Mrs. Hill's Visitors

1895

The Beautiful Finesse With Which She Rebuked Their Impertinence.

Mrs. J. J. Hill, wife of the new millionaire railroad magnate, is a person of a great deal of keenness, and nobody knows it better than a Washington woman who spent a summer out in St. Paul once upon a time. This Washington woman had met Mrs. Hill and chose to consider her one of the newly rich and not to be named in the same afternoon with the people of her set.

The Washington woman had a friend with her for a few days, and in showing her the sights of the town took her to the Hill house. Mrs. Hill was very gracious, though the Washington woman scarcely concealed the fact that curiosity alone prompted her visit. She and her friend were shown all over the house and asked questions that would have been really inexcusable in any one but a woman of society.

Finally she asked to be shown Mrs. Hill's jewels. Mrs. Hill's jewels, by the way, are among the finest in the country, and Mrs. Hill is fond of them with a connoisseur's pride and not with the vanity of a woman fond of adornment. Mrs. Hill left the room, and in a few moments the jewels were shown, but it was a maid who showed them. The hostess did not appear again, and as the two women went away the maid asked them politely if they wished to see anything else.

Personally I think congress ought to vote Mrs. Hill a medal. — Washington Post.

Ran Six Cents To 15 Millions In Few Months

1920

Charles Ponzi, "Coupon Wizard," Defies U. S. to Learn Secret of His Alleged Legal Scheme.

1920

BOSTON, Mass. — "It is my secret. Let the United States find it out if it can."

This is the challenge of Charles Ponzi, the "coupon wizard," who leaped into international fame over night when the world discovered that he had run 6 cents into $15,000,000 in less than a year by an astoundingly simple — yet astoundingly mysterious — scheme. Ponzi insists that his business is perfectly legal and so far has paid off every investor who demanded his money back. He declares that he has neither fear of a financial crash or of punishment.

Ponzi's remarkable business is, so far as is known, based on the use of the international reply coupon, authorized under the international postal agreement as the medium for taking advantage of the difference in rates of exchange.

"I simply buy international coupons," explained Ponzi to the district attorney. "They are exchangeable into stamps and I take care to buy them where the rates of exchange are such that $1 of American currency is really worth $4 or more in the native currency. I therefore get $3 clear on the transaction and can well afford to pay back the original $1 and 50 cents additional as interest to the investor. My margin of profit is enormous, but I have the system and the offices abroad. The investor's margin of profit is tremendous in proportion and he has no responsibility and is entirely certain of his money.

Hit on Scheme Year Ago.

"I hit upon the scheme just a year ago in August, when I thought of issuing an export publication on a small scale. I wrote to a friend in Spain regarding it, and in reply received an international coupon, which I was to exchange for stamps to send a copy of the publication to my friend.

"The coupon cost about 1 cent in United States money in Spain and I could get 6 cents in stamps for it here.

"My secret is how I cash the coupons," says Ponzi. "I do not tell it. Let the United States Government find it out if it can. I do not think that it can."

Will Make $40,000,000 More?

The "wizard" asserted that he intended to open an office in New York city immediately and probably in other big cities. He coupled this declaration with the assertion that "there is thirty or forty million dollars more, to be made out of his scheme, but it must be made quickly." And since difficulties have arisen here he says he will have to go outside New England for the money he needs to use. He said he "feared the postal conference in October would formulate an effective check" to his operations.

All day long clerks in the modest office of Ponzi poured cash into the hands of customers who had lost faith in his international postal exchange scheme.

It was after 4 o'clock when one of Ponzi's attaches stuck his head out the door and shouted inquiringly to the crowd:

"Anybody else today?"

Nobody answered and no one else entered the open door. The door was shut and locked.

Paid Back $500,000 in Day.

It is estimated the total returned to clients in one day was in the neighborhood of half a million dollars. The cash was brought from the banks by the "wizard's" employes, under heavy guard, and a huge businesslike revolver rested at the elbow of one of the clerks who "stood guard" over the paying-teller.

Ponzi's secretary, Miss Lucy Meli, says the office has paid back $2,000,000 to investors this week. About forty per cent of this amount, however, was on accounts that had "matured," meaning that the customers were returned their own money and the promised 50 per cent profit agreed within ninety days, but which had been paid steadily in forty-five days.

In spite of close search the nature of Ponzi's business remains a secret to public officials, and he stoutly maintains that he will continue. While he is busy paying off an army of claimants the authorities are searching the files of the telegraph offices to determine if Ponzi has cabled orders of purchase or sale to representatives in Continental Europe.

Scheme May Soon Be Known.

Uncle Sam has set in motion every Federal governmental investigating agency.

Uncle Sam has called to work with him the United States embassies and consulates in Europe and in all the countries that are included in the international postal agreement and deal in international reply coupons.

