BANK CASHIER WOOD.

New York, 1895

The Man Who Handles the Money of Jamaica People.

William L. Wood, cashier of the Bank of Jamaica, is widely known as a brisk, though cautious, business man, with a reputation for probity that is bombproof. He was born in Brooklyn in 1857, his father being the Hon. Alfred M. Wood, ex-mayor of that city and colonel of the fighting Fourteenth regiment, when it was doing its splendid service at the front in the late Rebellion. William L. is the colonel's only son. He was educated at Alexander Military academy, in White Plains, and after leaving school began his business career with a brokerage firm in Wall street. He soon developed keen business tact, a quality his employers were not slow to recognize, and gradually he was advanced to positions of greater importance, which afforded broader fields for the exercise of his faculties.

In May, 1889, the Bank of Jamaica was chartered, and the gentlemen interested in that institution offered him the position of cashier, which he accepted. His career in the bank speaks for itself. The splendid success that the institution has achieved is due largely to his careful and conservative management. Nothing could ever induce him to depart one iota from the line of policy which he, as cashier, laid down as being calculated to best conserve the interests of the bank. A year ago, when financial storms were wrecking monetary institutions all over the country, or battering wildly at their doors, the bank of Jamaica, with Mr. Wood at the helm, bravely weathered the storm, never once exhibiting the slightest signs of weakness. He is highly esteemed by the patrons of the bank for his uniform courtesy and his readiness to give attention to all matters which may come before him officially.

Mr. Wood was for many years connected with the Williamsburg athletic club, always having a fondness for athletic sports. He served a little short of seven years in the ranks of the Twenty-third regiment, and is at present a member of the Veteran association of company H. He lives in Queens, in a comfortable home that he built nine or ten years ago, and now that his father has returned from his duties in Italy, he has taken up his residence near him.

Like his father, Cashier Wood in politics is an ardent Republican. While he has done some hard work for that party, he never sought a political office, and never held one. It may be truthfully said of him that he would not take a political office, though it were offered to him on a golden salver. He gives strict attention to the business of the bank, and is never absent from his post, except when out of town, which rarely happens. To sum up, Mr. Wood is "all wool and a yard wide." — Brooklyn Times.

—Reprinted in The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 8.

Reminiscences of Froude

1895

Until a year or two before his death Froude had retained much of his youthful vigor. His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. He could still land his salmon, and he had been a famous angler. He could still handle a gun, and he had been a crack shot in his time. When aboard the tidy little craft that he kept at Salcombe, especially if the waves ran high, he was almost boyishly elate. Sometimes, no doubt, he was sad, but it was the sadness of one who, looking before and after, has found that the riddle is hard to read. he had indeed an ever present sense of the mysteries of existence and of the awful responsibility of the creature to the unknown and invisible Lawgiver.

I have heard him described by shallow observers as "taciturn" and "saturnine." No two words could be less descriptive. He was a singularly bright and vivacious companion. His smile was winning as a woman's. Possibly he did not always unbend, but when he unbent he unbent wholly. In congenial society he was ready to discourse on every topic in the heaven above or on the earth beneath, and when at his best he was not only a brilliant and picturesque, but a really suggestive talker. — Blackwood's Magazine.

The Poet Robert Southey — A Look At His Character

1874

Character of Southey

Southey went rarely into society; scarcely knew by sight any of the country-people living near him; never rode on horseback; took no outdoor exercise save that of walking, and this often from a mere sense of duty, and with a book in his hand; and, although living in one of the loveliest spots in England, and not insensible to charms, preferred the shelves of his library to the finest prospect in the world. He found his relaxation where he found his daily labor, within the walls of his study. "I can't afford," wrote, "to do one thing at a time; no, nor two neither; and it is only by doing many things that I contrive to do much; for I cannot work long at any thing without hurting myself, and I do every thing by heats; then, by the time I am tired of one, my inclination for another is at hand."

