The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-02-14
ARMSTRONG I!
Was He Driven to
Suicide :?
By Effort to Make Up
Funds
OF Which He Was Charged
With EmbeZZlement.
Edward Steinert is Reported to Be
Seriously Sick.
He Is Not Now Manager of Steinert's
Local Branch.
Edward Steinert is Reported to Be
Seriously Sick.
He Is Not Now Manager Of S~teinert's
Local Branch.

strong was an EN- bezzler from the Roger
Williams Savings Fund and Loan Associa-
ton and a suicide because he had been
driven TO make up funds alleged to have
been embezzled from the firm Of the Nj.
Steinert & Sens Company, has created a
tremendous sensation, and the whole
town is talking about it. The report was
based OF the announcement that the ad-
ministrator of the Armstrong estate pro-
posed to bring suit against the Steinerts
TO recover the sum of $3.50, said to have
been paid to the Steinerts by Mr.. Arm
strong to make up the deficiency, which
the compliments claim never existed, and
TO demand damages for the death of Mr..
Armstrong.
Today rumors that have been voiced
about town to the effect that MIR. Ed
ward Steinert, formerly manager of the
local branch Of the company, is seriously
sick, waxed into a report that Mr.. Steinert
is suffering an alarming physical and
mental collapse and that this may be
traceable To the suicide of Mr.. Arm
strong, in the Arlington Hotel, a year
ogo last January. Mr.. Edward Steinert
has been displaced as manager in Provi-
dence by Mr.. Albert Steinert, and Is now
in Europe, reported at this time TO be in
Genoa. 1t was under his administration
that the trou oles of Mr.. Armstrong te-
gan and reached their fatal conclusion.
When Mr.. Armstrong killed himself
none of his acquaintance could surmise
the reason for the act, except that he was
in i'll health, as he ~undeHiably vas. He
was the secretary Of the Loan Association
and the later discovery that he was short
in his accounts to an amount of about
5000 seemed TO express the dreadful act
of self-destruction. so far IS the Lear
Association was concerned the defaication
wds made good by the American Surety
Company, through their local agents,
attorneys Comstock and Gardner, and
what could have been the temptation that
made an eru bezZler of a man who had
ever borne a reputation for honesty, in
tegrity and carefulness in all his concerns,
was left an unsolved and apparently un-
solvable problem.
The grounds alleged for the effort on
the part of the admil ~istrator of the
estate to recover money paid to the stein
EFT Company by Mr.. Armstrong seemed to
furnish the solution of the tragedy and of
the actual embezzlement that preceded
1t and the certain exposure of which un-
doubtedly prompted II. The other story
is apparently about TO be told. Mr.. Arm
strong's ii are sealed by the grave and
II it Is true thst MIR. Edward ~Steintrt can
never be ~subpnnaed as a witness neither
of the two men who were most concerned
as the immediate principals in the trans
actions of that other story can ever be
heard.
For some years Mr.. Armstrong had been
the hookkeeper and a confidential man
in the house of M. Steinert q Sons Com
pany. II IL generally understood that he
was called In to work on the books of
several Of the branch houses OF the COM
rany. The apparent embezzlement was
discovered when the corporation was eff
fected from the old house Of NJ. Steinert x
sons and the system of single entry took
Keeping was changed to the double entry
system.
Mr.. Armstrong was an old time book
keeper and il is said that he was not ia
miliar with the new system put in opera
tion for the corporation. Accordingly,
at that time expert George IA. Ware OF
this city was put on the books of the
Providence house TO bring them to a
balance and start them in the double
entry system.
In performing this work, Mr.. Ware
found hat Mr.. Armstrong had raised the
ANNUAL statements S12, 600 and over. Why
this was done was u~uaccountable, but
SD bsequent examination showed that
there was no cash discrepancy. The state
ments were in Mr.. Armstrong; handwrit-
ing and there YVES no question that he
wrote them. On the strength of them the
Steinert house demanded that the mon
ey be replaced, although II is now claim
ed that no funds had ever been taken.
AT any rate, IL appears that Mr.. Arm
strong undertook TO make good the APP
10 the M. Steinert q Sons Company are
shown i'm the following figures, said to be
from the books Of the house in this city: