The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1896-11-13

Il
him, and how he had disposed of it in
paying the men. But l afterwards
found out that he kept no cash book,
and manufactured out of his head
what he sent me. For example, the
April pay roll was 1925, and on one
side he had this sum received from
me, and on the other side the amounts
paid to the employees exactly balanced
it. But he had not paid cent to the
employees, but had given them orders
on store keepers at Mobile for the
amounts and had not paid the store
keepers. This continued for four or
five months.
"Hall was Industrious to degree,
generously active, the first at the mill
in the morning and the last to leave,
always going here and there but &C
complishing nothing. He was not a
good business man, yet the business
would have been successful had he
acted squarely. He was a master of
lying and forged letters, and carried
on systematic course of deception.
He did petty thieving when he could
have gotten more from me. He forged
letter purporting to be written by
one Slater to himself, saying that the
writer had ST., 500 to invest and would
give it to Hall to use in the business
| if he SLATER could have position.
was led to believe that this was done,
and that Hall had put this money
into the business; yet l afterwards
learned that the letter was forgery
and not attempted to be an imitation
of Slater's hand writing. Slater was
a common deck hand on boat and
had no money, but Hall gave him a
good position to keep up the decep-
tion, but did not pay him anything
Hall put no money into the business.
"The fore part of June, Hall went
to the state line and bargained for a
lease of another large tract of timber
land. He had a project to erect a
hotel, barn and town site, and
agreed to pay for all this in his own
name. He then came on to Chicago
and told me what he had done and
said that he had as good as made
$4,000 by the deal, and offered me a
half interest. ! laughed at the plan,
but he was in earnest. He went back
| south the next day.
''Halls non-payment of his men and
the store keepers began by this time
to make them clamorous for money,
and he came back two weeks later
and wanted money. had none then
but told him to 60 back to the state
line and would telegraph him S4OO
then. This was done. Hall got on
the train for Fruitdale, and when the
train arrived there the labOrers were
on the platform, demanding their
money. The foreman rushed in and
stated that the men were highly ex-
cited and that they must be paid.
Hall coolly took from his pocket big
roll of bills and told the foreman that
he had more than enough money to
pay every man. He then took from
another pocket big package of what
purported to be bills and handed it to
the foreman, saying that there was
the exact amount to pay the men.
The foreman took the package and
got off just as the train was pulling
out. He found on examination that
the package was merely paper cut up
and shaved down to the size of bills
and wrapped in paper.
"Hall went on to Mobile that night
and borrowed $500 from friend and
then disappeared, and has never been
seen or heard of since, until 1 met
him today. He wrote to me on June
18th on stationery of a prominent
Mobile hotel, where he was not stopp-
ing, saying that he was feeling
sick that day, and that "the mental
strain and worry of the last fourteen
days has almost broken me up" This
was the day that he disappeared, and
the last that l ever heard
from him. He got about $40, 900 of my
property on tissue of falsehoods. I
had sent the man about $500 month
to meet the pay roll, but he had dis
bursed none Of it, but drew the money
himself and paid the men in store &C
counts and then didn't pay the mer-
chants. There was about $4,000 due
the merchants. / was never able to
find any trace of the money or books,
and don't know how Hall left Mobile
or where he went. 1 had detective
at work on the case for a week, but he
was unable to learn anything regard
ing the man. Hall must have taken
So, 900 in cash with him. The bust
ness has since gone to pieces, and the
creditors have taken everything in
sight. There were attachments
amounting to more than three times
the value of the property.
"Hall was the reverse in his habits
of what a defaulter usually is. He was