The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-05-08
Some of the forged notes and mort

1ull dllu CAREFUL ueSrlpLlOQS Ol 1auQ,
name of signer. name of witnesses,
signature to waiver of dover and sig
nature of notary, all in different and
appropriate handwriting. So far as
IS known the name of one notary-D.
G. Henson-is invariably used. On
some OF the forged notes from imagin-
ary persons credits are entered on the
back and even calculations of interest
in pencil-as is customary-to give
them a genuine appearance.
In the case, for instance, of Will
llams and others, mentioned in one of
the warrants, there are three copies of
the mortgage for 81, 500 on 235 acres of
land. Professor Judson holds the real
document, B. NJ. MCGEE, of the Plant
ers bank, and G. A. Norwood, of the
Savings bank, hold the duplicates on
which they advanced money. 1t is
doubtful if even Professor Judson's
mortgage is good as there is report
that the makers of it, who are colored
people, claim to have paid it.
How many forgeries there have been
nobody knows-probably not even
Dickson himself. As there was pres
sure for payment on one forgery he
would make another to secure money
to pay it with. There may have been
scores or hundreds Of them destroyed
after being used. The process has
been IN operation twenty-five years.
So far as is known the losses repre-
sented by the forged papers amount to
about $1,000. They may be much
more. 1t is not unlikely that years of
litigation will be required to straighten
out the tangles in some cases. There
IS hardly holder of a mortgage or
the owner of a piece of land in the
county who can feel entirely safe un-
til the papers have been traced up.
No man can know whether his land
has not been mortgaged or mis- name
forged without his knowledge and
any mortgage which has not come di-
rectly from the maker may be Dick
sons work; for he forged probates and
certificates Of registration and transfer
along with the rest.
He was lying on a pallet of quilts
when representative of The Green
vile News saw him last evening.
He seemed to be then as uncertain and
cloudy as ever. His color was good,
his eyes were bright, there was no
tremulousness in his hand as he grasp
ed that Of his visitor He said he was
an honest hearted man who had come
to trouble by one piece of crooked
work. More than twenty years ago,
he said, he was led into a trap and was
forced to do one wrong thing to raise
81, 900 which he was obliged TO have.
Then he had tried a flour mill scheme,
hoping to get enough from it to square
himself Freshets came and put him
another $1,000 behind. So he had
gone on and on. He could see now,
he said, that he would have done bet
ter and been happier if he had made
clean breast of the first bad work he
did and taken the consequences. But
he always had something before him
sometimes gold prospects, sometimes
shoals and factory sites, at last his cot
ton chopper-which he believed would
enable him to clear off everything and
destroy all the outstanding warrants
to dishonor and ruin and the peniten-
tiary which he made from time to time
to take up others. He had never in
tended, he said, to wrong any nan of
dollar. The proceeds of his forgeries
had gonein interest. He had paid S75,-
900 in interest-10 per cent, II per
cent, sometimes more. He had han
died big sums of money, but it all
went right from his hands to his cred
itors. He had not kept dollar, was
not worth dollar on earth.
And this seems to be true. So far
as can he learned he has not a dollar
on earth, has nothing to show for
twenty years of the most skillful and
elaborate forgery, for twenty year of
risks such as would try the nerve of
the most daring speculator, the most
reckless gambler, for twenty years of
living hell
He never became accustomed to
danger he said-this long, awkward,
plain looking, shabby man with his
thick, dark hair streaked with gray,
whom nobody would have suspected
of carrying with him every day the
fear of absolute ruin of fortune and
character, the consciousness that he
was living over a mine liable to ex-
plode at any moment. mo man can
ever become used to wrong doing"
was the way he expressed it.
He said he thought his creditors
would lose $1,000, or SIS, 900. OF that
81, 900 would fall on Professor Judson.
He cid not believe Mr.. Norwood, hold
ing a mortgage over the Dickson an
mex property, would lose everything
in the long run. At the jail door w.
NJ. Jones, of Spartanburg, was waiting.
He had been called here by note
from Dickson telling him that secur@-
ties given for a loan from his fathers
estate We're forged and worthless Mr..
Jones thinks he is out 81, 600 or s., 900
but hopes part it is secured.
Dickson says he has about made up
his mind to make himself as comfort
able as possible in jail until the next
term of court and to take what the
law may give him-that while not in
tending wrong he kncws he has done
wrong in the eyes Of the Law.
1t was learned last night that in 1855
Dickson was detected in forgery by |
President Beattie, OF the Greenyille
National bank. He then professed
much penitence and offered to insure
his life for $40, 600 for the bank and
die, apparently by accident. This was,
of course, declined, and the amount of
his debt was charged off from the
bank assets. Since then he has made
from time to time Sc that
now the bank loses very little, and
from It's assets nothing. He has
shown every purpose to be honest
there
He has promised his friends two
things gs-that he will make no attempt |
to escape and no attempt to destroy
News.