Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1900-07-11
"rhe Knickerbocker Bank,

My DdHAAB WlIo. Wnea gov receive
this letter shall be far away-a disgraced
criminal-and you will be worse than a
widow.
II dare not ask your forgiveness for the
trouble am bringing upon you; for I
realize all too clearly the extent of the
wrong have done you. But feel irresist-
IDLY impelled to lay before you in all their
nakedness, as do before my own conscience,
the circumstances which have led to my
downfall. A knowledge of these may per-
haps enable you to understand. in meas
ure, the temptation to which have sue
cumbed; although I find 1t hard myself.
now that all Is over, to realize how came
to yield to it,
Perhaps you may remember the cele-
bration of my fiftieth anniversary. We
were having most enjoyable evening in
the company of the friends whom you had
invited to participate in the festivities,
when caller was announced. 1 was obliged
to leave our guests in order to receive him
in the library. This man lost no time In
stating the nature of his business with me.
HIS name was Thomas Chatham; he was
an expert accountant, who had been em-
ployed at the Knickerbocker bank to ex-
anime the books, and he coolly informed
me that he had just discovered serious
error in my bookstore that had enabled
depositor to overdraw his account by
large amount At first / refused to be-
from the books showing exactly how the
blunder had been made When he intimated
that 1t only rested with me whether the
error should be reported to the bank, I
Indignantly refused to listen to him. He
remained perfectly unruff1ed during our
interview and left me at last with the
statement that he would wait n hours be-
fore handing in his report to the presi-
dept.
my first step on reaching the bank
the next day was to verify Chatham's state
ments. Alas! they were only too true. There
was the terrible blunder staring me In the
face. I could not understand how I had
come to make 1t; but there 1t was. and
nothing could explain it away. had hoped
against hope up to this time: now 1 saw
clearly that l was ruined man.
"There was only one honorable course
open to me-to frankly confess my respon-
sibility for the blunder and take the con-
sequences, whatever they might be. I
hesitated, and was lost.
IT hesitated because I felt that my posi-
ton was at stake. Would not my error
appear inexcusable to the officers of the
bank. since could find no palliation for 1t
In my own eyes? / was so years old.
shrank from the necessity of beginning
again at the foot of the ladder which I
had so laboriously climbed after lifetime
of conscientious plodding. 1t would be
sition.
1.-THE more thought the matter over. the
more became convinced that there might
be another way out of my trouble. Was
1t not probable that the depositor who had
profited by my mistake had done so inno-
Gently? If SO, would he not be willing to
repay the amount overdrawn? AT the
worst, If he should refuse to do this, might
IT not be possible for me to scrape together
and borrow enough to make good the de-
fciency? In this way I could correct the
blunder and no one would be the wiser for
1t. But what of that man Chatham? Would
not his report betray me? I recalled his
intimation that the nature of his report
depended upon myself. What did he mean
by that? Probably he would set price
upon his silence. This would add consid-
ernbly to the amount l should have to
raise; but would not this be better, after all,
than the loss Of my position? At any rate.
I should not be any the worse off for lis
tening to his proposal, whatever 1t might
he.
'erhat afternoon, nc soon as the bank had
o1sged, called ut the address Chatham had
given me. He evidently expected mo.
With him was man whom he introduced
US James Withers, the depositor in whose
favor my blunder had been made. Had
] not been laboring under great excite
ment, 1t is likely that my suspicious would
have been aroused by the strangeness Of
Withers' presence In Chatham's room. The
two men received me pleasantly. and the
alleged Withers, even before could breach
the subject, expressed his regret at hear
ing of the error which had been commit
ted. and assured me of his willingness to
reimburse the bank; but-ah! there was an
ominous but He was short of ready
money Just then: everything he had was
tied up In a promising enterprise which
was bound to bring In magnificent profit
In the course of a few days If only he could
raise few paltry hundreds to enable him
to hold out n little longer. If he failed
to serape together this small amount, all
would be lost Insidiously and relentless.
iy they drove ME toward the trap they had
prepared, and was weak enough to fall
Into 1t. Before the interview was over
had consented to allow Withers to still
farther ovcrdraw his account, and had
RECEIVED his solemn promise to refund. be-
fore the end of the week, the entire amount
he owed the bank. Then Chatham suggest
ed that 1t would BIO wiser to let the sec
pnd overdraft come from another ac'
count Withers agreed with him and stated
that the check could be made in the name
of Henry Seymour, relative of his. who
had recently opened small account Will
tile Knickerbocker bank. strongly OBJ
jeeted to sharing the secret of my infnm1
with any others; but finally allowed my
sen " pd oSerfuieu ~ the piauS.p.e sSou"
drels into whose clutches had fallen.
1.-THE next day 1 took my first step ii
crime, by making such entries as would
insure the honoring of Seymour's check
After that was completely in the power O
these two men, 1t was not long before
discovered that had been their dupe
Chathams acccomplice was not the tru
Withers; for this man, a few days later
made a large deposit. which more thai
covered his previous overdraft, The falls
Witbers was. Henry. Aimselh !.