The representative., 1901-03-21
EDGAR MORETTE


the scrubbing was done, or perhaps by
bank"
The reporter drew the letter from. its
envelope and read:
'"The Knickerbocker Bank.
New York. Dec. 81 1896.
my Darling Wife: When you receive
this letter shall be far away-a disgraced
criminal-and you will be worse than
widow.
Il dare not ask your forgiveness for the
trouble I 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 a meas
ure, the temptation to which I have sue
cumbed; although I fnd 1t hard myself.
now that all Is over, to realize how I came
to yield to 1t.
Perhaps you may remember the cele-
ration OF my fftieth anniversary. We
were having a most enjoyable evening in
the company of the friends whom you had
invited to participate in the festivities,
when caller was announced. was obliged
to leave our guests In order to receive him
sin 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 en-
ployed at the Knickerbocker bank to ex-
anime the books and he coolly informed
me that he had just discovered a serious
error in my boOks-one that had enabled
depositor to oyerdraw his account by
a large amount At first / refused to be-
ieve him, although he submitted copies
from the books showing exactly how the
blunder had been made. When he intima ed
that it only rested with me whether the
error should be reported to the bank,
Indignantly refused to listen to him. He
remained perfectly unruffled during our
interview and left me at last with the
statement that he would wait "a hours be-
fore handing in his report to the presi-
dent
my first step on reaching the bank
the next day was to verify Chatham state
ments Alas. they were only too true. There
was the terrible blunder staring me in the
face. I could not understand how ] had
come to make 1t; but there it was, and
nothing could explain it away. had hoped
against hope up to this time; now l
clearly that l was ruined man.
There was only one honorable course
open to me-to frankly confess my respon-
sibility for the bunder and take the con-
sequences, whatever they might be. l
hesitated, and / was lost.
II hesitated because / felt that my posi-
ton was at stake. Would not my error
appear inexcusable to the officers Of the
bank, since l could find no palliation for it
in my own eyes? I was 80 years old. l
shrank from the necessity of beginning
again at the foot of the ladder which I
had so laboriously climbed after lifetime
of conscientious ploddlng. 1t would be
no easy matter for me to find another po-
stion.
THE more I thought the matter over. the
more l became convinced that there might
be another way out of my trouble. Was
1t not probable that the depositor who had
profitcd 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-
ficiency? In this way ! could correct the
blunder and no one would be the wiser for
it. But what OF that man Chatham? Would
not his report betray me? / 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-
erably 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
tenng to his proposal. whatever it might
b..
"That afternoon, soon as the bank had
closed, called at the address Chatham had
given me. He evidently expected me-
With him was man whom he introduced
as James Withers, the depostor in whose
favor my blunder had been made. Had
/ not been laboring under great excite
ment, it Is likely that my suspicious would
have been aroused by the strangeness Of
Withers' presence in Chatha m s room. The
two men received me pleasantly, and the
alleged Withers even before could broach
the subject, expressed his regret It 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 a magnificent profit
in the course Of few days If only he could
raise few paltry hundreds to enable him
to hold out a little longer. If he failed
to scrape together this small amount, all
would be lost. Insdiously and relentless
ly they drove ME toward the trap they had
prepared and ! was weak enough to fall
into It, Before the interview was over,
I had consented to allow Withers to still
further overdraw 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 be wiser to let the sec
ond overdraft come from another ac-
count. Withers agreed with him and stated
that the check could be made In the name
OF Henry Seymour, a relative Of his, who
had recently opened a small account with
the Knickerbocker bank. ! strongly OBJ
jected to sharing the secret of my infamy
with any others; but finally allowed my
self to be overruled by the plausible scoun-
drels into whose clutches had fallen.
The next day I took my first step In
crime, by making such entries as would
insure the honoring Of Seymours check.
After that was completely in the power Of
these two men. 1t was not long before
discovered that I hSd been their dupe.
Chatham's acccomplice was not the true
Withers; for this man, few days later,
made a large deposit, which more than
covered his previous overdraft. The false
Withers was Henry Seymour himself.
LAS soon as had committed felony. It
became unnecessary for Seymour to keep
up any further pretense Of desire to re-
fund the money I had helped him to steal.
was now In the meshes OF crime as deep
ly as my accomplices; and. from that time
to this they have forced me to act az their
cats-paw. During this period of two years
the bank has been robbed in this way Of
over $250,000, every cent of which has
gone to Chatham and Seymour.
''You can perhaps imagine what hell
my life has been during that time. With
prison and disgrace staring me In the face:
and with the absolute conviction that ex-
posuro must inevitably come sooner or
later I have suffered the torture Of the
damned. At the bank, have been in Q
perpetual state Of suspense. ! have start
ed at every word spoken to me; have
seen suspicion in every glance which has
met mine; have trembled and paled 1t
every approach Of one OF the officers Of the
bank. And yet / have not dared to ab-
sent myself from my desk for an hour. lest
an examination of nay books during my
absence should reveal my crime. l have
been the first to reach the bank in the
morning, and the last to leave 1t at night: