Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-03-05

For a number of years past I've had
it in mind, in an idle sort of way, to
write on Fugutives That | Have Met, !"
said an officer of the navy. During
the past 20 years, in several cruises, /
have crossed the trail of or met up
with perhaps two score or more Amer
leans living out of the reach of Amer
lean law in various parts of the world
A few of them have been in countries
with which the United States had ex-
tradition treaties, but most of them
looked to the safety end of it to the
exclusion of everything else and settled
in lands where the arm of the United
States law did not extend at their time
of flight None of them, that can re-
call, has looked to me like a man in
the enjoyment of peace of mind or
happiness.
II have happened upon the majority
of these absconders, forgers, embez-
zler, defaulters, what you wilt, my
self, possess a strong partiality for the
good old English word thief as most
applicable to them-in Central and
South American ports, in Egypt and in
Japan.
Had l been, before the day of prac
ticalIy universal extradition treaties,
a top-notch, high-grade embezzler,
capable of getting away with large,
satisfying pile, I would not have lit
out for any of the Americas. I'd have
gone either to Japan or Egypt. There's
comfort for hiders in Egypt, for there
the fugitives from all countries fra
ternize on perfectly even terms and
get all the pleasure out of life that
may come to men whose consciences
bother them, provided they have such
inconvenient affairs as consciences.
"Egypt's a better place to live in
than any country know in Central or
South America, too. While in Central
and South America the man who is
known to be a fugitive from the
United States is not looked down upon
to any large extent, but goes his way
on even terms with the best of the
natives-some of them even float
around in the best society-all that an
American thief who settled in Japan
or Egypt had to do in order to es-
tablish himself perfectly with the best
class of natives was to give it out
that he was an exile for political Of
lenses and he not only walked in the
ways of the best, but he was looked
upon as something Of a figure, even as
a sort of mysterious lion. have met
three political exiles' from the United
States the aggregate amount of whose
stealings was considerably above the
$2000000 mark.
Most of the United States fugitives
I have met brought large portions of
their speculations along with them to
their new homes, and going into some
sort of business or other, did well from
the go-off. l recall few exceptions
TO this rule, however. For example,
| once stood and watched for an hour
or two a man who was running a mer-
ry-go-round in Truxillo, Peru, a town
that I wouldn't live in for five years
for less than $1,000,000 This man, who
was prematurely white haired, though
under middle age, was surely hard
worker, and the energy he devoted to
whacking the mule that furnished the
motive power for the merry go-round
and in collecting the coppers of the
half-Indian women and children who
patronized the outfit was worth watch
ing. He had been the cashier of a
Chicago savings bank, and while his
speculations had amounted to over
100000, he had only got away with
about $4,000 in cash. | addressed him
by his right name, and | felt sort of
sorry to see the fellows face become
so aShen in hue as it did. [ asked him
how much he had got away with from
the United States in the course of the
talk we had after he had become some
what treasured, and he told me what
| already knew-that when he jumped
Chicago he had close on to $4,000 in
gold in two leather trunks, and that he
had been robbed of every dollar of it
by brigands while crossing Mexico.
When he had struck the west coast of
South America he was broke, with the
exception of his jewelry, and he had
pawned that to get his merry go-round
outfit, with which he had made liV-
ing, hauling it around small Peruvian
and Chilean towns.
Another man whose stealings were
very large, but who only got away
with an Indifferent portion of them,
was running a shooting gallery in Rio
de Janeiro when l saw him, about ten
years ago. He, too, was an ex-cashier
of bank-an Iowa national bank. He
had thieved on heavy scale for a
number of years, and he had wound
himself up by getting in with clique
of bond forgers and accepting a lot
of forged bonds as collateral, knowing
that they were forged When
he landed he had few thou
hands in hand, and he quickly
got rid of this il drink and general
dissipation Then he started his shoot
ing gallery. His wife, who was still
a handsome, if somewhat worn, Wo
man when | visited the shooting gal
lery, and had been one of the leading
figures in the social fashion of the