The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1907-08-08
A NEW SCHEME TO
BEAT RAILROADS.
ROUND TRIP TICKETS MADE GOOD
FOR LONGER RIDES.
TUSCALOOSA MAN IN TROUBLE
Is Finally Trapped and Held to the
District Court For investigation
Has Puzzled Railway
Detectives.

, VI . .
Harry Charles is in trouble and
awaits the action OF the grand jury
under a $1,000 bond, on serious
charge. His arrest late Friday after
noon came as surprise but a great
er sensation was brought by his con-
fession to officers Andrews and DON
nelly. He was brought up before
Esquire Bacon and saved the expense
of preliminary hearing by waving ar
raignment and hearing to the next
session of the grand jury on the
charge of willfully and unlawfully ut
tering and publishing forged railroad
tickets.
ON the information which was filed
was attached copy of ticket, as
an example of the work he has been
doing. which was a return coupon OF
a round trip ticket on the c., b. & O..
Ry. from Chicago to Aurora and re-
turn. The word Aurora" had been
carefully erased, ''Oskaloosa' substi-
tuted and the ticket passed for a pas,
sage from here to Chicago.
Thos. Harrington, of Chicago, an Of
fetal of the Western Passenger Assoc
citation, is the prosecuting witness and
all of the work seems to have been
done on the Burlington road Mr.
Harrington had in his possession a
large number of tickets Of the same
kind, all of which he believes he can
prove were forged by Charles. AS
many of the crimes were committed
in Illinois, he will likely be called to
Charles is not alone in the fraud and
there, but any one of the tickets is
sufficient evidence to convict him II
proven. Mr.. Harrington believes that
Chares is not alone in the fraud and
is looking out for Chicago crooks OF
whom he thinks this man is perhaps
an innocent tool and il such should
be the case, Charles may be in
duced to turn states evidence.
His scheme, as charged by the Off
GERS. was to buy round trip ticket
TO some nearby station on which the
name of the destination is generally
written with pen and ink on both the
going and returning coupons With
the aid of an acid chemical prepare
tion he would erase that part of the
ticket and fill in the name of some
more distant point and succeeded in
patching up the job so well that no
one of the conductors on the road
was ever able to detect the falsity of
the paper For eight months, it is
alleged, he has continued in that
work, travelling over great part of
the country by paying but small fares
to nearby points and, being altogeth-
er quite unselfish, he confessed to
having made at least one of his
friends present of free rides, furnish
ing Harry Collard a ticket free of
charge, telling him that he had Sc
cured passes for both. The fatal err
ror was in making all the tickets read
to Oskaloosa, as that was the only
clue which could be found as to the
location of the guilty party.
The officers feel much elated over
the confession of Charles, as he is the
first man who was arrested on the
charge, and it was feared that sew
eral attempts might be necessary to
locate the right man. The forgery
was detected at the headquarters of
the road in Chicago and the stubs of
the tickets issued read for shorter dis
tances than the tickets which were
taken up. The mystery caused the
local ticket agents to be under sur
VIGILANCE for some time, as it was
thought they were at the bottom of
the crime, and the employees of the
local office were in danger of serious
complication had not the fact been
discovered that in a few cases tickets
from other points had been forged
and each was made to read to "Oska-
loosa." This clue started the detect
ives on the right track and centered
all their work around OskaIoosa,
Where they at last have located the
st,snacT