The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-04-17
HIS ONE BAD MINUTE
BY a United States
Secret Service Man.

had drifted to the place a few weeks
before and had been a~nnexing his
whisky money by doing old chores
around, came to the end of his haw-
E SER. He was a pretty sick old man
when he applied at the town hospital
for a bunk and treatment. He was
taken in, but it was quickly seen
there was nothing left of him but the
husk, and so they made him comfort
able to pipe out easy like. Just be-
! fore he took the ferry w the dark
river he whispered to the nurse that
he'd like to have a word with the
hospital superintendent. The hos
pital superintendent showed up at
the old mans cot.
The old wayfarer pulled from
around his neck a piece of string to
which a key was fastened. He hand
ed the key to the superintendent,
gasped the name of a Chicago safe
deposit company. gave the passing
out tremor-and a. gone.
The hospital superintendent was a
strong nan He was about forty,
and had got his education by work.
ing for it with his hands. He had
worked at nearly everything in order
to push himself through college, and
he had taken ARE of a big batch of
brothers and sisters besides. He
wasn't any goody-gooI, but just a
square man. He had fought and
worked for every shave, shine and
smoke that he'd every had. He was
getting ahead and gaining a reputa-
ton, but most Of his income was
going for the education of his young
er brothers, and he'd never know the
feeling Of possessing $50 real velvet
since he'd been hustling.
Well, about two weeks after the
old buns death. the hospital super
intendent was in Chicago, and he
happened to pass by the safe deposit
establishment that the old man had
mentioned before dying. The super
intendent still had in his pocket the
key, attached to the string, that the
dead wanderer had given him. He
was of opinion that the old mans
mind had been wandering when he
had named the safe deposit company,
but anyhow, out of curiosity, he de-
cided to ask the safe deposit people
If they had the name of the deceased
.Handerer on their books. They did
have it on their books The dead man
had rented a safe deposit box from
the company six years before, and
!. the box rental had been regularly
paid by mail.
The hospital superintendent, after
some formalities, was permitted to
open the box with the key in his
possession. According to custom,
one of the company's employees, this
one a young fellow, entered the vault
with the superintendent, in which
the box was located. The superin-
tendent opened the box with his key,
and then he had to fan himself with
his hat for a minute.
The box contained two tightly
wrapped, rubber-banded rolls Of vel
low bank notes, each roll about the
size of a twenty-five bundle of cigars.
The superintendent of the hospital
removed the rubber bands from one
of the bundles, and he saw that it
was made up of bills of all denomina-
lions, from ones to five hundreds. 1t
was plain that the two rolls contained
a whole lot of money.
Now, that was the hospital super
intendent's critical minute. He told
me about it afterward. Without
waiting to count the money, he said
in a low tone to the young safe de-
post chap who was with him in the
vault and who was gazing with an
expression of amazement at the two
huge bundles of bills:
You and I are the only two peo-
pit in the world who know about this
money. Is it to be a cut? What do
you say to a third for yours"
"That'll suit me- replied the
young clerk, out of hand.
The superintendent told me that if,
tSn minutes before, anybody had
suggested the remotest likelihood OF
his ever trying to snag out n cent
that didn't belong to him he'd felt
like killing that s%uggester.
But" he added, in telling me
about it, "the desire to get hold OF
that money, for myself, seized me
like a flash, and I could no more have
resisted it than a man il the electric
chair could resist the current sent to
kill him"
The superintendent stuffed the
two rolls Of money into a satchel
turned in the key to the safe deposit
people, with the statement that be
had found only a few ~valueless pa,
; pers belonging to the dead man, and
then went to a hotel room with the
young safe deposit clerk. In the no
tel room they counted the money
and they found that it amounted tt
{ exactly $4,000. The superintend'
emit gave the young fellow $4,000
and the latter said that he was per
fectly satisfied with his tut That
left the superintendent $4,000 tt
the good.
He had hardly put the thief
( through, made the division and sep
arated from the young fellow be
! fore he was sore on himself, but there