The Sun. — 1841-12-28 (London, England)

PHILADELPHIA, DEC. 2._  Yesterday the city was thrown into no little confusion on ascertaining that several forgeries had been committed on our banks by a youth, a clerk with the firm of Messrs. Massey and Co., whose place of business is 27, South Wharves. This clerk, whose name is Maurice Pitcher, left the city on Tuesday in a mysterious manner, when, for the first time, a suspicion was excited in reference to the manner in which he had kept his accounts. The bank books of the firm were inspected, and a visit made to each of the banks in which they kept accounts, when it was ascertained that forgeries to the amount of several thousand dollars had been perpetrated. On the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank the forgeries amounted ,to $5,000 ; on the Bank of North America they amounted to $4,000 ; on the Bafik of Pennsylvania to $2,500 ; on the Philadelphia Bank to $1,500 ; and on the Mechanics' Bank to $5OO. The forgeries on the Bank of North America were committed in the name of Mr. Emanuel Eyre alone ; the others were in the name of the firm. On an inspection of the checks, it appears that the sig. natures have been carefully traced, by holding genuine checks between them and a strong light, as they are executed in a style calculated to deceive almost 'any unsuspecting person. Pitcher, it is believed, has gone to New York with the proceeds of this transaction, but from the efforts now being made for his capture, he will no doubt, be taken in a few days. He is the same individual who, with a brother, figured in the extensive speculations of the distinguished master Brooks, who, you may remember something over a year since, then not ten days out of the Penitentiary, proposed to enter into the transportation business, married " the pretty bar-maid" of Franklin-place, and by his address imposed upon car builders, holders of depot property, merchants, and, -by plausible and seductive promises, inveigled the two young Pitchers, both under t wenty years of age, with others, to leave their situations, with the view of serving with him in his new business. These young lads were with him for three or four weeks, until he was discovered to be a swindler, and were with him indicted for a conspiracy to defraud; but it being the general opinion that the lads were " more sinned against than sinning," they were both acquitted. It is now feared that the virus of the villain Brooks took deeper root than the public hoped for, and that at least one of them is thoroughly innoculated with crime, if indeed there was no disposition to take it in the natural way. The present supposed criminal is about nineteen years of age, five feet six or seven inches high, with reddish hair and a florid complexion. Reinhart, the convict for murder in the Reading gaol, yesterday morning, having previously by some means freed himself of his irons, rushed past the female who had taken him his breakfast, and made his escape. He was shortly after captured, not, however, until he had received a gun shot wound in the arm.  The biisiness in Stocks to-day was again light at prices much as yesterday. Sales ere almost wholly confined to State Fives at 60. They closed at 59:1 bid. Exchange on New York has again advanced to 54,