The Oregon daily journal., July 26, 1908, Page 29, Image 29

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Unique Sequel to Pitts
burg s Record-Breaking
Chain of Robberies
jyj than in Pittsburg, so far as known,
" has the decree gone out that bank
employes must submit to the photographs and
measurements of the Bertillon system. Yet
this comes as the sequel to the most amazing
series of bank lootings that mankind has ever
known, perhaps.
Within the last three years it is estimated
that something like $7,500,000 has been
stolen by dishonest bank employes in that city.
Whis is at once an unenviable and an unique
reputation. In fact, it has seemed, of late, a
dull year in Pittsburg ivhen a few millions do
not find themselves equipped with wings that
make the Wright brothers look like crawlers,
and Delagrange and Farman resemble Icarus
after the wax melted. 1
'Ali Baba and his forty thieves were mere
tyros in comparison with some of Pittsburg's
recent financiers, ana the post-graduates of
Pittsburg's schools of embezzlement could
earn fortunes giving corrcspondettte courses in
grand larceny to past masters with the skill of
Raffles.
The banks have concluded that the best
course before them while not wishing to cast
suspicion upon any one is to photograph
every one of their employes and take their
measurements I y the Bertillon system, so that,
v;hen a next defalcation may occur, the police
autltorities all over the world will have the
latest embezzler marked down as minutely as
though he were the most elusive Max Shin
burn who ever alternated between safe-cracking
and jail service.
The rert Hod Carrier Toiled uj the Ladder with
hli
lxa ct nil. us
"Mike oli. U.ke:" called the Foreman, from th Ground
Below
"Phwat !. !'. Pit'- pantJ th- Wearv Old Man. halt
ing In his r-osklri Areri iu ihe fourth P'torr.
"D'yei ni lTi'1 ih ' chanrt ye tuk In SaterdhyB rafTler"
"I Jo. F r" f- .t n.l' .I th1 Ased Hod Carrier, as hli
lft Drlpr-l n ,r" L'l.-tar.t l-.artn
Ye'-.o i ft yer money !"
"Oh. wfll -aisv . . i
And the Ac d H
Ms Ixad of l:rlcK-" -
Ufe "
nt on nx th Ladder with
.;or Tkcs of the Hnrtlni
"E
AFT come, en."y jrn
might be the motto of
Pittsburg. t!..r c :t
'.tv of the Vulcans which,
the ase of Iron for the rest
having i':a''e t;.
of the wo;. !, .;, t:a:
m "me J It into trie age
Ct gold for itself.
The v. calth f t! pre a
largely Into '.h la- k- cf P
from coal and :.. from trr-
Iron !r teresta Is flung
't!rg; tribute is taken
ic
eaFt and west, from
s ,13 rich dfposltors,
. v!.n constitute one
tV.e b'r.ited states,
ire" already re-
c.iplt.ils of Europe.
American riches, the
: .ater lnrarnatlon of
t jrr.lr g up 1- Perir.
r r, wr ild be asked
r T-lie'ed the steel
the state aid the .;y t!. '!,..
and from t e j ; it ... ;
Ct the Ka-l.r.g n...'.:. .pa. :::? !
The tf-;a 'l:'!i.r I..:..:.
pierced, even in f e t:i"Ft ;
the earlier pyrudenn f r .a-.:
"New Tork million. i.i "
ftttdaa, the ,Ct.lcaBo n-.m
flock a prtr.ee for
to wait until 1.1s hlghn
rtockl and the rallwar
t
1
h r.iii o: the Croet js from
nttmburg.
And the inevitable dl.orce -aojII com booming
alone with a good deal n.or.. (u.i. ti.et.t and expedi
tion than used to be k garde! t. : i . g,.rd form.
"Eajy eoine. sy go." tr.e et ti.e world Y hi
COme tO e stamped on s'l of Pit!bure r gold pleren.
and, from the pleasa! t corr.p'.acer r y v i;h which the
fUrht Of the millions appears to r e newe l thr. P.tts
borff iueff hain't worried so try rr.uch over Its
jiuwpea.
It propoaai to utilize the F-e rtil'iOTi sjftem on all
latk U4 trust company employes la a atartling form
pracaaUaa. aad doubt. Ii ur.ceceaaary. so far
aa be Juiced, for sppl. cation to the prnt fnrre
rf taxk mplore la that city. But It la the sign that
f thire is aakenier to the bw-ht of adequate
sfe-aerda at It la also, the first safefuarj ef any
pVtj ttataa aaa proposed.