"I came to this country seventeen years ago and landed in Boston with $2.50. My family is a fine old Italian family and I am university educated.

"Landing in Boston with such a small sum of money, I was downcast I didn't have a friend in the city nor a relative in the country, so I went on where my ticket carried me — to New York. There I did manual labor. Then I moved on to Pittsburgh in search of some friends who I believed were there. I didn't find them, so I went on from place to place, working now as a clerk in a business office, next as a grocery clerk and often at more menial tasks.

"Back to Boston I came again in January, 1917. I went to work for the J. R. Poole Company, merchant brokers. My salary was $16 a week. It might interest you to know that I own the company today, and intend to incorporate it for $10,000,000.

Insists Business Is Legal.

"I insist that my business is entirely legal, even tho it may not be strictly ethical. It will continue as long as there is a marked difference in the rates of exchange among the governments of the world. As the rates 'close up' the interest I will be able to pay will decline. But there cannot be any loss, I insist, for I have provided against loss to investors by the creation of a large reserve in stamps and foreign currency.

"My operations are now going on in nine different countries. None of the foreign stamps are now being redeemed in this country, nor do I intend to do so.

I buy international coupons in immense quantities — by hundreds of thousands, by millions — and exchange them for postage stamps.

"I looked around for some connections here and abroad. I explained my plan to a certain party and he was interested. I had a one-room office where I began doing a little exporting business on a small scale, and there, with a few thousand dollars, I began the present concern, the Securities Exchange Company.

Began Last December.

"We really began operations in December. I began as I am still doing; I gave investors a note guaranteeing payment with 50 per cent interest in ninety days. However, I made all payments in forty-five days. I was safe in giving the notes and I am safe in giving them now, for I have built up a reserve.

"Within a month the few thousands had grown to nearly ten thousand dollars. Persons who received their first profits immediately told their friends, and they told their friends — and then the deluge. Everybody wanted us to take their money.

"When the volume of business increased I took three rooms in the building and recently I acquired a large interest in a trust company — really a controlling interest.

"The peak of my business was reached in May, just two months ago. Now my receipts are about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a day in the Boston offices, and a total of $250,000 daily thru branches in other cities. What I pay out varies from day to day. I have just given my cashier in Boston $200,000 with which to make tomorrow's payments."

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 1-2.

Note: Unfortunately my copy of this newspaper is missing a couple sections, interesting bits, and I can't figure out entirely what they are. After the paragraph where Ponzi says, "Let the United States Government find it out if it can. I do not think that it can," there is a paragraph, and take into consideration the words of nearly an entire line are missing, "While refraining from giving any clew —— [tran]saction, Ponzi —— said. —— is all very simple. First, the psychology of greed. Then, the psychology of fear. Men and women are children a few years older." Drop down to the paragraph that has the sentence, "Uncle Sam has called to work with him the United States embassies," etc. There is an entire line missing. But the sentence starts off, "It will —————- is a veritable bonanza king or something else." Then that leads into all the Ponzi quotes.

John D's Fortune $1,000,000,000

1916

Information of the existence of a balance sheet compiled at Cleveland ten days ago on the occasion of John D. Rockefeller's 77th birthday, showing that his private fortune, exclusive of endowment funds and other benefactions, exceeds a billion dollars, is said to be in possession of the authorities of Cuyahoga county.

The existence of the balance sheet, indicating that Mr. Rockefeller's fortune exceeds that of any man in the world, was discovered in the search for evidence to present in the United States Circuit Court of Appeals in a forthcoming attempt of Cuyahoga county to force Mr. Rockefeller to pay taxes on holdings of more than three hundred million dollars. Mr. Rockefeller obtained an injunction in the United States District court in Cleveland, preventing the enforcement of tax collection on the holdings in October, 1915, and in December of the same year Cuyahoga county filed an appeal in the United States Circuit court.

Since the county authorities have been endeavoring to obtain evidence that Mr. Rockefeller was a legal resident of Cleveland. He is now at his home in Cleveland, and on July 9 celebrated his 77th birthday. It was about that time, it is understood, that a balance sheet containing the extent and the varied amounts of his holdings was presented to him. The balance sheet, according to authentic information, indicated that the Rockefeller fortune had exceeded $1,000,000,000 and steadily was mounting upward; so rapidly, in fact, that, with all of his enormous benefactions, Mr. Rockefeller was unable to dispose of the income.

Of the enormous total nearly $500,000,000 represents Mr. Rockefeller's holdings in the various Standard Oil companies and their subsidiaries. He holds approximately 247,962 shares out of a total of 883,383 shares issued in all of the companies. The stock is now quoted around $1700, about three times what it was before the federal courts issued the order dissolving the great corporation into independent companies.

