The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-01-29
Will SON=nOEN MYSTERY
New York Newspaper Claims to Have Solved It.

the hotel as a tramp. But he gave
frigid consent. The man stepped to
the telephone and called UP the office
OF the Washburn & Moen Manutac-
turing company.
He asked for Mr.. Moen, and, when
the latter stepped to the instrument,
the tramp at the Bay State announced
that Levi Wilson was at the Bay
State house and wanted Mr.. Moen to
come up there to see him Immediately.
The astonished hotel clerk noted tn t
it was more of a command than re-
quest. as the people of Worcester were
accustomed to treat the head of the
great Washhurn & Moen Manufacture
ing company with great difference, and,
instead of commanding him. they
made his wishes theirs.
THE MYSTERY INCREASES
And more astonished still was the
hotel clerk. now no longer lordly to-
ward his strange visitor when in a
short time Mr.. Moen drove up to the
hotel with speed and conferred with
the man who had commanded him so
brusquely to appear.
A few days thereafter the paying
teller of one of the principal banks in
Worcester. where Mr. Moen kept his
deposits, was as much surprised as
the Bay State hotel clerk when a man
unknown to him. and apparently a
stranger to banks and to cash, ap-
peared a his window and presented a
check for 81 900, drawn to the order of
Levi Wilson and signed by Philip l..
/! MOen.
The signature appeared to be genuine
| but the individual before him was
doubtful. The teller demanded an
7 \ IL. II
not have paid the money over promptly
| had the one who presented the check
been properly identified, but the stran-
| ger made further delay needless by
| telling the bank officials to call up Mr..
Moen if they had any doubt of the gen.
| uireness of the check and see what he
| said about it
| Mr.. Moen was promptly reached by
/ telephone. and Mr. Moen as promptly
| informed the bank official that he had
drawn such check: that the man who
| presented it for cash was undoubtedly
| Levi Wilson. and that the bank need
not hesitate TO cash any checks signed
| by him thai Wilson might present in
| the future
MANY BIG CHECKS CASHED.
And the bank kept on cashing checks
| presented by Wilson and signed by
Moen till the total ran up into the hun
| Greds of thousands. 1t developed later.
, through the testimony in a suit be-
tween Wilson and Moen. that the
amount the former had received in
| checks and by cash direct in the course
| OF very few years was about $500, 900
| For what was this immense sum
| paid? Apparently but two men knew
| The one Levi Wilson, the other Philip
| L. Moen, the millionaire manufacturer
Here romance appeared. and the
story was given out that the barbed
| wire process out of which the Wash
| burn & Moen company made millions
| under the patents which it controlled
! was the invention Of a poor workman
in the wire mill, who suddenly disap-
peared, the romance said after the
| Washburn & Moen company had pos
sessed itself of the product of his
genius. There were many who believed
| it, and there arc some who believe it to
! this day.
The story that was told with much
circumstantial detail when the strange
! transactions first became known. and
which has the most plausible appear
ance and is cilronologically correct. is
| this
Levi Wilson. or as he Nas fan1il-
iariy known in those days, Doc" VIII
! son. after leaving the stable at Tx