FROM AFFLUENCE TO DEATH.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1162, 29 September 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

FROM AFFLUENCE TO DEATH.

A pale and emaciated young man, bai-eii able to maud alone, was led from his cell at the Eastern Peneteiigiary, Philadelphia, a few days ago, amt taken to the hospital to dtc lie was supported on each side by a keeper, and as the trio slowly paced the long corridor, there was something in the appearance of the young man calculated to attract attention. Ilis countenance was not that usually seen in the criminal classes. There was an air of refinement about him, and he sighed heavily as he gazed

upon the blue sky above his head when he and his supporters went over the narrow strip of ground from the cells to the place ot resting for the sick. The man was a living enigma. His true name is perhaps known to but one person in this country, and after his admission to the hospital he oraduallv sank, and in three days died

of what the doctors pronounced tvphoid pneumonia. \V hilo no yet lingered one of the attendants asked him if he could not write to his relatives or friends, and apprise them of his illness. " 1 have none, ' replied the poor fellow, and as lie began to weep, he muttered, " 1 am alone hi tne world.” lie asked for pencil and

paper, and started to write ;> lei ter. He began with “ Dear father.” Then followed a few words, but the epistle was never finished. The task was more than the living man could accomplish. Ik* expired with the paper clutched in bis hand. Some days after the decease of the young man a wellknown thief dropped into the office of one of the inspectors, and said lie understood so-and-so was dead. i es. was the answer. Then the thief told a romantic story of the wild career of the young man. The fellow came to the United States in 1876, to see the Centennial Show and see the country. He was well provided with funds, and Lavina no one to restrain him, he ran the full course of a wild riotous career. Last horses, fast men, and still faster women made his dollars 11 y until lie found himself at the close of the Exhibition reduced in finances. Two or three times he wrote to his father, who promptly remitted funds, and who wrote a letter full of tenderness and regard, in which the sou was kindlv warned to take care of the money and beware of bad company. He heeded not the admonition of the parent, and fell in with a gang of thieves. Correspondence with nomc ••eased. The young man destoyed all traces of his family, and started mi the down grade. He was at last detected in a big scheme of forgery,

tried in the Dauphin County Court, and sent to the Eastern Penitentiary for live years. Ile was too proud to apprise ills father of what had happened, ami instead of telling the truth he wrote a letter to Ins parent saying he would not be heard from lor five vears. “ 1 am tired of the I oiled Stales, and want to see the world. I am giiingto Australia, so do not worry about me. is what the poor fellow said in his letter. His trip around the world eon.-istrd in pacing I he bare floor of a 7x!) cell in the Penilentiary, mid the delud' d father is m ignorance <•• the fate of bis son. I'm; lather is one of the chief officers of Hie l emmdy Bank in London, and is a gentleman of wealth and high social position.