THE OREGON
ERTILLON
MPLOyEJ1
f' s,; ltL sl '
Something like that was needed as much ior th
bank cashiers as for the clerks. If the records of the
past few years In Flttsburgf's finance are to count for
anything.
The 2500 bank clerks In Tittsburg have held vari
ous Indignation meetings, larpe und small. But the
banks are ettll Insistently pursuing their arrange
ments, and one large institution has made It a rule
that every employe shall make monthly affidavit as
to all his actions and as to his positive knowledge that
no other employe has, during: the month, committed
any act that may be in the least suspicious.
If there was one bank odlcer who would have sur
rendered his complete control of millions rather than
submit to being "mugged" by the police, it was Will
iam Montgomery, cashier of the Allegheny National,
under arrest In connection with the disappearance of
$839,000 of deposits and the entire JiOO.OOO worth of
capital stock.
He was the Intimate friend and confidant of Senator
Quay, the man who placed Quay's bets during the
Harrison campaign, when Quay won $1:50,000, and the
trusted handler of the moneys of the political machine
In that section of the state.
REPULSED PHOTOGRAPHERS
When the Allegheny National went down or up
the state was backing It with $532,000 of deposits, and
the city of Pittsburg with $1,632,000. Trlvate de
positors were so wary that they let It l.avo little.
Time and again, with no more detective Intent in
mind than the ambition to photograph a famous per
sonage who was the right bower of the famous Quay,
kodakers, newspaper photographers and other artists
of the plate and film endeavored to secure a picture of
Montgomery. The attempt Invariably met with the
wrath of a czar menaced with a dynamite bomb; any
thing approaching success meant assault and battery.
When the crash came, after a series of speculations
In Btocks, the police reported the discovery of no
photograph of Montgomery, even during their Investi
gations of the suddenly acquired fortune of a Pitts
burg widow whose wealth leaped. In eight years, froiri
$10,000 to $333,000, and of other women In Pittsburg
and neighboring cities, whose real estate Investments
had Increased with remarkable facility.
Therl(fe Longest Game of Cards
I IIP'iiii HH'I " 1 1 '' 1 w ' 1 1 il I 1 1 IJ ' Mi. II wo I M'UHJ I jjii I
iiiaf ) !r (mm I w S
H
OW would yculike to play a rarrK- of curd
for fifttin years f And cribbee, at that?
A game which reqtiirts tich ronctn
trsticin of thought and orN.l jtidemcnt
that playr-r are Tquirtzd to ait in absolute filfcv-,
their brain cellj working like a dynamo, their jnay
matter ic a ferment.
R1FBAGE." dec'.aref Horle. "1 Bet cnlr e-e
rf the fljnt of the fran.ea upon the ear-.
ot en.'oya the distinction of blnf quite un
like sr.5 other e-m. both In tbe rr.snrer t
plajKs; It ard in the ayriem c.f reckor.irs the r' .r.'a
"It ! ui peculiar from the fart that it ia r
cn of the few nun wslch require no eert rf ?
rr e m -ry . Jjirnent a-nd Cneaae telr-B tie s-a.U.'i
cblefiy requlalte for sacocsa"
SUNDAY JOURNAL. PORTLAND. SUNDAY
vSYvSTEM
5! i
The authorities, having Montgomery, have had no
very urgent need for hl photograph; and, holding on
to him for the United States government took charge
of the prosecution under the national banking regula
tions they stated, recently, that they stand a fair
chance of securing complete restitution.
htate and clty'a moneys, flying here, there and
everywhere during the years when the cashier Juggled
them, Invested him with the right to demand that hl
political allies come to his nld.
Under Pittsburg's uniquely facile flipping of lta
coins, the powerful politician, even when under arrest
for embezzlement, can compel the flow of gold back
to his emptied hank vaults as secretly and as smoothly
as he could start It pouring forth.
V hlle the fate of the Allegheny National's money
still hung In the balance, pending the decision of
Montgomery's allies as to restitution of the million
that had gone, a man returned to Pittsburg who, for
nearly three years, had left the police bitterly regret
ful that the Bertillon system was not compulsory
thero before the Enterprise National, of Allegheny,
collapsed In October, 1905.