The balance of Mr. Rockefeller's fortune, it is understood, is shown to be in enormous holdings in various railway and banking corporations, the United States Steel corporation, and in National, Municipal, State and in foreign bond issues. Among his holdings it is recorded, there are $10,000,000 of Anglo-French war bonds, floated here last year by the Allied commission.

Naturally, with such amazing accumulation of wealth, the variations of the stock market day by day increase or decrease the fortune by a million or more dollars. Since the compilation of the schedule in June, immediately succeeding the announcement that the half year's gifts of the Rockefeller Foundation, merely one of his projects, were more than three million dollars, the fortune is said to have shown a great increase. That is because of the steadily upward trend of various stocks because of the enlivened commerce of the country.

Neither Mr. Rockefeller nor his son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., are engaged actively in business. Since 1910, when their joint benefactions first began to loom large in the generosities of the world, eclipsing those of Andrew Carnegie, it is estimated that the Rockefellers have given a way approximately $200,000,000.

The most conspicuous of the benefactors have been the General Education Board, which has received about $60,000,000; University of Chicago to which has been given $25,000,000; Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, $10,000,000; Rush Medical College, $6,000,000; missions of the Baptist church at home and abroad, $8,000,000; to various colleges and universities in the United States, including Yale, Harvard, Barnard, Union Theological Seminary of New York, the Baptist and the Southern Education Fund, about $30,000,000; the Young Men's Christian Association, $4,000,000; to various hospitals and medical colleges, $20,000,000; for juvenile reform work, $3,000,000; and to Cleveland for betterment purposes, $3,000,000.

Since the war in Europe, the Rockefeller Foundation has given about $10,000,000 for relief work for a wide and varied character, but despite the great demands, the income accruing from the endowment fund, it is said, is not entirely used up. To the Rockefeller foundation, organized in the words of Mr. Rockefeller "for the good of mankind," will probably be the disburser of this greatest of existing fortunes. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., is the chief administrator of the great fund. The organization which will use the wealth has the following for its avowed purpose:—

"To make this vast force a living organism, which will have the freedom of a live thing, to give aid swiftly and largely when aid is most needed, not a mere accident of death that may set the money free for certain limited uses. No man can foresee the needs of ten, twenty or fifty years from now. The Foundation is limited only by the field of human civilization and human need. It will be a great clearing house for humanitarian effort all over the world."

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 1.

Against Taxing Wealth

1916

The high priests in their search for some vital and appealing issue against the Democratic party have hit upon another dangerous one.

They are squarely on record, as the Post pointed out yesterday, in opposition to the eight-hour day for railroad workers, and the other working men of the United States are asking themselves what this ominous assault means. Nor can they be blamed if they become convinced that the Republican party is identified with the capitalists and the big "interests." Or if they feel that logically Mr. Hughes and a Republican Congress — if such should be the results of the election — would at once move to repeal the railroad eight-hour law. The bosses can only blame themselves and their candidate for the feeling that the party has no sympathy this year for the aspirations and hopes of labor.

But there is another issue just as likely to burn the fingers of the G. O. P. orators and leaders. It is opposition to the taxation of wealth.

Already the business has begun. Assaults on the income tax law here in other States are now under way. The people are being told how iniquitous it is that the south pays so little of this tax and the north so much, as if that were some fault of the law. The logic of this is almost incredibly clumsy.

Our extraordinarily rich and prosperous northern states, Massachusetts among the rest, pay more income tax to the support of the federal government for the simple and sufficient reason that the wealth is here to be taxed. There isn't a southern state but would rejoice with exceeding great joy if from its borders went to the national treasury at Washington as much money as goes from Massachusetts, for that would mean that it was rich, that many of its citizens had great incomes which were doing their share in the Federal support.

Idle wealth was never justly taxed in these United States until the passage of the Democratic income tax law. On the shoulders of the poor rested by far the heavier burden. Now come the Republican stump speakers and attack this fairest and squarest form of taxation ever devised on the absurd ground that it is "sectional," keeping silent about the fact that wealth is taxed wherever found, whether north, south, east or west.

Against the eight-hour day and against the taxation of hitherto hidden and evading riches — that's where the Republican party is headed, if it is not already there. — The Boston Post.

The Weariness of Wealth

1916

Interviewed for the American Magazine, Charles M. Schwab remarks that there is no enjoyment in great wealth — that a reasonable man with $10,000 to $12,000 a year is getting enough to satisfy all his needs, and that to get more is to invite unhappiness.

"One soon wearies," he says, "of riding about for pleasure in private yachts and private cars."

This is the sort of thing which everybody hears at one time or another and which nobody wholly believes. Mr. Schwab happens to prefer power to other things that money can buy. Dominance in big business takes the place with him which the pursuit of pleasure holds with some other man.

