New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-09-19
DOUBLE DEALING IN BROOKLYN


It will be a matter of amazement when the
Brooklyn Ring shall have finally gone TO
pieces. as it must in few weeks how men
naturally so shrewd in business affairs should
have persisted as they are now doing In the
double dealing which daily plunges them
deeper and deeper in ruin. First the
Trust Company Trustees, or at least
few of them, attempted to conceal
conspiracy under which the city had
been robbed for five years. Fooled in this by
the vigilance of The TRIBUNE. they next
sought to conceal it through conspiracy
which used the Supreme Court for an illegal
purpose. Defeated in this by the treachery or
revenge of a dismissed subordinate of the
political Ring, they resorted to prevaricatlOn /;
and detected in this, what have been the con-
sequences to all cOncernedf
One of their number committed suicide to
escape disgrace Rodman lies in prison, the
only friend who will release him being the
District-Attorney who has accepted him as
States evidence against the rest. Sprague Is
under bail charged with heavy crime. McCue
has been distinctly charged with violating law
to secure the illegal appointment OF a
receiver of the bank which has been
despoiled; and five others have been charged
by the proper law officer OF the county In
which they live with an oifense which the
law Furnishes as misdemeanOr with fine
and imprisonment And yesterday all the
influential papers in New-York and Brook
lyn united in prOnOuncing them, with varying
language but unanimous sentiment, unworthy
of respect-unft to hold the trusts reposed in
them; and in declaring that their just punish
ment was disgrace and loss Of public conf
dence.
1t is perfectly safe to say that this result to
the five members referred to, who are less
guilty than their colleagues, would never have
been reached had the Trustees of the Trust
Company dealt fairly with the public and
themselves But they continue still, with
amazing stupidity, to persist in evasions Of
the full truth, and each, acting and speaking
for himself, commits his fellow-Trustees to
even greater blunders and offenses. They
msrepresented their securities in bonds and
mortgages the list obtained showed that they
had concealed part of the truth by evasions
and prevaricated respecting the remainder.
They are now evading in the same idle man
ner the full responsibility in the matter of
the stolen bonds. They make no effort to
deny the truth Of all that THE TRIBUNE yes
terday stated, but laundering ahead endeavor
to escape from the respOn sibility for their safe
keeping by denying the existence of docu-
ment which at least two of them know to be in
the hands of an astute Connecticut lawyer. The
bonds are gone; more than the amount we have
stated is missing; and this all the Directors
now know. The receipt which in law makes
the Trust Company responsible exists; and
this all the Directors will have an opportunity
to learn when the attorney of the road reaches
Brooklyn to-day. If that receipt is held to be
legal, the responsibility of the Trust Company
is beyond dispute. Suit to decide this is al
ready under preparation, and is to be tried
where the influence of the Ring is less than
in Brooklyn.
Would it not be wiser for these gentlemen
to cease double dealing with the public and
throw open their doors to inspection Can it
be possible that there is anything worse to
conceal than has already been exposedf