Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-04-24
~FRAUDULENT coMmERcE.
How Party without q emit Managed
90 do a Big Business, and get into
Several Firms 20 the Tune
Of Thousands. -
Heavy Transactions In Cincinnati Hog.
wheeling Nails, Cleveland Coal
OH and other Merchant
able Goods.

sylvester NJ. Webb & Co." was tn
firm name of a cOncern that held fortl
in the Gayoso House as the place OF 1t
business. The firm did a thriving bust
ness without ever having the ghost 0
an article in the concern. In order Z
understandhow the wholething worked
1t is necessary TO premise h q there Is
reliable firm in the town known as IS
Nj. Webb & Co." favorably know
abroad. The skeleton concern known
as SYLVESTER NJ. Webb q Co." was ruI
by a person who boarded for a time a
the Peabody hotel, and signed nj
name as Burns ON the hote
register. His mode of operation wa
unique and effective. In order to throw
the policemen off the track and allay
suspicion, he called round to head.
quarters and asked permission to let the
goods stand on the sidewalk and on the
street in front of his store in the GayosC
House, because, he said, the store was
so crammed and jammed and crowded
that the isfirmn could not conveniently
find accommodation for the piles o
goods, and would be compelled TO lei
them remain outdoors for a while
Captain Athy, always ready and anx.
ious to accommodate the business com
munity, consented TO allow the extrs
piles to remain on the sidewalk for
reasonable time. "SyIvester NJ. Webb
d Co" walked off much gratified. A
that moment there was not a dimes
worth of property in the store, nor wa:
there since.
THE PLAN OF OPERATIONS
seems TO have been this: Orders were
sent to various people in northern and
eastern cities for goods, to be consigned
to "Sylvester NJ. Webb& Co, memphis
The goods would be at once shipped,
under the impression they were intended
for rs. NJ. Webb & Co." On arrival
here they would be sold by the aid of an
accomplice, at prices considerably below
the quotation of the day. About two
weeks ago a young gentleman arrived
here from Cincinnati to look after
twenty casks of meat thathad been sent
in the manner Indicated. He succeeded
in getting bis preserved hog back again
by going to the store in the GayOso
House and demanding the bill of lading,
which was at once given to him. Not
being convinced fully at the time of the
thorough iniquity and fraud of the
transaction, we merely published the
following local paragraph in relation to
the queer transaction:
Strange stories come TO as Of the dealings Of
a certain firm doing business in Memphis. The
s'frm style" OF this firm Is so III that OF
another m older firm that in cities abroad
one is COMPOUNDED with the other to an extent
much confusion of Identity. II Is
queer, andis worth looking into.
The transactions of the firm" were
not confined to preserved hog, but
of, in all directions over the
vast field, groceries in general. A large
consignment of lueifer matches reached
here, and were sold considerably under
market price by the aeeomplice. One
hundred barrels of oil, from Cleveland,
reached the depot, but no further, as an
train carried along q messenger,
who stopped their delivery even at the
moment the accomplice was offering the
oil on the market below original cost.
The "frm,n however, were successful
N many instances, the latest of which
was the sale of one hundred kegs of
nails that had been sent from the River
side iron works of Wheeling. They
were sold one dollar under cost to a
very respectable house on Front street.
The agent of the iron firm, G.. H. Beck
sr, is now in active pursuit of the nails,
and of ''Sylvester NJ. Webb Il Co..
Ilids Burns, who has decamped. He
eft the Peabody Saturday night, draw
out four thousand dollars which he
lad deposited in the safe.
AT twelve o'clock last night Mr.. Beck
II carried the following into the APP
PEAL office, requesting that it be pub
a request that was cheerfully
complied with:
s PASS HIM ROUND.
EDITORS APPEAL-The following is q true
description Of e certain Sylvester NJ, Webb &
20, OF the so-styIed firm; also, Of ]. Burns, as
lie often signs his name: Dark complexion;
lack mustachea nd hair; about i've feet four
high; heavy build; age about thirty
address like a thorough business man,
nd a real lady-killer. This Webb, or Burns,
las under fraudulent pretenses obtained mer-
handise to the amount of several thousand
dollars, and absconded with the proceeds of
he same TO a new place OF operation. After
igilance of our best policemen, he will sure
y try his game in some other good town.
lgain, "pass him round"
The "firmp was a sharp man and
GOD looking. He was known a. a Ia
lies man, that is, a person who could
ucceed without much effort in making
impression where an honest plodder
Il the hard paths of industry and recti-
ude would be so0Fned It was said he
vas partially attentive to a very pretty
in the city, All the efforts Of
be police to discover his haunts since
saturday night have proved unavailing.
larry Cranmer is not in the CITY,