Southey was an affectionate husband and a fond father; and whenever, in his correspondence, he alludes to his home happiness, it is with a tenderness and warmth of feeling that are eminently beautiful. Moreover, he was a constant, and, at all times, noble friend, ready even when in straits himself to help with money or with his pen those who were more straitened. No one ever acted better the part of the good Samaritan, and while he never forgot a benefit received, it would seem as if his own magnanimous charity had no place in his memory. The story of his life abounds in instances of the most generous self-denial, and of a steadfast goodness of heart which never shrunk from the demands made upon it. Heavily burdened as he was with work, he was continually accepting fresh literary labor in order to benefit others; nor was this all, for he received, under his own roof, his wife's widowed sister, Mrs. Lovell; and when Coleridge, in that strange waywardness of mood which his vice of opium-eating can alone explain, deserted his wife and children, it was with Southey that they found home. There is a beautiful anecdote given by Lockhart of a poor music-master offering Scott all his savings in the hour of his adversity; a similar story may be told of Southey, who, when his friend May, an early benefactor of the poet, fell into difficulties, sent him more than six hundred pounds, which was all the money he possessed.

If the poet had strong and generous affections he was also a good hater, but this feeling was shown to principles rather than to persons, and if, which was not seldom, political animosity led him to write bitterly against his antagonists, there was not one of them for whom, after the moment of writing, he retained an unkindly feeling. It is said that he seldom spoke harshly of any man with whom he had once conversed; he had too large a heart for petty animosities, and he was wholly free from envy. At the time when a whole year's sale of a ponderous epic failed to produce the poet five pounds, Scott was gaining his thousands, but not a word of bitterness falls from Southey on this score; and the praise he bestowed on his contemporaries, a few of them more distinguished than himself, but the larger number men of far inferior power, is frequently more generous than just.

Although not, as we have said, a sociable man, he had the good fortune to know intimately most of the illustrious authors who made the early part of this century so famous, and, long before Wordsworth had received the public recognition which was his due as the greatest poet of the age, Southey, like Coleridge, expressed his admiration of his friend and neighbor in no niggard terms. This noble triumvirate, by-the-way, reminds us that probably not since Shakespeare's day have three men of equal mark lived together on terms of intimacy and affection. Landor called them "three towers of one castle," and, as all the world knows, they have been absurdly classed together as forming a school of poetry.

Southey had but little ear for harmony, and it was therefore all the more unfortunate for his fame that he elected to write his "Thalaba" in a novel metre, which is without the dignity of heroic blank verse, or the soothing, satisfying charm of rhyme. Landor saw his friend's mistake in this respect, and observed, very justly: "Are we not a little too fond of novelty and experiment, and is it not reasonable to prefer those kinds of versification which the best poets have adopted and the best judges have cherished for the longest time?" But Southey, on the contrary, was well pleased with his experiment, thinking that, while it gave the poet a wider range of expression, it satisfied the ear of the reader. So far is this from being the case, that no one familiar with the lovely harmony of Shelley's verse, or with the delicate music of Coleridge, to say nothing of earlier and later poets, is likely to gain delight from the strange and fitful, and sometimes jarring notes of Southey. But there is strength in his verse, if not harmony, and "Thalaba," while it has its wildernesses and arid deserts, can also boast, as indeed all Southey's epics may, many a fair scene of richness and beauty. Splendor of diction and felicity of description occur frequently, but frequently also the action halts, the verse drags, and the reader feels inclined to resign himself to slumber. On the whole, perhaps, the erudition lavished on the poem is more striking than its poetical wealth, and it is sometimes a relief to turn aside from the text to the curious and highly-entertaining notes which serve to illustrate it.

Southey himself judged "Roderick" to be the finest of all his poems, and Landor, in writing to him, said: "There is no poem in existence that I shall read so often." Charles Lamb, however, an admirable judge, and Wordsworth also, preferred "The Curse of Kehama," and, without endeavoring to compare the value of the two works, there can be no doubt that they are the poet's greatest and least wearisome efforts. It is singular that in none of Southey's epics are there passages which lay hold of the memory, and become, as it were, a part of one's life. No doubt, the first consideration of the poet should be to have a worthy action, and the more he strives after this object, the less will he concern himself with the beauty of particular passages, but the lack of what may be called "beauties" in Southey's poetry is due, we think, less to the severity of his taste than to the diffusiveness of his style, which has, as it were, no points for the memory to lay hold of. With all their deficiencies, however, the student of English poetry can never pass by with indifference these elaborate productions but he is not likely to agree with Macaulay that Southey's poems, taken in the mass, rank far higher than his prose works. — Cornhill Magazine.

