Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-01-06
Expose of a Gigantic Scheme to
Rob Gullible Investors.
A Three Hundred Thousand Dollar Com
pany Trying TO Extract Secret
From Little Woman.
An Electric Sugar Refinery That Will Prove
Expensive to Those Who Calculated
to Reap Rich Harvest

I been IN consultation with sawyer n BOI-
/ ton, attorneys here, for several days
| past. The president of the company has
! been here and met Mrs Friend, the
| Towards and Holsteads, all of whom live
at Milan, this state Mrs. Friend 5 at
/ torneys say there was no intentional
| fraud, but that the company expected
more than was promised. She says the
company was TO furnish money
to equip a refinery for refining
by Friend s secret process. The COM
pany alleged the refining was to be done
from the sugar cane. This she cannot
do. The contract her husband made was
to refine sugar at so cents ton, or TO
sell out his stock and secret for 5000 200,
after everything was running. The COM
pany has been running five years and has
| put in over $500 900, but no sugar has yet
been refined for market. Mrs. Friend
says the company is now trying to
force from her another secret by
which she makes a superior article
of sugar from grapes. This last secret
she refused TO divulge for any amount.
No arrests have been made and none are
even threatened by the company 5 agent,
who returned to New York Wednesday.
Mrs. Friend is the only party interested
in the transaction, the others being
merely employees.
THE HOME OF THE FRIENDS.
DETROIT, MICH. Jan. AN Even
ing Journal special from Milan. Hieh.
says Mrs. Friend rs elegant home, half
mile east of here, was completely de-
serted this morning. At the house of
Mr.. Howard, Mrs Howard was found
just setting out to meet her husband and
daughter. Mrs. Friend) at Ann Arbor.
She is a sharp eyed, brainy old lady,
with a determination not TO give awaS-
what she knows further than to say that
if New York brokers have broken open
the electric sugar refinery they have lost
all their rights, and that it would have
been well if the process had been lost
when Friend died last march, also that
she is sure Mr.. Howard and Mrs. Friend
are able TO take care of themselves. Since
the opening of the sugar business the
Towards and Friends have cut a big
swath here, building elegant houses and
living as gentlemanly farmers with
princely incomes from some source not
generally understood although not with
out faint of suspicion. They bought the
best, lived high, drove elegant equipages
and travelled much between here and
New York The village is greatly eX-
cited, but not surprised.
WILL SQUEEZE HOWARD.
NEW YORK, Jan. >. - The lead
ing topic of conversation among
brokers and business men down town to-
day is the great expose of the late Pro-
fessor Friend s electric sugar refining
company. Secretary Robertson, of the
defunct concern, while sitting In his
Office to-day was nearly paralyzed by
well-knOwn Wall street man asking him
for ten shares, Offering him SO each for
them Mr. Robertson told the man the
shares were worthless. The man insisted.
and the sale was effected. The
purchase of these shares to-day
was for the purpose, it is said, of
FsqueeZing'' W. E. Howard when he is
caught. Howard is the man who swore
before a notary public that he had seen
the professor refine the sugar by
electricity 1t is now limited that Friend
is not dead at all. There has not been
anybody found so far who has seen his
corpse. His death is said to have oc-
Cured two days before the blizzard last
March.
TIE PRESIDENT HEARD FROM.
DETROIT, MICH Jan. 5.-An evening
journal special from Ann Arbor says:
President Cottrill of the Electric Sugar
Refinery was found at the Arlington this
morning. He says the report that he is
here to procure the arrest of Mrs. Friend;
that the contract with her does
not specify raw cane sugar, but
only cane sugar, is an unmitigated
falsehood. The process is far
too expensive to place on the market.
There is no question, he says, but that
the product is finer than that produced
by any known process, and would sell
better than ordinary refined sugar if it
could be made from raw sugar. The de-
ception consists in manipulating the re-
fined sugar instead Of refining sugar by
the new process. On behalf of
Mrs. Friend the claim is made that Pro-
fessor Friend invented two distinct
processes, one for making a superior ar
ticIe of sugar from refined sugar and the
other for making it from grapes, and
that the latter is worth millions. Presi-
dent Cottriil pronounees this hum
bug,'' but says if there is anything in
the grape process the company is entitled
to it.
THE PROFESSORS CAREER
CHICAGO, ILL. Jan. 5.-The late Pro-
lessor Friend, who has so suddenly ac-
quired posthumOus nOtoriety, tried to
foist his electric sugar refining scheme
on a Chicago firm about a year ago but
failed. Henry Culver is a Chicago agent
of Matthleson & Wlerickers, sugar re-
finers of New York Mr. Culver
had deal of valuable in
formation regarding Professor Friend,
he and others having been
marked victims by the professor. Mr..
Culver related the story to a reporter
this afternoon. About four years
ago, said Mr.. Culver, "'the professor
came to Chicago. He represented him
self as having process for refining
sugar, which, he said would turn out the
best article for from so cents to 81 less
than by the ordinary methods. L GER
tainly thought that
WONDERFUL DISCOVERY,
and invited Professor Friend to my house
at Highland Park. We discussed the
process and went so far as to commune
cate with our president, Mr.. Matthies-
sen, at the New York office. He came
TO Chicago at once, and Professor Friend
and he returned TO New York. AT the