He was Thomas W. Harvey, teller of the Enter
prUe, who. In the vain hope of escaping the penalty
for his share ln-the crime, had given up his Identity
and his home, to wander amid agonies of dread until
his fearful spirit could no longer bear the strain.
SERVING SEVEN YEARS
He surrendered himself to the federal authorities
and, on the sarne day, was sentenced to seven years
in the penitentiary and that with no more notoriety
than If he were a purse snatcher. Pittsburg was learn
ing to wash Its dirty linen with neatness, silence and
dispatch.
Yet the Enterprise embezzlements were among the
most sensational ever known In the state of Pennsyl
vania. The losses amounted to $1,500,000. It was a
"political" bank, like the Allegheny National, and
hundreds of thousands of lta deposits had gone out to
politicians on notes which, unsecured at best, had dis
appeared when the cashier, T. Lee Clark, both poisoned
ami shot himself, to make sure of death.
Still, while the Allegheny National's malodorous
record hung heavy on the Pittsburg air, the dead hand
of Cashier Clark exercised Its influence from the
grave. As quietly as Pittsburg could, with the gaza
of the financial world fixed upon her new ambition to
retain some of her bank deposits for the people who
owned them, she Indicted, on May 13, Frank T.
Thompson and F. B. Hanger as two of a gang of card
sharps who. during the four years that have marked
the city's spollatien, took from her bankers and bank
clerks $1,000,000 of the easy money that drew harpies
thither as to a feast.
Crooked poker, "brace" faro, "fixed" roulette the
whole range of gambling tricks that should not have
deluded the veriest tyro in the "sporting life" had
been used on the avid Plttsburgers until the blacklegs
themselves were almost ashamed of taking their
money. Clark, before he killed himself, let them
swindle him out of $100,000.
The gamblers, with their share of $1,000,000 out of
the loot, were only the Inevitable attendants upon the
general orgy of speculation. The clerks had the shin
ing examples of their cashiers to emulate.
And they did emulate, with women as well as with
the ranis. The women sometimes only sometimes
tood by them when the penalty was to be paid. When
the Union Trust Company, of Pittsburg, discovered
Its loss of $3S;.i'00 in 190C, almost on the anniversary
of the Enterprise ruin, the thieves proved to be a
couple of mild young persons, Clinton B. Wray. the
t.-ller, and C. S. Hlxton. the Individual bookkeeper.
Such a (rame fs now being flayed by four men
in P. s Moirw?. Iowa. It is for a million point,
and it tx pan wren years ago. It will continue
r.'arly isrht years lornrer, as not quite half the
tiiinion points hare yet be-en reached. This game
if the onfret trer jlayc-d eince cards firft began
to cr.tertain mankind.
Th world a record game of efit'.aa 1 being played
I p M"-!-;. and tn riirtK rar,tji Arr Co.or.f l Jehn
' er M.l" Ward r-am.jel N.io.r 1 S'. V Heaton.
It hat a'realy lasted eten tara. ar.d the game la not
jj!te haif over
The rlaera d''lsre that tr aeier. -year fame he
rot yet loat In Interest. P.ather, rarh time th plaf
there la added at ar,d freah i -nTne-1 And the seat
will Ir.rre-ese durina the et en or eight year, as
tte catxe dnai to a close.
HORNING, JULY 26, 1903
jl V A '
It If f t ?V' "Yi v I
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The gambling crooks simply took it away from
those childlike thieves In chunks one of the chunks
having been $7000, raked In by the blacklegs on a
single hand where Wray held a royal flush. The rules
of poker say that hand can't be beaten, but a pair
of sixes beat it when It was held In the nerveless
grasp of so futile a gambler as Wray.
Their poor little $60 a month and the turbid flow of
the wealth of Pittsburg's millionaires had set their
clerkly wits to work In the striving for swift riches.
They evolved a new scheme, as unexpected by the
local bank experts as It was obvious to any one who
gave genuine attention to the Inadequate safeguards
with which Pittsburg "protected" Its deposits.
" ray. as teller, forged a deposit slip on the name
or some former depositor whose account had lapsed.
He passed it on to Hixton. who entered it in the In-
not tIred?" declared Colonel Loper. "I should gay
s, the most .interesting thin)? on earth."
o i i? 1,g 1 last seventy years," asserted Alilo Ward,
ri . e,i lo"s enough, I'd play It."