Hiram C. Warden, Licking County, Ohio, 1819-1901

Newark, Ohio, 1899-1901

UNIQUE BANQUET

One Hundred Oldest Men in County

Assist Mr. Hiram C. Warden to Celebrate the Eightieth Anniversary of His Birth.

Saturday, May 27, was the eightieth anniversary of the birth of Mr. Hiram Warden one of Licking county's oldest, best known and most highly respected citizens, and father of Captain F. G. Warden, proprietor of the Hotel Warden. The Captain decided that the event was one which called for more than passing notice, and determined that it should be celebrated in a proper manner. In accordance with this decision over one hundred of the old time residents of the county, whose ages averaged 65 years, were invited, and there were no regrets. Elaborate preparations were made for the event, Mr. Warden being made to believe that all the extra hustling was on account of a banquet that was being prepared for the local lodge of Elks. It was a gathering of old and representative men of the county, such as seldom comes together, and to say that Maj. Warden was surprised when he was greeted by these long time friends, would be putting it mildly. A sumptuous supper was partaken of by the guests, which was followed by a program of speech-making. The toastmaster was Hon. J. W. Owens, and toasts were responded to by Dr. Vail, Charles Montgomery, Abraham Flory, Capt. W. C. Lyon, J. H. Newton, Howard W. Howe, Hon. C. B. Giffin and Hon. Wm. Bell, Jr. Mr. Daniel Thomas offered a pleasant diversion to the program by suggesting that Queen Victoria had been honored by the poet laureate of England by a poem for her eightieth birthday, and as the age of Mr. Warden differed by three days from that of the Queen, he too, should have a similar honor. He read a poem which he had written and which was as follows:

Is it true, or are you joking?
Is it four-score years today
That you were born near Granvilletown
On the twenty-seventh of May?
Is it true that you have traveled
Full eighty years of life,
And look so hale and hearty,
Without any marks of strife?
Your steps so firm and elastic,
Your eyes so bright, and so keen
Your hearing; so quick and active
As a youth about eighteen.
Your mind also clear and active,
With vim and vigor and might
You're able to transact all business
As "sharp" as ever tonight.
May the God of Grace and Mercy
Preserve my friend Warden and wife
For many years, until ready
To enter eternal life.

—Newark Daily Advocate, Newark, OH, May 29, 1899, page 5.

Note: It looks like the headline has his middle initial as "G," and it should be "C," which change I made.


SICK LIST (1900-1901)

Mr. Hiram Warden, who has been confined to his room in the Warden [hotel] for some time past on account of a dislocated hip, is rapidly improving and will be able to be out in a few days.

—Newark Daily Advocate, Sept. 25, 1900, page 3.


Hand Badly Hurt.

Mr. Moses Goodrich, of Granville, who is attending the session of the grand jury, met with a painful accident at the Hotel Warden Monday.

He had called at the hotel to see his friend, Mr. Hiram Warden, and in getting into the elevator had his hand caught and badly lacerated.

Dr. D. M. Smith dressed the injured member, several stitches being necessary.

—Newark Daily Advocate, Sept. 25, 1900, page 1.



Mr. Hiram Warden is lying seriously ill at the Hotel Warden. Mr. Warden was somewhat improved in the past few days, but last night there was a change for the worse.

—Newark Daily Advocate, Jan 5, 1901, page 7.



Mr. Hiram Warden passed a very bad night Monday, and is in no wise improved today.

—Newark Daily Advocate, Jan. 8, 1901, page 8.



The condition of Hiram Warden remains unchanged today.

—Newark Daily Advocate, Jan. 15, 1901, page 8.



The condition, of Mr. Hiram Warden is about the same. If anything he is worse today.

—Newark Daily Advocate, Jan. 24, 1901, page 8.



HIRAM CARY WARDEN

Venerable Father of Capt. Frank G. Warden and One of the Country's Best Known and Wealthiest Citizens Passes to His Eternal Rest — Sketch of His Life.

Mr. Hiram C. Warden, one of Newark's oldest, most highly respected and wealthiest citizens passed peacefully away at his apartments in the Hotel Warden at 11:15 o'clock Tuesday night, after an illness of acute bronchitis following an attack of grip.

Although this was the proximate cause of death, a fall sustained on August 14 last, when Mr. Warden suffered a broken hip, and his age had much to do with his demise.

