Evening star., 1899-02-11

III,
| he was running dingy little dry goods
store. He had been the cashier of a large
wholesale dry goods house in New York.
and for twenty years he had got away with
| from s20,OOOsto $4,000 of his firms money
| each year. He was mixed up by marriage
with one of the partners of the firm, and
| ne had been permitted to get away when
1t was found that he hadn't a dollar with
which to liquidate his Irregular Indebtedness
to the firm. He had been in Moutevtdeo,
running his poor little old shack of a dry
and fancy goods outfit, for twelve years
when I saw him leaning of his
counters reading an old New York news
paper. He was figure of sadness. if ever
| there was one, and I don't mind owning
tina. 1 was soft enough to feel sorry for
him.
Now I'm Good Standing.
Coming up to the chaps that got away
with big hauls, there's famous club down
| in Buenos Ayres which used to be the
| meeting place of avail officers from all
! countries when they got into that port.
The club made ii a point to offer its most
| attentive hospitality to naval officers up to
about eight years ago, but think I'm quite
within thu truth in saying that no naval
| officer from any foreign country has set
| his foot within that club since that time.
The naval officers made their. declinations
with thanks to all of the clubs offers of
hospitality when the organization admitted
as one OF its members an ex-state treasurer
OF the United States who landed in South
America with something like SJOOO00 of
his states funds. This man went into bus
mess centuries on large scale Immediately
he struck Buenos Ayres, and he has prob
ably quadrupled his stolen half a million by
this time. He runs a big stock brokerage
office in Buenos Ayres, whera the fever of
speculation has stronger hold on the in
hapltants, rich and poor alike, than in any
other place, perhaps, in the world, and he
more than coins money. He gives enor-
nous sums to charity. has Joined the
church, and is about prominent a for
eisner as there is in Buenos Ayres.
Has Plenty of Friends.
His history is perfectly well known to
the people down there. and yet for some
reason or other, he stands pat even with
the large colony of Americans and English
men In Buenos Ayres, and they defend him
to the finish. l believe this man has suc-
ceeded in some way or other in inducing
the people OF Buenos Ayres to believe that
ne was really more sinned against than
sinhihS, and that he had to flee the United
@Sldt1s @ because, as treasurer of his state he
nao peen good-natured and foolish enough
70 lhdorse the notes of lot of his political
i ri,elus VINO had not made good when the
pIhch came In what fashion he contriyed
10 explain, however just how he managed
10 Strlke Buenos Ayres with his huge
@ @putiule OF money is not satisfactorily ex-
pialhed even by his defenders
Ihls mans case is known to the naval Off
GERS GERS OF all countries that send ships to
buenos Ayres, and they don't feel that il
would be exactly the right thing for them
to accept the well-meant hospitaIitv Of a
cluo, swell and otherwise high-grade as The
ORGANIZATION is, which includes a notorious
emoezzier among its members. Naval off,
GERS are not as a rule prigs or canters or
moralists; but there are certain little de.
tails of conduct which they are required TO
observe and which they do observe the
w World over. And tais is why a good many
VI US nave been put TO the embarrassing
necessity of placing our hands behind our
packs and walking away when we have
accldentally met up with this public thief
ana been introduced to him by Buenos
AyreS friends.
Big Coffee Shipper
Down in Pernambuco there is an ex-as-
sistant state treasurer who got away with
a very large amount of money about tweu
ty years ago. and whose offense is said to
be now outlawed by the statute of limita-
uons, which may or may not be true: | am
not very conversant with the law on these
matters. Anyhow he is one of the most
successful coffee shippers in Brazil, and he
surely stands ace-high in the estimation of
an OF the prominent people of Pernambuco
His history, too, is thoroughly we'll known
to the people of Pernambuco. but like the
Buenos Ayres embezzler. he has cooked Ip
a very plausible-sounding fairy tale with
which to condone his theft. He says-and
ne has made the point stick with every
oody down there-that he was not the real
emDezZler at all, but that his chief the
treasurer. was the man who got away with
all of his states money. The treasurer and
real cuiprit, he says. was married to a
member of his, the fugitive's, family, and
as this lady was dying from consumption
at the time the shortage was discovered
he, in order to save her the shock that
would have been caused by her husbands
disgrace, had nobly determined to play the
part of scapegoat and assume all the re-
sponsibility for the treasurer's peculations
This is a very lovely story, of course. but
it doesn't dovetail in any manner Whatso-
with the facts of the tfav
known in this country at the time the large
embezzlement was discovered
In Vino Veritas.
About twelve years ago this man, who
was introduced to the officers of the Amer
lean ship Lancaster by prominent shore
people as the real thing, and whose actual
history his introducers kept dark, was a
guest of honor on board the Lancaster at
dinner. He drank considerably too much,
as guests of honor at naval dinners un-
fortunately have a habit of doing, once in
a while, and, when he became quite maud
lin, he began to tell the history of his life
in several hiccoughed languages. Taking it
for granted that the LancaSters officers
knew all about his reason for passing his
life in an Lnattractive Brazilian town, he
began to condone his offense by relating
the fairy tale which he had successfully
worked off on the people of Pernambuco.
The officers then remembered his case per-
fectly, and they felt pretty cheap over
their guest of honor He found himself in
the ships steam cutter, bound for the
beach, before he had half finished his yarn,
and now. whenever an American man n-of-
war drops into the harbor of Pernambuco,
he keeps pretty dark until she picks up her
mudhook and pulls out again.
Charms of Egypt.
q have looked over on two or three oc-
casions the colonies of American fugitives
in Alexandria, Cairo and Ramanieh, Egypt.
They care-free-looking lot, but l was
told by men who knew that they eagerly
listened to every scrap of news from the
United States, and that in cultivatng for
getfulness they consume great deal more
liquor than is good for them. Egypt is the
haven of most of the financial fugitives of
Europe, and there is large and constantly
growing colony of them in Ramanieh, which
is pretty little town not far from Alexan-
drfa by rail, and not half bad as place
in which to pass a sort of lotus existence If
you are disposed toward that sort of thing.
Three American fugitives were pointed out
to me in Ramanieh when / was there four
years ago. Two of them were young men
and the other was bit beyond middle age.
The stories of their thefts attracted the