Forgery, Vice, and Social Respectability
A young man convicted at Athens, Ga., of forgery was, according to the Atlanta Constitution, "an active member of the Young Men's Christian Association," yet he habitually "played and drank in the billiard saloons." He "had been a Major in the British army, and was the son of an Irish peer," yet his first appearance in the place was as "a homeless tramp." "So bright and transcendent were the developments of his training that in a few weeks he was tendered the position of bookkeeper in one of the largest cotton warehouses of the city, and he soon mingled in the best society," yet in a drunken stupor, at midnight, broke at the gaming table, surrounded by sharks, crazed with abominable liquor, he forged a check for $25 on his employer." The upshot of it all is that he has gone to prison for four years.