Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-11-08
THE TOUGHEST sToRY YET
II Comes from PittsburE and Raises
= Rude shout from
Cynic.

we are told, and without further infor-
nation are in no position to deny IT, that
c. b. wray and c. s. Hixton are Pitts
burg men. The statement even goes into
details and gives US TO understand that
wray was the receiving teller and Hix-
ton the individual bool1keeper OF the Union
Trust company, one of the wealthiest and
most powerful financial institutions in the
whole country Maybe so. The story
comes straight enough. But we have had
eight FITS trying to believe It.
Wray and Hixton arc credited with hav-
ing robbed the company Of $685. before
they were caught This means, IL it
means anything. that they were keen,
shrewd, determined and resourceful pi-
rates 1t means that they were men Of
nerve and brains and courage, We have
always heard that these great trust con-
Germs are safeguarded with almost super
human vigilance, their accounts examined
by lynx-eyed officials, their daily operations
presided over by directors OF unusual vigor
and solicitude Surely, under such cir
cumstances, only men OF extraordinary In
tellectual attachments could have taken
out 1885, 900 at their leisure and in amounts
to suit their taste and fancy The high
officials OF the bank, to say nothing Of the
directors and the examiners. could not have
been imbeciles OF they wouldn't have had
all that money on hand. Evidently, wray
and Hixton must have been geniuses Of
purest ray serene to loot them SO easily
and to such vast extent.
And yet we are asked to believe that
Wray and Hixton were the softest pigeons
ever, It IL said of them that they didn't
DO a thing with their plumber but give 1t
away with both hands to the most trans
parent hamfatters they met upon the pike.
Any one could turn their pockets wrong
side out. They bit at the shell game. They
fairly reveled In sweat CLOTH" plugged
roulette, loaded craps. doctored faro-any-
thing that came along. They bought race
track tips from the most obvious down-at-
the-heel tout. They plunged on fake tele-
grams from the stock markets. And when
there was nothing else to do they went
to the back parlors Of nash saloons and sat
at a poker game which ought not to have
fooled a New York goo-goo fresh from
the Reform club or a mugwump just as
capped from Baltimore They wouldn't even
wait for the gold bricks and the fairies
They simply held up the first red-nosed
bum they ran against and begged him to
unload them. It Is recorded, in fact, that
Wray once parted with So, 200 ''op-the-other-
side-of- the-street bet" and that Hixton
bucked four hves against loo-loo to the
tune Of 1880 cash.
The story doesn't read straight to US,
although we have no means of continuing
1t. We can imagine suckers just as dense
and gullibIe as they appear to be-the
old familiar suckers who go into a bunlSo
shop with intent to rob the house, and then
come out into the street bawling over their
losses and denouncing the swindlers who
took advantage OF their innocence But
when We are introduced to a couple OF
citizens who have robbed high class bank
of 1886 600. all told. and are asked to be-
lieve that they afterward parted with their
booty every time they met some one who
wanted itAthere Is where we wonder
whether the good Baron Munchausen is
really dead.
1t may be all true. Everybody says So
But, as We see the matter. It were easier
to swallow an Angora goat or a peddler's
push cart loaded with bananas. Washing
ton Post.