Mr. Morgan went in for world power in finance, but did not despise his yacht or his art collections. He did not prate of a lack of enjoyment in the smaller personal satisfactions possible through his great wealth.

To men of ordinary means, the luxuries born of wealth are most conspicuous, most appealing. Private yachts and private trains and motor cars and palatial homes are visible, tangible things. Men fortunately can be content without them, but the conviction that they are altogether a weariness will be difficult to carry. — The New York World.

She Rustled

1901

A London paper says that C. T. Yerkes, the American street railway magnate, now in London, recently received the following letter from a young woman:

"Dear Mr. Yerkes — I have seen by the papers how rich you are, and also I have seen your picture, which looks kind. So I thought I would tell you that my parents are poor and depriving themselves of many comforts in order to give me a good education. Among my school friends there is a gymnastic club, of which I am a member, and all the girls wear silk skirts, and it gives me the horrors to feel I can't have one when I hear the fascinating rustle of their petticoats. Would you send me $5 to buy one? Yours," etc.

Mr. Yerkes received the unique epistle from his secretary and, to the latter's astonishment, exclaimed: "Send her the money. It will give more pleasure than if invested in any other way." The money was sent, and the acknowledgment was as follows: "Dear Mr. Yerkes — Thanks so much for the money. I invested it and can now rustle with the others."

Funeral is Held For Cat

1919

$6,000 Animal Is Buried on Estate in Metal Casket.

LENOX, Massachusetts — Funeral rites over a cat here were attended by all the employes on the Summer estate of Mrs. Carlos de Herodias of New York, and the feline's "remains" were buried on the estate in a metal casket. Hyacinth, a Persian cat, said to have cost $6,000, was greatly treasured by Mrs. de Herodias, and when it died at her home in New York the owner had the body borne here in a special automobile truck.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 7.

$100,000,000

1920

Rockefeller Makes Largest Christmas Donation in History

NEW YORK, N. Y., Jan. 1. — With his Christmas donation of $100,000,000 to public purposes, John D. Rockefeller brought the total sum which he had given to social, religious, welfare and educational institutions up to approximately $500,000,000. The Yuletide gift was the largest single philanthropic endowment from an individual in the history of the world.

Half of the $100,000,000 goes to the general education board, itself a Rockefeller creation, to be disbursed, both principal and interest, in co-operating with institutions of higher learning in increasing the salaries of their teaching staffs.

The other $50,000,000 goes to the Rockefeller Foundation, chartered "to promote the well being of mankind thruout the world." Of this sum $5,000,000, in deference to a special request of the donor, is to be expended for the development and improvement of the leading medical schools of Canada, which are to be required to raise additional sums from other sources.

Mr. Rockefeller's benefactions to date may be tabulated as follows:

To the general education board $70,000,000
To the Rockefeller Foundation $82,000,000
To the Rockefeller Institute $10,000,000
The son's estimate in 1915 $250,000,000
Religious and other unannounced benefactions, estimated on excellent authority $88,000,000
Total $500,000,000

An Arabian Druid in Paris

1905

Strange mystics are discovered in Paris every now and again. The latest is described as an Arabian Druid who inhabited the Rue de la Michodiere, a street in the center of the city.

His neighbors were startled at midnight to hear weird and discordant sounds issuing from the dwelling of Ali Bonem, followed by ritualistic incantations and liturgical chantings, alternatively plaintive and fierce. The reflection of flames was also observed.

When the door was burst open by the police a man of huge stature was seen, clothed in a long white sheet, his eyes rolling wildly, and in his hand a bloodstained knife. Around him a number of wax candles shed a mystic light, and on a piano, which had served as an altar, lay a disemboweled lamb. As a measure of precaution Al Bonem, the high priest, has been taken into custody. — London Globe.


Honesty Carried to Extremes

An American millionaire while driving an automobile in France ran over and killed a dog. Near the scene of the accident was a peasant, presumably the owner of the dog. To him the millionaire gave a bank note. But the peasant was not the owner of the dog and he was honest, but before he could make up his mind to return the money the automobile and its driver were beyond recall.

None the less the peasant would not keep the bill, and when the automobilist next rode past that place some months later he discovered the dog's skeleton at the side of the road with the bank note attached to it and a penciled line calling attention to the mistake.

Building Old As U. P. Road

1915

Its Proprietor Still Lives, a Victim of Generosity and Poverty

LARAMIE, Wyo., Dec. 16. — In the ordinary city which began no further back than 1868 the oldest building would be of little consequence, but in a city in the West, whose existence dates from May 9 of that year, when the Union Pacific Railroad laid its first rails into and thru the townsite, the oldest house seems very old indeed to the residents and to the people generally.

Laramie's oldest building today is a long two-story building which was built by Patrick Doran, who is living here at present, as a hotel, and in which hundreds of transient and regular boarders were accommodated for years.

