St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-06-09
NITkIEWITz is WRATHY.
The Foreign Count Whoops 1t Up to
Philadelphia Millionaire.
TELEPHONES FOR CHINAMEN.
Litigation That VIII Stir Up the Finan-
Cial Circles in the City of
BrOtherly Love.

New York, June S.-Through the at
torneys of Count Eugene de MitkiewitZ,
Of this city and Philadelphia, a COM
paint was filed to-day in the court of
common pleas of Philadelphia against
Wharton Baker, the Philadelphia cap
italist, to compel specific performance
Of agreements Of gigantic proportions
under concessions by the Chinese gov
eminent, to supply the whole of the
Celestial empire covered by treaties
with telephone service, through COM
pany of capital of SG,000,000, and to
form another company with capital of
S20,000,000, with general banking, rail-
reading and mining powers, also under
concessions from the Chinese govern
ment.
The complaint sets forth that prior to
March, 1887, the plaintiff and William
l.. Paine, at great trouble and expense,
succeeded in securing the support OF
the Chinese mister, Hoon Chang. The
following agreement was then made: A
company was to be formed to supply
the empire
WITH TELEPHONE SERVICE.
Plaintiff was to have three-tWentiethS
of the stock, defendant thirteen-tWen-
,iethS and Paine four-tWentiethS. 1t
tyas to be called the American Tele-
phone company and $1,000, 600 worth of
Stock was to be limited to Chinese sub
scriptionS. The remainder of the stock
was to be held by company, capitalized
at S2O,00O,000. to be called the Oriental
company. This company was to have
banking, raIlrOadlng and mining pow
erS, and Il concession of such grant
was promised by Lii Hung Chang. On
this promised concession provisional
certificates Of stock were issued over
gle signatures of the plaintiff and de-
1endant TO Chinese officials. Mean
while. an embassy was sent to the Uni
ted States, in which was envoy, Ma kie
Chang, to see Barker and arrange mat
teTS. The complaint says that Chang was
taken to the country house OF Barker
and treated sumptuously, ana that the
outcome was that a new arrangement
was Il ade whereby the plaintiff was
left out in the cold. and between
Barker. Hamilton Disston, ii. ID. Fling,
Francis ID. Shiplcy, Ezra Bowen, Rob
ert Glendenning, William Massey,
Thomas Potter. w. and George L. Ty-
Ter subscription of 100000 was raised
to meet the expenses of
THE CHINESE ENTERPRISES,
DARKER representing IlldJ lit Was tlIc
sole grantee Of these concessions. An
agreement was then made whereby
Barker was allowed to sell one-fOurth
of his interest in the American q ORR
entail company for % per cent of the
par value. One-fifth of the proceeds
was to be paid to the treasurer OF
the latter company, The remainder
was TO 90 to the owner. An agreement
was then made to form the Finance
Company Of Pennsylvania with capital
of S5.0Go,C0O. All the stock to be paid
up and each stakeholder to be given
part of the stock of the American and
Oriental companies. All Of the agree
ment Barker has failed to fulfil, ac-
cOrding to the complaint, although
pressed to do so by plaintiff and Mir.
Paine. Although Barker claims the
concessions were repudiated by the
viceroy, it is claimed Barker repre-
sented otherwise to induce the 100000
subscription.
The plaintiff alleges that through Mr..
Barker's failure, to carry out these
agreements he las not been able to
fulfill his promises to the Chinese
officials and that diStrust, has been en-
gendered which imperiiS the scheme.
The wealth and high social standing
of Mr.. Barker and others associated
with him lends an additional interest to
the litigation.