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Show S Historic Blackguards 1 By ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE 8 Ocooooooooooooooooooooooo Copyright, by the Press Publishing Co. (The New York World). Eric the Red, the Scoundrel Who M&y Have Caused America's Discovery A NORSE pi- . rate fiery Ssk of hair and flglk t e m per; -jj?Jlti shaggy, ' gigantic, f' cruel committed fyhiJCii f a murder that led I'JfviJ' indirectly to Amer- V -'J--L. i c a ' s discovery. .i&p5 Here is the story: A.ifcV Eric the Red I was a Viking; ERIC THE RED chief of a band of sea robbers and all around ruffians, whom he held in check by a brutality even greater than their own. He was born in Norway about 950 A. D., and was the 3on of a Jarl, or Earl. In the intervals between his voyages of piracy he ruled a group of barren farms and fed at his table a throng of hard drinking, loud voiced Vikings who had sworn allegiance al-legiance to him. Laws were few In that land, and age of violence. Human life was cheap. Yet Eric committed a murder so revolting re-volting as to shock even the hardened Norsemen. To save his own life he was forced to flee from the country. Homeless, an outlaw, a price on his head, Eric the Red sought for headquarters head-quarters far enough from civilization to make a safe abiding place for him. He and his men scoured the northern Beas in their serpent-prowed galleys, until at last, after doubling Cape Farewell, Fare-well, they came upon a vast tract of ground covered with high green grass, on which thousands of reindeer were feeding. Here Eric landed and founded found-ed a city. He named, the country "Greenland." Rumors of its whereabouts where-abouts had come to him from another Viking. Nor was Greenland the only strange country of which wandering Vikings had told Eric. These sea robbers In their restless journeys in search of plunder were often swept out of all known routes by storms. More than one survivor of such- voyages had spoken of having sighted a great land far to the westward. Eric was uncertain how long Greenland Green-land might prove a safe asylum for him, and he was ever eager to find JONATHAN WI L D was mffi$tttSy a thief who rfftM never stole, a business man with SKJA4'$li no legitimate busi- klKsyAJ ness, a scoundrel who helped the t1 law, and a man of the law who help- p ed scoundrels. He I ' J was founder of one of the queerest monopoly on record a "Thief Trust." Wild was born in 1682. He was a Birmingham Bir-mingham buckle-maker by trade and came to London as a young man to improve im-prove his fortune. A life of dissipation dissipa-tion quickly landed him !n prison for debt There he stayed four years, be coming acquainted with almost every thief in London and gaining a strong Influence over most of them. By the time he had scraped together enough money to buy his freedom he had already outlined his future fu-ture career. He saw that crooks never really succeed in life. So he decided to stay "technically" honest, and to profit by others' crimes. Renting Rent-ing a low waterside tavern, he made friends with more outcasts and at last had a large enough following to take up the profession he had planned. Calling to him a number of notorious notori-ous thieves. Wild made them a little lit-tle speech. He explained that the new laws had made life hard for robbers. rob-bers. Theft was not only a "hanging offense," of-fense," but the receivers of stolen goods were so closely watched that they dared not do business. So he suggested an improvement on the old methods. Any one committing a theft was to come at once to Wild and tell all about it Wild in turn was to get to the person robbed, and, on the lat-ter's lat-ter's promise to ask no questions, was to offer to return the stolen articles In payment of a substantial reward. Thl3 reward he would give to the thief in exchange for the plunder, keeping one-third as his own commission. It was a simple arrangement. The victim would get back his property by paying a certain sum; the thieves would make more money than by dealing deal-ing with regular "receivers" or "fences." Wild, with no danger to himself, would reap a tidy commission on every robbery. From the first his business prospered. prosper-ed. He himself stole nothing, nor did new haunts for loot and pillage. So he decided to explore this strange westward country and establish a colony col-ony there. In the year 1000 A. D., or thereabouts, he bade his son Lief to join in the expedition. Lief was wellnigh as fiery and brutal as his father, but he had many finer qualities as well. He was high In the service of King Olaf of Norway and was known as "The King's Guardsman." Guards-man." His constant good fortune had also won for him the nickname of "Lief the Lucky." Like the rest of King Olafs court, he had embraced Christianity, forswearing the heathen Norse gods and forcing his followers to do the same. Eric was furIou3 at his son's conversion. A fierce quarrel quar-rel arose between the two, but their differences were at last patched up and they made ready for their joint voyage of discovery. As the Vikings hastened down to the waiting ships Eric rode at their head. His horse, according to the story, stumbled and threw him just as they reached the water's edge. To Eric's superstitious mind this seemed an omen of disaster. He refused to go on the expedition and sent Lief as its commander. This filled the Vikings with joy, for they hated Eric and loved his gallant son. After a long sail westward Lief came to a gloomy, cloud-wrapped country coun-try (probably Newfoundland) and sailed southward, looking for less forbidding for-bidding shores. He found them. He i3 supposed to have landed somewhere along the southeastern New England coast. The place seemed a paradisa to these men from the bleak north, The soil was rich and verdant. Wild grapes grew everywhere. Lief, because be-cause of the multitude of grapes, called call-ed the country "Vinland," or "Wine-land." "Wine-land." Hero he Is supposed to have founded found-ed a colony before carrying back to Greenland the news of his wonderful discovery. Other Norse colonies are believed to have followed him to New England, but their fate and their very existence Is shrouded in doubt. Jonathan Wild, Founder of the "Thief Trust" he in any way come within reach of the law. A house, for Instance, would be robbed of $2,000 worth ol valuables. Wild would go to the owner and tell him that for $600 he would find the lost goods. The money was paid and the good3 were returned. Wild clear-ing clear-ing $200 on the deal. The work was profitable to him and to the thieves alike. By the world at large he was regarded as a Bhrewd detective, who was singularly fortunate in tracing lost property. Mo3t people were glad enough to get back their belongings without insisting on the thief's arrest ar-rest Wild grew rich, bought a big house and was highly respected. He even added smuggling as a "side line" to his business. He managed to get thieves wholly in his power by hunting up evidence which (should he place it in the hands of the law) would hang them. By holding hold-ing this threat over their heads, Wild made the great army of crooks give him slavish obedience and deal exclusively exclu-sively with him. It was a regular "Trust." Once In awhile some stubborn stub-born rogue would disobey an order or would refuse to dispose of his booty through the trust's agency. Then Wild, as a reputable citizeu, would lay his evidence before the police and would help personally In the capture. Som times these arrested slaves of his would turn on him. His body, in fact, was covered with wounds, and in one tussle his skull was fractured. But these cases of rebellion were uncommon. uncom-mon. Robbery throve as never before. At last parliament was forced to pass a law making it a felony for any one to take money on pretense of restoring restor-ing stolen goods unless he should also produce the thief. Wild was rich enough to have retired, but the spirit of graft was too strong for him. Hitherto Hith-erto he had been on the right side of the law. Now he found himself on the wrong side of It. He continued to wring thieves' ill-earned money from them and to betray such as failed to follow his orders. At last, in 1725, he was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced sen-tenced to be hanged. As the hangman's cart bore him to Tyburn (London's place of execution) the crowd mobbed him, yelling "Judas!" "Ju-das!" and stoning the trembling old rascal, leaving little work for the executioner ex-ecutioner to do when the cart at las' reached Tyburn. |