declined to make the first advances by calling on Erie's president. But Gould, slowly sinking, was ready to catch at straws. Taking as a card of introduction a telegram from Colonel Scott, he called at Gordon's apartments. Horace Greely was present at the well nigh historic interview.

In a state of abject panic, at his Lordship's demand, Gould agreed to cease all opposition to the repeal by the Legislature of the then famous "Classification Bill," to discontinue the entire series of actions in which Erie was involved, to renounce all operations on the stock market and procure the resignation of the existing Board of Directors.

He went even farther. Incredible as it may seem, he wrote out the following resignation and placed it in Gordon's hands:

"I hereby resign my position as President and Director of the Erie Railway Company, to take effect on the appointment of my Yours, etc., "JAY GOULD."

successor.

"New York, March 9, 1872."

"By the way," Gordon insinuated, as the interview was drawing to a close, "I have been put to considerable expense in investigating Erie's condition. It amounts to fully a million. Now it seems no more than fair that the road should reimburse me at least half." Whereupon Gould actually handed to this social highwayman two hundred thousand dollars in cash and three hundred thousand dollars in negotiable securities.

For two weeks Gordon had this fortune in his possession. At any time he could have fled across the Canadian border. That he did not, is by no means the least mysterious feature of the transaction.

On March eleventh occurred the famous coup. In defiance of an injunction previously obtained by Gould, a stormy meeting of the Board of Directors was held.

The company's offices swarmed with police. under personal charge of Superintendent

Kelsoe and a band of private detectives and roughs headed by the notorious "Tommy Lynch." There was no hitch in the proceedings. "Brought like a bullock, hoof and hide," the directors, in the vernacular of today, were prepared to "deliver the goods." One by one they resigned, but two, Eldhide," the directors, in the vernacular of toGould. Their vacant places were immediately filled with partisans of the opposing faction. The "Little Wizard" was removed, and General Dix elected in his stead.

The details of this dramatic scene, have already been told often enough to do away with the necessity of repetition here. How the new board on adjourning found themselves locked in, the door guarded by Lynch and his band of Bowery toughs, how General Sickles was sent for and with the assistance of United States Marshal Kennedy broke down the door, how Gould intrenched himself in his private office and when the barricades were beaten down, evaded service of the papers notifying him of his removal by agilely leaping over desks, tables and chairs, finally taking refuge with his counsel. Field and Sherman, and how the boy messenger, Crowley, hoisted over the transom, succeeded in handing the documents to the deposed president, who after sulking until the next morning, gave up the fight, is matter of almost common knowledge.

Had Lord Gordon possessed the voting power which he claimed, his assistance was now of no value.

Even then the ex-president delayed. He seems to have had not the slightest suspicion or to have made any attempt whatever to verify "Abercrombie's" story.

Finally on March 23, in the office of William M. Tweed, at 85 Duane street, Gould said to the latter:

"Tweed, I've made up my mind that Gordon is a scoundrel, and I think I'll make him give back the money and securities I gave him or have him arrested."

"You had better see Judge Shandley about it. He's in the next room," Tweed answered.

At half-past one in the afternoon, Gould, Shandley and Belden called on Gordon. With them went Superintendent John J. Kelsoe.

Belden sent in his card. He was admitted and according to Gould's version of the affair, said to Gordon.

"See here, Jay Gould with Judge Shandley and Chief of Police Kelsoe are in Tweed's room. Uuless you return at once the money and securities that Gould left with you, they will railroad you to prison before any one knows where you are."

The almost unparalleled audacity and sang froid which this prince of swindlers had hitherto manifested, suddenly collapsed. Without protest, he immediately disgorged his entire gains with the exception of some shares in the Allegheny and Oil Creek Railroad which he had previously placed in the hands of his brokers for sale. He wrote out an order for these.

The only hypothesis which will sufficiently explain Gordon's conduct is a belief that Gould possessed the power to fulfill Belden's threat of "railroading to prison" by Star Chamber methods, without the assistance of a jury in public trial. Without doubt a compromise of signal advantage to the criminal would have been effected, had he manifested some trifling tenacity. Still, Tweed's control of certain members of the judiciary, as revealed by subsequent investigation, rendered the threat not altogether an idle one.

The conspirators were themselves amazed at their success. Gould had remarked on the way over, that if he "got a hundred thousand back, it would be a streak of luck." One hour later, Belden, with what object cannot be imagined, took it upon himself to return to Gordon, apparently for the very purpose of expressing the surprise of all con

cerned that the latter "had given up so easily."

