The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-02-17


| the experiment The Offices were fitted up
ike regular banking-rooms, with large
| safes, fine desks, beautiful furniture, soft
MoQuette carpets, while on the wall there
] would be various signs in regard TO stocks
and bonds, and clerks hustling around or
al work over ponderous ledgers- All or
this, OF course, gave "a very business-iike
character to the Office and served almost
| completely 10 disarm suspicion.
When CHANGED on the name OF a man
IN the daily papers who thought would
answer my purpose / would go 10 the
hotel send up my card and make his &C
quaintance. Then i would soon take MN
in one Of our Offices. I spoke OF the saIes
there. Sometimes they We're bogus Ihey
We're made Of pasteboard and could De
taken ali apart, being painted on the out
side TO look like a safe. When the Gus
toner had won prize we would some
times ask him If he preferred to be pald
in gold. A big bag of coin would be
brought out, the top pieces in which were
gold, but all the rest silver
THE SWEETEST place I ever had was IN
Fourteenth street below Third avenue
That was fitted up in very fine style out
was afterward arranged TO be changed
into bedroom. We could fold up every
thing and have a bed made from some
other article of furnit ire. The victim, II
he afterward came to the place could not
identify the room. Then we would chahse
the number on the house so that when
the man came he could not find the build
ing, even though he had remembered the
number. He would notice the right num-
Der quite prominently on the building
when he went out, but when he returned II
he ever did, to make complaint the num-
Der would be entirely different.
Il generally used a coupe in taking my
customers to the office. II was very sty-
lish affair. The driver and footman We're
both confederates of mine and they al
ways tok great pains TO act their roles
with dignity and to call my name as ire
quently and as loudly as the eXigencies
of the business demanded-'Mr. Belmont,
MIR. Hazard Mr.. Aston or whatever
rich mans son l elected to be at the time.
I'VE always consulted Bradstreets IN
order to discover the financial standing OF
a man. If a man was worth S5OO,VoO we
considered we ought to get from MN en-
600; if 100000, about 5000 or $1,000. 1t wouiu
depend on his rating. If a foreigner was
not away up' in society we would not
touch him He would have to be a man
like Asbburn We could only get ms
standing b. conVersing with him, lhoush'
of course. we had the English peerage,
and that gave US some information. IL
met an Englishman from Manchester we
will say--I knew the United states consul
over Thereon else some prominent Eng
lishmen like DIR. Bruce. who had sons and
l would at once represent myes1 as one
of his sons. L knew, of course, that every
one in the city knew this mans sons, and
so 1 would get in his confidence. Among
Frenchmen we only touched princes.
Il suppose the most remarkable case
with which ] was ever connected ana Ger
tainly one which gave me considerable
reputation in my particular line, was the
experience I had with Mgr. Capel, or pos
sibIv l ought to say. the experience that
Mgr. Capel had with me. / approached
him in the usual way telling him that my
name was Hazard. 1 reminded nm that
L was the son of the famous Broadway
druggist of that name. 1 knew that he
was acquainted with Mr.. Hazard, and l
told him that was stopping at the Fifth
Avenue hotel
said the monseignor:
You are connected with one of the
prominent families? / replied yes
told him 1 had met him in Rome and
was an intimate friend of Mr.. Aston, who
was then the minister at that capital.
Then. having made his acquaintance, l
continued the conversation until IN
duced the distinguished ecclesiasttc to
visit the office where we delivered the
prize. / knew that he was fond of gam
ing.
I'VE walked down Broadway, and
finally invited him to the prize fund ex-
I
and old-time gambler in faro bank; but
when he lost his money unlike most
gamblers, he made great Kick. He said
that he had a strong suspicion that he
had been beaten out of his money. ana
threatened to go and see Archbishop
/ Corrigan and tell him all about the mat
ter 1 knew that If he pursued this
course the Archbishop. who was on very
intimate terms with John Kelly, who was
then the leader of Tammany hail, would
promptly make very serious trouble for
me and my companions, and the conse-
! uuence was that L returned him his
money, which was not a very large sum,
| however-not more than $500 or 500.
Another interesting case occurred dur
| ing the time that Gen. Grant was stOpp-
| ing at the Palmer house in Chicago, be-
! ing then on his journey around the world.
! The victim of this case was an English
! man of whom we had got track, and who
/ came over to this country for the pur-
! pose of investing a large amount of
| money in mine for u syndicate. He had
/ q great chest full of money-an iron
| chest strongly bound-not containing
! checks or negotiable bonds, etc, but real
gold. solid money, which could be passed
/ in any country of the world. On account
| of Cen Grant stopping at the hotel
| sDecial officers were stationed around the
/ building and if it had not been for this
| fact it is more than likely the amount
of money this gentleman lost would nave
| been much greater AS 1t was he had
| paid in S21 600 to the prize fund exhibition,
| and he was sent back to the hotel to
/ get Sl5O,OOO more, the amount necessary
! to give him a chance to draw the CAPT
| tai prize l could not go into the hotel
with him because there was an officer
there that 1 knew, and when the English
man came downstairs he was so tlustered
/ and excited that he did not know which
entrance to take in leaving the building.
/ He went to Jesse Hipil, who was then
/ the clerk Of the hotel, and said: Hi beg
/ your pardon. sir, but Gavin you tell me
| where his the prize fund exhibition"
Mr.. Hippil said, Il will tell YOU and
he called one of the detectives over to the
desk. They went to headquarters, and
while they were up there we went to our
/ office, secured all the paraphernalia, and
left town promptly for few days. The
/ Englishman was soon very glad to get out
of the way of newspaper men and the de-
tectives, who were annoying him to death
and making his life a burden.
ct was not long, however, before l re-
turned to Chicago, because the English
man left the city and it was perfectly
safe for me to return. / soon got tired of