Show o THfif BIAMt A KING fJ The Story of Prederick Banks Who Absconded With WellsFargo Express Money r New York Journal The narrative which follows Is that of a robbery as ingenious as romantic and as successful success-ful as any committed within living memory Frederick Banks was a trusted employee em-ployee in San Francisco of the rich WellsFargo Express company Twelve cz years ago he gathered together a great sum of money belonging to his employers I em-ployers sailed away with it and placed I Jiimself atosolutelj beyond the reach of American law To do this he beome a tang It is well recognized < that ordinary thieves are fools who fall from weakness weak-ness of body and mind Far otherwise was Banks Up to the last moment he was an exemplary business iran without with-out a vice Before he broke the law he took the most perfect measures to avoid the possibility of punishment Today he is king of Haratouga wealthier weal-thier than the WellsFargo company be7ed oy the numerous and amiable people and recognized as a sovereign by p the United States government t in ms can jjrancisco lays anis enjoyed en-joyed a good salary worked faithfully neer dissipated never had any small vices and displayed a great many virtues 1 vir-tues and altogether conducted himself A him-self as a wellregulated business man He was a good clerk and knew the details de-tails of the central office perfectly He had access to the moneys of the company com-pany under certain restrictions and knew many of the business secrets of that great corporation Banks saved some money out of his salary and one day did his first suspicious sus-picious thing He bought a yacht She was not an expensive affair just a nice I little schconer roomy and comfortable I Any man who works in a confidential capacity for WellsFargo must of necessity ne-cessity be a man of deep resources and fertile schemes Banks was that He took his trips up and down the coast when time was permitted him and from short cruises to begin with he lengthened his journeys out to the limit of office discipline Banks was trying i his wings just as a young bird does He was finding just how far he could get away from the big office without > being looked after c Banks knew the Pacific well and he acqired some knowledge of sailing from his yachting experiences But he worked on In the confidence of his people peo-ple and seemingly used his sea knowledge knowl-edge for the furtherance of his pleasure pleas-ure only For more than a year he coasted and worked and knew where the moneys were and how they were kept and saw them daily He was inline in-line of promotion and fought for it Some day in the natural order of things te would be that man who would know the combination of the big through Il safe and would have the locking of it before he left the office at night That day came to him as it comes to the average man who labors for it Then he began to buy things for his yacht He provisioned her He got oat some sort of papers for her and anchored her at the foot of Mission street where she passed unnoticed so e quiet a craft was she in build and rig She was almost as much business in appearance as her owner was in habit BANKS FLIGHT Late one afternoon Banks sent word down that he wished to sail that night with the tide He wanted to have two men call at the office and take aboard some few bags yet needed The men went to the WellsFargo office and were admUted by Banks himself On the floor were three bags of something personal effects presumably The len took the bags Banks himself cared for one and the three went the I short distance to the yacht and got aboard Everything at the office was I shipshape and in apparent good order That night the yacht went out through the Golden Gate and the civilized civ-ilized world has never set eyes on her to this good day Banks sailed her out of the ken of white men and took with him all the big through safe of the WellsFargo people contained Next day when Banks did not appear I ap-pear at the usual hour he was sent for I He was not a home Other men knew the combination and the safe was opened There was not a dollar inside The long yell of the WellsFargo forces went up and there was a hasty gathering of the forces Banks had gone on another little cruise and they knew he would never come back un less Indeed they found him and brought him back Every steamer sailing for a Pacific port carried WellsFargo detective at the next leaving Australia Japan Chin India Africa and Europe were in succession scoured The little yacht had hidden herself like a scared quail down behind the big sea and all the dogs of the pack could not nose her out or flush her into view Banks had gon Down in the southern seas beyond the equator is a continent not a continent con-tinent in the strict sense of the word but the remains of a continent From the Marquesas on the east of Australia Austra-lia on the west stretches an almost continuous con-tinuous chain of islands There are thousands and thousands of them ranging in size from a mere spot topping I top-ping the wave to an area equal to the state of New York These islands are arranged in groups like eggs in a nest Each group is inhabited and in the olden days each was a kingdom in Itself it-self Various European countries have sent ships down there annexing and I protecting and doing all those things which big countries may do to little i ones until the entire territory today is c under some sort of foreign domination jne last group or soutnern iSlands to surrender absolute independence were the Herve sand there is the other side of the story The royal family of the Herveys are the TonKas They have reigned by the old divine right system from time immemorial im-memorial They are highbred as natives na-tives go and are proud They are a pure race as well A Hervey islander 4 Is an aristocrat in eaddlecolor On the Island of Raratonga the largest in the group live the king and his following He is very old nowvery old A SAFE HARBOR l Before his eyes had failed him and l he could sit in his bamboo doorway and I loOk out on the break of the sea which f encompassed him and his he one day i saw the white sails of a schooner belly r lag towards him Schooners were not r so common as to pass without Tonga comment and out of the reef passage II i swept a great Tonga canoe freighted V with an order from the king to discover 1 dis-cover wfiiat manner of visitor this was Within two hours the schooner had I dropped her canvas in the big harbor and a stout white man of full beard and commanding presence was holding some converse with the old king A little lit-tle English and a little native put together f to-gether managed itT f it-T > he white man was waited upon hand and foot by softfooted women who watched his cars as a mother I wattihes her child The schooner stayed in the harbor with her crew lolling aboard her = day after day and the I 44 stranger lingered on He was picking up some words every day He made some incursions to tiie country and saw