PREACHER BY DAY, THIEF BY NIGHT. The Strange Dual Life of Amos Whitman, Evangelist. AN ACCOMPLISHED HORSE THIEF. Generally Stole From the Brethren Who Had Entertained Him — His Daring Methods — Had a Habit of Marrying Too — Now Half a Dozen Prisons Yawn For Him.

      A preacher of the gospel by day and a daring horse thief at night — that, in brief, has been the career of Amos T. Whitman, who was released from the Northern prison of Indiana a few day ago after serving two years' time.

      From the Indiana penitentiary he was taken to one in Ohio, and after he has served his time there he will undergo the penal service of Illinois and then go from prison to prison until society's long standing score against him has been settled.

      Whitman is of no ordinary caliber. As a leader of horse thieves he never had an equal in the central states. His sermons were filled with tenderness, enthusiasm and earnestness, and he had the rare faculty of being able to really sway the minds of men. But it was not until he was 60 years old that his Jekyll-Hyde character and his crimes were discovered.

      His influence over women was no less. More than half a dozen wives are scattered through the states in which he alternately prayed and stole.

      Whitman is an Ohioan. Even when a young man he attracted a great deal of attention because of his shrewdness. He had only a common school education and a faculty for absorbing all kinds of knowledge without instruction. Among other things, he acquired a smattering of theology from listening to sermons and the talk of the religiously inclined.

      Life in his native community became irksome, and so he left one night after an alleged forgery and wholesale theft of fine horses.

      In Kansas he began his career as a preacher. He had a small charge and he married one of the sisters. He preached to his flock and prayed while he was stealing from them. He went to their homes and prayed with them in private, and while there he spotted their horses and laid his plans for gain. Horses began to disappear, and a short time later Whitman left his newly acquired wife and the community, and next turned up in Nebraska, where the performance was repeated with equal success. From there be went to Missouri.

      He had by this time organized one of the most complete underground horse stealing systems the central states have known for years. He posed as a traveling evangelist; and converted hundred of persons. He would go into a small community and introduce himself to the leaders in the little country congregation. He would present letters and begin a series of evangelistic meetings.

WHITMAN IN HIS TWO FIELDS OF INDUSTRY.

      The good brothers and sister would be pleased with his sermons, and he would be taken into their homes. He would ask grace at their tables, partake of their food and when the meal was over would stroll out around the premises — generally the barn — noting carefully everything that caught his eyes. He would examine the live stock, especially the horses, and would find out how and where they were kept at night. He would also ascertain if the owner kept a lock on them, and how sound and where he slept; whether there was any one else who would be up and around, and whether, in short, there would be any trouble in getting the animals away.

      After preaching a week or ten days in a community the finest horses would disappear all in one night. He would be shocked the next morning when he learned of the affair and would quote Scripture to the losers, sympathize with them even to tears and would exert every influence to keep them from starting out on a hunt for the thieves. If this was impossible, he would detain them and would then throw them off tho trail. The horses would never be beard of, and a week later the good preacher would conclude his meetings and leave. He would go to another section of the state and there begin a series of meetings with the same results. Thus he covered almost every section of Indiana, Ohio and Illinois, and most of Missouri, eastern Kansas and Nebraska and part of Iowa.

      So perfectly did he do his work that had it not been for two little incidents he would probably have continued working it indefinitely. He made a fatal mistake at last by stepping from the pulpit and doing the stealing personally. That was in Indiana two years ago, but even then he came near covering his identity completely.

      A few years ago Whitman turned up at his old home. This was quickly followed by the disappearance of some fine horses. John Welker was then sheriff of Darke county, and he very quickly associated Whitman's appearance with the disappearance of the horses. He placed his man under arrest, but Whitman made his escape.

      Then began one of the most interesting races ever made across the central states. Whitman had the start and seemed to keep it. At Sturgis, Mich., he was just one hour ahead of the sheriff, but that was sufficient. From Sturgis the race turned, and they went down through the Mississippi valley. They passed through Missouri, down through Arkansas into Texas and then countermarched back through the central states again.

      The great number of times that Welker missed his quarry by only an hour or two so exasperated him that, though the association which sent him to catch the horse thief shut off his supply of funds, he went into his own pocket and continued the chase on his own account.

      At a small hamlet in Illinois Welker concluded to consult a fortune teller. When he entered the room, she immediately said: "You are after a man who left here a few hours ago. I told him he was a fugitive from justice, and he acknowledged it. He then threw open his coat and showed me a string of revolvers and said that be intended to protect himself if it ever came to a show down."

      The fortune teller told Welker that it would be a long chase, and he would give up, but in the future their lives would cross under most peculiar circumstances, and he would get his man. Whitman eluded the sheriff, and the latter returned to his home.

      Two year ago several horses were stolen near Anderson, Ind., and the officers were put on the track of the thieves. The following morning one of them was overtaken. He was driving two of the stolen animal and was sound asleep. He was placed under arrest before he awoke, and though he attempted to get at his gun he was too slow and was disarmed. He was placed behind the bars. He gave his name as J. T. Williams, but would vouchsafe no other information. He was tried and found guilty.

      Before being sentenced he asked to be heard. He spoke only a few moments, but the court and the great crowd in the room were affected by the eloquent and pathetic fairy tale that he told. He only got two years.

      Before his arrest Whitman had shaved off his beard: When it grew again, the identity of "Williams" was discovered, and the preacher horse thief confessed his wrongdoings to his old time enemy, Sheriff Welker.

      Whitman's term having ended, he stepped out of his cell only to find six deputy sheriffs from as many sections of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio lined up in the office waiting for him.

      Whitman's methods were daring and unique. How many there were in the gang will never be known, but there were three or four women in the combination who attended to the selling of the horses. The horses were taken by men who were adepts in horse theft. They were smuggled away to places where bleaching outfits had been built by the gang. Every horse was put through a bleaching process which changed his color. He was bobbed, groomed splendidly, fed and at last placed on the market in Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Columbus, Indianapolis or at other points.

(The End)