Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-31
NONAGENARIAN IS
AN OLD JAILBIRD
"DUTCH CHARLIE" FINISHING
TWELFTH TERM
Apologies to officer After Long Abb
senee-Has Fondness for Prae-
tlcal Jokes-cheats SYM
pathizlng Attorney
Special to The Herald.

DAYS CndTleS N1tleTt dBeu W yedISi ulOic
widely known as "Dutch Charlie" the
confidence man, will have completed
his twelfth term of service as a con-
Wet in the Missouri penitentiary and
will be released. Meier has been COM
ing to the penitentiary at intervals
more or less regularly for the last fifty
years, and no one in the great instt-
tuition Is more conversant with Its his
tory
Generally he has come to the prison
from some one of the German counties
of upper southeast Missouri, and in
nearly every case he has pleaded guilty
to charges of swinding in connection
with bogus land deals. His favorite
method of operation Is to seek some
quiet, remote German community ana
pass himself off as q wealthy land
seeker. Usually this is good for sew
eral weeks free entertainment, afford
ing an opportunity to locate watches,
jewelry and other like booty, and usu-
ally winds up with sight draft,
signed by the unsuspecting victim.
With the proceeds of the draft
Charlie gets on a protracted spree at
the nearest town. and when arrested
pleads guilty. He has been in the
prison so often that when three months
passed without coming back the Off
GERS began to think he must be sick.
During the lifetime of Captain w. II.
Bradbury, for many years deputy war
den at the penitentia"y and In charge
of the discipline of the institution.
Charlie got back after an absence of
fifteen months.
Where have you been, Charlie?"
asked Captain Bradbury, as he shook
hands with the old man in the dressing
room. "You have not been treating us
right"
Apologies for His Long Absence
81 was afraid you would think that,
captain" replied Charlie. You see,
they had me in a dinky little Jail over
in Illinois for year. l am mighty
glad to get back home, can tell YOU
Another time Charlie arrived. AS
usual, Captain Bradbury joked with
him as he was dressed in
"What did you do this time, Char
lie?"
"Oh, l bought fine farm down in
ST. Genevieve county, captain, l specu-
lated in real estate, but didn't have
sense enough to stay sober and get
away from that part of the country
before the sight draft got back.
Meier says that he was born in Ger
many, and, so far as he knows, has
no relatives alive. He says he cannot
begin to enumerate the Jail sentences
he has served, aside from the twelve
terms he has served in the peniten-
tiary. He is blessed with fertile
imagination and most plausible
tongue, and has fondnesS Ior prac-
tical jokes.
Some years ago Charlie got the ear
of a prominent detective, at that time
at the head of the secret service de-
InGrt uent of the Missouri Pacific Rail
way company, and filled him so full OF
a story OF fNburied treasure, secreted on
An island in the Mississippi river, near
Quincy, Ill., that the detective spent
several weeks and several hundred dol
lars digging on the island in search of
it. The whole thing was, of course,
hoax.
At another time Charlie got hold of
q green prison guard just in from the
rural districts and confided to him that
he knew where vast amount of gold
ana silver was buried in the noun
tains of Arkansas The green guard
took the bait and armed with leave OF
absence for a month, map OF re-
mote locality in the Boston mountains
and money enough to pay expenses,
he set out in search of the spot. All
he got out OF it was the trip and ex-
nerience. for, like the others, it ex-
isted only in the fertile brain of Dutch
Charlie"
While serving a term about twenty
five years ago, Charlie, by dieting on
soap. contrived to fake up quite case
~ aconsumption" He looked the part
and sent for an attorney to make his
will for him.
Swindles Lawyer
The only property he claimed to have
was $500 in cash, which, he said, was
;n the hands of a well-known Catholic
nriest in st. Louis, and he exhibited
a receipt for the money given him by
the priest. The lawyer expressed great
sympathy for Charlie in his stricken
and broken condition.
The crafty old reprobate proposed TO
the lawyer that he would bequeath MIN
the $500 il the lawyer would advance
him the money necessary to buy the
things a man in the last stages of con-
sumption desired 81 haven't rela-
tive on earth," said Charlie, land you
are the only human being that mas
shown sympathy for me. I'll just have
you draw my will and make you the
sole heir to that $780,"
BY the time the lawyer had ad-
vapced 5000 Charles sentence had ex-
pired and he faded from sight but Tor
a few months only, to reappear shortiy
with new sentence to serve, and mar
velously improved in health. 1t is un-
necessary to say that the $500 was
myth.
Charlie is a good prisoner in the
sense that he violates NO rule of disci-
pline. On account of his advanced age
he has done but little work during his
last three terms. He is permitted TO
sit around and smoke and chat with
several other superannuated convicts.
His mind is as keen and alert as ever
He regrets that the judge did not
give him about year longer this time,
so that he would have gone out in the
midst Of summer instead OF In ma
winter. His chief concern now Is an
overcoat, and he shivers in anticlpa-
ton of the day when expiration of his
sentence will deprive him Of the steam
heated comfort of his prison home. He
says that If he knew where he could
get an overcoat he would not view his
coming departure from the prison win
so much regret.
TlCKLED TO SLEEP, HE