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


there behind the little counter jam
ming cartridges into target guns and
handing the guns to silly, ogling,
Spanish-spitting bucks.
Coming to the chaps who got away
with big hauls, there's a famous club
down in Buenos Ayres which used to
be the meeting place of naval officers
from all countries. The officers made
their destinations with thanks TO all
of the clubs offers of hospitality when
the oranization admitted as one Of it's
members an ex-state treasurer of the
| United States who landed in South
| America with 100000 of his states
funds. This man went into business
ventures on a large scale Immediately
after he struck Buenos Ayres, not TAX
ing him many years to quadruple his
stolen half million. He was running
big stock brokerage office in Buenos
charity, joined the Catholic church,
and became about as prominent
foreign figure as there was in Buenos
Ayres.
81 believe the man succeeded in
some way or other in inducing the
people of BuenOs Ayres, native and
foreign, to believe that he was more
sinned against than SHINING, and that
he had to flee the United States be-
cause, as treasurer of his state, he had
been goodnatured and foolish enough
to indorse the notes of lot of his
political friends who had not made
good when the pinch came. In what
fashion he contrived to explain, how
ever, just how he managed to strike
Buenos Ayres with his huge bundle of
money was a matter which his defend
ers kept still. / needn't say that, as
a rule, naval officers are not prigs or
canters or moralists, but there are GER
tain details Of conduct which they OBJ
serve the world over This is why
a good many of us were put to the
embarrassing necessity of placing our
hands behind our backs and walking
away when we met this public thief
on the streets of Buenos Ayres and
were about to be introduced to him by
mutual acquaintance.
Down in Pernambuco there was an
ex-Assistant State Treasurer who got
away with very large amount. He
was one of the most successful coffee
shippers in Brazil, and he stood ace
high in the estimation of all the prom
inent people of Pernambuco. His
history, too, was thoroughly well
known, but, like the Buenos Ayres
embezzler, he had cooked up a plausi-
ble-sounding fairy tale. He claimed
that he was not the real embezzler at
all, but that his chief, the treasurer,
was the man who got away with all
the money. The treasurer and real Gull
prit, he said, was married to a member
of his (the fugitive's) family, and as
this lady was dying with consumption
at the time the shortage was discover
ed, he, in order to save her the shock
that would have been caused by her
husbands disgrace, had nobly deter
mined to play the part of scapgoat and
assume all the responsibility for the
! treasurer's populations.
about a dozen years ago this man,
who was introduced to the officers of
the ship Lancaster, and whose actual
|
guest of honor on board the Lancas-
ter at dinner. He drank too much and,
when he became maudlin, began to
relate the history of his life in several
hiccoughed languages. Taking it for
granted that the Lancaster's officers
knew all about his reason for passing
his life in an unattractive Brazilian
seaport, he began to condone his Of
Tense by relating the ghost story which
he had successfully worked off on the
people of Pernambuco. The officers
then remembered his case perfectly,
and thy felt pretty cheap over their
guest of honor. He found himself in
| the ships steam launch, bound for the
beach, before he had half finished his
yarn, and, after that, whenever an
American man-o'-war happened to
drop into the harbor Of Pernambuco he
kept pretty dark until she went to sea
again.
II have looked over on two or three
occasions the colonies of American
| fugitives in Alexandria and Cairo.
| They were care-free-looking lot, but
eagerly listened to every scrap Of news
| from the United States, and that in
cultivating forgetfulness they con-
sumed a great deal more liquor than
was good for them. Egypt used to be
the haven of most of the financial fug-
itives of Europe, and, as you may i'm
agine, Egypt isn't half bad place to
while away a lotus-eating sort Of an
existence, if you're predisposed to that
sort of thing.
/ Three American fugitives were
pointed out to me in Cairo number
of years ago. Two of them were
young men and the other was a bit
beyond middle age. All three were
said to have plenty of money, and they
all seemed to me to be more than
middling drunk at the time they were
shown to me. They were not received
into the homes of the English people