Arizona republican., 1906-02-17
BALLARD WENT HENCE
 AT TER BRIEF SHAY
He Proved to be An Industrious
 and impartial Worker.

H. w. Ballard has left Phoenix and it is very likely he will not return again not for sometime at any rate He was not dissatisfied with the eli mate TOT did he seem to be at all disN pleased NAh fl e people. He simply worked the town out along his peculiar lines and moved on.
 | Ballard came here a few weeks ago from Albuquerque having secuted the agency at this point, of the Equitable i Life Assurance society, under Walter $. Bowen, the manager of the com i.any's business in Arizona. New Mex ICo, Sonora and western Texas. Bal .lard it would appear was a nld1 Of stAaIl resources financially, as he sc- cured a small loan from his employer to begin business with and during his brief engagement here he managed to get other favors from new made friends. He was a liberal spender and made friends rapidly as such men do but it soon resolved itself into a case of expenses exceeding the income and he found himself up against 1t.
 He is a bright sort of a fellow and seemed to be pretty well posted on the insurance business, writing a very good line Of business for a new man in a new field, against the suspicion that naturally exists against all strange in . surance agents just now during the excitement of the eastern investiga- tions. It should be said also that Ball. lard has not wronged his patrons in any way through his business opera tions. though he made one or two att tempts to negotiate paper he was pledged not to do, but his irregulari- ties consisted rather in involving his ! employer in some small losses by se- curing business on improper representa- tions, which MT. Bowen has to make good and also abusing his confidence in the matter of various personal fin ancial favOrs Fortunately the aggre- gate is not embarrassing to MT. Bow en but 1t $ very irritating, both for the small sums he loses and for the neces- sity of having to acknowledge that he was mistaken in his jud ~ment of Bal lard. MT. Bowen became suspicious 2 few days ago of certain operations and came here to investigate. He very ra- pidly unearthed a number of small transactions that were irregular and ] also learned somewhat of Ballard's ra- pidly waning favor among those ne had received small financial accommo- dations from. But he found every policy written to be a good and bind ing one, both on the company and on 1 the patron so the only one to De ln- jured was himself and a few outsiders that Ballard had buked in other ways
 Thursday Ballard secretly secured 2 ticket for Los Angeles. MT. Bowen was apprised of the fact before Ballard Jeff the city that night and made legal in- quiry of the district attorneys office concerning the advisability of pre- venting his departure or stopping him at Maricopa It was found that he had a clear case of embezZlement against him on one count ct least but the amount involved was not large one and there was no possibility oi getting the money back by legal pro- ,ceedings. He would have stopped the man and secured his punishment as all 1 example only for the reason that MT Ballard has a wife and child dependa lt upon him and his incarceration would place them in most distressing cir cumstances. He therefore decided to let the matter drop in that direction but he will take good care to see that the man will never have an OppOrtun- ity to practice further irregularities in the employ of either the Equitable or any other insurance company in the United States.