The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-08-17
THE MINER AND HIS PAST.
Criminal Records in Now Gold Lands
(Erom The New York SUM-

Criminal Records in Now Gold Lands
(From The New York Sum-
washington.-"If within the next two
United States who have made unsuc-
cessful searches for embezzlers, alb
sconders, and other high-class fugitives
of a similar sort" said an old Forty
miner down the river the other day,
"were to make a run to the gold fields
Of Alaska, I'll wager they'd make a
roundup tina would astonish them.
It was shown during the earliest years
Of the gold excitement in California
that newly discovered mining regions
have an indescribable fascination for
men who, having stolen large sums Of
money in their own communities, have
been compelled to make a run for it.
If the fact had been sufficiently well
known then, there would have been a
whole lot of vacant claims of men who
struck California during the very best
of it and took out of the ground, many
Of them, enough gold to repay their
obligations ten times over-whichs some
of them did, and some didn't. The
Klodyke country will be filled with
money takers from every corner of the
United States, whose double purpose
in going there will be to square them
selves with the people they have stolen
from, besides enriching themselves le-
ultimately.
There were not a great many appre-
tensions of embezzlers from the east
in California during the gold days, but
there were some. The most notable
was the capture Of the bank embezzler,
John S. Desire, vino had stolen in the
course Of years nearly $780, 900 from a
bank in Charleston, S. c., and who,
when he saw that his discovery was
drawing nigh, made a final haul and
jumped around for California by way
of Panama. He was caught at Sacra-
mento in 1861 by a lawyer from
Charleston, who had been armed with
police powers by the governor Of
South Carolina, and Desire was GER
tainly the hardest loser when it hap
pened that ever came over the hills.
It was not such a wonder, either, that
he felt like a hard hit man when the
lawyer from Charleston appeared with
the warrant and requisition papers for
his arrest, for Desire was one Of the
first men to strike it rich early in 1850
in the Shasta country. He had taken
out something like $500, 900 when his
captor turned up, and he had hundreds
Of thousands more in sight. We all
thought out there that Desire got rath-
err the worst Of it when every offer he
made his lawyer captor for a COM
promise was rejected. It appears that
the money he had stolen from the
Charleston bank while he was it's cash.
Ter had been the savings Of a large
number of small investors, and the
bank was so done up by the theft that
it had to quit when h discovery came
after Desires flight. This had so en-
Filtered the plundered depositors that
when it was learned that Desire was
in California under the name of Ma
thias, they sent the lawyer after him
with Instructions that at any cost De-
sire was to be brought back to South
Carolina for heavy punishment. The
ruptible man.
"'See here" said Desire when the
lawyer appeared at his place in Sacra-
mento and showed his papers, Tn in
the hole in Charleston to the extent Of
a little under 800, 900. That's right.
isn't it?'
The lawyer nodded.
livery well,' said Desire; here's q
check for the amount. That squares
it, doesn't it?'
"'No,' said the lawyer; I'm under
instructions to take you back; I'm go
ing to do it.
"'But you are going to be a SEN
sible man, I suppose? Now, here's a
check for $50, 000-it will be hcnored
at that bank right across the way-in
satisfaction Of the money Of the bank
that I appropriated for cotton specula-
ton; and here's another check-also to
be cashed Immediately across the way
for $50, 900 for the indulgence with
which you have or are going to treat
my request
"'But I'm not; I'm going to take you
back by the next steamer
"'Damnation, man, are you crazy, Or
what?" exclaimed Desire. But, once
again. All Of b money that I yet
have beside the $500, 900 I have already
offered you Is another 500, 600. Take it
all, go back to Charleston, and make
q settlement Of my affairs with the
bank-and you need draw no more
hriofas