The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1908-05-02

among you, let MIN nrSt cast stone
at her."
In the days of his youth he was
going the gait, and she was proud to
travel with him, and ask no questions.
The glorious to-day was theirs and ii
were crime to lift the veil of to-
morrow. So hand in hand, with airy
feet they trod the primrose path and
all the world was light, and flowers,
and one glad, sweet song.
One day the eastern brokers called
for margins. To stop where he was
meant heavy loss. To put up might
mean salvation. So he put up. Crash
went the market and his hopes. That
night he spent long while on the
books. Twice ten is twenty and five
to carry" Twenty-Five thousand! Sal
airy one hundred dollars a month. Cash
on hand, zero. Down came the air
castle. Eddie Darrell, assistant cash.
Ter of the National Bank of Stanfield
| Lit out for Mexico.
In the morning details were in the
hands of great detective agency and
by night the bloodhounds were on the
trail The chase did not last long 1t
was showing in the leaden dawn Of a
winter morning when three men
alighted from the limited and stepped
upon the platform at Stanfield. All
wore great coats, closely buttoned up.
The younger of the trio glanced visit
fully at the receding red lights on the
rear sleeper of the train and bitterly
remarked:
What a fool young man can make
Of himself If he wants to-"
To this self-evident proposition
there was no response. All entered a
hack and the sterner-faced man of the
three indicated the destination to the
driver by word of four letters. After
drive of seven or eight blocks the
vehicle stopped in front of a COM
posite building of brick and stone. The
stern-looking man motioned the
younger one to get out and the two
quickly followed. A few resounding
knocks on the door brought out a man
whose dangling suspenders, bare feet
and mussed hair indicated a hurried
evacuation of his bed. After a rapid
scrutiny of his caller with his alert
eye he calculated:
Eddie Darrell! By the great Lord
Harry! Where'd you catch him?"
His curiosity was satisfied and, after
q few laconic directions by the leader,
the two returned to the carriage, leav-
inc tho voupoor MON In oboror 80 <ba
keeper.
The man of the stern countenance
was. United States detective. His
companion was the cashier of the Ma
tional bank. The young man they left
at the Jail was the defaulting assist
ant.
At the ensuing term of the United
States court the young man pleaded
guilty to embezzling the banks money,
which he said he had hoped to return
II his wheat deals hadn't gone wrong.
There didn't appear to be any very
mitigating circumstances, save that
the prisoner was closely related to one
of the best families of the town and
had always borne an excellent repu-
tation. And he was young. His law
yers referred to this in their plea for
mercy and stated that for seven years
past the prisoner had been a trusted
employe of the bank and the faithful
treasurer of leading church of which
he was member. The court spoke of
the parable of the talents and made it
five years at hard labor.
The assistant cashier donned the
stripes and began his long term uf
servitude. He was model prisoner,
the warden said.
Soon after the convict reached the
penitentiary young woman sought
employment at hotel in the prison
town. She was well-formed and fairly
good-looking, but extremely reticent.
She belonged to class Hugo speaks
Of as lies miserables." 1t was noticed
that she was frequently in the cook
room after hours preparing dainties OF
some sort, which she took to her room.
On many occasions she was observed
late at night, by the aid of candle,
sewing on material for a mans gar
ments. 1t soon leaked out that she
had lover in the penitentiary, who
was the recipient of these favors Gre
ated during the hours she should have
been asleep. A metropolitan newspa-
per that makes speciality of such
cases sent an investigator to the peni-
tertiary and he took his paint brush
along. An extract from his report ran
like this:
with love more lasting than that
of Mercedes for Edmond Dantes. and
a devotion as unselfish as Juliet's to
Romeo. Nell Thorne waits outside the
grim walls of the state penitentiary
for the release of her convict lover.
When he walks through the great iron
doors to the freedom of a scornfuI
world he will find an arm ready to sus-
tain him and heart that sympathizes
with him."
There were many paragraphs of |
that sort and pictures galore. 1t was a |