The Washington herald., 1919-05-11

walls Of the Ohio State PenIfentiayr
the correspondent last saw him, a
convict skull cap partly covering his
prematureiy gray hair. cheap prison
steel-rlmmed giassef shading his keen
nashing brown eyes. and a gaud,'
prison gray Jacket falling clumsiiy
from his massive square shoulders.
One OF the smoothest forgers and
cleverest CON men In the world. /"
That was his reputation among the
conyicts and penitentiary guards.
He's college graduate" Bob
Miles. penitentiary Bertillon expert,
told me when was making one Of
my daily rounds as penitentiary re-
porter for Columbus. Ohio. news
paper. Hes swung big deals that
have often run UP into I'VE figures.
and he can out-Wallingford J. Rufus
himself"
Gradually 1. learned to know him
CEsrl Wright we'll call him. because
that isn't his real name), but IL was
a long time before could break
through that barrier Of reserve he
built around himself. He wouidn't
talk shop.
Outerooked Two Crooks.
One day. though. he let slip the
name OF a pal His face lighted up.
/ He's a real partner and pal" he
said we've swung many a deal. he
and l." Then he waxed reminiscent
and smiled. II have to laugh the
way We turned the tables on a couple
OF crook Chicago lawyers who tried
TO trim us two poor bo6bs' out OF
our Western gold mine.'" Then he
closed up.
Tell US about It,"
Nope. nothing doing. ] might want
to use that stunt again with Harry.
That's my pals name. It's never
been worked before nor since, and
you can bet we had it fixed so that
the Chicago lawyers won't say any
more about it Boy, howdy. We got
to those babies for s2s.ooo. I don't
mind telling you. but further than
that won't 60" Again he laughed
| aloud.
This IL FunnIer.
! But that's not as funny as the
one Harry and / had all framed for
kidding an Ohio county out of the
Iand on which the courthouse was
built. / can't tell you about tina,
either. but 1t fell through though. moi
because Of any fault of ours.
However. j will tell you how Harry
and plucked a wealthy old village
wise guy for 10000 and got away
with it,
He was the village Rockefeller, who
passed around the collection box or
! Sunday and spent the rest of the week
foreclosing mortgages on widows ano
orphans and generally trimming the
poor under-dogs OF the community.
Showed Up .'TIghtwad.r
One OF the most vaunted boasts OF
this gray-whiskered old porch climber
was. None of them city slickers moi
confidence men could ever put any
thing over on me-"
Our mouths watered when we hearC
| OF this bewhiskered village Croesus
and Harry grinned. Boy. prepare thu
cleaners for this bird"
Il wrapped adhesive tape tightly
| around the finger joints and elbow oi
my right hand and arm, and with a
leather glove over the hand you'd hav,
sworn il was an artificial arm. 4 few
| specks Of gray rabbit fur sprinlxied In
my eyebrows and a change Of glasses
was all the disguise I had.
As soon as We blew into tkii
small Ohio town I breezed around e
the Office OF the 'Czar' with an sttrac
tive real estate proposition in a near
by town and a spiel about paying al
his expenses if he would meet me the
next day in that town to look ovel
the proposition.
His Eyes Cleaned.
when I said free expenses the old
boys eyes CLEANED with visions of q
good hotel and fine feeds for moth.
ing. and he snapped at it. While
handing him this line of CAB 1 tooE
careful notice to see where he kept
his check book.
That night we saw him from oul
hotel window hopping down to the
railroad station for his appointment
with me. Next day about noon, wher
his stenographer was out at lunch
we iimmied our way into his Office
and 1 got to his checkbook.
Harry stayed in the office while