Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1899-04-08
THE CAREER or
CHAS. 7. YERKES
Chicago's Street Railway King Once
Served a Term in a Penn
syIyania Prison.
HAS HAD A LIFE OF UPS AND DOWNS
Deserted the Wife Who Was Loyal
to Him I'm His Misfortunes--De-
feated i'm His Recent
Franchise Fight.

Winifred Black in the New York
Journal: This is the story of a man
who would be king. His name is
Yerkes-Charles L. Yerkes-and this
is the plain, u~nvarnished story of his
life:
He started TO work as an Office boy
In a staid old -four and grain commits
sion house. He worked for nothing.
AT the end of the year his employer
called him into the bare little counting
room and gave him a little leathern
bag, with a few words of common
dation and a set speech of thanks for
faithful service. When he was quite
alone he peeped into the little leathern
bag and found therein $50 in round,
gold coins. He says that no fortune
will ever seem so great to him as did
that little heap of gold coins. He lay
awake all night planning first to buy n
horse and wagon and turn peddler, and
then to buy q bit of land and turn
farmer. He ended by keeping the gold
exactly as il was and going to work for
another year,
When he vas 81 years old an uncle
died, and left him a little money. He
took il and the little heap of gold Of
his own earnings, and opened a stock
brokers' Office on Third street. Before
he was three years older he bought IN
interest in n thriving little conserva-
tive bank. Then the war broke out.
Mr., Yerkes did not go to the war. He
stayed home and lent money TO those
xrhN Itl (Gt,, l,,I. ,.a,t J,",, T,hn
city's charter said that the city could
sell M bonds below par. When they
went down the city could pay no boun-
ties to soldiers, and nothing could be
done toward city improvements. Mr..
Yerkes engineered ~ scheme by which
the city bonds rose from IS cents to
par. He became "a sort of financial
agent for the city of Philadelphia. He
grew very rich. He was considered a
safe, cautious and conservative man,
and he handled millions of dollars
for the city. In n year he sold bonds
to the extent Of $11 100000. He grew
bold. He risked large sums of money
and laughed at the idea of danger.
One day he risked too much. The
fire leaped up in the night, in Chicago,
and left in the morning a black heap OF
smoking ashes. Yerkes' fortune went
out with the flames. In the general
panic which followed the fire he found
that he could not meet his liabilities.
He was forced to the wall.
With his w money went the city's
money. He awoke one day to find
himself staring the ugly charge OF
forgery straight i'm the face. His luck
deserted him. All Philadelphia rose
up and howled for justice. Men who
had crawled into his presence for a ray
of the sunshine of prosperity jeered at
him. for a needless fool. Some, not SO
charitable as these, called him openly
by a name less pleasing I'm the ears OF
honest men than that same name of
fool. He was hurried to trial.
His pretty little wife sat beside him
in the crowded court room She was
the only faithful friend he had. The
jury found him guilty. He was SEN
fenced to two years and nine months
in prison. He stood up and received
his sentence with that sphynX-like
composure which nothing had ever
been able to shake. He went to the
penitentiary and stayed there for sew
en- months.
The records show that he was a
most exemplary prisoner. His devoted
wife took OOH neal the prison and
ran over to see him as often as the
warden would let her in. When the
warden would not let her in, she
walked up and down, up and down, up
and down, in front of the dark prison
as if she were keeping a tryst there.
At the end of the seven months Mr..
Yerkes was pardoned. Pubic opinion
had cooled down and the application
for his pardon was signed by $50 mem
bers of the Philadelphia bar. He had
scarcely changed from his suit of
stripes before he demanded q public
trial for other charges which were be-
ing generally made against him. He
was tried for these things, and acquit-
ted. The Philadelphia city council
passed an ordinance in 1873 relieving
him from all claims of indebtedness.
AS soon as that trial was over and that
ordinance was passed, Mr.. Yerkes
shook the dust of his native city from
his feet, turned his face to the setting
sun and disappeared. He did not take
the faithful wife who had been his best
friend with him. Mr.. Yerkes went
west to grow up with the country. He
was poor, but had plenty of courage
and an inexhaustible supply of fertile
schemes. He went to Dakota and to
Wyoming and to Minnesota. Always
he was quiet, always he was alert, al
ways he was scheming, scheming,
scheming. One day he was showed up
in a Dakota railroad hotel. He sat by
the stove and smoked a comforting
pipe with the natives, who talked
among themselves of lands and grants.
Mr.. Yerkes ploughed his way to
the car, which was gradually melting
it's way through the drifts, took up his
valise and walked into Dakota a free
and independent pilgrim for land and
finding it.