The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-10-06

Hoping to win back the affection
 of the girl he had duped- and to si- Ience her testimony against him. Fran cis !. Mahler, the young fellow arr rested yesterday in company with Alice Black for forgeries amounting to thousands, attempted the most gl- rantic and daring bluff" within pc. lice history here, by hanging himself by the neck to the bars of his cel at 1e:30 this morning.
 Cshokinr and strangling, he was cut down by the police before any harm was done.
 Young Mahler had affixed his own belt about his neck and tied himself up. He then waited until he heard the officers approaching to take mn away to jail He swung off and when the officers came, was hanging by the neck. apparently in the last throes of suffocation.
 Doorman James Halpin. the first to reach him, jumped into the cell, lift Ca the young fellow bodily, and called for help. PatrSlman Barney Glennon rr.shed into the cell and slashed the leather belt in two with his knife. Mahler was laid out on the floor, eaSping and grooming. In ten Or nf- fae, minutes he came around all right. Buf inc police saw through his bluff and 50 did the girl for whose Denens
  E m the city court this morning Mah- Ter made a desperate appeal to the
 girl to be silent or else to testify for him. She shook her head mo.
 Feeling that her sympathies had been estranged and that he must do something to arouse her pity ana re awaken her love the young fellow s fertile mind evolved the idea of pull ing off a fake attempt at suicide, and leaving a pathetic note Here is what he wrote-of the girl whom he was at point of deserting when arrested, and of whom he tried to make white slave" according to her story:
 ssDear er:-Help this little girl. Never mind me. I loved her
 with all my heart. Get her out and
 give her a god home Do this for me I know you can do 1t.
 This note, scrawted in pencil on a
 scrap of paper, was left in a prom l; inent place in his cell. Mahler then
 took off his leather belt, adjusted it
 around his neck, with a handkerchief beneath it, and tied the end of 'the belt to the upper bars of the ceii'
 He waited until he heard the foot
 steps Of the doorman approaching and Ithen swung himself off the bench. The whole performance was beautifully stared and every "effect" was care
 fully provided. but the bluff. failed to work and Miss Black laughed when the circumstances were explained to ai didn't think .1e had the courage
 to do it." was her comment.
 ' After the disclosure laid before her f, by Detective Frank I. Switzer. that l Mahler was on the point of desertine ! her and had been spending his time wfsh another woman in this city, her infatuation for her companion died i away very rapidly.
 She determined to make clean con- 1, feseion of all her share in the epi- sode. She saw the true calibre of the fellow who had induced her to leave 1 her home in Colorado Springs last ! July, and who used her as an instru' ment to pass out the bogus checks or which he made luxurious living.
 She had been very much in love with him. but when she discovered how much she had been his dupe. hel { affection waned quickly. The police kept the two apart. but
 Mahler- was allowed to see his com pariion for a few minutes last night 1 He made a desperate appeal to hel | affections, called her sweetheart liner sympathy, but failed, as the young woman had in her possession some o1 the letters which Mal1ler had been re- cefving from other girls in this vicin- fty. and which proved how much he really cared for her.
 These letters were captured at the focal post office by Frank l. Switze1 the Pfnkerton detective who trailed the 1 pair from city to city for five weeks narrsufng them from New Orleans, and !. finally landing them at a boarding
 house in Querida avenue. Bridgeport
 warrants from a dozen cities where borus checks were passed, are on theil
 way here but the warrants from New
 Orleans will be honored< first. The to- ifaI of bad checks known to have emanated from Mahler exceeds $1,70(
 and the authorities believe that there
 are many more as yet unaccounteo for.
 Detective Switzer asserts that Nah Ter wrote all of these checks himself
 but that he occasionally used his com ! panion to pass them. because Of hel innocent appearance.
 According to the girls story, Nah Ter represented himself to her as be-
 ing the scion of a wealthy family
 but travelling under different aliases
 because of a little scrape into which
 he had gotten. He told her that he
 was F. A. Christy brother or tne
 artist. Howard Chandler Christy, and
 that he was a West Pointer, having
 attended the United States military
 academy in 1909 and 1910. and now be- ing on eight months leave of absence.
 Even when gasping and choking af- ter his s.fake'' suicidal attempt Mahler had the presence of mind to stick to
 this same story when questioned. As
 a matter of fact he is dope fiend' (which Jibee little with his story of tbeing a West Point cadet.
 When arrested yesterday he was