The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-05-21
MADE A PRESIDENT.
Yet the POtter's Field Was the Rest
ing Place of Adrian Britt.


ing Place of Adrian Britt.
From the New York Journal.
Chicago. May 15.-"Unclaimed body
Adrian Britt; history unknown"
This is the epitaph that accompanies
the lifeless form OF a tall, angular man,
aged about ffty-eight years, which lies
on a slab in the morgue at the Dun
ming poor house. The man died there
Tuesday. He was buried in the pot
ter's field.
1t is the epitaph of a man who, in the
7Os, held the key to the political sit
uation of the United States and in
fluenced the delivery of votes of South
ern States to Rutherford B. Hayes; of
a publisher and journalist whose name
was once known all over the country;
of a former member of the United
States secret service, who afterward
served a two years term of impriSon-
ment for robbing the mails; and of a
once wellto-dO business man of Chi
ciga, who for ten years has been a
"leVee character"
Adrian Britt at one time the editor
and publisher of the Jacksonville (Fla.)
Union, and in 1888 the president of the
Lemo Publishing Company of Chicago,
was arrested one month ago and taken
to the Harrison street police station on
a charge of drunkenness. He was fined
$40. He could not pay the sum and
was sent to the bridewell to work it
out" There was more ailing him than
liquor, however, as the authorities dis
covered. He was dying of consump-
ton. He was then removed from the
bridewell to the county institution for
the poor at Dunning.
There he died Tuesday after making
the remark:
The story of my life would make a
lookout it will never be printed. My
life's secrets shall go to the grave with
me"
He refused to tell who he was mere
than that his name was Adrian Britt.
But that was enough
Britt's anxiety to carry his history To
an unmourned grave, however, met
with disappointment. 1t las Gevel-
oped that Adrian Britt was one % the
men named as a confederate CT Thomas
McNally or McNelly, in the thefts of
mail from letter boxes in Milwaukee in
1897. Britt, with McNally and three
others, was found guilty of blaaking
letter boxes April %, of that year. and
was sentenced to the House Of Correc-
ton for two years.
The discovery of This carried with il
the story of the life of the prisoner
who has finally ended what was ono
brilliant career as a common law
breaker-shabbily dressed, unshaVcn,
and unsung.
Adrian Britt was the son of a Louis
lana merchant, who died leaSir an
estate of $1,000 900. The neir to most
of this fortune was only ona year cid
at the time. Adrian was porn in 1884.
He grew up and went to college In New
Orleans and in 1874 removed to Flor
ida, where he got control of the Jack
sonville Union.
He was an active spirit in the effort
to wrest the political control Of the
state from the Republicans.
When the Hayes ilden campaign
was at it's hight Britts paper was tie
most powerful organ in Florida Al
the time the electoral vote of the state
hung in doubt he was looked uTo1 rs
holding the key to The situation. { lark
son NJ Potter vas a personal rricDi
of Britt's. and when the JacKso nVille
Union conceded the election Of the state
to the Republicans influence was cIe-
ated which led to che delivery of tie
votes to President-elact Hayes. The
! result was that, instead Of Tilden Le-
ing elected, enough electoral votes had
been swung over to Hayes as to elect
him President bysa naj0rity of ere.
From that time-the campaign Of
1S76-77-Britt's career took a down.
ward course. His paper lost prestige
| The Spring of 1877 he sold 1t and wen,
! to Washington and secured employ
ment in the Government Secret Ser.
| vice. Afterward in New York he wa:
enc of the publishers of the Bankers
! Magazine and in 1884 started tht
| American Bankers Manual
1t was in 1888 that Adrian Britt ar.
rived in Chicago and became the heac
of the Lemo Publishing Company. He
was still the handspring of this bust.
ness when the sharpest turning poin
in his life came. He fell through
hatchway three floors and was 81
/ badly hurt as to be unable to at.
| tend to his work. He was forced t.
sell out at loss One by one thing:
went wrong. Finally his wife left hin
and went to live with her father il
! Elgn, Ill
The man who had inherited a for.
tune before the war tasted poverty
! He fell in with a criminal element anc
in due time gravitated to the "1evee.
He was a habitue of that district fiv,
years ago when he met Thomas Nc.
Nelly and members of the Gurney
Davis gang.
Then followed his arrest on the
charge of robbing mail boxes in Mil
waukee. Britt had been caught try
ing to pass there checks that had beer
stolen from the mails.