Doran had his own way of keeping books. He chalked the accounts on the inner side of the front door. If a customer disputed the bill, mine host would go to the door, carefully erase the score and tel1 the dissatisfied customer that they would start all over again.

The old building is of logs, cut in the mountains several miles southwest of the city and floated down the Laramie River. The building is now used for a blacksmith shop.

In the early days of the frontier hotel Mr. Doran would charge a dollar a meal from those who could pay a dollar and lesser sums from those who could not afford to pay. No man ever went away hungry that had any money at all, and Mr. Doran would never take the man's last cent, so that one can imagine the large number of accounts the inward side of that door used to carry. Doran himself was quite wealthy at one time, but accepts charity from the county.

Comb World In Vain for Arnold Girl

Dec. 1915

Relatives Give Up Hope as Five Years Pass Without Trace

Folks Wear Mourning

Disappeared Five Years Ago This Week

Following is the order of Dorothy Arnold's actions December 12, 1910, so far as known up to the time of her disappearance:
11:30 A. M. — Left her home at 108 East Seventy-ninth street, New York, telling her mother she intended to buy a new dress.
12:00 Noon. — Bought a box of candy at Fifth avenue and Fifty-ninth street.
2:00 P. M. — Bought a book at Brentano's and had it charged, altho she had between $20 and $30 in her purse when she left her home two hours and a half earlier.
2:45 P. M. — Met a girl friend at Fifth avenue, near Thirtieth street.
2:50 P. M. — ? ? ? ? ?

NEW YORK, Dec. 16. — Five years ago this week Miss Dorothy Arnold vanished so completely that no detective in the world has been able to discover a clew to her whereabouts or her fate.

"What happened to Dorothy Arnold?" is a question that has been asked in every house where newspapers printed in any language are read.

For answer such men as William J. Flynn, now head of the United States Secret Service; Sir E. R. Henry, chief of Scotland Yard; William J. Burns, George S. Dougherty, former deputy police commissioner in charge of the New York detectives; Joseph A. Faurot, present chief of detectives, and Lieut. Grant Williams, who as the director of the New York police department's bureau of missing persons, has investigated thousands of strange disappearances, give the reply that they are at a loss for a way to fathom the mystery.

If Dead, Where Is Body?

Dorothy Arnold was last seen, so far as is known to the police or other investigators, at Fifth avenue and Thirtieth street, on Monday, Dec. 12, 1910. The time was 3 o'clock in the afternoon or a few minutes earlier.

The aged father of the missing girl, who has spent many thousands of dollars to search every city in the world by wireless, cable, telegraph, telephone, mail and detectives, wears as a silent answer to the query of Dorothy's fate a wide mourning band on his hat, a mourning necktie and a suit of black. He is a wealthy importer of French and Russian perfumes.

"She is dead," he said to reporters this week.

"But where is her body?" is the question asked by trained investigators.

"Any morgue keeper in the entire country would at once take notice of a woman dressed in expensive lingerie or clothing," Lieutenant Williams says, in discussing the statistics of his bureau, which show that on the average one woman a year is left unidentified.

Description of Dorothy Arnold.

Dorothy Arnold on Dec. 12, 1910, when she went away from her home, was 26 years old. She was about 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed in the neighborhood of 140 pounds.

She was of striking appearance; her complexion was bright, her hair was dark brown and her eyes were grayish blue.

She wore a tailor-made blue serge suit and a black velvet hat trimmed with two silk roses.

The hat had inscribed in its lining the name of a fashionable milliner. Similarly, the name of the maker was embroidered on the tailor-made underwear which the young woman wore.

In her hand bag Miss Arnold carried about $20 or $30; yet she asked the clerk in Park & Tilford's Fifth avenue and Fifty-ninth street store to charge a pound of candy, and requested the cashier in Brentano's store to send her father the bill for a book — "An Engaged Girl's Sketches" — which she bought within a few hours after she was last seen by her mother.

Search Made All Over World.

The search for Dorothy Arnold has never been equaled for thoroughness. Here was the case of a mature young woman, highly educated, to a degree literary, and physically strong enough to balk any attempt at kidnaping. She was not in the habit of "slumming" or doing "settlement work," but, on the contrary, was more inclined to afternoon visits to such places as Sherry's restaurant and the Plaza tearoom. Her evenings were mostly spent in the company of her relatives or near friends. For almost six weeks following the disappearance of Dorothy the search was conducted along "confidential" lines. Her father, the descendant of a proud New England family, which traces its lineage back to the landing of the Pilgrims, loathed publicity. Her mother, a Canadian by birth and highly sensitive, equally abhorred the thought of letting the prying eyes of the public get a glimpse into the family circle.

The Man in Her Life.

