The Adams Deficit

25 thousand dollars goes missing after the Superintendent of the Democratic Council in Virginia dies.

When Superintendent W. C. Adams died, all vied in doing honor to his memory. It was not presumed then that a cloud would so soon appear and blast the reputation of a man who had been presumed to be strictly honest. Upon an examination of his accounts it was ascertained that the shortage in his department is $25056.20. This is conceded not to be the total amount of his deficiency. As his bond was only $5,000 the city must necessarily sustain a loss of more than $20,000. This will be distressing news to his friends and will place his family in a most embarrassing situation especially since his widow sent the Council a petition asking for the donation of a triangular lot belonging to the city, upon which to erect a house for herself and family. She claimed that Mr. Adams had spent nearly all his life in the service of the city, and had to spend nearly all of his money to get elected.
The question will naturally be what did he do with the twenty-five thousand dollars? The disclosures are to be regretted, but the Democratic Party can save itself only by a rigid investigation and the placing of the punishment where it belongs.

“The Adams Deficit,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed September 14, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1430.