Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1901 — MWVVWWAeVMWWVOWWWWVW I Ghe Weekly Panorama. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MWVVWWAeVMWWVOWWWWVW I Ghe Weekly Panorama.

GIVES UP HIS SECRET. Wealthy Ohio Shoe Manufacturer No Longer a VlotUn Of Blackmailer*. Robert F. Wolfe, the wealthy and respected merchant of Columbus, Ohio, who has given to the world the secret that he was once confined In the Indiana state’s prison, has won admiration throughout the country for his manly confession. That he has lived an upright and honorable life for the last twenty years is considered sufficient

atonement for the mistake which he committed in early manhood. Mr. Wolfe was sentenced to serve five years in the penitentiary on a charge of assault with intent to kill. He had become involved in trouble when 18 years old, while defending an attack upon the character of a girl cousin in a small Indiana town. After being held three months in jail without trial he overcame his guard and escaped. He was soon rearrested and his penal servitude followed. While in prison the young man learned the shoemaker’s trade, and after his release he made his way to Columbus, arriving without a dollar. He started a little shop and in time became one of the leading shoemakers of the state. He is now president of the Wolfe Brothers’ Company and his estate is estimated at 1500,000. Soon after his arrival in Columbus Mr. Wolfe told the secret of his imprisonment to a few friends. Afterward when he became a successful merchant this information was used to extort money from him, and he was constantly the victim of a set of harpies. He was so goaded with these demands that he finally decided to announce the secret himself.

ROBERT F. WOLFE.