There was a man in Dorothy Arnold's life. A few months preceding her disappearance the "affair" was such that it became a matter of family discussion. The first act after the young woman failed to respond to advertisements inserted in the personal columns of newspapers was to communicate by wireless with steamships bound for Europe. Then detectives were sent to Pittsburgh, Pa., to find out where George S. Griscom, a 44-year-old engineer, was staying at that time.

Griscom was in Florence, Italy. And there Mrs. Arnold hastened to confront him with the story of her daughter's disappearance. Even at the time of her sailing, the Arnolds were determined not to take any more persons than absolutely necessary into their confidence. Arnold had written to his brother in Germany a letter saying that a "terrible calamity had befallen the family," but they "did not wish to spoil their Christmas holiday by telling about it." As Mrs. Arnold sailed her husband cabled briefly to his brother telling him to furnish her with funds if needed.

Like the public, Dorothy Arnold's uncle and aunt got the first intimation of what had happened on the morning of Jan. 26, 1911, when the story of the disappearance appeared in all the newspapers of the leading cities of the United States and Europe. Deputy Police Commissioner Flynn, now chief of the Secret Service, on the day before told Arnold that his detectives had to have the aid of the newspapers. The "confidential" search had failed.

At the same time that the reporters were asked to aid the family. Word of Mrs. Arnold's visit to Florence and her meeting there with Griscom was kept a secret. "She is too sick to be seen," was the only explanation offered when reporters inquired for her. Two days later, however, it became known that George S. Griscom "was the man in the case." It then became known that the young woman less than two months before she left her family had been in Boston, where, according to the records of a loan company, she had obtained $60 for a quantity of jewelry that had been pawned.

George Griscom was Boston at the time, but if he and Dorothy met there at the time the information was never communicated to the public. It was admitted Dorothy on her return to New York rented a mail box in the general postoffice and that she quite regularly corresponded with Griscom. The letters she wrote him were in his possession the day Mrs. Arnold and her elder son John, saw him in Florence. As she demanded them John Arnold felled Griscom with a blow on the jaw. Then a promise was exacted from Griscom that he would never reveal the contents of the letters. Griscom has until this day kept his word as far as known.

Mrs. Arnold, on entering the lower bay on the steamship Pannonia, received a message from her attorneys and her two sons, John and D. Hinckley, met her at the pier. On their advice she declined to go into any details of her daughter's disappearance. John Arnold, in an interview with the then District Attorney Whitman, six days after the arrival of his mother from Italy, said he was convinced that Dorothy had committed suicide. He did not suggest that she might have met with foul play, nor did he ask for a grand jury investigation of her disappearance.

House in Pittsburgh Raided.

That the family lawyers at first shared with the detectives the belief that Dorothy Arnold bought a box of candy and a book with the intention of passing away time while riding on a railroad train was evident some time after the investigation was under way when John Keith, head of the Arnolds' legal representatives, said he had searched a sanitarium on the outskirts of Pittsburgh which was raided in April, 1913, by the Pittsburgh County authorities, who charged its proprietor with the death of a young woman who had been missing from her home for nearly a year.

A few days after this raid and the mention in the newspapers of Dorothy's name in connection with the investigation of the place, Arnold sent for the reporters and invited them to go thru his East Seventy-ninth street house from cellar to garret. He repeated his belief that his daughter would never be found.

The police records show that of the women who are daily reported as missing there are but few who, under any compulsion, give up the luxuries of homes so that they may wander about as fancy dictates. Some go away because of quarrels, others because they tire of being "pampered" by indulgent mothers, brothers and sisters, and others want to get away from the scene of some lovers' quarrel.

Dorothy Arnold was a girl of romantic ideas. She incorporated some of these in manuscripts, hoping to have them published. She was a graduate of Bryn Mawr, and after her schooling she began writing novels — which were never published.

——————

Did Dorothy Arnold take her family into her confidence? Has everything been told? Has any evidence been found to point to the theory that she is dead? Could she have been murdered and her body disposed of? Was there a suggested motive for murder? Did she by act or word suggest a reason for leaving home? These questions have been asked by the leading detectives of the world.

—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 3.

Note: The case was never solved.

Will Leaves Working Girl $90,000 to Repay Debt of Kindness

1920

SAN FRANCISCO, Cal., Feb. 26. — Gentle, kindly ways — human sympathy and the power to radiate the joy of life — seldom bring their just returns on the money market.

But these precious qualities were recognized to the extent of $90,000 in the will of the late Lucien Guilbert, pioneer lumber man of Yreka, who died recently.

As a result, Miss Caroline O. Koester, chief clerk of the field division of the Federal General Land Office in this city, and her mother, Mrs. Katherine Koester of Alameda, are wealthy.