Mr. Warden on several occasions since the fall has been down stairs, but his recovery never seemed to be complete.

Since the first day of January he has been bedfast and for twenty-nine days made a heroic battle against death, but was forced finally to surrender to the last of foes.

The funeral will take place from the hotel Friday afternoon at two o'clock, Rev F. B. Nash of Trinity Episcopal church, and Rev Bunyon Spencer of the Alexandria Baptist church conducting the services. Interment in Cedar Hill cemetery.

Hiram C. Warden's grandfather, Jonas Warden, enlisted in the defense of the Colonies during the War for Independence, and held the rank of Captain until the close of the Revolution. A son of the latter, and father of our subject, Gabriel, was one of those who responded to his country's call at the time of the second war with England in which he served as Captain with gallantry and courage. He was a native of Burlington, Vt., born Feb. 16, 1777, and in the place of his birth was united in marriage with Miss Mary P. Seeley, a native of Massachusetts. After the birth of three children they removed, in 1814, from Burlington, Vt., to Licking county, Ohio, settling on a farm in Granville township, one mile north of the village of that name. There they remained until called from earth, the father dying February 2, 1838, and the mother February 5, 1862.

On this farm Hiram C. was born on the 27th of May, 1819. His age was therefore 81 years, 8 months and 2 days.

In the parental family there were thirteen children, one of whom died in infancy, and twelve attained to years of maturity and became heads of families. Hiram C. grew to manhood on the old homestead, reared to farm life. His preliminary education was acquired in the old subscription school, and supplemented by two years attendance at Granville College. After the death of his father he served an apprenticeship at the chairmaker's trade in Granville, being thus employed for two years. Later he worked as journeyman at this business.

Believing that agriculture offered better opportunities than his trade, Mr. Warden began farming in 1846, and the first year operated a rented place. In 1847 he purchased seventy-five acres lying in Harrison township, Licking county, and during the ensuing two years cleared about ten acres of this tract. During the winter season he taught singing school in order to gain the means of subsistence for himself and family, and assist in making improvements on the land. At the expiration of the two years he sold the farm, having cleared $1,000 in this speculation. For a few years following he bought and sold a number of farms, frequently changing his location and with each change materially improving his financial condition.

Until 1873 Mr. Warden continued actively engaged in farming and during his residence in Newark has been more or less engaged in agricultural pursuits. In his farming pursuits he was successful through untiring industry and good management, coupled with the assistance of his wife in the accumulation of a handsome competency. In 1881 he bought the hotel in Newark which bears his name. This he greatly enlarged and at the present time it has more than one hundred rooms.

On November 20, 1842, at the Baptist church in Granville he was united in marriage to Miss Mary A., daughter of John and Mary Hartman Lond, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania, where their daughter was born January 19, 1826. She is of German descent and came to Granville with her parents when only five years of age.

To Mr. and Mrs. Warden have been born four children, of whom are living Charles C., of Granville township, and Frank G., proprietor of the Hotel Warden, this city. Mr. and Mrs. Warden have travelled life's journey together nearly sixty years. Both became members of the Baptist church before they were married and have ever been true to the faith.

In early life Mr. Warden was a Whig, his first presidential vote being cast for Gen. W. H. Harrison in 1840. Since the organization of the Republican party he has supported that organization.

—Newark Daily Advocate, Newark, Ohio, January 30, 1901, page 8.

Note: The article says he began farming in 1836, which has to be wrong going by other details in the article. And Charles' name was spelled "Chales." I changed these. As for Charles' middle initial: this article says "C" and the last will says "H." I just left each as found. My guess, "H," probably standing for Hiram. And wills are usually more exact.



MR. WARDEN'S FUNERAL.

The funeral of the late Hiram C. Warden took place from the hotel at 2 o'clock this afternoon.

The Episcopal burial service was read by Rev. F. B. Nash. Rev. Bunyon Spencer of Alexandria, delivered a eulogy, in which the virtues of the deceased, his strict attention to business at hand, and his sterling integrity were pointed out as an example for the younger generation.

—Newark Daily Advocate, Feb. 1, 1901, page 8.


THE COURTS.

THE PROVISIONS OF HIRAM WARDEN'S WILL.