At which the psuedo Lord, plucking up a little courage, hastily dispatched a message to Philadelphia notifying his brokers not to honor the Alleghaney and Oil Creek order.

Too late. The imposture was fixed and on April ninth Gordon was arrested, charged with misappropriation. Gould simultaneously initiated a civil suit against the brokers, who in obedience to Gordon's subsequent directions, had refused to surrender the stock.

So much odium had been incurred by Erie's ex-president, that the general public persistently refused to credit his version of the affair, and the newspapers, when they made any reference to the matter at all, treated it as a mere squabble arising out of an ordinary stock transaction.

Is it not well nigh incredible that even at this late stage, no one seemingly made the slightest attempt to verify Gordon's title of nobility or test the truth of his tale of enormous estates in Scotland? Horace F. Clark and A. T. Roberts volunteered their services as his bondsmen, the former leaving his bed at midnight to qualify. Thirty-seven hundred dollars bail was exacted. Ex-Judge James K. Porter, John Graham, James H. Strahan, leaders at the bar, against whom not a breath of suspicion had ever been wafted, believed in and appeared for this self-styled "victim of a conspiracy."

Judge Joseph F. Brady after a number of adjournments set the case down for trial on September twentieth. A day or two before, Gordon disappeared.

less, armed with papers which it was subsequently claimed, were honestly believed to be sufficient, they endeavored to forcibly remove the criminal to the United States. The enterprise proved abortive and the detectives found themselves confronted with a charge of kidnapping.

Governor Austin of Minnesota succeeded in working himself up into a fine state of frenzy over what was certainly a pretty plain case. Letters whose terms could scarce pass muster as diplomatic, were addressed to the Governor of Manitoba, and the aid of the State Department at Washington invoked to secure the termination of what was alleged to be the unlawful and wanton imprisonment of two inoffensive citizens of Minneapolis. Fortunately the good sense of the Federal officials to whom appeal was made, prevented this government from assuming an exceedingly ridiculous position, for the act of Hay and Keegan was as indefensible from the standpoint of international law as might well be imagined.

Governor Austin and Consul Taylor, after stirring up considerable of a teapot tempest and getting themselves thoroughly laughed at, finally subsided and concluded to let Canadian justice take its course. Whereupon, after three months' detention at Fort Garry, the prisoners were duly indicted, brought to trial and upon pleading guilty the judicial mountain was delivered of the unexpected mouse, in the shape of a sentence of twenty-four hours' imprisonment.

Gordon blustered considerably over the affair and made all kinds of menaces to sue everybody concerned. Apparently he thought better of it upon finding that no compromise money was forthcoming, in response to sev eral threatening letters.

But the career of this accomplished swindler was now drawing to a close. He had

been arrested at Fort Garry on charges of forgery forgery and perjury, but was released through the failure of the Crown to prosecute. He then fled to the small and isolated village of Headingly, hoping to enjoy a short respite in which to perfect new schemes.

On the evening of August 1, 1874, two officers arrived and immediately placed him under arrest, exhibiting what purported to be warrants issued in Toronto, based upon charges of larceny and forgery committed in England and Scotland.

Gordon took the matter quietly enough, merely asking whether it was proposed to take him through the United States.

He was assured that this would not be done.

Thereupon, excusing himself for a few minutes, he stepped into an adjoining room, drew a revolver and blew out his brains.

An inquest revealed the fact that the warrants were spurious and but another attempt on the part of the bondsmen. After being severely reprimanded, the detectives were permitted to depart without punishment.

"Lord Gordon" certainly had reason to dread English justice. He is known to have been the son of middle class parents, living near the borderland of Scotland. Expensive tastes and a desire for luxurious living were scarcely susceptible of gratification on the salary of a junior clerk in a commercial house. Resigning his position, he began to pose as Lord Glencairn, a wholly fictitious member of the Scotch nobility, allied it was claimed, to the Duke of Hamilton, and the Marquis of Hastings, and possessed of a rent roll of some ten thousand pounds a year.. His operations in the way of obtaining goods on credit, principally from jewelers, are said to have netted him some fifty thousand dollars. It was with this capital that he backed his venture here.

"They are humane men," he said. "I could tell you many moving stories of the pain that they have suffered in the infliction of severe sentences. It is not altogether pleasant to be a judge.

"That is why I cannot credit a story that was told me the other day about a judge in the West. A criminal, on trial before this man, had been found guilty. H was told to rise, and the judge said to him:

Have you ever been sentenced to imprisonment before?'

