Putnam patriot., 1916-03-03
For a long tlme [ r..shadowedn lhe U.

tl4.na teTtal0 CaE | was confronted -sfb .ae appalling Information that he
 els tAs meekest church deacon in sssa. it was feush blow, totally un- Suycted.
 Wss staEgcred.
 There was a Gink in the social fabric sollaUIalc. Close upon the heels of .his dislliusion came the laundering revelation whi. h bowJed me over com ..seix. he kindly o.d man with the gay siGe whisEers who gave me pen &es and ratted me on the back had slade fortune selling spurious mining 5aeS to ot4lhans and widows and shop clerks.
 It look me some time 10 readjust my Ht s anea Hse. But the final crash nair h embitcred my soul and made a ajsanthv1pe of me tiu l had puppy 8et ts5s tte shattCriug of the idol to whom had siyen my boys hero wor- a.R
 Handsome. young. debonair. poor, aaltta. famous for his aGabAjty. be aad married a woman for her money. nI bad given nothing in return; de ped her children, mo ked her with his aaairS. and Was even knoWn to strike isc
 Servants chatter turned this loose. # wasn't d beautiful thing for boy Q Ieara. l0st faith ia humanity, and haven't regained much even to this lay
 Ny father did not find it necessary . moaaliae over my questionable re ard for the tales of Mir Beadle.
 I myself took them out 10 the rear f the house and made a bonfire of ncm
 shortly after l stumbled upon one D'Artagnan and milady and his emi- nence; David Copperfeld and Mir. .Ieep; the false Stuart and Beatrice; Eautrln and the distinguished provin- cial. Valiean and Javert.
 was sixteen at that time, and gleaned from that wonderful treasure house-my fathers library-that heroes aul heroines of all shapes and color were prineipled men and women-just that living and dying in honor, roush. ly or meekly. that all others were true villains.
 So. then. I come to Smead
 Put ont into the streets at the age of five. he had grown up like a weed, strong, hardy. unpFineipled.
 To begin with. he had never had any principles, and never acquired any. Later. in his manhood, he wrote down one law for himself. Don't get found out"
 Early in his career he had fallen in with boxers and prize fighters, and he soon became known as great little "tryout'' man. He followed thls game for several years, never smoked, never drank. read a good deal, studied and practiced all known games of chance and corrected his speaking English, learning in some odd way that the well spoken man went farthest.
 At twenty. blond as a viking. of beautiful body. affable, winning. he made his first smo6eroom trip The intellectual veneer hoodwinked all the women aboard and nearly all the men.
 It was q profitable trip, as smoke rooms go. He became the most expert ship gambler in the business because he worked alone. which seems rather an impossible feat to the layman. He took infinite delight in playing the gull to his kind and plucking them.
 He was twenty-four when he put up his first gambling establishment.
 It made money from the start. And with rare foresight he never visited the place at Rigat during the play. He would generally drop into the cashiers office early ill the afternoon, balance the accounts and leave.
 Thus he was unknown to all save his employees and the police, who black mailed him regularly once q month. His Atlantic trips now became few and far between.
 He began to smoke and drink cir eumspectly, for none knew better than he what good business asset a clean, healthy skin was. He became mem Der of two or three fairly decent clubs
 He was getting on. The street urch- in and the "tryout' man were for gotten
 He married.
 She was the daughter of rich man whose forbears had been rich when New York was known by another name. The father strenuously object ed to the match With the blind ob stinacy of her sex she ran away with Smead and was promptly disinherited Perhaps the poor woman knew two or three months of happiness.
 Smead had married her with an eye to the future millions, and upon see ing them take wings the veneer crack. ed. He enlarged his gambling enter prises took up ship gambling again, drifted into the fast set of the city, let lis long smothered desires run riot All the evil ill him developed with the sinister rapidity of nightshade.
 His irons and fires became multifari- ous. He tried his hand at smuggling, not for the pecuniary gains so much as for the sporting chance it offered. He became as closely watched as any man in the world, but time after time he slipped through the customs.
 Often he was not smuggling at all; just pure deviltry to keep the inspec- tors and the secret service on the jump. They believed he stood alone, never suspecting that he was the brain and heart of colossal organization.
 The poor, foolish woman who mar ried him died of a broken heart. for women die of that as surely as they breathe.
 Here you have him, picturesque villain under his thatch of gray, of type common enough ill cities.
 pottrr r.nSl.nIifr, (ln fla Inc1 fracLa A