Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-04-08
BIG BUBBLE.
The African Colonization scheme
and ITS 0ftgmat0rs. 3


A colored man writing to the Indian
apolis Sentinel gives q sketch Of Apjones|
and Arnett, the projectors of the grand
african Commercial Stock Company"
He says:
Sr Some eight or nine years ago this man
Apjones made his appearancein the city
of Columbus, Chic, armed with letters OF
introduction TO some OF her best colored
families; being a shrewd observer of hu-
man nature, and withal smooth Of speech
and prepossessing in appearance, it
wasn't long ere he had won the conf
dence Of his new friends. He soon sue
ceeded in getting q company Of persons
to invest money amounting to $50, 900 in
the grocery trade, on the cooperative
plan. For three or four months every
thing moved along swimmingly, and
pools on Apjones. had any been offered
for sale, would have sold high in that
community; but man appoints, etc.
One morning the manager of this great
business failed to put in his much-desired
appearance; no one knew where he had
started or where be had gone. All.the
funds in the bank, which had been left
subject to his order, had been drawn by
him some time before, most of the stock
in store had been purchased on time,
and when the creditors got wind OF the
affair they swooped down and sold the
concern out under the hammer, realizing
about $l5.0 900. Many q man has started
in life with a smaller stake that $50, 900,
but Apjones was no ordinary man. Since
then he has taught school, traded on the
Ohio and Mississippi rivers, making
Cincinnati his Headquarters, and now,
like Colonel Mulberry Sellers, in the
play Of the "Gilded Age" he comes be-
fore the footlights and explains his new
scheme, or pretends to do so, and swears
by Arnett that " there's millions 10 /"
and so there is for this illustrious duo
B. W. Arnett, without the Rev. land
why p is a Methodist clergyman, at pres
ent in charge Of q church located on the
corner of Sixth and Broadway, Cincin-
natl, Ohio. He is we'll up in his BUSH
ness, a fine scholar and fluent talker,
and has a national reputation, As a
public man, he first came to notice in
lOOit 10 u CuIOulC hlI-SdbNlp UuiiuCii Uub
with q method in his madness. Last fall
he was one Of several persons who
banded together under the name OF the
Allen Monumental Association and es-
ssyed to tighten the ~plethoric pocket,
books Of his countrymen, under the
guise Of building a monument to Bishop
Allen, the founder Of eolored Methodism
in this country. How much he made
out Of the transaction is best known to
himself, but that he should lend his
name and the influence Of his position
to so gigantic an attempt at fraud on his
fellows, is but another evidence of the
degeneracy of this latter day. What
With freedmen's savings banks, politics,
companies 20 open commercial traffic
with tie continent Of Africa, aud the
thousand and one other pitfalls set to
ensnare the colored man in this country,
who is without the experience and intel
ligence necessary to successfully cope
with them which bis Anglo-Ssxon fellow
citizen is so ~abundantly provided with, is
it a wonder that he sheuld occasionally
trip and fall, and be the laughing stock
OF other menu