Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1912-10-30

1890 eNNNS
alone. before his connection with the
letters could be established he could
make his escape with the money the
letters brought in"
81 still don't see" I protested, chow
these letters could bring in money.
They read exactly the opposite. They
promise to give away money"
That's the cleverest thing about
it," the inspector said, and Young's
m%alevolent eyes glistened at this
tribute. Cant you see how it work
ed? Young and Rouser, from tax
lists, bank directories, from telephone
books-from a variety of sources
compiled a list of persons employed
in positions of trust and began send
ing out these yellow letters broad
cast. If n of these should reach
an honest bank employee or cashier,
the con~spirators figured that he would
laugh at it and tear it up. But sup
pose one of them fell into the hands
of a man who was guilty of pecu-
lations of some sort. Suppose, for in
stance, old Andrew Elser, when his
law business had failed him. had be-
gun to speculate with the funds be-
longing to the boy for whom he was
guardian. His speculations are I'M
fortunate. He plunges and loses still
more. He becomes desperate. He
sees no way of replacing the money
he has stolen. 1t seems certain that
his crime will be discovered and that
he will be disgraced. He can not
sleep nights. His brain, constantly
agitated by fear and worry, will not
permit him to rest. His judgment,
never acute, or he would not have be-
come a thief, becomes more and more
unbalanced. Then one day this vel
low letter comes. 1t reads convinc-
ingly. 1t promises immediate aid. 1t
pledges secrecy. At last he sees IN
honorable way out. He hastens to
send a reply to Lock Box No. II,
Ardway, N. j., as directed. Can't you
imagine what happens then? Young
communicates with him at once. You
used the telephone, didn't your"
The prisoner nodded.
Sure" he said, "the telephone ev-
cry time. 1t leaves no records behind
it and the Bertillon system can't
identify a voice"
what does Young say over the tele-
phone to Elser? Something like this
You're an old thief. I've got the
proof. You are stealing somebody's
money. Steal some more and give
it to me or I'll tell Unfortunately,
in old Elser's case there was no more
money left to steal, SO he killed him.
self. Am I right, Young?"
Again the prisoner nodded, and
again he demanded another dose of
morphine. His muscles were again
getting beyond his control. AS Davis
fixed the hypodermic, l asked: "But
where does the old maid from Con-
necticut come in? Surely she wasn't
a d%efaulter."
q suspect it was the brother with
whom she made. her home said the
inspector.
Damn her." said Young bitterly, 1T
was she who queered the whole game
We tackled her brother for five hun
dred and it came so easily we de-
cided to make another try. The weak
kneed old thief, in his terror Of us.
told his sister ali about it. She in
sisted on coming down here. She
saw Rouser and tried to find the sign
er of the letter. Rouser denied know.
ing him. She was a wise old creature
and pointed out that as postma ster b
must know who got the mail. Her
suspicion Of Rouser scared him stiff.
He wanted to give her the money
back, but at first | wouldn't hear to
it. She was threatening to commit
suicide if we didn't. He was so
scared that l finally consented to let
him square her. I wanted to use him
still further and wasn't ready to have
him get cold feet. | gave him the
money, and he went to the hotel late
in the afternoon to see the old girl.
He slipped up to her room and found
her hanging there. 1t gave him such
a shock that he dashed back to the
post office, grabbed his bicycle and
hustled out here as fast as he could
come, where I was waiting to meet
Katharine Parrish
With difficulty I suppressed an ex-
clamation of establishment. I could
not doubt that he was telling the
truth, for his story dovetailed so well
with what Louise had told me. Yet
it seemed impossible to believe, it
surely was preposterous to imagine
that General Parrish, wealthy and
honorable as he was, could have
been a thief. l refused to believe 1t.
L decided to demand an explanation
from Young of why he had sought a
meeting with Katharine.
Its too bad Rouser was SO easily
frightened" Davis was saying sar
%castically. Gle was so scared that he
left behind in the cash drawer five
thousand he had just received from
Henry Eberle."
"The accursed fool!" screamed
Young in a frenzy of rage that he had
failed to get his hands on this bit Of
plumber. "The sneak didn't tell me
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