Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-08-12
the END OF PERKINS, GAME.

1
eral attention has confessed to the
theft and $4,000 Of the stolen money
has been recovered. 1t turns out to be
| another case Of a trusted employee gone
Perrin from the first. It Is likely that
seven men out Of ten who read the ac-
count without from personal interest
of any kind in Perrin himself, came to
the conclusion that Perrin knew all
about the robbery.
1t is the same old. simple sordid
story over again. Perrin got in bad.
He made debts. 1t is stated that his
Investments In lands and mining stock
and the like totaled $4,000. The In
terest itself practically ate up his
salary Of $500 year But It 1s to
be considered that he lived in an at
mosphere Of investment and specu-
lation estimated men mainly by
financial rating, desired riches great
~ as the ultimate of success-and was
weak Perrin must have been weak
man. Otherwise he would have not
found himself so deeply involved and
having so found himself would not
evolved a criminal plan to recoup him
self so plain that the average news
paper reader read it as he ran.
Perrin, it is stated had begun with
the bank as a messenger, had been in
its employ since boyhood. He had at
tanned very responsible position in
the bank. 1t appears to have been
his duty to handle sums daily that
would annually reach a vast total.
PERKINS, salary of 1925 a month seems
of the drilled window as most in
adequate to his responsibilities and
his position. 1t is less than the month
" wage of a good carpenter working
twenty six days in the month.
But 1t is also to be considered that
PERKINS, position included no executive
ship. that he handled large sums as a
station agent or a cashier in a bust
ness house handles money. automati-
cally and as a commodity as the
traffic man handles grain for an
elevator. He might have been thief
on a larger salary. Men get in bad"
whenever they make Investments"
far beyond their incomes whatever
those incomes may be and incline to
take desperate chances. Such In
stances have been known of bank
presidents perhaps as often as of
bank tellers. Another thing sug-
Another thing suggests itself and that
gests itself and that is the
heads Of big banking in
situation should have interested them
selves enough to know somewhat of
the investments of the paying teller
and the boy who had served them so
long. How did they imagine that he
bought lands and stocks ON a $500
salary.
However that is not an excuse for
Perrin. Perrin knew the difference be-
tween the banks money and his own.
He worked up to his crime thru de-
liberate course. Nobody should have
hitting himself to covet and plan the
theft OF the banks money and none
should have tcit more sense of trust
and responsibility than he. He knew.
An interview with the agent of the
burglary insurance company indicates
that Perrin may not be prosecuted If
he pays up. Perhaps this American
financial custom had been taken into
oonsidera ton by Perrin when he finally
decided upon the crime. Paying up"
covers more crimes than charity It
settles more forgeries than the courts,
felonies and suspends and
nullifies the criminal code. Getting
the money back" by ignoring the
statutes is a common American Gus
tom. In effect it is a mulct tax on
criminal failure paid to the victim of
the crime. The burglar insurance de-
LtcLNt illeli LlollS IL DIS nc WOulu speeih
of buying apples in the market; and
yet the compromising Of felony is a
section in the criminal code Of every
state in the union
Perrin was a weak man in a strong
mans place. He was foolish He took
the fever Of speculation by contagion
perhaps but it was his own disease and
he must suffer the consequences. The
man was gambling and apparently
with as much chance as he would have
in faro dive against a brace box.
He didn't even know the game. He
was trying desperately to run shoe
string into roll. II he had been
playing the races, shooting craps or
sitting in at stud regularly the prob
abilities are that he would have been
reported to his directors long ago and
dropped But he played a silk stock
ing game which comes to the same
thing when it brings the trusted man
to the place where he contemplates
breach of his trust and to the parting
between himself and his integrity. It
is somewhat hard to see the difference
at the end Of the play.
T-:>> >E H. Ti~ae