"The large legacy came as a great surprise to mother and myself," said Miss Koester, when seen at her Alameda home, following a decision of the Third District Court of Appeals, which awarded them the bulk of the Guilbert estate.

"We were kind to Mr. Guilbert's sister during her long illness at Yreka, and she always considered our home her home. We simply did what we considered our duty as friends, and had no idea that we were going to be so richly rewarded. Mr. Guilbert, of course, often spoke of our kindliness and real helpfulness to his sister, and seemed to appreciate it deeply."

"Shall I continue to work at the land office? Why, of course. I have always worked, and I don't see why this money should change my life in any way."

The Guilbert will was the subject of bitter contest, waged by the four children of Guilbert's half-brother, who were each left $500 bequests. They alleged that he was incapable of disposing of his property when the will was made. The half-brother, Louis B. Guilbert, of Manteca, was left $5,000.

Other bequests of the will included several $500 gifts to friends of Yreka, $250 to a church and $500 each to two other children of Mrs. Katherine Koester — Edward Koester, of McCloud, and Fred Koester, of the United States Army.

Man Made $100,000 on 44-Cent Start

1920

Now Charged With Theft of $500

Arrest Reveals Career of Poor Texas Youth Who Made Fortune in New York

NEW YORK, N. Y., March 25. — Abraham White, known variously as the "Speculator King," the "Postage Stamp Bidder," the "Wireless Chief" and the "Texas Grocer," was held in $1,000 bail by Magistrate Charles N. Haris in the Yorkville court on a charge of grand larceny.

While acting as a plain "financier" at his offices, White is charged with accepting $500 from Julius Reibert, a builder, of Hartford, Conn., last Oct. 15, for investment in stock of the Freezproof Corporation.

Reibert, in his complaint against White, who fifteen years ago made a fortune on a "shoestring" in Wall street, says the stock was to have been delivered to him on Dec. 1. Neither was the stock delivered up to the time of White's arrest in the Hotel Pennsylvania, nor the $500 returned to Reibert, after repeated demands, it was stated.

Made $100,000 From 44 Cents

White started life in Corsicana, Texas, under the name of Abraham Schwartz, fifty-five years ago, the son of the owner of a chain of small grocery stores thruout the Lone Star State. In 1896 the future bond wizard went to St. Louis and changed his name to White.

Later in the year White came to New York and conceived the idea of making $100,000 by investing 44 cents in stamps, plus native shrewdness. At that time President Cleveland and Congress authorized a Government bond issue, and the Secretary of the Treasury forgot to ask for checks to cover the amounts of the bid. White saw his chance. He sent in bids aggregating $1,500,000, at a cost of 44 cents in stamps. He told the late Russell Sage what a smart thing he had pulled off, and the financier was so pleased that he advanced the large sum necessary to tide White over. The former Texas grocer cleaned up $100,000 and that started him on a meteoric career.

Formed Securities Company

While president of a wireless company, White formed the Greater New York Securities Company, a bank located in his office. In September, 1907, he outbid J. P. Morgan & Co. and a syndicate for $18,000,000 worth of city bonds and deposited with his bid a certified check for $800,000. Comptroller Metz tried to collect on the check, but as there were no funds, White's bid was thrown out.

Later, in the name of a Massachusetts corporation, White got $4,000,000 of another issue of city bonds and made $500,000 on the transaction.

While at the height of his career, White bought Shadow Lawn, the palatial residence of the late John A. McCall, at Long Branch, against the bidding of several millionaires. After occupying the house for the summer of 1906, and entertaining lavishly, White disappeared for a few months, leaving a trail of unpaid bills.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1950, p. 5.

The Sahara Water-Clock

1904

A man's wealth in the Sahara is calculated almost entirely by the number of camels or palm-trees which he owns, and by the amount of water to which he is entitled. Water in the desert is so scarce that the ownership of it is most jealously guarded.

In "A Search for the Masked Tawareks," the author says that in buying a palm grove it is always necessary to stipulate for so many sa'as per day or week. A sa'a, literally "an hour," is the amount of water which will flow in an hour through an opening the width of a man's fist in the side of a segia.

The main segias, or channels, as a rule follow the roads of the oasis, forming a sort of ditch at the side. A regular time-table is kept, showing the hours at which the owners of the different plantations are entitled to draw water.

The time is measured by a very curious little water-clock, consisting of a metal cup, made usually of brass or copper, with a small hole pierced in the bottom. At the commencement of each hour this is placed in a basin of water. The water gradually runs through the hole until, at the expiration of the hour, the cup sinks to the bottom of the basin. It is then taken out, emptied, and set again to measure off the next sa'a, and so the process is continued throughout the twenty-four hours.

This instrument is usually kept in the village mosque. In order to prevent all interference with it, a watchman is set over it, who notifies the expiration of each hour from the minaret of the mosque.

