, 1889-01-06
THE SUGAR SWINDLE.
Mrs. Friend Says There Was
No Intention of Fraud.
Warrants Issued in London for
Her Arrest.
Prof. Friend Believed to be
Living.

ANN ARBOR, Mich, Jan. 5.-Persons
interested in the Electric Sugar Refining
company frauds at New York have been
In consultation with an attorney here for
several days past. The president of the
company has been here and met Mrs.
Friend, the Towards and Hoisteads, all
of whom live at Milan, this state. Mrs.
Friends attorney says there is no inten.
tional fraud, but hat the company ex-
peeted more than was promised. She
says the company was to furnish money
to equip the refinery for refining & by
Friends secret process. The company
alleges that the refining was to be done
from sugar cane. This she cannot do.
The contract her husband made was to
refine sugar at eighty cents per ton, or sell
out his stock and secret for $3.50, 900
after everything was running. The com
pany las been running five years and put
in over 100000, but no sugar has yet
been refined for market. Mrs. Friend
says the company is trying to force from
her another secret by which she makes a
superior article of sugar from grapes in
stead OF getting the secret their contract
calls for. This last secret she refuses to
divulge for any Mount No arrests
have been made and none are even threat.
ened by the company's agent, who re-
turned to New York Wednesday. Mrs.
Friend is the only one of the party inter
ested in the transaction, others being
merely employees.
PRESIDENT ooTTERILL TALKS.
President Cotterill of the electric sugar
refinery. was found at Islington this morn
ing. he says the report that he is here
to procure the arrest of Mrs. Friend is
news to him. He cannot talk to the press
now, but promises developments in a few
days. He denounces the claim made by
Mrs. Friend that the contract does not
specify raw cane sugar but only cane
sugar. as an unmitigated falsehood. The
process is far too expensive to place on
the market. There is no question, he
says, but that that product is liner than
that produced by any known process and
would sell better than ordinary refined
sugar if it could be made from raw sugar.
The deception consists in the msnipula.
ton of refined sugar instead of refining
sugar by the new process.
On behalf of Mrs. Friend the claim is
made that Prof. Friend invented two
uAbliuSb pIOOSooCoi OuC vi uldhluR u Su-
perior article of sugar from refined sugar,
the other for making it from grapes and
that the latter is worth millions. Presi.
dent Cotterill ~pronounces this humbug
but says that if there is anything in the
grape process the company is entitled to 1t,
A COOL CROWD.
MILAN, Mich, Jan. 5.-Friend's ele-
giant home half a mile east of here was
deserted this morning. At the house of
w. Il. Howard Mrs. Howard was found
Just setting out to Join her hu1baed and
daughter. Mrs. Friend, at Ann Arbor.
She is a s~harp-eyed, brainy old lady, with
a determination not to give away what
she knows, further Than to say that if the
New Workers have broken open the Elec-
trio sugar refinery they nave lost all their
rights, and that it would have been well
1t the process had been lost when Friend
died last March. Also that she is sure
that Howard and Mrs. Friend will be able
to take care of themselves. Since the
opening of the sugar business the Towards
and Friends have cut a big swarth here,
building elegant houses and living as gen
tlemanly farmers with princely incomes
from some source not generally under.
stood, though not without a faint of sus
picion. They bought the best, lived high,
drove elegant equipages and travelled
much between here and New York. The
village is greatly excited, but not a whit
surprised.
Is FRIEN DEAD.
New YORK, Jan. 5.-The leading
topic among brokers and business men
down town is the great expose of the late
Prof. Friends Electric Sugar Refining
company. Secretary Robertson of the
defunct concern was nearly paralyzed by
a well known Wall street man asking him
for ten shares, offering him $40 each for
thom. Robertson told the man that the
shares were worth less, but the man in
sisted and the sale was effected. The
purchase was for the purpose, it is said,o of
squeezing Howard when caught. How
ard is the man who swore before a notary
public that he had seen the professor
refine raw sugar by electricity. 1t is now
limited that Friend is not dead at all.
There has not been anybody found who
has seen his corpse. His death is said
to have occurred before the blizzard of last
March.
WARRANTS ISSUED FOR MRs FRIEND.
LIVERPOOL, Jan. 5.-The shares of
the Electric Sugar Refining company
have fallen to thirty shillings. Warrants