REACTIONS TO SID'S LETTER
Denison Review - August 16, 1905
U.S. MarshaL W.J. McAhren says: “Well, they say sometimes that Sid Green had a wad of money with him when he left here and that he is heeled for all the trouble that he may encounter, but I want to say to you that I don't believe the fellow has got a cent. It doesn't look like it, does it, when a man has to get help from others to get his household goods out of the station? Well, that is what Green had to do when he went to Winters, California. And I really believe he had come to the conclusion that nothing would ever happen to him on account of that bank failure. He got so bold about his business, went under his own name and was meeting people in his hotel [in California] who must know sooner or later that he was the Dow City Green. And he had gotten everybody out there to thinking that he was gilt-edged as a man and a citizen so that it was not hard for him to get away.
He made the biggest mistake of his life in dodging me, though. If he had come back here and stood trial he might not have been convicted, possibly, and even if he was a few years would have wiped the debt off the books and he could be free to start up again. Now he can't do that. His wife would much rather have him give up and face the thing and have it over, but he lost his nerve when it came to returning to Denison and risking a few months in the county jail, as he feared he might not get the $2,000 bond required. I believe this is all that made him skip me.”
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Denison Bulletin – August 23, 1905
Ace [Asa] Dow got a letter from Sid Green last week dated at Vancouver, B.C., Aug. 9th, in which Green said that he understood that Ace was against him and wanted to know what good it would be to anybody to prosecute him; that he had suffered enough already by being pursued and separated from his family, and he did not believe they could convict him if he came back here. He said he hoped to be able to get into some business that would make him money enough to pay back everybody he owed here,and that he supposed he would have to now go to Alaska or some other country and try and retrieve his fortunes. Ace was not melted by the appeal at all, as he says what he heard being concocted by Green before the faiilure here was enough to make anybody want to prosecute him.
Ace Dow
Remarks from A.F. Bonney
Mr. Green's letter was, of course, pathetic, but it would be more so if there were not all the earmarks of a deliberate and premeditated steal (That's a good old English word.) in almost every move he made for a year preceding the crash. The bank building here was put up, money taken in as deposits and for stock without a dollar's outlay, so far as we know, on the part of Mr. Green. Some foolish people here go so far as to assert that certain interests in the county were willing that Mr. Green should escape, and now sniff, and say that the letter he sent back recently is only another move to stave off arrest.
Denison Bulletin – August 30, 1905
Robert Bell, Dow City: “Oh, that letter of Green's that was published don't fool anybody. We all know what it was done for, but after all that Green did to us people he can create very little sympathy by talking of his family and his God. Yes, the Green Cattle Co. property is sold now and some say the will get over 50 per cent out of the broken bank, but I doubt it.”
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Also in the August 30, 1905 edition of the Denison Bulletin appeared the first of three strange letters addressed to Sid Green that were penned by the ficticious "Barney Bedott", someone who was definitely looking out for Sid Green. The identity of the real author of the letters was never revealed
A LETTER TO GREEN
By Steamboat Up the Boyer This Epistle Was Sent Him.
DOW CITY, IA., This week, 1905
Dear Sid: - Keep a goin'. They are after you yit. That was a fine stunt you did, Sid, old boy when you left Winters before sun-up and forgot to get back before sun-down, and the marshall lookin' for you everywheres. I wrote you he was comin' and I don't want you to fergit that I am writin' you now that he is still a-comin'.
When he gits ready to start I will let you know, fer I can git next, as a friend of mine has a good friend that is a close friend of the county attorney and has a big pull all along the line from congressman down to the last man who helped you poke a pig into the car at this joint, and he will be told by the attorney when the dogs will be let loose, and it will come to me before a telegraph pole knows about it and the wires will ring like a brass band and you will git the hunch in time to make all the rest of your fine people out there think you are the proper citizen for a charity professor and a good subject for leader of the choir.
That was also a find stunt you writ to the county attorney from your haven of rest in Canada, Sid. I'll bet a cake of ice out of the Boyer, Sid, that that letter will open the hearts and break the joints of every one of the desperate ones in this place that said you ought to be shut up for keeps for breaking the widdo's mites into kindlin' wood to be picked up on the street by them after dark. Of course nobody but a hard-hearted wretch would want to prosecute you fer keepin' their money fer them. Didn't you keep it fer them fer fifteen years here and never charge them a cent fer the keepin' of it? Didn't you help many a man put a mortgage on his place that couldn't only fer you? It was bad, I'll admit, that you got some of them to put two or three mortgages on the same stuff without your releasin' of the first ones, and of course, some of the fellers what are paying up their hard cash to even up on the bonds they signed fer you as treasurer of the funds of the city and district smile when they are doin' of it, but that'll all come out in the wash, Sid, and yer little letter to the county attorney was published to make yer case good and strong with them all, and you can bet on it, Sid, we'll have the sentiment of the community all in yer favor if you but stay away long enough and git a few more letters like that in print. Publicity, Sid, that's the golden gate that lets you out of prison in this case, and when yer old friends and acquaintances reads all yer heartrending repentance fer making them lose their farms and homes and fer putting more plasters on their front gates, you'll find devil a one of them willin' to step up to the captain's office and swear you are a thief. They might do it with some red-handed feller like Butler who couldn't prove an alibi when a belayin' pin showed he was in the same town where a man lost forty cents by stealin' and they might rob his family of its support and manly sustainence, but they'll never do it with you, Sid, because so many of the real gilt-edged citizens would feel themselves guilty to put you behind the bars and they'll never do it while their inflooence lasts.
Now write another letter, Sid, and we'll have the fun of readin' it to our childern nights after the cows come home, fer it'll be published free of charge to you for the depositors who mourn. I know what I say when I say the last letter cooked seven of your valued enemies and made some more of them lukewarm, fer as you say, Sid, who is it that cares to prosecute you now? Haven't you suffered enough and paid yer board away from home three months in the last year? Better mail it from Montreal next, old pardner, and then git a friend up on Manitoba or Alaska to mail another real sentimental one fer a good finish, but mark what I tell you – keep hid when I send you the word and don't let any old gazooks lock you up on orders from this county.
With kind regards while you are free and loose, I send you this by way of Missouri Valley and Omaha. Let me know when you get it.
Barney Bedott.
To Be Continued: Sid Hypnotized the Californians