At the end of the sa'a the opening in the side of the segia through which the water flows is closed with clay, and the water is cut off, and allowed to flow down the main channel to the next plantation.

Had Sure Thing at Stud Poker

Feb. 1920

Playing with Marked Cards, New Yorker Cleaned Up an Immense Sum

New York.—-A group of screen magnates and music publishers along Broadway has been fleeced out of $350,000 by a wealthy manufacturer with a deck of marked cards, whom they admitted to their private games. He was finally detected and thrown out of the house of the man who caught him. The World prints the story, calling the fleecer Mr. Trimmer and the other man Mr. Screen. It asserts it has their real names.

For a considerable time a group of twelve or fourteen men, all of ample means, have been playing stud poker. There were Mr. Screen, a big picture promoter and the husband of one of the prettiest and most talented stars; Mr. Flickers, of equal rank in celluloid productions; Mr. Circuit, who owns a flock of theaters; Mr. Ragg, who receives immense royalties from his song compositions, and others quite as well known in their respective fields.

Last summer, at Far Rockaway and Arverne, their ranks were augmented by Mr. Trimmer. He is a manufacturer on an immense scale of a certain article of women's wear, and is generally known as a millionaire.

They Thought It Was Luck

Mr. Trimmer's "uncanny luck," as the other players called it, was noticeable from the very start. In one session, for instance, which began on a Saturday night and continued into Sunday, he cleaned up more than $40,000.

The daring of Mr. Trimmer's play was what interested the others more than anything else. He would make bets against seemingly impossible odds — and win them.

Mr. Trimmer always knew what the other fellow's secret card was, when he was the dealer, and he always won. Also he always knew, when he held the deck, what card his opponent would get next, and what card he (Trimmer) was going to get next, for his cards were what is known to gamblers as "readers."

The design on the back of them — which meant nothing to others — told him exactly what denomination each pasteboard was.

At last, suspicion intruded, and one of the other men at a party which Trimmer had arranged pocketed a deck of Trimmer's cards and took them to a professional gambler for examination.

"They're readers," said the professional. At the corner of each card, on the back, was a design composed of four fleur-de-lis — the three leafed flower of France.

If the right hand petal of the flower at the upper right hand of the group was heavily shaded the card was an ace; if the center petal of that particular flower was accentuated, it was a king; if the shading was on the left hand petal it was a queen.

There were four flowers, each with three petals. The shadings, therefore, stood for 12 different cards, according to where they were placed, these cards ranging down from the ace to the deuce. If no petal was shaded the card was the deuce.

An exposure was planned at Screen's house. There were eight players. Trimmer, on a few hands off square cards, lost $650. Then he produced a deck of his sort. As soon as Screen saw the marked cards he exposed the cheat to his guests and proceeded to beat Trimmer up, winding up by throwing him out of the house.

Jazz Music Not a Nuisance

Feb. 1920

Los Angeles County Judge Refuses to Give Relief to Disturbed Nerves

Los Angeles, Cal. — Jazz music is not a nuisance, according to a decision by Judge Lewis R. Works, in the Los Angeles county superior court. The city of Pasadena had brought suit against a social club, whose neighbors complained its jazz music "jarred on their nerves."

"Once jazz music might have been construed as a nuisance," Judge Works said. "It is no longer so construed. If the music disturbed the residents of the neighborhood, I am sorry, but this court cannot give them relief."


Wealthy Pauper

In a cheap lodging house in William street, New York, an aged man died, leaving a will showing that he was wealthy enough to live in a brownstone mansion in Fifth avenue. He was Edward Campion, aged sixty-five. Why he chose the habitat of the "down-and-outer" may remain a mystery. The house is one of those where the unfortunate can get "bath and bed" for 15 or 25 cents.

In his will, Campion disposes of several valuable parcels of Manhattan property, as well as real estate in other sections, in addition to considerable cash, to two daughters and three sons.

Eccentric Tramp Character Dead

1914

"Johnny" Wire Wealthy, But Dressed and Lived as a Tramp

York, Pa., Jan. 24. — "Johnny" Wire, one of the most familiar figures of York county, died here.

He was known over the county as "the rich tramp." Wire was possessed of a fortune, but dressed as an ordinary tramp, wandering from place to place over the country and walking many miles to get a free meal from some of the farmers.

His brother died some time ago leaving an estate of several hundred thousand dollars. Wire was about seventy years old.


Superstitions of Miners

As a man of perilous occupation, the miner has many superstitions. One widespread belief is that to introduce a rabbit into a mine is to court disaster, and many stories are current of catastrophes heralded by the appearance of a white rabbit to the men who were doomed to die. He would be a bold miner, too, who would whistle at work for whistling is a direct invitation to disaster, and though miners are cleanly folk, very few ever wash the small of their back, lest the roof should fall on them.