The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-10-12
HE WAS HIDING IN HALIFAX
TRASK, WALLINGFORD'S ABSCOND.
 ING TELLER, CAPTURED.


 Trnsk's Peculations to Have Amounted
 to oS6,4O4.s7-Complete Restitution Made
 by His Bondsmen-Prisoner VIII be
 Brought Back.
 Halifax, N. S., Oct. 1.-The missing teller of the First National bank of Wallingford, Conn.,, and treasurer of the borough. Willis A. Trask, whose al- leged dedication from the bank is said to represent a loss of fully 6,4OO, was arrested here this afternoon. He has been in Halifax since September 1S On that date he registered at the Hali- fax hotel under the name of w. w. Wheeler and remained a few days and them removed to "The Elmwood," a boarding house in the swell south end.
 His arrest was effected by Police Sergeant Lehan, who was armed with warrant issued at the instance of Detective Leith of New York. Leith arrived in Halifax Saturday and learn ed from the city police that they had under surveillance a suspicious strang- CT who answered the description of the man he wanted. Leith was not long in satisfying himself that the party was really Trask and to-day he had war rant issued which charges the eX-teller with embedding $5,0O0 from the Wal lingford bank.
 Trask made no trouble for the police sergeant. After being taken to the po- lice station he admitted his identity and said he would return to Walling- ford without putting the authorities to the trouble of going through extradi- tion proceedings. The prisoner is a man about thirty eight years old, tall, dark and of fine presence.
 In an interview tonight Trask stated that he had been falsifying the books for ten years or more. The accounts were regularly audited by experts, but he had always succeeded in deceiving z them until those in authority over him began to realize that he was living be- N yond his income, or received an intim- ' ation from some source that he must X be robbing the bank. He declares that X he knew Detective Leith was in Hali- M fax before the latter knew where the x man he wanted was to be found, and Q that escape from Halifax and from the % officers would have been an easy mat q ter, but he was tired of idleness and N wandering, and did not care to make N an effort to get away. He believes the # disclosure of his whereabouts came x through the fact that his presence in E Halifax was known to friends who ac- N companied him from Connecticut to St. & John, N B., and then to Halifax. These # friends, who were on vacations. have # returned home.
 # Trask spent several days in St. John. Sb being in that city during the New M Brunswick fair, and arrived here in s time to take in the Nova Scotia fair, # where he was seen daily He made a @ number of friends here. When arrested Nj he had about $40 in his possession. @ Walingford, Conn, Oct 11.-Word N was received here tonight of the ar- rest at Halifax, N. S., of Willis A. 4. Trask, treasurer of the borough of # WalIingford and teller of the First Ma I tional bank of that place. As stated s# in these columns two weeks ago, ,Trask x left town a defaulter to the borough of # Wallingford to the extent of $2900 A x few days later it was learned that he had defrauded prominent business
  " announced that the man is defaulter ' to the National band in the sum of $6- S 404S7. The amount taken from the # borough treasury was immediately made good by his bondsmen and it is \ alsonow announced that Trask's bonds { men have made good the amount stolen sN from the bank.
 xxx To representative of the Associated A- 1~I~% sLeavenworth and Cashier William H. s Newton gave the following official Hstatement:
 "An exhaustive investigation into all departments Of the bank has been slmade, from which it appears that Trask 9ahad been a defaulter to the bank in the sum of S6,404.S7. Every dollar of this X Ihas been made good by his bondsmen. x Even if the whole amount were a Z Boss instead of having been made en- atirely good, as stated, it would not in the least have affected the financial ~ soundness of the bank, as will appear from the official report of the condition #spf the institution, made October 5, which shows the capital stock to be s15O,000; the surplus and undivided profits, s45,674.14.
 .&x LII OluSI MUluS, lllG SuTpluS Apank amounts to more than 30 per cent. Exbf the capital"
 & It is stated by the bank officials that N he methods employed by Trask were Epossible from his position as teller. In
 he line of his duties he received the
 banks deposits, appropriated portion .pf them to his own use, and instead of 4 sproperly entering them he failed to 4 place numerous items on the books of { he bank.
 His entries on the depositors' pass
 books were in all cases correct. In re- eiving deposits of cash he entered Shem on the pass books, destroyed the
 eposit slips and appropriated the
 1oney.
 Trask was located at the instance of
 ele officials of the bank. The man left
 own about three weeks ago. A few
 lays previously he had been granted a &acation by Cashier Newton. Two s eeks before this his wife had given
 &rth to child and was for many days
 -itically ill. At time when her con-
 Stion was most serious Trask sudden
 S left town.
 G% This caused comment and the widest