Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1906-11-21

ImmedIarely sprang into fashion among
thieves. The very next month at the
same station as the Duke of Edinburgh
was passing through 1t thieves found
an opportunity to rob an attendant of
the Russian ambassador, Baron Blu
low, of his dressing case, containing
jewels worth some thousands Of
pounds.
The fact that the man he chose as his
example was rewarded with ten years
penal servitude did not deter Tarpsy,
the jewel thief, from resolving to imi-
tate his plan. The first thief ordered
several thousand pounds worth Of jew
elry from a London shop, had the pre-
cious trinkets brought to his house,
chloroformed the unlucky bearer and
disappeared with his booty. Tarpsy
proceeded on the same lines. With his
wife he took house in the west end
and then, proceeding to a jewelers., re-
quested him to send selection Of dia-
monds and emeralds for his wife's con-
sideration. The unfortunate jewelers.
man when he was shown into the Tarp-
sy drawing room was seized, chlorO-
formed, bound and gagged, while Tarp-
sy and his wife decamped with their
precious burden. So far the plan had
succeeded, but Tarpsy commenced to
fail as soon as he began to be original.
He and his wife having stolen away
to bennington, Tarpsy excited the sus-
PIGEONS Of the landlady with whom
they lodged by the peculiar changes he
effected in his appearance.
So acute did her suspicious at last
become that she communicated with
the police. When they arrived they
were, just too late. The mysterious
lodger had slipped away to the CONT
nent. The detectives, baffled for the
moment, were not, however, discour-
aged. Mrs. Tarpsy remained, and they
watched her keenly.
Some months later she donned the
deepest mourning, and the information
that she had lost her husband, who had
died on the continent, spread around.
The detectives rightly conjectured that
Mrs. Tarpsy was merely taking steps
to convince any possible watchers that
their trouble would be In vain and dis.
courage them from the task. They
watched her more keenly than ever
and, following the widow" one day to
house In the north of London, discov-
cred the deceased" and much mourned
husband alive and well.
One swindler begets another. Watts,
the fraudulent clerk of the Globe As
surance office, was at once initiated by
Robson and Redpath. Watts was a
young and trusted clerk who devised
an ingenious plan Of classifying his en-
ployers' books In manner which ena-
bled him to embezzle huge sums. While
he was receiving salary Of only f200
year, he was keeping up fine house
In the west end and a mansion at
Brighton, at both Of which he enter
tanned lavishly. His wines were of the
best, and he retained one of the most
famous French cooks to superintend
the preparation of the banquets at
which he dazzled hosts of envious
guests. He was patron" of actors
and impecunious literary and artistic
persons. BY the time his frauds were
discovered he had embezzled no less
than 100000. He was tried, found
guilty and sentenced to ten years penal
servitude. The same night he hanged
himself In his cell.
Robson, a clerk in the employ of the
Crystal Palace company, not deferred
by Watts fate, initiated his frauds and
his reckless extravaganza. He had laid
hands on and spent f27,0OO when his
career was closed with a sentence of
twenty years penal servitude. Only a
| fortnight after Robson's conviction an
other imitator of Watts was detected
In Lionel Redpath. His punishment
was the awful one of lifelong impris-
onment.
The theft of the body of Alexander
Stewart in New York in 1878 was imi-
tated In 1881 in Scotland by gang of
villains who stole the body of the Earl
| Of Crawford from its resting place in
the family mausoleum at Dunecht. The
perpetrators Of this CHASTITY deed per-