Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 100, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 April 1915 — Chicago Con Man Tried the Wrong Old Gentleman [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Chicago Con Man Tried the Wrong Old Gentleman

CHICAGO. —An old man whose thick-lens spectacles framed a pair of faded, mild, benevolent blue eyes, walked slowly down North Clark street. At Austin avenue a young man, whose predominant points were razor-creased

trousers, cloth-topped shoes, and gleaming singe nails, stopped him. “Uncle John!” he cried. “Gee, I’m glad to see you!" The old man looked puzzled. “Nope; not Uncle John,” he corrected, gently. “Uncle Bob. Guess mebbe you madie a mistake, sonny.” “If you ain’t my Uncle John Wilkins from Indiana I certainly did make a mistake. I just got off a train from the West and found someone had picked my pocket. Wife’s com-

Ing to town tomorrow and I haven’t even got enough money left to get my trunks. There’s $19.75 charges against ’em, and if I had S2O I’d be all right. You let me take that S2O and I’ll let you keefc my S3OO stickpin.” “Did ye ever tear of a teller called Long John Wentworth?” the old man asked, irrelevantly. “He \3as mayor of Chicago in Civil war days. Don’t suppose you know who John Turtle was? Turtle was John Wentworth’s chief of police. Robert Kenney was John Turtle’s chief of detectives. Getting old now, Kenny is, but there isn’t a speck of hayseed in his hair. Ain’t made an arrest since'before you were born —but no telling when he’ll start. That’s all. Now, about that S2O and and the S3OO stickpin and the pickpockets and those trunks of yours?” 1 The young man disappeared, racing around the corner at Vanderbilt cup speed.