"No, your honor,' said the criminal, and he burst into tears.

"Well,' said the judge, 'don't cry. You're going to be now.'"-New York Times.

AN amusing feud between the bench and the press has arisen in Melbourne, according to the London Chronicle. One of the local morning journals alleged that the court hours were too short altogether, and that public inconvenience thereby resulted. Chief Justice Sir John Madden read that statement, and staggered counsel by sitting until six o'clock every day. A deputation of barristers waited upon him and remonstrated. He replied that so long as the public, as represented by the press, considered that the court was consulting its own ease he would continue to sit late. He has already converted the reporters.

A proclamation for the arrest of King Charles II. was sold quite recently in London. It began: "Whereas, Charles Stuart, son to the late tyrant, with divers of the English and Scotish nation have lately in a trayterous and hostile manner, with an army, invaded the nation, which by the blessing of God upon the forces of the Commonwealth have been defeated."

The fresh looking sheet is 253 years old, and in the body it refers to the "malicious. and dangerous trayter" and offers £1,000 reward.

A CERTAIN judge, who was chary of his words and syllables, was in the habit of cutting down the order "sustained," with which he ruled on objections, until it sounded like "stained." His little daughter was in court one day and that evening confided to her mother: "Mamma, papa chews tobacco so much when he's in court he has to tell the folks every now and then what's the matter with his shirt front."

C. L. A.

IN a Southern State a disreputable citizen was on trial for murder. The evidence was circumstantial and insufficient to convict, but the jury, believing that the culprit was a vagabond and ought to be convicted of something, brought him in guilty of negro stealing.

The judge enlightened them a little, and again sent them out.

They came in with a verdict of horse stealing.

The judge, lecturing them soundly, sent them out once more.

The next verdict was perfectly satisfactory-at least to themselves.

"Guilty of manslaughter in the first degree, but we don't think he is the man."Philadelphia Public Ledger.

A CORRESPONDENT of the London Times says in a letter to that paper:

"Some time ago my firm had occasion to apply for letters of administration to the estate of a boy who had died at the age of 9. The papers were returned to be resworn because they did not state that he 'died without issue!""

THEY tell a good story at the expense of W. B. Rodgers, the only lawyer at the Allegheny County Bar, or in the United States, for that matter, who holds the distinction of having been City Attorney of the three cities of one county at various times. He was counsel some time ago for a man charged with a serious offence, and on the day of the trial the defendant was in a condition that would certainly not have improved his chances of acquittal. Attorney Rodgers was worried, but he is a general in addition to being a political diplomat. He locked his client in a room in a downtown hotel and then studied out the knotty problem before him.

One of the most prominent oil operators of Pittsburg, and one of his most intimate friends, happened into his office shortly before he was ready to try the case. It was only a social call for a quiet chat, and Mr. Rodgers requested that his friend go into

the courtroom with him. The oil operator sat beside Mr. Rodgers at the counsel table, and, during the progress of the case, he took little note of what was going on. He was not interested. Several times witnesses pointed in his direction, as did Mr. Rodgers, but the oil operator thought nothing of it. Mr. Rodgers tried to be indifferent. None of the witnesses appeared to know the operator, at least they said that they did not, and the prosecutor also stated that he did not know the man seated beside Mr. Rodgers. The jury naturally thought the man was Mr Rodger's client, and when the right bower of Bigelow, at the conclusion of the testimony, got up and said, "That is my case. This is not the man," not many minutes were wasted in bringing in a verdict of acquittal.

The oil operator accompanied Mr. Rodgers out of court, and it was not until they were a safe distance away from the seat of justice that Mr. Rodgers confided to his friend that he had posed as the defendant in the case. The operator was mad all through when he first heard of it, but the ridiculousness of the situation appealed to him and he took it as a huge joke and as a sample of the diplomacy of one who could pull a brand out of the burning. It is doubtful whether the brilliant city attorney would acknowledge the story, but his friends say it is true. -Pittsburg Gazette.

A COUNSEL had been cross-examining a witness for some time with very little effect, writes "Sigma" in Personalia, and had sorely taxed the patience of the judge, the jury, and every one in court.

At last the judge intervened with an imperative hint to the learned gentleman to conclude his cross-examination. The counsel, who received this judicial intimation with a very bad grace, before telling the witness to stand down accosted him with the parting sarcasm: "Ah, you're a clever fellow, a very clever fellow! We can all see that!" The witness bending over from the box, quietly retorted, "I would return the compliment if I were not on oath."