The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-04-30
AN OFFICE BoY's FoRcERlgs.
With the Money He Lived Luxuriously
Outside of Working Hours


In his character of office boy he was
not outwardly remarkable True to the
idiosyncrasies of the type, his ankles
and wrists had a tendency to outgrow
sleeves and trousers. He was Is years
old and alert enough to win the liking
of his employers, Benjamin f. Kelly
& Sons, manufactures of patent DOLL
ers. In his character of forger he was
an infant prodigy. Not only did he
possess the high degree of deXterity
necessary to hoodwink Systematically
the tellers and book-keepers of a bank,
but his tact in perceiving opportunities
for this subtle crime, his audacity in
taking advantage of them and his
quick wittedness in anticipating and
forestalling untoward events. were
worthy of an accomplished adult stu
dent of obliquity. BY this skllful sys-
tenn of raising checks he stole between
$4,000 and $4,000. In his character of
club president and athletic patron ne
was Monte Cristo and Beau BrummeI
rolled into one. The office boy disap-
peared in the juvenile man of pleasure
The secrecy of his double life was per-
feet. Neither his parents nor his en-
ployerS had the fainteSt idea that he
paid the rent of flat which he had
made the headquarters of an athletic
club and where he kept the expensive
clothes and other Injuries which the
buy. And the members of his club
never dreamed that their president and
benefactOr was just an office boy like
one of themselves.
Wearied with running errands and
raising checks and having his wrists
and ankles protrudinG from his sleeves
and trousers Willie ODonnell would
take a train to Harlem and go to the
fiat for which he paid the rent, and for
which he had bought the furniture and
athletic paraphernalia There he was
a monarch There he could wear a suit
of clothes that had cost him S35. There
he could give orders instead of receiv-
ing them. There he could box. fence
swing the clubs, daily With the chest
weights and dream of growing up into
an Ouida hero. With the club for a
headquarters he could sally forth the
glass of fashion, to play Haroun al Ras-
child in regions wherein his character
of office boy he would have been utterly
unknown. 1t was inevitable that a boy
with such an imagination should he
fond of reading. The fiat was full of
romances. It was also inevitable that
he should be devoted to the theater.
His means enabled him to sit at his
ease in the stalls A patron of athletics
in every form, he attended all the i'm
portant prize fights. where he was
doubtless pointed out as the young
When it became adViSabl to go home
and pay his respects to his parents.
Willie would reluctantly but bravely
resume his office boy disguise. bid fare
well to his fellow clubmen and return
alone to the tenement on the other side
of the town. There the club president
preserved a complete incognito. His
father, the gripman, took him for de-
cent, Industrious sort of boy. His
/ mother thought he was incompatible
and schemed and sCrimped to buy bet
ter clothes for him. She was quite sure
he would be great man some day, be-
cause his penmanship was so beautiful
He had won prizes at school for his
writing.
1t was his superior penmanshp that
had enabled Willie to get situation
The boiler manufacturers had selected
him out of many applicants because
/ they argued that boy who wrote such
rood hand '"1st Goods DO ''erlart. "
They We're right. 1t IS possible that
they We're also Influenced by Willie :
anxiety to work regardless of recon-
pense. They gave him s. week. but
gradually raised it to S., and he gave
it all to his mother The inspiration to
become criminal came to him one day
when he was required to pay bill with
the firms check for $14. He raised the
amount to $l00 paid the bill and pock
detected at the banking house of Macy
Bros. & Herbert. on which the check
was drawn. And that was the begin
ming of Willie's system. He watched
for the return of the Cancelled checks
each month and destroyed them.
Willie encountered his Waterloo when
he began experimenting with acids for
the erasure of the original figures on
his employers checks. DisColora tons
produced in this way led to SUSPICION
investigation. arrest. Wednesday the
club president appeared in the Center
street police court and was held for
examination. His parents We're there
deeply startled and distressed
The police raided the club and moved
all the paraphernalia to the police sta
ton. To add to Willies misfortune.
some apostle of cruder branch of
crime had broken into the fiat and
stolen his favorite HarOun de Raschid
suit of clotheS-NeW York Journal