obtain the $1,000 reward. Shortly after arriving in the south Sylvester obtained work on the truck farm of G. W. Hoffstetter who treated him kindly and whom he thought was a friend. Feeling assured of his friendship Sylvester told the story of his troubles. Hoffstetter then tried to sell him the farm and when the former banker refused, took advantage of his confidence, "Simply," Sylvester said, "because he wanted to make a paltry thousand dollars."
Leaving Plainview on February 28, 1925, on a stock train he went to Winona, stating that he was going to Minneapolis on business and would stay with his daughter. At Winona he took a train for Chicago where all trace of him was lost. At firs he said that he was too sick and weak to know just where he went. His movements were traced to Cleveland, O., Chattanooga, Tenn., Birmingham, Ala, arriving at Biloxi, Miss., March 4, the day the examiners arrived to examine his bank. On March 27 he went to work on the Hoffstetter truck farm, tending the gardens and peddling vegetables in the hot southern sun. In three months he left here and went to work in a saw mill for three weeks at Waynesboro. At the end of that period he took up farm work again at Lucedale for five months.
Tiring of the heavier farm work he went into the cotton fields for two months getting an average of one dollar a day. He gave that up when he could not keep up with the sweating Negroes with whom he worked. He then tried work in a cement block factory for a short time.
He then went back to the Hoffstetter farm and returned to the common labor of grubbing in the fields. It was at this time that Hoffstetter turned against him. Seeing his danger but not realizing its extent he left the farm and went to Biloxi. It was at this time that he took the job in the hotel boiler room which he held when arrested. Had he left that vicinity he would still be at large.
Sylvester at first was reluctant to discuss home affairs. When the Wabasha County officials arrived he greeted them cordially but talked mostly of his experiences in the south. He was particularly interested in his fishing excursions on the gulf and said that he could have made considerable money in Mississippi land. The failure of the bank was caused, he said, from deflated land values and he said that the shortage was only half what is reported.
The name he had been using was Samuel L. Edwin and his plan of avoiding discovery was to move from place to place. He communicated, he said, with members of his family and receiving a letter from them he would at once move on and his family did not know where he was until they heard from him again.
As described by the officers and newspaper men, Sylvester has led the life of a poor old man who has been driven penniless into the world. In his outdoor work he has regained some of his strength but he appears much thinner and older when he left Plainview. His clothes are shabby, he is tanned and his hands are callused. He still carries the little brown bag that assisted authorities in tracing him to Chicago and his working clothes are carried tied in a khaki cloth in the same manner as the Negroes tie theirs when moving from place to place.
As E. L. Sylvester near the end of his journey his courage is gradually weakening and is more free in telling his story. At Memphis Wednesday night he told Foley that he had left Plainview that memorable night like a scared rabbit with $433 in his pocket. His family knew of his plans for a get-away and communicated with him through White Brothers. Inquiry has failed to reveal who White Brothers are but it is not supposed that it is anyone in this vicinity. He said that he planned on going away for about three months and that his wife, daughter in St. Paul and son Edwin knew his plans. Embezzlements at the bank he said began more than twenty years ago before it became a state bank in 1906.
In Sylvester’s personal affects Mr. Foley has found a secret memo showing his

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