Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 262, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 November 1911 — Steals to Win Honors in Fraternity [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Steals to Win Honors in Fraternity

NEW YORK.—Richard Pacharz, selfconfessed embezzler, who had donated most of the $6,000 he stole t# the lodge of which he was the chief officer, and contributed the remainder to various charitable enterprises, met clemency on every hand when he was arraigned before Judge Swann. The court suspended sentence and the young man’s employers—from whom he had stolen—offered him his old place as confidential bookkeeper and cashier. It was a remarkable case of Its kind. During the eight years previous to his arrest, Pacharz had been employed by Darnet Bros. When the thefts were discovered the bookkeeper pleaded guilty. In making his plea he amazed the court by proclaiming that he had Spent every dollar of the stolen money in donations to the order to which he belonged and its charities. Not a dollar of the plunder had he spent on himself or his little family. _ % “My trouble,” said the young man, “is due entirely to a mad ambition for fraternal honors. <lt was the one great joy •of my life .to attain high rank in the lodge, so I stole money to make donations and give parties and

picnics to the old people and children who lived at the lodge’s home.” Judge Swann could scarcely credit the man’s story, but his probationary officers found that everything Pacharz said was true. When he was arraigned the trustees of PacharzV lodge produced thejr books to show that their officer had contributed $5,000 during the period he was Stealing from his employers. They also verified his other statements about minor charities. Judge Swann replied that he was moved to clemency not by mere sentiment From every possible source he had received the highest praise of the prisoner. His employers had urged clemency and promised to take him back to his old job. His crime was not due to avarice or greed, but to a noble, if misguided, impulse. Thereupon the judge set the prisoner free.