The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-02-23


c..hisr's once coat, took hi. scat at The desh
VIVA arc yop DOING, in my place r. was what
tho mlddlc; Of an entry. You have been ais,
,"whst's that : Discharged First Two heard
a the President" replied tho new cashier,
settling down to work again. Hell tell you
all about It,"
For a few moments the new man worked dill
went $4,000. When the shortage was discoy.
cred Johnson was arrested. but nothing could
plan which resulted in the loss OF SIC o to the
Adams Express Company. When the cashier went
ons =, %e innt ia S warR SIli snsSEsd u r. Put "a his lis coat end
over his book that his face was not visible to the
other men, and only one q them spoke to him.
he must not he disturbed. The work which
the bogus cashier was doing was that OF
cytraeted $4,000, and went out. He wasn't
iiaSSs,niSSai on Not Fi ianp SO sfts g sqav1 Ss %.l Ess
took $4,000 OF government bonds and walked
ont again; Again he was arrested and again dis.
that johnson was responsible for the disappear.
hnce OF a TIN box; containing about 500 600 in
bonds, from the Marine Bank vault, but nobody
ever knew certainly. He was seen about the
9ank. Tho tin box mysteriously, disappeared.
soh iSs, paid all mig debts. which Mere many,
was an, invetcrate gambler. and but for that vice
he might have reaped the benefit Of his crimes
and have fulfilled his ambition OF becoming n
millionaire. In one game OF poker he lost
was, caught in the act OF robhing the safe in the
Fifth Avenue Hotel in 1870. A guest had
handed tho clerk IA package, telling him that IL
was OF great value, which remark was overheard
by johnson. Tho crook quietly went around be-
hind the desk where tho clerk was standing.
took the package and several other packages
from the open safe where the day clerk had put
them, and started out. On the way he collided
wns caught a Was.e R Rspg years. oasf in ssi ar.p gins U %as his Il s snd
ton. He came out, old and weak, his nerve
gone, only, to find that his friends had died or
forgotten him. and that hc could not fall back on
gained booty amounting 10 hundreds OF thou.
IN desperation he snatched. q woman's purse,
but was too weak TO run. and he was sent back
I'm about done now said he when he heard
his sentence. They needn't be afraid OF the
old man any more. Good for nothing but little
ing for the necessities OF life. In 1883 II was a
package, OF $3.50, stolen from a philadelphia
barber shop. for which he got three years. Then
came the snatching Of = handbag from n woman.
Two years and six months; and next the stealing
months, term In Philadelphia as a professional
criminal was followed by 9 year in Clinton
There he solemnly assured the Judge that II
was his first crime and would be his last. but he
lutilAliltu. VII EtlAllE Oul III 1Tltu SHOP
lifting stole nm umbrella from an Albany store
and was sentenced TO one year. Going TO Pbila-
dclphiA he was sent up for three months as a
Nagrant. Then he came to this city and was ar
rested hall n dozen times as n suspicious person,
only to be discharged for lack OF any charge
I'm out OF the ring, he said. My pals are
doing time. Ny, friends are dead. I'm pretty
near gone myself
That was In 1894, and was rack.
ing him then. IL seemed that he could not live
much longer, but three years later, having been
sent out Of town a number Of times by the police,
he turned up as the prisoner In a robbery case at
the Hotel Bartholdi. AS usual, there was in
sufficient proof and he was discharged. Two
weeks later he was arrested for picking a wo-
tinal Joke on the police, which he enjoyed 10 the
day Of his death. He was locked up in the West
Thirtieth street station for three nights and ar
raigncd three times In Jefferson Market Court
as George W. Brown, an old and re-
spectacle man. driven by hunger to steal.
fhapmnn's ward detective saw him Mt tina
statlon horse. Capt. stephen OBrien's slcuths
looked him over through their opera glasses at
jefferson Market Court. None OF them rccog-
nized the most famous crook in his line OF this
generation. The blow almost killed johnson.
When he got back TO his cell he laughed so that
he brought IN n III Of coughing and almost died.
At the station house they thought IL was hyste-
ria. Not until he was arreigncd in General SEES
s!ons was he recognized, and then by Detective
tachcd TO the District Attorneys office. When
johnson found he was discovered he wrote a
note to his lawyers, cNulting In having one
more good laugh on the cops"
johnson wns sent to the Island for a year on q
charge Of petty Larceny. lie told the Justice
that he was. pcnnilcss and that the star vation
part OF his George W. Brown fiction was fact.
He had ten months still TO serve.