The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-02-15
HAD A QUEER WAY.
OF MAKING CHANGE
Kansas Man Duped Out of
Forty Dollars,
BUT WAS PLUCKY TO LAST
Returned from Avondale to Union De-
pot and Captured His Man
Sharper Gave His Name as
Stewart and Jones.

There was an exciting chase In the union
depot yesterday afternoon about o'clock
after man who Is said to have swlndled
good size sum of money from another
man. The man who lost the money was a
little fellow, and his cries of stop him.
stop him." were the means of calling out
nearly every man In the depot to head OF
the fleeing man. He jumped over the fence
of the depot at Twentieth street and then
turned into the freight yards and ran as
hard as he could toward Eighteenth street,
big crowd of men following him.
At Eighteenth street he jumped over the
fence into the depot enclosure again, and
started back towards the carshed. OF
course, he was promptly arrested and held
up until the little man following behind
could catch up and prefer his charges. The
whole OF this "steeple chasing" party ad-
journed at once to Captain Meglemerys
office in the depot, where the following
story was learned.
Worked a Skin Game
The little fellow who was doing the chas-
ing said his name was Robert Jameson,
of Hay City, Kan. He was sitting on the
Alabama Great Southern train waiting to
leave for Chattanooga, when the other man
came along and asked him to change few
big bills for number of smaller ones,
claiming that he wanted to mail the money
off, and that the small bills made letter
too bulky. Jameson was very accommo-
dating and was very willing to make the
exchange, and gave the other man" his
big bills. forty dollars in all, he says. -.-e
sharper, as he turned out to be, counted out
forty dollars In small bills, which he stuck
into an envelope and handed 1t to Jameson.
The train was pulling out about this time,
and after extending his hearty thanks the
stranger jumped off.
Soon after leaving the city Jameson de-
cided to put the small bills which had been
given him into his wallet, so he tore open
the envelope which contained them and
pulled out neat little roll of nice white
paper!
Returned % Birmingham
The man from Kansas nearly fanted but
as fanting couldn't recover his money, he
decided to take other action. lie jumped
off his train at Avondale and caught an
electric car back to the city. lie went at
once to the depot, where he found his man
talking to a passenger on the Southern train
which was about to pull out for Atlanta.
Jameson grabbed him in the collar and de-
manded his money.
whats the matter? You are Mistaken"
said the man.
But Jameson never loosed his grip, until
the two arrived at the door OF the car,
where his captive broke loose and the chase
as described above took place. The captured
man first gave his name as Stewart, but
afterwards changed 1t to the more secluslve
name of Jones. Almost the only statement
he made was that Jameson was mistaken
in his man and that he had taken part In
no such "skin-game'' as the one mentioned.
The officers searchgd Mr.. Stewart-Jones
thoroughly and found a great variety Of
things. lie had over a hundred dollars In
bills of various denominations, and numer-
Gus other little belongings. One package
contained large number OF conductors
tickets, which are given passengers after
their tickets are taken up He had them
for roads all over the United States, and
the officers suppose that his game was to
board his train, pull out his paper ticket,
stick it in his hat and look innocent when
the conductor passed by. He had several
deeds in his pockets and other articles by
which the officers think that they can sue
coed in proving him to be genuine crook.
His trial will come up this morning be-
fore Judge Feagin.