rich lands He traveled around the reefs and saw the pearl shelly lying deep down in the clear water He saw the great groves of cocoanut palms stretching along the shores The stranger saw all noted allthe age of tne Tonga the temper of the kindly people and then made his stroke The audience with the Tonga was long The Tonga was oW yes and tired These Americans know so much which the Tonga cannot know and this particular particu-lar American was so plain a man and to good a man and yes the Tonga fcouki do it if the people said so j a r a 2 The people had seen the American eating their pickled fish and their plantains plan-tains and drinking of their orange wine He was a good stranger who would i rather live ina Tonga hut than in his I white wings lying idle behind the reef II The people were willing and one good day with much ceremony the dancing the reedMowing the tomtom beating I and the shouting the strange American became a part of the Tonga government I govern-ment In Europe he would have been called a premier Down there he was just the American and the name became be-came synonymous with the law of the land I Had there been society papers on Raratonga there would have been just a whisper that the Tonga had not been I influenced entirely by The Stranger His own household had been potent for in I the line of the Tonga was a daughter who saw the American and smiled at him She hung to his English words I I and fathomed some of them She listened and learned so It came that when the I American had something to ts ero the Tonga the daughter said it for him If the Tonga or the people saw they said naught THE CREATION OF A FLAG The first thing the American did was to create a flag Out of the ship stores it was made and after a great celebration celebra-tion the flag flew over the schooner still Idle in the harbor and it flew over the hut of the Tonga and it was lifted over the house of The Stranger From that time Tonga was a nation of the world and The Stranger was its guiding genius The schooner was kept In good order The small crew made merrr ashore with the natives and were content In less than a year the runners went over the island and the canoes scudded across the bays to the neighbors over there and there was the royal ceremony in the Tonga house The American was no more The Stranger The ceremonial made of him a Tonga He had wedded the successor to the throne Then the old Tonga tired with his years and feeble under the domination of this white man gathered the best of the Islanders about him and talked to them He would lie down and rest and wait for the last canoe trip into the Beyond He was old The new Tonga the American I was a great man and a rich one and a true Tonra He would take care of the people and the new flag The people said Al al aU which Is their assent and the old Tonga laid him down to pig feasts and orange wines and fish and the new Tonga the white one nut on the grass parlo and the head dress of feathers and pearl shells and went to live In the big hut and tend his people Not so far away were the Herveys and the Cooks another good sized group more in the line of sailing travel The I Cooks are rich in shell and copra Tonga the new sent his schooner to the Cooks I with the flag up high to tell them of the change The schooner intercepted a passing vessel going for trade in the western seas and when she got back to Raratonga she brought a great cargo of cloth fish hooks seines canned stuff and all that hen a bighut the largest in all Raratonga was built on the beach i and the goods were stored And after that the canoes traveled over the group giving goods and taking shells and conra I The new Tonga was a great man The country rejoiced at h m He sent the I schooner across the seas to the Cooks further away to the Paumitfos even over to the Societies and there in the direct line of communication with America the firm of Tonga Co the company be ing the kingdom of Raratonpa actuair went into competition with the trading houses of San Francisco and the woria heard again of Banks DETEX11tVES FUTILE VISIT The WellsFargo defaulter was the Tonga of the Herveys and the ruler of the trade of three great island groups opulent In the matter of pearls pearl shells and copra beyond any dream of his American life He was the king by appointment ap-pointment of the old Tonga and the assent as-sent of the people and he was king In the line of success < on because husband after the native manner to Taatl the maiden of the Tonga line The news traveled up to San Francesco by the first sailing vessel and tile old company smiled and robbed their corporation corpor-ation hands They sent their shrewdest men to the Herveys In a chartered vessel Banks met them in the regalia of ills office and invited them ashore Five thousand thou-sand natives crowded the village The audience between the king and the detectives tectives was short and to the point With his people about him Banks listened care I essly to the reading of the papers which the detectives brought and then sh an sw ered them just as carelessly Over this roof is the flag of this country coun-try It is my flag and my country We db not know the United States we have relations with nobody and nothing on earth You may tell the WeUsFargo company to go to The natives stood about and said nothIng noth-Ing The detectives saw the situation saw the unassailable position of the Tonga Ton-ga Banks and went back to their ship As the ship slowly sailed away the de I tecttves down behind the horizon saw back there at the tip of a mighty cocoanut le nut tree a small flag the emblem of an organized nation of 7000 people the house flag of a great trading Institution and private pennant of Banks More than once the corporation tried the UnCted States courts Even the congress con-gress of the courry was besieged Banks the absconder was amenable under 100 i laws but Banks the Tonga king of the Berveys was another individual and I without sn So Banks lives on hIs island home and amasses wealth Time and time again the great nations of the earth In their grabbing cruises over the seas have sighted Raratonga and gone in Always there was the king Always there was the flag Always to the overtures Banks has daken his head Marquesas Society the Cooks Hawaii have succumbed to the pr sure which would never give up and have gone under the flag and direction of greater powers But in the Herveys was Banks omnipotent and unswerving and all the diplomacy of the world failed to I move him He must be king to the end I Should you visit RaraCongu the Tonga I will entertain you He Is always glad to see Americans You will be fed like a I king and you will drink as good champagne cham-pagne as you drank at home Good ships I bring the worlds sweet things to the king who wears a parlo and bares his less to the sun His HoolaHoola girls sway in their graceful dances and croon their soft songs for him He sits in the I shade of Ills own tree and Is farniwd to comfort and sleep by his household I |