The Washington herald., 1914-10-19
] ,Plunger Now Panhandler
4%S44 %.@s. &s%%.
TRAGIC END TO NOTED WIZARD
''Nabbed' at White House.

4
days before the fght for the control Of
the Northern Pacific Railroad was inau-
] gurated. Beivin was At the height Of
I his success on the Street when the titanic
struggle for the domination OF that i'm
portant rSiIroad property was In its In
cipiency. When Il ended he was on the
top Of the toboggan that was to lead him
to poverty and disgrace and to shatter
his reason.
Former railway PrenIdent.
Beivin, in addition to other positions
I he held, was at one time president of the
San Francisco and Eastern Railroad
Company. He was always proud Of that
distinction. When he reappeared In WASH
ington after long absence and called
at the White House and demanded to
see either President Wilson or Secretary
OF State Bryan, he announced that
he was the former president Of the
California railroad ana refused to leave
the White House grounds when requested
TO do SO by Secret Service men.
Since Belvin lost sl25. 900 In the Great
Northern deal he has had a checkered
career. Business reverses followed each
other rapidly and consistently. Wall
Street frowned upon all OF his enter
prises. For some time he continued to
live at the Waldorf. but finally was
his bills. From luxurious apartments in
the Waldorf to panhandling along Broad
way is a big drop. but that Is where Bel
vim landed. He is still panhandling his way
through the country, mere wreck Of
his former self. In the human derelict
OF today none of his former friends
would recognize the debonnair. cultured
son OF Virginia, who, a score Of years
since, was the associate OF the kings of
finance who ruled the fortunes Of Wall
Street.
In May, 1901, Belvin was arrested at the
Iroquois Hotel, Buffalo, for trying to
send a telegram to George B. Cortelyou
warning him that President McKinley's
train would be dynamited at Paso del
Norte. Tex.
SeISed by wanderIuGt.
Subsequently he was committed to
Bellevue for examination. into his sanity
after he had threatened the life of Ed
ward McCassidy, a lawyer. Then the
wanderlust seized him again and he went
to Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago, in
each Of those cities threatening leading
brokers with arrest and suits for moneys
he said they owed him. James A. Patten.
the wheat king of Chicago, was one of
the men Belvin tried to sue.
On his return to New York he re-
GNLlSA ms BAaGAACN VI EOAAGAAAhS nlOhCN
from persons along Broadway. His IA
vorite stand was at Thirty-fourth street.
He was arrested there for soliciting funds
for food and went to the workhouse on
charge of vagrancy and begging. In
1911 he voluntarily appeared before Mag
istrate O'Connor and asked to be sent TO
the workhouse for a month. Il want to
spend the winter" he told Magistrate
O'Connor. where can at least smell the
smoke and see the bright lights Of New
York"
Belvin's eccentricities began to be man.
ifest after he had lost half of his for
tune in the Northern Pacific stock ma
nipulation. When he failed to establish |
a banking house in London and his wife |
divorced him. naming the wife of a for |
mer United States Senator from Ohio as |
Beivin seemed to lose his 4
grip. He was wont to borrow money |
from his feIlow-members Of the Lotos |
Club with which to pay his dues and
club bills His erraticisms brought him |
30 much notoriety in Wall Street, when |
he was sliding to ruin, that few of the |
brokers cared to be seen talking to him. |
He does not appear to be much Of a |
success as a Broadway panhandler. Rag
ged and unkempt he is Just what he is,
q human derelict drifting along with the |
living tide that surges through the most /
famous highway Of the world.