Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1904 — LIBERAL, THOUGH A THIEF. [ARTICLE]

LIBERAL, THOUGH A THIEF.

Fall of a Man Who Wu Employed ta Prevent Dishonesty in Others. Criminologists must find the fall of the Bostonian who robbed a surety company of which he was manager of SIOO,OOO a fascinating study in the metaphysics of larceny. Here was a man said to be of “exemplary habits and a most generous disposition,” who gave SSO a day to the poor, in many ways a model husband and father, and a devoted pillar of the church. Besides being surrounded by all the ordinary Influences which should have taught him that theft is a mistake as well as a crime, the surety company’s manager was engaged in a business which drove home to him with uncommon force Its daily illustration that the way of the transgressor Is hard. It was his business to give bonds, at a price, for men in posts of financial trust to insure their employers against loss by embezzlement. Frequently he was called upon to prosecute and punish defaulters. Yet all the while he was stealing from the church, stealing from the widow and orphan, stealing from the charitable society and presenting the paradox of stealing from a company whose business it is to insure against losses by theft. It may be that some day the scientists will demonstrate the theory that no horrible example and no fear of punishment can cheek the passion for embezzlement once it seizes on a victim. Perhaps the Rockefeller research bureau eventually will transfer the disease of larceny from the purview of the police to the domain of bacteriology and by Isolating the germ of embezzlement will hold the army of fallen bank cashiers up to public pity instead of reproach, just like victims of smallpox. Meanwhile, we suppose, the primitive and brutal method of attaching them to a chain with an iron ball on the end of it will continue to be practiced.—New York Press.