Following are the bequests made by the late Hiram C. Warden, in his last will and testament:

My will is that all my just debts and funeral expenses shall be paid out of my estate as soon as after my decease as shall be found convenient.

I give and bequeath the farm on which I resided and have been living at different times, to Charles H. Warden, during his natural life, and at his death to his children, equally.

I give and bequeath to my wife, Mary A. Warden, during her natural life, the store room on the South Side of the Square in Newark, and at her death I give, devise and bequeath said realty to my son Charles H. Warden, during his natural life and at his death, to his children, equally.

I give, devise and bequeath to my beloved wife, Mary A. Warden, the property on the North Side of the Square to her and her heirs forever, absolutely.

I give, devise and bequeath to my beloved wife, Mary A. Warden, during her natural life, all the balance of my property, both real and personal, of which I may die seized.

I give, devise and bequeath to my beloved wife, Mary A. Warden, all the income from my property and estate absolutely to use and do with as she may think best, reposing full confidence in her excellent judgment.

We have labored together industriously for fifty-eight years to accumulate and gather together this estate, and now that we are near to the end of this life it is our wish and prayer that our children, their good wives and children, may have and cultivate habits of industry, honesty, fidelity and love towards one another and inculcate as far as may be, Christian faith and charity.

I do hereby nominate and appoint my beloved wife, Mary A. Warden, executrix of this my last will and testament. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand to this, my last will and testament, this 28th day of July. A. D. 1900.

H. C. WARDEN.

—Newark Daily Advocate, March 8, 1901, page 5.


QUARTER CENTURY AGO

(From Advocate, Oct. 18, 1886.)
Mr. Hiram Warden, who left for California this morning, met with a misfortune before he left. Someone stole his overcoat from the hack in which he had been driven to the station.

—Newark Advocate, Oct. 18, 1911, page 6.

The Charm of A Great Biography

1916

It Leads the Reader Into Quaint and Delightful Byways

Reading biography will furnish you with a peculiar and rare form of entertainment, for besides the subject at hand biography legitimately treats of the foibles, the fashions and the peculiarities of the age with which it deals, says Youth's Companion.

History, although it may have its lighter moments, is essentially sober, but biography, although it is never merely farcical or satirical, may touch vividly open the lighter phases of life and take you, as it were, into quaint and delightful byways, through private parks and into remote and lovely fields.

"Indeed," wrote Boswell in his introduction to his famous biography, "I cannot conceive a more perfect mode of writing any man's life than by not only relating the most important events of it in their order, but by interweaving what he privately wrote and said and thought, by which mankind are enabled, as it were, to see him live and to live o'er each scene with him as he actually advanced through the several stages of his life."

Biography, treated in that manner, must inevitably include much that is delightfully diverting. It will give you "the table talk of the great;" it will recount those fascinating little incidents and anecdotes that history so often regards as beneath its notice. It will afford far more than a running account of a life, "beginning with a pedigree and ending with a funeral."

A Hardened Criminal Once, Now He Helps Reform Others

Davenport, Iowa, 1903

CONVICT TO PREACHER

HISTORY OF STANLEY FORREST, MISSIONARY.

A Hardened Criminal, He Was Arrested For the First Time In His Life Here In Davenport Fifteen Years Ago Today — Served Term In Ft. Madison — Gave Life to Fellow Convicts — Dying of Consumption.

Fifteen years ago today Stanley M. Forrest, one of the smoothest hotel swindlers that the criminal world has ever produced, was taken from his bed in the Harper house, in Rock Island and locked in the Rock Island jail until morning. In the morning he was brought to this city, given a preliminary hearing on the charge of obtaining money under false pretenses from the management of the St. James hotel. Although he stoutly protested his innocence he was convicted in the district court and sentenced to serve two and one-half years at hard labor in the penitentiary at Fort Madison.

Now, today, Stanley M. Forrest, his hair whitened through sorrows and sickness and his once powerful constitution shattered by consumption, is back in this city to close his work as a jail evangelist and a convict's friend, by addressing the inmates of the Rock Island and the Davenport jails in which he was incarcerated fifteen years ago. He feels that the disease from which he is suffering does not give him a great while longer to live, so what could be more fitting than that should close in his work in the city which saw the beginning of the end.

Interesting Life Story.

