Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 92, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1912 — Note is Man’s Doom [ARTICLE]

Note is Man’s Doom

Husband Out of Work Forges Wife’s Name to Check. Banker Goes to Her Aid snd Writes to Offer Position, But Woman's Spouse, Fearing Prosecution, Ends Ufo. 4 Chicago.—Receipt of a letter by a Chicago man recently, a letter which should have brought employment and happiness, caused the man who received it to commit suicide. The strange story of how.her husband, who had long been out of work, took his life upon the receipt of a letter which meant the offer of a Job and future comfort is told by the suicide’s widow. "My husband, after being long despondent over sickness and bis inability to obtain a position, in a moment of weakness took my bank book, which recorded a small amount of deposit, and forged my name to a check for |l2. I know that he used the money in an endeavor to And employment and that he would have paid it back to me, but fate willed differently," said the widow, sadly. ' "I discovered the foigery accidentally when I went to the bank a few days later. -V ♦ "I was ushered into the president’s office snd told him my story. I explained to that my husband had always been hard working and honest •nd had never before committed an offense of any kind before, but that be . - • r.-i * 'v-"

ability to find work. The banker seemed touched by my story and treated me with the utmost kindness. "*I do not feel,’ said the bank official, That thla is a case for the courts, itseems that perhaps your husband has been more or less a vldtim of circumstances, and I think that if he Is given a chance he will be an honest man henceforth. So strongly do I believe this that I will show your husband that every man’s hand is not against him, iam going to have him call upon me and I will give him a position in the bank as a porter, and if he does well I will make him a watchman. I will write a letter to him at once.’ -- "The bank president wrote a letter simply asking ihy husband to come and see him. I went out to do some work and did not return home until evening. The letter had reached my husband in the afternoon at home. I suppose that since the letter did not speak of a position, and as my husband was conscious that he was guilty of the forgery, he became crazed with the thought that bis act bad been discovered at the bank and that the letter telling him to call meant that be would soon be in the clutches of the law. _ "I suppose the terror of his position drove him insane, for he went into a shed on the rear of our lot and killed himself by hanging. The letter, taken out of the envelope, was iu bis coat pocket, a mute witness of the cause of bis self-dentruetion. 1 found his body later in the evening when I went to the shed and was almost crazed with grief, the sudden changes from despair and fear to Joy and then again to hor-

ror and anguish being more than X could bear. "The president of the bank has Hover ceased to reproach himself for what he terms his negligence in not giving a more complete explanation when be wrote the letter, and since my husband’s sad death the kindly bank official has seen to it that I have all the work at dressmaking that I can do." ~