocean steamers, and
early in the following October I took
passage from Queenstown to New York.
| The vessel had not been an hour under
| way when one of the under stewards
whom had tipped very literally on a
previous trip, and who was very saga
cious fellow, came to me and said:
"Mr. Levinson, did you know that
your brother was on board?'
my brother?" I said carelessly. mo,
| didn't know had brother"
"Well, SIR" said the steward, "his
name is Levinson, and he looks exactly
like you"
The thought struck me at once that it
was my cousin Arthur whom l had
never seen. Igave the fellow sover-
eign and told him to find out all he could
about the other Mr.. Levinson, and then
shut and locked my door and sat down
| to think it over.
Irevolved probably fifty plans in my
head and was satisfied with none of
them. Still more was inclined to be
cautious after had heard the stewards
report. He said that my cousin seemed
to be very reserved, quiet man, who
apparently had no acquaintance on
board, and he declared over again that
the resemblance between us was Won
derful.
This set me thinking harder, and !
finally decided to study my cousin care
fully before letting him know of my
existence, and then trust to the chapter
of accidents and the DEVILS luck gen.
orally had for some chance of putting
him out of the way and impersonating
him. i'll could do that stood to win
fortune, whereas l couldn't hope for
more than q few hundreds or possibly
thousands in any other way.
| therefore kept my room through the
voyage, excepting when with the aid of
my pal, the steward, ventured out to
watch Arthur surreptitiously. l did
more than that. paid the rascal an
unrighteously large sum to search Ar
thurs room and to bring me some spec
linens of his handwriting. And got
him to have an terror" in the ships list
| corrected SO that it showed that MIR.
Robert Lewis occupied the stateroom
that had been supposed to be occupied
by Mr.. Robert Levinson. Iargued that
il my cousin should not know of my ex-
istence would have so much the better
chance.
| My pal served me well. He brought
me Arthur's writing desk, and I ex-
amined it carefully, taking out two I'M
important scraps which happened to
show his signature and sending the rest
back. It might prove important to me
to be able to initiate that signature.
Irevolved the notion of getting him
overheard in some way during the voy-
age and stepping into his stateroom as
Arthur Levinson, but dismissed that
1t was too dangerous. Ocean steamships
are too well policed to make such thing
very feasible, and besides the steward,
although he served me we'll in small mat
tiers, was not the kind Of man to trust in
large ones, and he would know what had
happened even If no one else did.
Arriving at New York looked up
man who had been useful to me more
than once, before and told HIM to find
out all he could about Mr.. Arthur Lew
inson. He succeeded admirably, and in
a day or two I knew where my cousin
kept his bank account, as well as where
he was living.
My next plan was TO forge his name to
a check for some large amount and pre-
sent and cash it myself. practiced on
his signature until could initiate it very
well, and Ihad grown confident of being
able to impersonate him by reason of the
extraordinary resemblance there was be-
tween us. This, reasoned, would be
enough to mislead his bankers, who had
only seen him once, and, as the result
showed, reasoned correctly.
| 1t was necessary to proceed with great
caution, however, in trying the forgery
game, and had to know something
about the condition of his account. How
/ found out about this decline to say.
do not propose to incriminate any one
but myself, and / would not even do
that If the inspector did not know all the
main facts already. 1t is enough to say
that a gambling house is a wonderful
place to learn secrets, and that / soon
learned ON good authority that, although
my cousin had only small balance in
cash at his bank, he had large sum in
securities deposited there.
Then heard of his accident and Of
the fact that he was suffering from the
effects Of it. and / resolved upon bold
stroke. called at the bank and told
the two pompous old gentlemen who re-
ceived me that wanted to realize on all
my bonds at once, as had determined
to invest them differently. expected