THE STORY OF JAMES HAYTER.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2128, 23 October 1896, Page 3

THE STORY OF JAMES HAYTER.

We were talking in the club one day *oout the Glasgow' Bank directors, and others of that sort, who, with a great ehow of religion, have proved themselves fit candidates for gaol, when Smurthwaite said : "I have always liked to study that type of character, which, with an apparent zeal for religion, exhibits a total absence of morals. I had a curious case once that gave me a good opportunity of studying the type. There was a man once—but I suppose you will expect me ' to tell you the whole story. "In my early days I lived in the suburbs, in the neighborhood of Clapham, a district traditionally noted for the aspect of religiosity which pervades it. I became intimate with the incumbent ©f a district church there, an extremely good man. but very unworldly. By pretty constant attendance a: his church I also became personally acquainted with most of the office-bearers. One man struck me as displaying a far deeper and warmer interest in the welfare of the Sunday school and parish organisations than anyone else connected with the church. When I first knew him ho was only a sidesman, but he duly filled the offic? of churchwarden, and so much liked was he. and so zealous were his services for the good of the church, that y*>nr after year he was re-elected people's warden. "I was constantly in the- iiabit of meeting Jams Hayter at penny reading and otht-r evening entertainments in which T was asked from time t >tti n to take a part, and T must confess T w is struck by his charming and frark demeanor. Tie w:v- not a g nth-man. out he was a man of considerable education. He was the manager, or one of the managers, of an envporium---I think it was called—-a sore of store? in the West End of London, where he was in receipt of a handsome salary. His wife, a very nice woman, was also ch-voted to religious works, and was herself superintendent of the crlrls' Sunday school. "I think Hayter had been ohu'vhwarden same four years, and had earned—as I thought he deserved t >---tho respect and confidence of his neighbors. when one morning, starting for business by his usual train, he (lid not arrive at the stores: nor has he. to my knowledge, ever been seen in England again, except by one or two persons, of whom I will tell you in due course. The day after his mysterious disappearance his wife, poor woman, cam- 3 to see me in dreadful cri-f. and I set to work to unravel all the facts in connection with him. And here T must stop, and go back a good many years in order to tell the history of Hayter's life, which I learned piecemeal, and afterwards put together in chronological order. "Hayter was the son of a well-to-do grocer in the North of London. He had been educated in one of the many betterclass schools in that district, an! had become an assistant in his father's shop. Here he seemed to have developed strong religious views and to have taken a deep interest in the local church,to which his father belonged. When about nineteen or twenty, while still in his father's shop. he accidentally met the woman who was the cause of his subsequent disaptv-ur-ance. S'he was of a type quite :e-w t > me. Phe belonged distinctly to the lower middle class: had. at the rime of which 1 .-p"ak. u Vl : -y pretty fac- an 1 figure, and oxttvmely fascinating v. pvs. £h-- had been bom a thief: her father and mother both belonged to the same degraded pr< fr-ssioin but they had prospered ir the world an l had beeome ' fences.' or receivers <<\' stol n goods. Their child. Esther Payne, had been brought up among thieves of ev. ry .-en and kind, but particularly the class that form 'long firms.' When she was about sixteen, her father died a somewhat mysterious death, and people who were acquainted with the circumstances, alleged that he had been poisoned. j "The mother afterwards married one | of her late husband's gang, a burly. Kill Syke.s type of man. who. by his brutal treatment, quickly shattered a constitution already undermined by drink. Little Esther Payne became a too] in tie- hands of this brutal ruffian and a very ingenious plan was hit upon by him and other members ot the yang when tie- g'rl was about nineteen, i never <-nuid ascertain whether young Hayt-r was the first victim or not. but from the -vi en ■- I collected I am Inclined to think he w.