.r confounded sorry when it's over," Is the
eentiment of-Mr. Neldljf. and Mr. Heaton Isn't quite
Kame whether he would not like to start another
-even years ago Mr. Loper met Mr. Ward,
were enthusiastic erlbbuge players.
Both
have a gams," said Mr. Loper.
?h',a" rlf?ht; now can you playT'
As long as you want to." replied the other enthu
siast. Suppose we play for 600. 000 points."
'Make It a million," laughed Loper, Jestlngrly.
And well he might Jost, for the average (fame Is
sixty-one points.
"No; rtn serious," declared his friend. "Pay we do."
They looked at one another. They shook hands.
Thev met two other friends crlbbage enthusiasts.
"Want to Join?" Loper asked.
To his amazement, they gladly consented. So that
nlirht the game wis started. It was continued once a
week thereafter. Up to April SO, this vear, the scores
ran !0.234 to 465. IS4. The players estimate that they
will have reached a million points some time In 1915.
Mr Loper is sheriff of Polk county. Iowa, and Milo
Ward la secretary of the Commercial Exchange of Des
Moines.
Each week the four men meet. They have played
about 3S5 consecutive weeks. Each night they play
from 7 30 to 11 o'clock, averaging each night 2150
points. The game Is dlrlded Into a series of 100. 000
points each. More than 230 packs of cards and several
crlbbage boards have been worn out.
SPECTATORS BARRED
While they play no one Is allowed In the room.
Silently thev handle the cards and peg the scores
on the crlbbage board. With long deliberation at times
they take up and examine the six cards dealt them.
Plowly they lay down two cards for the crib During
the entire game they cudgel their minds to play so as
to preserve the counting combinations; they do not
talk. Beads of perspiration start on thetr foreheads.
Sometimes it Is mental agony. But lo' when one pair
gets ahead and wins there Is great enthusiaem.
chuckling and fun.
For a half hour each evening the party reati for
refreshments Then they go at it again, working
toward the million points.
When thev rejich their last game the men declare
thev will call In their friends And when It Is over a
prlie will b awarded. A prize' Ah. when you ask.
therti. one and all shake their heads It's a ecret-a
deep secret. To learn what It will be. It Is said aome
of the cltlsena of Iea Molnea lay awake nights
frlbhaare hv card plarers, la said to be one cf the
most ererosalng of games - Tt ! played with a full
rack of flftv-two cards, which rark In the r1'r that
klrg come first and ace Is the lowest Th plyers
are provided with two peg with which they mark
scores as ther advance on the crlbbage bard. The
game la usual! pla-red br two trsone. When played
b four, however, two ere partner! againat the other
two.
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W7 J-0O.OOO
dividual account book. Wray then forged a check for
a sum near the amount of the fraudulent deposit,
cashed It and loft it to Hlxton to destroy the check.
"Would not an examination of the counter book."
Judge YouneT asked Oleffler, treasurer of the company,
at the trial of the young thieves, "have 'rovealed the
discrepancy?"
"We didn't think It necessary to examine that."
the treasurer responded.
"I think you will In the future," remarked the
Judge and the two prisoners grinned.
So they are serving their sentences, while Grace
Laughrey, the handsome girl who shared Wray's
stolen riches and stuck to him as faithfully as a wife
when he fled to Toronto, watts the ten years that will
elapse before the pair are set free again.
While the gamblers were enjoying the Union Trust
Company's cash, the bucket-shops were getting during
the year between March, 1907. and March of this year
- $520,000 taken from the Farmers' Deposit National
Bank by Henry Tielber, the paying teller, and John
Toung, the auditor.
They proved themselves fools as simple over wild
cat curb adventures as the boys of the Union Trijlt
did over crooked cards. For ten years thoso two pre
sumably experienced financiers had been stealing
$1,105,000 from the Farmers' Deposit Bank, and no
one, among other officers or directors, had suspected
them.
They, too, have been sentenced to ten years each
by the same judge, whose ruling in the cases of men
who stole $385,000 and of others who stole $1,105,000
would seem to prove that, in Pittsburg, you might as
well steal a million while you are about It.
Pittsburg's example has given the state of Penn
sylvania a record that puts the dashing depredations
of bank robbers In the Southwest, with their masks
and their revolvers, to the blush of poignant shame.
In six months, with all their recklessness of hold-ups.
burglaries and safe-blowing, the bank bandits of Kan
sas, Missouri and Oklahoma, between November 30,
1907, and April 21, 1908, scouring three states and a
doisen banks, obtained only $58,000. A Pittsburg bank
clerk would not take them as apprentices.
