The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1884-10-23
A. FLEECED LAMB,


The Defalcation of John A. Atkinson, of
Chicago, Brought About by Unlueky
Deals in Futures-That Was the - Long
and IS ShOrt'' of It-His Firm VIII Suffer
to the Tune of 100000.
CHICAGO. Ill, October l6.
A reporter who went to the house of
John A. Atkinson, defau!tfng member of
the pork packing firm of Davies, Atkin-
son & Co., on Lake avenue, was told that
he was not at home and that there was
no telling when he would be home. Mr..
Davies was seen at his hotel. He said:
'EWhen | arrived here on October Sd a
clerk handed me letter written by Mr..
At inson which will explain much, if not
all" The letter is as follows:
CHICAGO Ill, October 3, 1SS4.-I have
q most terrible confession to make.
have lost large sum of your money in
speculat ons on the ard of Trade, and
have used money borrowed fro the
banks to pay Sses. / don't know the
amount, but it must be over SII0, 600.
This deception on my part has been going
on long time. l IN de money at first,
and encouraged by the hope OF making
up some portion of last years. losses,
l took larger lines and was
long on lot of stuff when
the panic came last May. Then it
was impossible to sell out so | sold
a quan ity of pork short, and was
caught in the Armour corner. / still
he d on to all the stuff, after paying the
loss on pork, and about five weeks ago
was within a few thousand dollars of
being even, but prices collapsed and left
IN tiers worse than ever. All these
months l have been d, d,ceiving the
banks as to the position we were in,
hoping that it would come out all
right. But it went on from
bad to worse, and every effort made to
make money only plung d me deeper into
the mire. A great many trades arc still
open, but the market shows little sign of
doing any better. l know there is no
pal iatiou for the baseneSs and ingrati-
tu le of my conduct, and, were it not for
nv vile a d little ones, wou end my
life. As il is, 1 am broken down by the
terrible strain. 1t has been d"
The letter ended abruptly at this point
Mr.. Dav .eS, the senior member of the
firm lives in England, where he disposes
of all tn products of the Chicago house.
Finding it impossible to get stTa light
account of his business, Mr.. Davies re
solved to come to this country and inves-
tigate for himself.
The firm was started by Mr.. Davies,
who is u wealthy commission merchant
of Liverpool, and Isaac Atkinson, con-
fdential clerk in his employ, who came
to his city for the purpose. Mr.. Atkln-
son was accidentally drowned in the lake
off his r. sidence in Kenwood, some four
years ago, and hn 4 Atkinson succeed
ed to Il membership in the iTm on his
fathers death.
''The first intimation had of anything
Irregular" said Mr.. Davies, "was Atkin-
sons letter which is corroborated by the
most painful facts. | permit ted the at
tachment by the Continental INK for
IL az
OH the strength Of warehouse recei2ts,
the property of which really belonged to
the Bank of Montreal.n
''Let me expain," continued Mr.. Da-
vtes, "One OF the strongest clauses in the
partnership contract is to the effect that
Atkinson should not speculate or do any
thing outside of legitimate business
without my consent, as he had no capt
tai in the firm. The business here was
IMPLY to supply the Liverpool house;
there was no outside trade. Some
twelve m JnthS ago Atkinson asked for
money. Knowing that there was
ample capital here, l wrote to
him asking m why he was
drawing sti more, amount to 8 50,-
600, and suggested that there must be
something wrong. In reply to that he
cabled tbat an employe of the firm
named Harbers h II been speculating,
unknown to him, and had paid up losses
in margins by excessive overdrafts. Har-
bers, Mr.. Davies explained, was man
aging the commission department of the
establishment, and represented the firm
on he Board Ills connection with the
firm is, of course, at an end, and
what has become of linn MIR. Davies
processes not to know. Il garding
the latest Developments, he said:
''The mother of Mr.. Atkinson has
started suits against the firm, one of
which is for an entirely fictitious amount,
which she knows. The claim is for
money on deposit. Believing Atkinson
to be honest and reliable, | never
doubted the Harbprs transaction; Har-
bers himself wrote me a letter to
Liverpool, admitting his Irregularities.
have not gone into the books
yet, but this late development leads
me to believe that the peculations
amount to not less than $500, 600 That
is as far as I can judge. 1t is very prob
able that further developments will be
made in a day or two"
1t is said in commercial circles that the
Bank of Montreal is still out some Sl40,-
000 which 1t carried, because Mr. Davies
is not in any way in financial distress.