The Wichita daily eagle., 1895-10-17
TRY TO WORK HIM
BANKER AND MINISTER REPRE-
sENTED By CONFIDENCE MEN.

Experience of Mr.. DuckeIs, a Wealthy Far
mer, at Kansas City while Enroute te
Wfchfta-The Alleged Banker Claims ts
have Lost His Brother by Death at New
OrIeans-Body of the Dead Man was te
Masons-story Told TO Friends at the
Santa Fe Depot
Charles Wright, a wealthy farmer re-
siding near Valley Center, was at the
Santa Fe depot last night 70 meet his
brother4in-law, E. C. Duckels of Ran
dolph county, Iii.
The above item of itself is only an
every day occurrence in Wichita, but
their is attached to 1t a story OF the
attempt of two confidence men to work
Mr. Ducl1els out of s75 by the dead
brother racket John Adams of the
firm of Adams & Adams, the well-known
attorneys, was at the train to meet Mr..
Duokels, who is not only client of
the firm but a warm personal friend, in
speaking of the case to an Eagle report
er last night said:
-I noticed that Mr.. Duckels had a
surprised expression on his face as
though he was looking for some one
whom he expected to meet and inquired
of him who he was looking for.
"T am looking for the funeral pro-
cession. Did you not have prominent
Mason die recently in New Orleans,
whose body was shipped from that
place to this city for burial?'
Mr. Adams declared he had not heard
of amy recent death among any of the
prominent Mason of Wichita, and
made further inquiries of Mr.. Duckels
Let US wait and see them take off
the corpse and then we will learn his
name, and / will also tell you all l
know about the matter"
The three men stood on the platform
and watched the baggage mashers do
their best TO break asmder every trunk
that had been consigned TO their tender
care, but no corpse appeared They
also keep a lookout as to the men en-
gagged in unloading the express car.
There were dogs, birds, sewing ma
chimes, flowers, chickens, parts of ma
ci1inery, boxes that bore the reseTn-
blance of beer cases, but no corpse ap
peared. Charley Wright demanded of
his brother-in-law that he should eX-
plain to them his reasons for having
them to wait and see the corpse unload
ed and he wanted to know what he
knew about the corpse.
'Well it is strange, anyway you can
look at ii, said Mr.. Duckels. "Oh, you
fellows need not cast any sympa thetic
glances at me. have not played the
sucker very bad. That is it has not
cost me a cent, but / will admit that
] have had my sympa thy worked up to
"a certain degree, and / now believe that
st was with the purpose of beating me
put of money that the scheme was at
tempted. 1t is strange what nice look
Ing men belong to the confidence gang,
land l will not forget soon the sad, tear
stained countenance of the two men
AT Kansas City who told me of their
troubles.
For goodness sake tell US the story"
said Wright and Adams in concert.
well, I'll tell you all about it. /
guess there are no newspaper reporters
about i would 10th to have my friends
learn that an old business man like me
had even been taken for a victim by
a confidence gang. The circumstances
are as follows:
when we got to Kansas City and I
had just taken a seat in the car which
was fast filling up, a young man wear
ing black coat, plug hat, white carvat
and carrying an old Oxford Bible under
his arm, came and took a seat by my
side. He was one of the most innocent
looking men / had ever met and | sat
him down fer a Presbyte yterian preacher.
We soon fell into conversation, and 1
Informed him that / was going to Wich-
sta to look after property interests at
this place, and that / was contemplat-
ing locating at that point in the near
future. He said he was acquainted at
this place, and had been in attendance
at the state convention of Christian
Endeavors which met in Wichita. I
asked him If he knew the Adams broth
ers, attorneys, and Others He did and
in fact appeared to know every man
that / named
While we were talking he looked
out of the window and pointing to a
man standing near the car said that
there was a friend of his. banker from
Wichita, and he wanted to speak to
him. He excused himself and | told
him to invite his friend to come in.
In a short time he returned with his
friend who was also a well dressed man.
and / noticed a piece of Grape on his
arm. He introduced the man as Mr..
Davidson. president OF the First Ma
tional bank
''Mr. Davidson said he was in great
trouble. that he had just returned from
New Orleans with the dead body of his
Brother who was a thirty-second degree
Mason and that the railroad company
had refused to ship the body any farth-
er unless the sum of $75 was paid That
fe had teiegraphed ahead to the Ma
sons of Wichita and that they would
all be at the ,trasn to meet the corpse.
and We could imagine his humiliation
if he would be unable TO ship the body
on this train. That the banks were ALI
closed and he did not know what TO
do unless he could raise some money.
Ehe ministerial acquaintance opened
his pocket book and gave Mr.. Davidson
two ten dollar bills This was not
enough and was appealed to. l open
ed my pocket book and showed them
i only had So in cash 1 had another
book in my inside pocket. but IL con-
tained only bank drafts
THE two men soon left me. hut
could not forget the sad expression of
Mr.. Davidson's face as he bid me good
by. The ministerial friend went with
him and that was the last / saw of
Il er1- j was sorry / did not have the |
money. for my heart was moved with |
1 could not forget the case
and 1 want you Mr.. Adams to hunt IN |
the friends Of the president of the First |
National bank and have them send the |
man relief