CHICAGO OUTDONE
In Chicago, where money used to be supposed to
llo around waiting for financiers to lift It, there ha3
been only one large looting in recent years that of
the Chicago National charged to Its president, John P.,
Walsh, and of the Home Savings Bank and the Equi
table Trust Company, which he had tied up with it.
That was a $3,000,000 shortage, and Walsh got five
years for his convictions on fifty-four counts of the
longest Indictment the Chicago courts ever looked at.
Nevertheless. It wis a promoter's steal, made with
some chances of advantage to the banks along the
debatable ground of finance, instead of being plain
bank robbery, such as prevails in Pittsburg.
And the Walsh doings remained isolated, with ni)
train of imitators spreading through Illinois, as Pitts
burg's Inspiration has started widening waves of lar
ceny in Pennsylvania, with their highest losses, of a
million or two, nearest tho center of the embezzling
propaganda. The wrecking of the Farmers and Drovers'
National Bank, In Waynesburg, with its cashier, J. U.
F. Rlilnehart, charged with forgery, showed all the
earmarks of the Pittsburg plans of larceny, from tha
valueless notes of graf t-clatmlng politicians to thu
most barefaced Juggling of accounts.
It has been such easy money In Pittsburg, from tho
money of the marrying millionaires to the money of
the card-playing little clerks, that only the drastio
Hertlilon system of Identification, it seems, can suffice
to discourage future embezzlement.
But nobody is certain yet whether even that will
clip the wings that grow. In Pittsburg, on the Amer
ican double eagles.
Most of the work In disclosing the recent remark
able chain of Pittsburg bank robberies was done by
National Bank Examiner William L. Folds. And a
most Interesting eiiapter was added to tho story only
the other day. when it was announced that Mr. Folds
had been transferred, at his request, from the Treas
ury Department to the Department of Justice.
In other words, Mr. Folds has become a secret
service official, devoting himself to detective work to
ferret out and bring to punishment the men having
connection, no matter how remote, with recent bank
robberies.. So far as known, it is the first time that
a bank examiner has had himself transferred to Uncle
Sam's detective force, and most interesting develop
ments are expected from the work of Mr. Folds.
Some Curious Facts
r
HE engineers In the English navy have a very
effective way of killing sharks. They seal up a
dynamite cartridge in an empty can, and put the
ran Inside a large piece ot pork. The pork Is thrown
overboard on a wire which has been connected with
an electric battery. When the shark takes the halt
the engineer presses a button, which explodes the
cartridge and kills the fish.
Chickens are now plucked In a wholesale manner
by the use of pneumatic machinery. There Is a re
ceptacle In which the fowl Is placed nfter being
killed and Into this are turned several cross-currents
of air from electrical fans revolving at the rate of
6000 turns per minute. In a few seconds the bird is
stripped of lta feathera. even to the tini-st particles
of down and the machine Is ready for another.
It la calculated that 4000 persons make a living In
London by begging, and that their average Income
amounts to about $7.60 a week Last year 1923 per
sona were arroated for begging In the streets, of
whom more than 1500 were aentenced to terms of Im
prisonment varlng from one week to three montha
Many of theae objecta of charity were found In pos
session of sums of money, and even of bankbooks
showing very handsome deposits.
At auctions in London during the last half of 117
there were cataloged for sale 19.742 skins of birds
of Paradise, nearly 11S.000 white heron plumea and a
vast number of the sklna and plumea of many other
birds of beautiful plumage, Including slbatroaa quilia
and the tails of the lyre bird.
An improved apparatus has been made by Dr. frits
Lang of Munich, by which the Inside cf the atomarh
can be clearly photographed. The camera ia actually
awallowed by the patient, and no sooner doea tt reach
hla stomach than the wal.s thereof are Illuminated b
a email electric lamp attachedto the apparatus At
the "bottom of the came'rs la wound a ph "t oararh !o
fi'm twenty Inches long and a quarter of an inch wile
am the lurcion has to do la to pull the cord and thus
run the fllra past the lens. The electric llsht la then
turned on and after the sensitive film ha been im
pressed with the traare. the current la turn1 off and
ancther section of the film It bronsht Into plav. until
he rerjulatte number of futures have been nhte!nel.
When this 1a done the entire apparatus Is withdraws
from the stemaeh.