-ts. To cut a long story short, old Hay:< r's shop was car- fully watched for some time, and young Hayter's movements noted. He was a bright, handsonv lad. and an opportunity was seiz--!. when lie was out for a summer evening str >ll after the shop was clos-d. for Esther Payne to throw herself in his way. Young Hayter was not long in succumbing to the temptation of talking and walking with a pretty young woman: the first interview led to others, and Miss Esther Payne made tiers, it' s<- extremely agreeable that in a v ry few weeks vming Hayter was' over lead and ears in love with the pretty sempstress, as the girl described herself. In a month or so the sempstress stated she was in sore straits for money, and at.pealed to young Hayter for asistance. When he pointed out that he was only a shopman, the wily temptress delicately hinted that there were possibilities of managing the till, and before long old Hayter's we-.kly takings began to show a falling off. All the time, it may be mentioned, voung Hayter was attending to his religious and parish duties as ehorisfr and teacher in the Sunday-school with the utmost zeal and regularity. It need hardly 1>- said that he had concealed from his parents his imquaintanr- with Miss Esther Payne. "One night. Miss Payr- invir-d voung Hayter to an evening partv -iven by some friends of hers. Here theVoun-e;-more sprightly, and hotter educated members of the long-firm gang were introduced to Hayter under their dim-rent aliases, and after the preliminaries of Introduction had been gone through, no secret was made of the fact that all the party lived 'on the crook ' as it -u- as railed. Young Hayter at once s«w the trap -n'o which he had been led, but if.pt -ad of confessing to his father'that he had stolen money from his till and tyei.'-'ng his with the gang he se.-ras to have felt it too late to re-' treat, and before long he was as deeply concerned as themselves in the nefarious practices of his new friends. "He made 'onto excuse to his father for leaving his home and his emplovment. and. with the .ssistance of Esther Payne, whom he was supposed to have married, lm set up a general dealer's Bhop ir: the south of London. Here his extraordinary crania—that is the onlv word to call it—for the due observance of Sunday a;■.vrtel itself, and he was ere long a sidesman in a local church in Newirgton Putts, while the week was spent in disposing of the stolen goods of which he was the receiver. "Some year ~r two after this new departure. Hayter's connection with one or two during long-firm frauds, the perpetrators of which were brought to trial and duly sentenced, was very nearlv discovered. Owing to this, or it mav have been from higher and better -motives—it is difficult to say—one day Hayter disappeared altogether from the neighborhood of Newingrton Butts, and the utmost efforts of Esther Payne and his other accomplices failed to trace him. As a matter of fact, he went to Leicester, 330

' and there, with his father's assistance,!* obtained a situation in a large grocery establishment. Here once again we find him a zealous church worker, taking the deepest interest in the moral and spiritual welfare of the youth of the neighborhood. However, in two or three years temptation again assailed him. It was the habit of many of the customers of the grocery establishment to keep a deposit account. These depositors were 1 mostly of the poorer class, and it so happened that two or three of them died, leaving fairly large sums on deposit unknown to their relatives. One of young Hayter's peculiarities was that he was ambi-dextrous, and could write as well with his left hand as he could with his right. Having learned this fact, and finding that no one applied for the money deposited, Hayter succumbed to temptation, and. presenting the books with the signatures forged with his left hand, obtained the money. "The following year young Hayter appears to have fallen genuinely in love with, one of the teachers in the Sunday school, and after a year of courtship he married her. From that time he seems to have kept perfectly straight for some years. He then moved with his wife and one child to Nottingham, where he occupied the position of manager of a large grocery store, coming with the, highest testimonials from Leicester. No diminution was observed in his attention to religious matters, and not a night passed but family prayers were conducted by him with every aspect of fervor. "He had ben here only two or three years when, to his horror and dismav., Esther Payne, a little older, a little harder, but with the old jaunty air,, walk--] imo the- she,.. Re he.d" be-all ! •raced: Hay; r was now powerLss. <\'-vpijig up th ■ same air .if r.spectaMMty ant i religion, he found himself :'•:■.'