The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1900-11-17
ALvORD IS
SATISFIED.
Got His Moneys Worth While
1t Lasted.
" THAT REMINDS ME -
Says St. Louis Fly Cop. - A Twin
Brother Put Up Shrewd
Game.

well, l guess | got my moneys
worth out of it, was the cynical re
mark dropped by Alvord, the embez-
zler note teller of the big New York
bank, when he was finally taken into
custody in Boston. And if the pub
lished accounts of his life a"e true,
he undoubtedly did get value receiv-
ed, in certain sense, for his sacri-
flee of integrity. He lived like a
prince on a small salary eked out by
his stealings; he was a social leader
in the suburban town where he made
his home; he was trusted and res
pected; and his life was apparently
free from the sordid vice which is
the cause of the downfall of SO many
men in confidential positions. There
was no woman in the case save his
wife. Unlike the Schriber affair. no
great passion" for some beautiful
but INSCRIPTIONS siren mastere,! and
ruined his life. To all appearances
his manner of living was decent, and
his ambitions socially respectable:
his metnp',; Alonc We're iamnaLla.
The fusing point Of honesty is a
varient. In the case of Clark heel
er it may occur in the presence of
$40 bill; in Alvord's little affair it
was a million. Anu having blown
in his million, having sucked the
orange dry to the skin he confesses
himself content. Better Jail and the
brand of thief than the honest
poverty of few thousand year.
An amusing feature of the Alvord
case was the arrest in Boston, to-
gether with the events which led up
to it. 1t was fully a week after the
discovery of the embezzlement be-
fore Alvord was in custody. He was
a man of marked and striking ply
cal characteristics. After his dis
cription had been published he could
have been picked out of crowd any
where. Yet the police and detective
forces, while making great show Of
activity, claiming tnat his capture
was expected at any moment, were
unable to lay hands upon him. For
a week or ten days they searched
every locality where he was most
unlikely to be found and marveled,
through the newspapers at their fail
ure. Then a reward was offered by
the bank and few hours afterwards
Alvord was under arrest.
''The capture of Alvord, the New
York defaulter, in the little back
room of Boston boarding house,
reminds me of a boarding house cap
ture in an embezzling case that |
figured in myself about eight years
ago." remarked a St. Louis detective
to Washington Star reporter. "The
treasurer of a St. Louis building and
loan association got away with lit
tie matter of 100000. He didn't
take the money in driblets, but he
took it in bundle, and then he
went. The discovery of his defal-
cation wasn't made until two days af-
ter the treasurer had gathered in the
funds and departed, so there wasn't
a particularly hot trail to work upon.
But we found out with measurable
certainty that ne had gone south,
and | was put on that scent. AS l
got along toward Meridian, Miss, /
began to feel what the young ones
call warm. The absconder was
big, fiorid man, like Alvord, and there
fore not hard to trace, and the con-
ductor of a local train that winds
up its halfway run at Meridian
had seen my man on his train the
day before, and the defaulter had left
the train at Meridian. l got off there
and poked around the hotels, but no
man answering the description of the
fugitive had been seen at any of the
hostelries. | closely questioned all
of the depot employees, and none of
them had seen the man answering the
description of the absconder leaving
on any of the trains, although some
Of them, like the conductor remem.
bered his arrival. So l felt meas
urably certain that my man was in
hiding in Meridian. l got a list of
all of the boarding houses in the place
and made quiet tour OF them. At
the very last one l visited the land
lady told me that a big, forid man,