His life story is one of exceptional interest. It is the story of a life crowded with action. Forty-eight years ago Stanley M. Forrest was born in England. His parents were well-to-do and gave him an exceptionally thorough education. At the age of 23 he came this country, possessed in his own right of some little money. He traveled from one place to another until his money ran out and then started in to live by his wits. Fashionable hotels in large cities presented a target for his practices. His scheme of operations were above the plane of the ordinary criminal. His education and natural good breeding were brought to the aid of a resourceful mind and an ability at disguises and he was very successful, if the word be permitted. In the pursuit of his prey he traveled from one side of the country to the other, never operating in any but the largest and most popular hotels, securing a wide acquaintance with statesmen, jurists and prominent men of business. His affable manners and neat dress gave him easy passport to hotel lobby acquaintances. One single haul netted him $2,800, with never a finger of suspicion pointed at him or the necessity of any attempt at hiding. Then the crash came.

First Arrested Here.

A little over 15 years ago he drifted into this city and registered at the St. James. One day at dinner he checked his overcoat, as usual, and went in dinner. When he came out, according the story which he told last evening to a representative of the Republican, he presented his check at the wardrobe door, but an exhaustive search failed to disclose the garment. It was gone, but that did not trouble the buoyant spirit of Forrest, for he knew that the landlord was responsible for the garment and he was. The landlord advanced him money to purchase a garment to replace the one lost, and he purchased a new coat. That evening Forrest went to the Burtis opera house with a well known woman of the town. He was seen there by an attache of the St. James, who recognized his companion and followed them after the performance, across the river and to the Harper house. Having them safely located he communicated with the hotel and they secured Forrest's arrest, shortly after midnight on the morning of March 6th. He spent the balance of the night in the Rock Island jail and the next morning was brought to this city and lodged in jail.

Convicted and Sentenced.

The charge was that of obtaining money under false pretenses. Forrest waived preliminary examination for the circumstantial evidence was strongly against him. He procured an attorney and made a hard fight for freedom, but the evidence was strongly against him. The theory of the state was that Forrest, unnoticed by the attache of the hotel had gone to the wardrobe, procured his coat, hid it and then boldly presented the check, demanding either the overcoat or its cash equivalent. The result was a conviction, and Forrest stood to receive a long sentence in the penitentiary. But the judge had become impressed by his personality and the apparent frankness of his demeanor in telling his story and he sentenced him to two and one-half years at Fort Madison. The well dressed gentleman of the world donned the convict's stripes with a terrible spirit of revenge nestled down in his heart. As he worked through the sentence at Fort Madison it was with the one determination that, when he was released he would come back to Davenport and shoot the man who had sworn his freedom away. By exemplary behavior in the penitentiary he reduced his sentence eight months and at the end of one year and ten months he was set free.

Fall Was Fast.

But when he stepped from the institute, a free man, his naturally generous spirit again began to return, and instead of coming back to this city to execute his threat he went East. With the stain of the convict upon him he became more careless and bold in his operations and the result that it was not long until he was an inmate of the Ohio penitentiary, serving a year's sentence. He came to be regarded as a criminal whom officials might well fear for his shrewdness and ability at planning and executing affairs which baffled their powers of detection. He was exceptionally lucky, along with his cunning, and while his confederates were sometimes hauled up short he generally escaped, or if arrested for the crime would manage to find a loop hole of escape.

How He Came to Reform.

The causes which led to his reforming were as unique as his career has been. When he was in the penitentiary at Fort Madison a private secretary to the governor of the state used to appear pretty regularly at the penitentiary, that was before the day of the board of control, and make speeches to the convicts. In these it was his custom to praise them for the reformation which he saw being worked out and to tell them how dearly he loved an ex-convict and what he would do for them at any time that it would be in his power. He would generally end his little speech by giving them an invitation to come to see him at any time they were in need or wanted work or help. So it happened that about ten years ago Forrest, tired with continual evading the officers of the law, decided to try and lead an honest life. He drifted to Burlington. The first man he met that he knew was a cellmate of his at Fort Madison. His prison friends told him that he was on his way to see the redoubtable private secretary and Forrest joined him. They found the private secretary to be a very busy man, and after taking their names he turned to dismiss them. But Forrest's companion was insistent. He said he needed help. The secretary gave him a quarter, told him to eat supper and then help himself. The ex-convict took the secretary at his word and helped himself to the secretary's horse and buggy as soon as they reached the open air. The secretary never saw either article again. And Forrest went to Chicago to take his start at honest life.

