Prescott Journal

GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.

A JEREDY DIDDLER.

By Strict Attention to Business He Gets Along in the World, Becomes Heir to a Large Estate, Negotiates Loans, Makes Costly Presents, Controls a Lead Mine, Establishes a Boot-Blackening Shop, and Distributes Bibles.

The adventures of J. G. Patterson, for a time one of the most successful of the New York chevaliers d'industrie, and one whose life has been strangely chequered, give some idea of the amount of willingness and vigilance which must necessarily be put in exercise by those who seek to amass a fortune by adroit dishonesty, of a character that exposes them, if detected, to the severest sentences of the law.

Patterson, who is now 29 years of age, commenced life in the employ of Messrs. Lawrence & Co., carpet dealers, New York. His modest demeanor and innocent look attracted attention, which was still further improved by his seeming incessant attention to business. But at this very time he was a gambler, investing his every spare dollar in faro.

He soon opened a commission house of his own in Ann street, and by consummate address kept up the appearance of doing a very extensive business. By means of letters and representations he was enabled to borrow money largely of his friends. Weary of waiting for their pay, they at last ordered an investigation of his accounts, which showed that his books were fictitious, his letters forgeries, his capital only $250, his debts $10,000, and the whole business a fraud from the very beginning.

Meantime, by false representations of a good pecuniary status, Patterson had contrived to obtain for his wife the daughter of a prominent citizen of Auburn. The lady soon had reason to repent her choice, for, through some fresh confidence operations, her husband became an inmate of Moyamensing prison, Philadelphia. His able, though hypocritical letters of repentance, gained him a speedy pardon.

Returning to New York, utterly destitute of funds, he contrived to raise the wind by perpetrating an audacious swindle upon his late jailor. He invited him to New York and entertained him in the most princely manner at his hotel for several days, providing the most costly Havanas, the choicest claret and the most superb dinners, and accounting for the magnificent style of his own living by stating that he had recently been left sole heir to a large estate.

After the jailor arrived home he received a letter requesting a loan of $1,500 which he did not refuse to grant. A portion of this Patterson used to liquidate his hotel bills, and the balance he put in his pockets for "keeps." He next assumed the character of a person who controlled a lead mine worth millions. He bought a small tract of worthless land, hired a bogus assayer to certify to an analysis of the ore, and sold the stock very freely; allowed the concern to collapse, and pocketed all the money paid in by the subscribers, amounting to some $100,000.

He now took up his abode at the Spangler House, near Union Square, paying $12,000 per annum for a suite of rooms, and devoted himself to social intrigue and genteel dissipation. But he did not forget his financial speculations. He victimized all his personal friends, making them costly presents, and borrowing from them under pretense of having great riches, a great deal more money than the presents were worth.

Patterson also established a boot-blacking shop under the City Bank, in Wall street, fitted it up elegantly with black walnut furniture, and employed a number of boot artists, but finally abandoned the undertaking. At another time he went to Chicago, and distributed over 2500 bibles to the schools, concluding his operations by swindling the trustees. At Washington he made himself socially successful, living like a lord, and literally entertaining princes. But by this time his many victims in New York had become implacably incensed against him, and he was obliged to make a hasty exit, with only such property as he could carry in a very small carpet-bag.

He turned up, at length, in the south, in a state of abject poverty, and, being too poor to purchase a railroad ticket on his way north, he contrived to secure his passage by means of an artful imposition upon the conductors.

His last fiasco occurred in New England, where he contrived to win the affections of a widow lady with large expectations. Ere he reached the lady's house, however, he was arrested on one of the fifty charges against him and thrown into jail, from which he was liberated by a gentleman from Hartford, who gave bail for him in the sum of $8,000, which has been forfeited.

He has never since been able to redeem his fallen fortunes; and after a career evincing sufficient talent to have made him in a good cause rich, he has leisure to reflect in his present state of wretchedness and destitution, that honesty is the best policy, and that sharpers often overreach themselves and fall unwittingly into the snare which they so cruelly laid for others.