The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1894-01-18
THE ATEDFAIRCHILD BOND
ROBBERY.
"ABE" sPENCER's STORY.


watch Of his school teacher at Troy.
He may have committed other crimes
at an earlier age, but this is the first
one on&the record. He was arrested
for this. but, owing to his tender age
and his fearful promise never to do
wrong again, he was not sent to prls-
on 1t did not result in any improve
ment in his moral nature. and at the
age Of twelve years Joe was arrested
again for highway robbery and sent
i to the Elmira refOrmatOry with the
consent Of his parents.
Spencer went on the road as pick
/ pocket, and IN little while he became
such an adept III the art that Molly
Matches took a fancy to him, and to-
gether they made fine pair. Very
few watches got away from them that
they took real fancy to, and they
were remarkably successful in escap-
! ing arrests.
After a trip into the country Molly and
Joe had a quarrel and separated. Joe
went into a branch Of business which
was perfectly suited to his disposition
and gave him a chance to rise to the
very top. As a confidence man and
bunco expert, Joe outcIassed every
! body else III that line.
Joe hadremarkable linguistic ability
for a person who had not the advan-
tage Of liberal education, and could
speak French, German and Spanish
like d native. This gave him very
strong hold in working his schemes
with foreigners. \ large part Of his
work was done on the ocean
steamers in the card rooms. He has
a tongue as smooth as refined oil and
/ his sleight Of hand was as clever as
/ Hermann's.
1T was when [ was told" said Joe,
that | could not travel abroad because
my company was very disagreeable to
the noble chappies who have more
money than brains, that | set up my
establishment on shore and threw out
my hooks to catch suckers on the
great American highway. My first
| little adventure was dandy. L got
up a beautiful bond purporting to
have been issued by the government
Of Denmark, and as a work Of art
alone it took the cake. 1t W.. covered
with beautiful engrayings Of horses,
cattle, and landscape showing a lake
and other beautiful things [ got out
circular, very ingeniously put up,
which made it appear that L had been
appointed the agent of Denmark for
the sale of the bonds, which were to
be disposed of only on the installment
| plan.
Il had a great sale Of the bonds in
a short time. and the installments be
gan to pour in in great shape [
could not keep the money away from
me. Some people kicked and called
me fraud. but l calmly requested all
persons who doubted the genuiness
of my appointment as the official
agent of Denmark to go over to the
other side and interview the king.
The bond was examined by lawyers
and experts and pronounced genuine,
while as a matter of fact, there was
little Joker in the bond which none of
them caught on to for long time, in
fact, not until | had to expose 1t as a
defense when arrested for swindling.
The wording of the bond promised
many things, but all that, by its terms,
actually agreed to sell, was copies Of
the engravings which appeared on the
face of the bonds
The courts upheld me in my view
Of the matter. but the exposure stop
ped my business. 1t cost me, alto
gether, about $4,000 to float this bond
scheme. and | had collected a tritie
over $4,000, so that | was some to
the good when | had to shut down.
When the smoke all cleared away L
went down into Wall Street, deter
mined to try my luck on the stock
marke1 to see if it would not come my
way.
i studied the game awhile, got in
with several brokers, spent money
] freely and became good fellow with
the boys. L kept sharp eye out for
! tips, but | was not rash and found out
/ that it did not pay to sling too heavy
on tips that We're handed around bar
rooms by your friends who did not
use them. | pretended to be buying
4 heavily when | was not putting up a
cent, and in this way | got the repu-
tation Of being heavy investor.
Il kept on bucklng the market, and
4 lost and won for several months after
that until | stood about even. Thea
| made up my mind that it was game
that was useless following every day,
and took trip around the country
/ during the summer and fall and paid
my expenses with a pack of cards.
/ When | got back the market looked
as if the bears had been in control
about long enough, and | bought
f. heavily for rise IN several stocks. L
got up one morning after a day on
which the bulls had got to tearing
things very lively, and when | looked
al the tape | saw that every stock
that | had bought had gone to pieces
and there was little hope for me.
Il was fiat broke and laid off for a
day or two, thinking of some scheme
whereby | could get somewhere near
even. 1t was then that | hit upon
what | considered was the cleverest
bit of work that | ever did IN my life.
l had been doing business with the
firm OF Sloate 4 Co. brokers, and they
had handled most of my stock tran
sactions for me, and had bought from
the banking firm of Fairchild 4 Co.
several blocks of government bonds
which they had paid for with certified
checks bearing my signature on the
First National bank After the battle
| found that | had a small balance at
the bank, and l got the cashier to
certify a check made payable to the
order of Fairchild X Co. for S1OO
drawn by me- l took the check TO Sloate
4 Co. and told Mr. Sloate that Mr.
Fairchild or one Of his clerks would
call for it.
L felt a little ticklish about the