Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-01-22
LOVE FOR GIRL WIFE
SPURS HUSBAND Tt
TRY BANK ROBBERY
Youth Is Fooled in Crude Ef-
fort to Break Into Vault
Of the HapeviIIe Bank
Near Atlanta
by WARD GREENE

Norman Day tried to rob the Bank
of Hapeville Wednesday night be-
cause he was down to his last dollar
and the boyhood sweetheart he had
married last July was expecting a
baby and he had promised her it
1 would be born in their own home in-
stead of the orphanage which was
the only home the two of them ever
knew.
This was the story the young hus-
band told Friday morning in his cell
at the Fulton county Tower to news
paper men and to T. S. Scoggins,
superintendent of the Baptist Or
phans' home at Hapeville, where Day
was reared from childhood and where
his young wife lies today, FRUSTRATED
by the news of his arrest.
Unembroidered by any phrases OF
the sob artist" it is one of the most
pathetic stories Fulton county has
ever known.
mick" Day, as everyone in Hape-
} VILE knows him. is an orphan. He
was born in Walker county, Georgia,
JUST lWcHIy~OhS OoA . @5Cp SsAN0 $50
mother and father died when he was
only a little shaver. With a young
er sister and brother, he was taken
care of at the Hapeville home.
There the red-headed, freckle-faced
youngster grew up to be one of the
best boys at the home. When he was
sixteen he was doing a mans work
in the fields and learning telegraphy
in the class room and helping Mr..
Scoggins and Mother" Scoggins with
the younger children.
One of these was Della Willis, an,
other orphan, who early became
Nick's sweetheart He loved her and
she loved him-that was all there
was to it. And under the kindly eyes
of Mr. and Mrs. Scoggins there was
courtship as gentle and sweet as
it was open and frank. M
Bought Drug store
Then the war came, Nick enlisted.
Of course. He was not then twenty
Lone. but his course in telegraphy az
I the home Stod him in good STEAD
n He was in the radio corps Tor 2
\ while. and then, because 1t attracted
!. him, was transferred 70 aviatlon =. !. x z.s
. was a mechanic and IN Novempers
ntf9I8. waited at an ernbarkation camp
i naar New York for the great adven1
.ture overseas, when the signing or
the armistice put an end to all Lnat.
While he was in the army NICK
came home on furlough, brave In his
uniform, and asked Mr.. Scogglns ior
| Della. And Mr.. Scoggins gave MS
permission for them to marry aIter
the war, when Nick should nave
\ made good in the world.
J Nick came home to make good.
And for a while he did. Della, who
had learned stenography at tne
home. had a position in Atlanta.
d They both boarded at the home.
fl where they were right. hands to tne
;, superintendent and his wlIe.
81 noticed he used to stay around
: the home Saturday afternoons " 1a9H
S I was likely to be called away, salu
oil Mr.. Scroggins. 1T was the only day
r off for him and Della. and told nm
he oughtn't to do that-he Should
take her out out for aMatb riee scro a
might need him. Nick was tnaS
q kind of : boy"
: Mic through the aid of Mr..
u Scoggins, bought little drug-stors
i business on the west side in Attain
5; ta Mr.. Scoggins put up the money
: for it and Nick paid him back on
v he never failed to make a payment:
), finally he sold out at a profit ana
+ reimbursed Mr.. Scoggins to the last
penny He had something OF Ms
Il own and a good job as switchman In
r the N. C. & st, l.. yards
e Married Last July
Nick and Della were married last
4 July. The wedding was in the par
Tor of the Hapeville home and all OF
;: Nick's friends in Hapevile-thers
d were many of them-came to see
al and to congratulate them. There
6 was never happier day. s
4 But it took almost all of NlcKs
i money. Two, he found, cannot live
y as cheap as one, whatever people
Y say to the contrary. They sun
\ boarded at the home, and Della gave
. UP her job in town.
d But Nick wasn't discouraged. He
n began to plan ways to make extra
money. For expenses, had to be met.
they wanted to get ahead" and
: above all, they wanted a home OF
t their own And then-there was the
5 baby. Nick knew there would be
DOCTORS bills, nurses bills, certain
food that had to be bought. And ne
e promised Della their baby should
have home, a real nome from the
) first. rY;
So he borrowed some money. His
credit was good; he had gotten loans
= and paid them before at the very
r bank he tried. to rob-. AND. ne
bought him an automobile truck
Working nights in the yards and do
, ing dray work in the daytime, ne
began to get ahead.
/, If it hadn't been for the slump In
business last fall, this story might
/. never have been written. But the
railroad began to cut down Nlcks
eight hours night sometimes were
only four hours, and sometimes none
at all. People, 1t seemed, 'did NOT
n
; fore, either. Expenses were get
ting heavier; income was dwindl-
ing; he was having q -Sard time meeS.
ing the notes on his truck.
! Nick didn't tell his troubles much.
!, He kept them to himself, trying to
find a way out. Mr.. Scroggins knew
he was worried, but not until FRI
day did he know how hard pressed
the boy was.
T"I couldn't tell you,' Nick said to
him. you've helped me so much
already. 1 couldn't ask you for
NV Decides on Robbery
January 1, Nick and his wife had
coming, you see, and everyons
thought it best not 20 stay there.
The cheapest place they couid get
in Atlanta, said Nick, was $65
month. That didn't help any. Work
in the yards and with the dray was
getting scarcer and scarcer, the rent
was heavy, the notes on the truck
fell due with terrible regularity, it
cost more to live in town, and Del
las time was drawing closer week
by week.
So Nick faced the future. It is
probable that no one else knows just
how dark it was to him, how har-
rassed he was, how driven to it for
some way out. And then--so he told
; the story-an idea came to him
Tuesday night while he lay in bed,
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