Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-30

NEW YORK, July 3O.-Erwin Johann
Wider, the young S25-aweek cashier
who admits having stolen securities to
the value of s6sO,OOO from the Russo
Chinese Bank Agency, where he was
employed in this city. was lodged, weep
ing. in the Tombs last night in default
of sd. 900 bail
The arrest was made about 80 o'clock
yesterday afternoon at the corner of
Broadway and Fulton street. while Wider
was on the way, accompanied by his
lawyer Leon b. Ginsburg, to surrender
himself to Acting District Attorney Mott
The accused will be arraigned before
Judge O'Sulivan Monday on a charge
of grand larceny.
Scarcely five feet in height. Wider looks
like a boy, and has neither the manner
nor the appearance of business man.
He is only thirty years old and weeps
like girl whenever any one sympathi
with him.
Sunk All in Speculation.
Wider made this statement to a re-
porter for the World:
Il never thought of the probable conse-
quence of my act / never thought of
i
nifty in Wall street to make money. And
IL seemed so safe, too.
My pay at the bank was so small 1
could not live and keep my family in
the way / saw my friends keep theirs
l kept thinking about the way in which
money was made in the stock market. l
heard how easy it was and that any
one could get in there and speculate The
risk, l was told, was nothing
Il talked the situation over carefully
with men who told me they kney all
about stocks and speculation; Men who
read the market. Then l decided to
take chance 1t looked so easy. and
tried it.
But l never had a chance. 1t was
always, always. messages from the
brokers for More margin. More mar
gin" They seemed insa table.
Not, however, until l was in so deep
that l couldn't see the way out did
l get reckless. / didn't think | was
reckless at the beginning, but / realize
it now.
Then, when 1 had got in practically
up to my neck, / went the limit
1T couldn't be much worse, thought,
and any day it might turn in my favor.
And here l am
Looted the Strong Box.
Wider had stolen practically every
share of stock and every bond in the
strong box of the bank when he sud-
denly learned that one of the banks
correspondents in Berlin had called for
300 shares of Pennsylvania railroad
stock He knew it was absolutely use
less, in the condition of his account with
his brokens, to attempt to recover the
stock. and there was none other in the
box which could be stolen and hypothe-
Gated in its place. Nothing remained
but to confess his thefts.
Wednesday OF last week he decided to
do that. From his home the next day,
Thursday, July ~ he wrote, on letter
paper OF the bank, note to the Off
Gals of the agency telling them he had
looted their safety deposit box.
Caught Short on Cotton.
Brief as was his letter, it was one of
the most remarkable ever written by a
bark embezzler. He laid the blame for
his losses at the door of the engineers
OF the recent bull pool in cotton He
had gone short of the market, had sold
cotton he did not possess on the advice
of market experts, who told him it was
a '.cinch'' that the bulls would fail in
their attempt to corner the market in
the staple, as all who had attempted SIM
liar tricks had failed.
But the bulls had the money and the
condition of the crop turned out to be
just as they had predicted. Widers
stolen fortune had been swallowed up.
1T was the blame cotton situation that
broke my neck" he wrote the bank
officials.