The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-02-07
whitaker WRIGHT
How His Alleged Niece Fig
ured in His Failure.
HISTORY OF HIS DEALS
Thousands of the Poor bragg
ed Lower and Lower

eld says.
TN dramatic death Of Whitaker Wright
ono Of tha greatest swindlers in history
i,,st after his condemnation to prison last
week recalls the daring attitude ne
assumed in New York few months ago.
when he vas fighting against e&tradition
10 England
w and talked with him in the Lud-
low street ilH \ burly man. with huge
shoulders. a girth suggestive of good Nv
Ing and a heavy face. In spit of his
distress he smoked costly cigars and
nIaved the part Of q substantial man Of
afeairs. TOO secure in his position and too
phiIosophic TO be -fraid of courts or the
rrison He folded his fat hands over his
knee and between puffs Of tobacco smoke
shook his big head at . censorious and
enyious world.
IF I done in America what I did in
England" ne said. there would have been
no trouble about it. The English are not
good sports. They don't know how to lose
gracefully.
How comfortably squat and serene he
was this jusgler Of millons-how Ike
some Of The get-rich-quicl1 fnancierS OF
the American money market.
1T wasn't my fault that pepople got
crazy about the shares OF my companies
he continued. 1T wasn't my fault that
thely believed the properties TO be worth
more than they really were worth. Now
was it?"
x was hard to look at that impressive
countenance-so suggestive of Wall street
Responsibility believe that an ordin-
airy rogue was talking.
In England every dollar represented by
c share must be actually paid up. That's
the trouble. Here IN America it's different.
Things are done every day in New York
which, in England, would send men to
prison Surely a man ought not to be
imprisoned because Of mere technical
fly"
lie hoped then 10 cheat the law as he
aftreward elected It when he gave his
nfeIess body 10 the English jailers.
Knowing the attitude of America toward
stock speculation and its captains man
must learn To take losses cheerfully-he
hoped 20 arouse sufficient prejudice in his
favor to prevent his oxtradition. 1t was
es # he said: I'VE gentlemen Of the fnan-
cial highway must stand together. High
finance has an ethical code Of its own In
= commercial epoch the law is apt to be-
come On impertinence.'
When AIR Wright came to America on
that fateful trip he was accompanied by
his neice, Miss Browne. who went 10 PM
ladeiphia after her uncle's arrest ana re
manned there. X had been said that the
prisoner claimed TO have letters IN MS
possession which would compromise the
name Of King Edward II his prosecutors
81 England pressed him TOO FAR MT
Wright told me that ne had no such iet-
tiers and that he had uttered no such
threat. but begged me not To say anything
about The matter, as the use OF the hing
name in any form would hurt nm. HOW
ever, he made vigorous defense Tor ms
NIECE, who has been "ith him from the
bosinninE Of his troubles ana whose re'''-
tionship to him has been questioned.
The story nj this American ne OF nus
skill in beiooiing the shreWdest men IN
ENGLAND aand Of has punishment seems
Ike page torn from fiction. Even III
the heyday of his power ne attracted me
attention of the novelist 1T was AR.
Wright who was supposed to DE lhe
'Stormont Iherpe of Harold Frederic :.
THE Market Place, and mere Is Nr' r re-
dorics description of him:
His triumph was $50 sweeping ana com
prcheus.Ve as TO oe some "hil shap'!eSs 10
his views lie mad z sense OIL a7cIilai' eu
pain when Ire tried ~ 'ei'ie 10 hiiiiS''ii
what0ts oinltS would pr'hap'y De.
'Nistas ~ unchecked eNpahdlii con-
quest stretched away IN every directioh'
He hold az ms tnercy every IhlhE IN s-'sH''