As an individual, Mr. Oscar Baldwin, cashier of the Mechanics'
Bank, Newark, New Jersey, has, according to the American tele- grams, outstripped anything yet done in the way of direct fraud. Boards of Directors have beaten him, and an Oriental Vizier or two may have rivalled him ; but as a private individual in a tall hat, he stands unsurpassed. It is stated that he lent some £40,000 of the Bank moneys without security to a morocco manufacturer, named Nugent, receiving, it is alleged—but that may be a needless aggravation—one per cent, on all loans to him. Nugent -could not pay, more money was advanced, and then the cashier took to Wall Street to regain his losses. Unknown to his Directors, and unsuspected by them, he gambled away half the Bank's nominal assets, or £480,000; and then, when no more money was procurable, confessed. The papers are eloquent over the sin of gambling, but a word about the sin of taking re- sponsibilities which you never intend to fulfil would not be thrown away. Judging from this distance, and in ignorance of the characters of those concerned, which is, of course, the all- important point, we should have judged Mr. Baldwin to be the scapegoat of some group whom he now shields.
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