The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-09-06
BRICK WAS GENUINE
Yet california Charlie" Was
Arrested for Trying to Sell 1t

Inc appearance in town yesterday of
Charies Jennings Upham, alias Cali
fornla Charlie" after an absence of
Twelve years from the Twin Cities, was
NOTED with surprise by several of his
OLD acquaintances who knew him in the
Gays. when heWaSsa rising young a tor
ney OF Milwaukee with connections ia
this CITY,.
s. Upham, who appeared to be prosper
Gus, made no attempt at concealing his
Identity, and went about as if he never
had been the object Of profound police
solicitation.
One of his former friends told the
charged against Upham in the old days,
but which was never alleged against
him in any court.
Charlie was always schemer"
said the friend, "and he is so smart
that he never willingly breaks the law
at least in it's letter.
'Out in a South Dakota city. not
far from the Black Hills, Charlie found
himself a number of years ago. He
had some money, but no employment,
and those Of US who knew him best
threw the keys of our safety deposit
boxes in the river and sat down to
watch the humping some other fellow
was going to get
He never did a thing for nearly a
month, and then one fine day he
emerged from his room with a mystic
rious look on his face and a heavy
package under his arm.
He slid out Of the side door and
took back street toward the business
center of the city. Finally he reached
the First National bank, and with
visible effort at self control strolled in
and asked for the president.
THAT official was in and Charlie was
TIC u ar~nI ir,fr. lii
carefully inspected by several of the
underlings. He found the president all
alone.
After carefully closing the office
door, Charlie told the banker that his
name was Uphanl-Charles Jennings
Upham, of Milwaukee, and that he had
gold brick worth $4,000 that he wish
ed to sell to the banker. He intimated
that he wanted the money in hurry
and would take $1,000 in order to COM
plete the transaction.
THE banker reached under the edge
OF his desk and gave the signal to his
clerks to call the police, and then sat
back in his chair and did the best he
could to entertain his visitor until the
officers arrived.
'They did not have to wait long. and
innocence you never heard in your life
as Charlie let out of him.
The police, however, were obdurate
and Charlie was rather roughly han
died and thrown into the common jail
He protested that his name was Up
ham and that the transaction was per-
fectly legitimate, but they would not
listen to him and for six days he was
kept in prison.
Finally the officers came to him
with an apology that was fairly n
cringe and released him from the JAIL
begged his pardon and tried in a dozen
different ways to square themselves
with their late prisoner.
"Upham was very Independent at
this stage of the game, for the investi-
cation of the police had proved beyond
shadow of doubt that the brick was
perfectly genuine gold all the way
through; that it belonged to him by
absolute right and was worth all of
81 900.
"An the town got out of the affair
was suit for $4,000 and the banker
one for a similar amount. Both mat
tiers were compromised for a good
round figure and Upham left for Cali
fornia the night of the settlement