. d. in spite of i,j s hotter feelings, to Veome the too; of the gang of long-firm :e.i-\vp with whom he thought his conception had been for ever br 'ken. The old system was shortly afterwards begun, whereby Hayter. retaining his position as manager of the grocery store. opened a small shop of his own in Trent, where he had gone to live, and where his wife, all unwittingly, sold the stolen goods of which he was the receiver. These included hardware, ironmongery, dress materials, groceries, and indeed every imaginable kind of article. For some time this business was carried on without any suspicion attaching to it; but presently it came l 0 the knowledge •f Hayter's employers that he had a 1 rsiiiess of his own while in their employ, and lie v.-.as accordingly dismissed. "lie thereupon came to London, and, with that good fortune which had n'-ver failed him in obtaining situations. '■ ■ succeeded in getting a port of considerable importance as manager of the stores which T first mentioned, in the West End o<" London. Here, unfortunately, his accomplices followed him. °T>d they had so far overcome 1 his scruples and fears of discovery that after ho had b.- t -n settled in Clapham for some tine. ;ipd asain became an earnest worker, he began a system of forged orders in the nam ■ of his employers, directing the o- 1, ~, p„ s ,, nt (~ ~ ,;.,,,,, ],,. j^-j op n-'d in the Fast End of London. Esther Payne, wh >. quit-- unknown to his wife, had ev.-r since tla - Nottingham and Trent days kept up her connection with him. nnd i-mPy seems t .• have been very f.,...] r ,f him. mnnneed the East End s' >n. and twice n week, on the pretence of attending sonv- religious revival meeting. TTayo■'• us. dto g.> down ther. and return home to Clapham late at night. "A few days befor--- 1 is disappearance the oroprietors of the emporium became eor:uamt--d with the f ; irf that g »ods had p.ea obtain.-d in their name by forged orders, and suspicion 'was directed, after inor'ry. p> Hayter per neariy a week ]<■■: e'i\vc p. id been engaged in tracing the stolen goods and the methods by which they had been obtained.This had come to Esther Payne's ears, and it was to h-r that Hayter owed his escape from justice. On the night before his disappear.mc-• she told him that the police were on his track-. T T ■• s-' -m? to have kerd his head, for he writ home as usual thJMfcight. and ne;:t morning pe ;ratio, was ouite strange to him. and. judging rightlv that 'hey were detectives, he got out at Wandsworth road and doubh d back. The d-l. ctiws. imaadning that lv would naturally go on to Victoria never looked for him at the intermediate stations. He arrived hem • again about ten o'clock, knowing that his wife would be out and ids child at school. railing the servant, lie asked her to give him all the money she had in her possession. She gave him a sovereign and a few per.ee. Threatening her life if ever she ventured to stab- that she had s.-i n him. he ran up to his room and shaved off his moustache and beard, changed his cloth.es. and left the house hurriedly with a small portmanteau. IPwas afterwards traced to Leicester, and had only left his friends' Lease two minutes when the detective- arrived and found him gone. For three weeks th ■ whole of England was searched and al ! the pons were watched, but somehow he escaped the vigilance of tlv police. Starting from Southampton, he want first to Portugal, and thence to Bolivia, where-, for aught I know.he is at the present moment, as religiou- as ever." "And how," said T. "did you ascertain all these facts?" "It ought to he sufficient for you that what I have told you is the truth, but as you insist on knowing, let me say that the greater part of it I learned from the correspondence which I have now lying in my chambers. Mrs Hayter came to me some six months after her husband's disappearance, and showed me three or four long letters which she had had from him. filled half with quotations from Scripture and wailing? over the loss of opportunities of religious exercises, and half with a history of his life. I am bound to say that at first I did not believe a word of them, but with Mrs Hayter's consent I took the correspondence to Scotland Yard, and by its aid the greater number of the long-firm gangwere brought to trial and sentenced. The only one who escaped, and this I must confess I was not sorry for, was Esther Payne; and it is my private belief, though 1 never told Mrs Hayter so, that she followed Hayter. and is with him now. " Every word that I have told is the absolute truth, and the story is an exhibition of one of the most curious and contradictory aspects of man's moral nature."—"Ludgate."