Rise Was Rapid.

In the world of crime he had been what might be called a successful man. In the world of labor he was almost equally successful. When he arrived in Chicago he applied to the superintendent of the street cleaning department and asked for a position on the streets. He told his story from the beginning of his prison life and said that he wanted a chance. His education stood him in good stead and he was made foreman of a gang. Three months afterward his natural ability won for him the position of chief inspector of streets at a salary of $2,000 a year. He held this position for some time, and married while in it. All of his spare time he began to devote to the work of trying to make the prisoners in the jails of Chicago and neighboring cities better. He was remarkably successful in this line. When the time came that a cutting down in expenses of the street department of the city of Chicago eliminated the office which he held he turned his time more than ever to the new field which had opened up before him and continued to be successful. He entered the penitentiaries and the prisons and talked to the inmates as a comrade who had saw the brighter side to life. His arguments were of the convincing sort. When he met a man who, to his eye, and he is an expert judge of human nature, would be really benefited by a pardon, he immediately set himself to the effort of securing such a pardon, and often he was successful, for executives with the pardoning power came to regard Forrest as a man upon whose word they could depend.

Came to Davenport.

Five years ago, on the anniversary of his first day in prison, Forrest returned to Davenport and did a very considerable amount of work among the people of this city, especially in the jails, both here and in Rock Island. His teachings were productive of much good, and there is one man who will long remember him. One Monday morning, according to Forrest's statements, Mrs. Hill, the police matron, interested him in the case of Joel Bledsoe, at that time serving a sentence in the Rock Island jail for drunkenness. Forrest investigated the case, and as a result he secured Bledsoe's release by signing a personal bond for his future good behavior. Bledsoe was very grateful, and more so when a position was secured for him as janitor of the Y. M. C. A. building. The reform was permanent and effectual. Again three years ago Forrest came to this city and labored for a considerable length of time among the jail inmates.

Sorrows Heap Upon Him.

But the life of love which had been brightening the career of Forrest for seven years came to a sudden end two and one-half years ago, when he suddenly discovered that an ex-convict whom he had taken into his own home in Chicago to keep until a position could be found had proved ungrateful and betrayed the trust of the home. His wife and home gone, Forrest, a tinge of white added to his hair, began with renewed vigor his life-work with the criminal class. His efforts were meeting with greater success than ever, and he was gaining a country wide reputation, when, while at Springfield, Ill., he contracted, a severe cold which developed into the dread consumption. Since that time he has been traveling constantly, seeking health and working among the prisoners in various jails until, a wreck of his former self, with all hope of recovery gone, he has come to Davenport to make his last pleas to criminals and, perhaps, to die in the city of his first arrest and conviction. He will speak tomorrow forenoon at 10:30 o'clock in the Rock Island jail, and in the afternoon at 2:30 in the Scott county jail. Everyone interested in jail work is invited to be present. The local Y. M. C. A, will have charge of both meetings, which will be free, and they will furnish music for each meeting.

How He Works.

A representative of the Republican enjoyed a most interesting visit with Forrest last evening. He is a brilliant conversationalist to start with, and, added to this, his vast fund of experience makes him a most interesting person to listen to. He said: "I have probably been most fortunate in my chosen work, and I blame it to the fact that I know criminals, being a graduate myself; and I know how to approach them. The man who enters the jail and goes up to the prisoner, extends a hearty hand and exclaims, 'Ha, old fellow, glad to see you here,' isn't going to make a success of the work. One must know criminals and approach them in a way at which they can take no offense, yet understand your position. In my experience I have met many criminals and befriended many, and it is seldom that I have been mistaken. I remember once, in Maine, I secured a pardon for a convict in the Thomastown penitentiary in whom I had become interested. He was an Englishman named Bird, and was in for seven years for perjury. I took the pardon to him and found him in a most irritable mood. I drew him to one side and questioned him as to what he might do as soon as he was free, in case he were pardoned. He had recently been flogged for misbehavior, and remarked with an oath that the first thing he would do would be to kill the deputy warden. I took the pardon out before his eyes and tore it into little bits. I knew that that man could not safely be pardoned."

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, March 6, 1903, page 7.