The Minneapolis journal., 1901-04-19
AWFUL EXPERIENCE
A Bank Cashier who Let "a Friend
Have the Banks Money.
New Orleans Times Democrat.


Have the Banks Money.
New Orleans Times Democrat.
The way Note Teller Alvord covered up
his stealings from day to day reminded an
old railroad detective of little story. II
found out about this case t'other end ia"
be said; "getting on to the wind-up first,
then the middle part and then the begin
ming; but I'll tell it to you in the order
that it happened. Back in 1885 or 1885,
when / was working for a st. Louis
agency, very decent kind OF a man
call him Mr.. Clark for short-was cashier
of the principal bank in good sized near
by town. Country cashiers get mighty
small pay, and although Clark had been
in service almost from boyhood and WAS
then middle-aged, with big family on
his hands, he was drawing $1,800 year.
Naturally he was very anxious to lay by
something for q rainy day. One Of the
customers of the bank at that time was
a Colonel Patterson, manager of the local
opera house, president of two or three
land companies and an all-around hustler
and good fellow. Patterson had been in
town only a few years, but he was one
of those men who will drop into a small,
sleepy place and take the community by
storm. He was a big, jovial chap OF the
silk hat and solitaire shirt stud type, and
it was generally supposed that he had
oodles of money. Clark, who was a shy
simple minded man, admired him i'm
mensely and went out of his way to do
him small favors. In return the colonel
took him aside one day and offered to let
him in on St. Louis gas stock deal that
promised to be a big thing. Clark mort
gagged his house, raised a few hundred,
gave his note for few hundred more,
and went in. About two weeks later Pat
terson came to the bank in a tremendous
rush and asked for a statement OF his
account. Like all spectators he some
times had very large balance and some
times nearly nothing, and on that partic-
ular occasion 1T was less than a thousand.
The deuce!' he said, I'm going out of
town this evening, and I'll have sight
draft coming tomorrow for $4,000 that
simply must be protected In five min
utes he convinced poor Clark that he
would positively have the cash there the
following day, and, to make a long story
short, the cashier paid the draft and made
a private ticket for the amount Patter-
son didn't return, and in a week his dis
appearance was the sensation Of the town.
Twill leave you to imagine Clark's feel
ings," the old detective went on. 1.-The
thing was so incredible that at Arst he
couldn't believe it; otherwise he would
probably have made clean breast Of the
draft affair at once. But he was confident
that the colonel would turn up and explain
everything, and SO he concealed the short
age from day to day until it was past ex-
planning. Strange to say, nobody else had
suffered through Pattersons abrupt de-
parture, but everything he had proved to
be involved up to the hilt, and he left
nothing behind worth taking. With that
it dawned upon Clark that he was stuck
irrevocably for the $1,000 deficit on the
draft and then began a season of martyr
dom that must have been infinitely worse
than death. Had it not been for his fami-
ly I am satisfied he would have taken a
short cut out of the dilemma by putting a
bullet through his brains, but he couldnt t
stand the idea OF leaving them to pauper-
ism and disgrace, and, like many another
man in desperate straits, he started In
upon a systematic course of concealment,
hoping against hope that some miracle
would happen to enable him to make good
the shortage. He kept that up for over
five years. Exactly how he did it is Of
no special Importance. 1t was a small
bank, and he had complete run Of it's af-
fairs, so the mere mechanism Of making
false entries and carrying fictitious bal
ances over from day to day was compare
lively easy but the frightful part of it
was the mental strain and the knowledge
that some slight slip might, at any mo-
ment, lead to discovery. OF course he
made desperate efforts to save. and his
meanness became proverbial, but fate
seemed to be against him, and he was
never able to scrape together enough to
make an appreciable reduction in the
amount Moreover, he was handicapped
at the start by his investment in the gas
deal which, of course, went to pieces when
Patterson levanted But perhaps the
worst feature of the affair was the change
it made in his disposition. He was ori-
ginally kindly even tempered man, but
incessant worry and brooding soured his
whole nature, and, think, estranged him
more or less in even his own household.
In brief, he was on the verge of mental
and physical collapse, when who should
walk into the bank one day but Colonel
Patterson himself as CHEEKY and clipper
as ever. When Clark saw him he nearly
tainted, bit he managed to get him into
the private office. Where's that money !?
he demaI ded, without any preface
What mon ney?' asked the colonel, in genu-
inc amazenent. Good God!' gasped poor
Clark; the money for that draft!' why,
left it for you in an envelope, replied
the colonel; 4 gave it to old John the
night / went away Old John was the
porter They called him in. He was
nearly so, half childish, and honest as the
day is long When they fired a volley
of frantic questions at him he instantly
became bewildered. That envelope! thai
envelope!' be repeated, scratching his
head it seems to me 1 remember some
thing about an envelope! Oh, yes! he
exclaimed, Frightening up. I believe
slipped it under Mr.. Clark's table cover
and forgot to mention it. l hope it wasn't
anything important. Clark's writing table
had an old baize cover that hadn't been
removedin a generation. He ripped 1t on
with one wild snatch, and there lay long
dirty envelope. 1t contained eight $1,000
bills For five years of heart-breakins
worry and destruction they had been rest
ing literally under his hand. After the
first revulsion of feeling was over, the col
onel made a few side explanations. Be-
tween ourselves he had skipped out to
avoid a threatened prosecution for bigamy
but the woman had since died and every
thing was all right. He is now in Chicago
-: e.