The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-11-27

chaser through that Introduction being
welcomed as a new customer of the bank,
deRcs!ung a certified check for $1,000.
upon which he Immediately drew $500. in
legal tender notes. saying that he wished
10 complete purchase that required
legal tenders. 1t was all a fraud. but
one that had required at least a months
patient negotiaticn on the part 81 this
fraudulent purchaser fully 10 consum-
mate.
A year after he was observed by one
Of the banks officers upon the street,
was arrested just at the moment when
he was about to consummate another
fraud OF that kind, and Is now serving
a term In Sing Sing. Had he kept away
from New York he probably would have
been at liberty al least so far as the
crimes committed in this city we're con
cerned. He was a man OF scholarly edu-
cation.
Last summer the messenger or runner
for one Of the largest of the pool rooms
OF this city brought TO a bank In which
these boOkmakers kept their accounts
large deposit in which was a Canadian
bank bnl for 5000 The receiving teller
threw out the Canadian bill and was
asked by the messenger II Canadian
money was not received. The reply was
that it was received subject to exchange,
but not that bill, since it was n notorious
counterfeit.
Thereupon the messenger said that the
poolroom would have 10 pocket that loss,
since, of course, the keepers OF an Illegal
place could not very well appeal to the
police or the courts for protection from
counterfeiters and the messenger told
this story. He said that the day before
there came to the outer door of the pool
room a man who demanded admission.
The doorkeeper did not know him. At
that time the DoolVNptae NARA vary ca,,-
tons, since the Mazet Committee was
that very week getting disclosures as to
the existence of these Illegal places.
The proprietor. however. happened to
come in at that moment and recognized
the man and permitted him to enter. The
proprietor, calling one or two intmates
aside, pointed this stranger out saving
that he was not long ago a politician of
much influence in Minnesota; that he had
been state senator, that he had gone
wrong and got into trouble In the West
and had just got out of 1t, and that his
name was Whitman. The proprietor add
ed that whenever this state senator came
to New York he always visited that pool
room, and it was because OF that earlier
acquaintance that he was then admitted.
Defrnudcd Gamblers.
The stranger bet upon the races, came
out about even, offered the 81 900 Canadian
dollar note in payment for his bets, and
received the change due him. amounting
10 several hundred dollars, and thet was
a crime for which he win never be prose-
cuted
A few days later he was arrested upon
some earlier charge of swindling, but es-
capped through a technicality. and a little
while after the bank swindling operations
in a number of cities of the United States
came to the knowledge OF the police here
H. .1aNa
private detective agency that acts for the
Bankers Association that this was the
work of the so-ca4led Whitman gang, so
that all that was necessary to do was to
get upon the track of he members of that
alleged criminal company.
Whitman's career justihes the same
careful study by the psychologists and
alienists that the career of Knox Will JUS
tify in case the charges made against
Knox are proven true. There is not one
incident of the carry life of Whitman
which would suggest that normal tenden-
cy to crime, which has been said to be
almost always traceable, excepting in the
cases of sudden impulse Or of desperate de-
sire TO retrieve some pending loss Of credit
or of financial ruin, to poverty, inherited
depravity, vicious surroundings. and all
those evil influences which are described
by the single word, environment
Whitman's early life was as pure and
happy as that Of the Knoxes. He was
also as wen educated as they, and had tai
ents that ought to have made him most
successful business man. There seems to
have been no reason for his deliberate
choice of life which the police describe
in their statements to the magistrate as
that of a swindler excepting some latent
subtle impu Sc of which no hint was ever
given to those who knew him in his boy
hood or youth.
He did not have that sudden and ire
mendous temptation which came to Gil
man. for instance, to take advantage of
his credit and high standing, to do a Grim
inal act in order to ward off impending
financial ruin-lmpulses that explain why
ii is that so many who have been of high
character and have been placed in posi-
lions of trust have suddenly fallen and
gone to prison. In not one of these cases,
so far as is known, was there ever a
recurrence after Liberation from prison TO
evil courses.
1t is the impression of the police here
that the Whitman gang obtained many
thousand dollars more than there has been
any public acknowledgment OF. Banks
often hesitate about complaining when the
losses are comparatively small. Last fall
perhaps a score of banks In this city found
themselves victims of spurious paper, no
single item of which aggregated more than
$50, while the totals aggregated perhaps as
much as $4,000.
The manner in which this swindle was
accomplished satisfied the police that it
was the work of some member Of the
Whitman gang Some of the banks re-
ported these swindles to the Bankers As
ISOLATION, whereas others pocketed the loss
and said nothing.
All sorts of mechanical devices, punches,
chemical paper have been patented 10 pre-
vent frauds Of this kind, but Mr.. Byrnes
TO one bank officer a little while ago, stated
that in his view the only real preventive
would be that which could be secured by
and by, when the long distance telephone
is established, connecting every city in the
United States, something that will be done
sooner or later When instant communi-
cation can be established with every
bank. then this form OF swindling can
be stopped, but even the telephone will
not prevent the uttering of forged paper
where the name forged is that Of a Gus
toner who keeps balance at bank.