St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-01-06
FRIENDS GIGANTIC FRAUD
Business Hen Worried Over the Electric
Sugar Refining Swindle.
THE WIDOW is NOT WORRIED.
She Says the Company Is Trying to
Force from Her Priceless
Secret.

NEW YORK, Jan. 5.-The leading
topic of conversation among the brokers
and business men down town to-day is
the great expose of the late Prof.
Friends electric sugar refining COM
pany. Secretary Robertson, of the de-
funct concern, while sitting in his Office
to-day was nearly paralyzed by a we'll
known Wall street man asking him for
ten shares. offering him $40 each for
them. Mr.. Robertson told the man the
shares were worthless. The man in
sisted, and the sale was effected. The
purchase of these shares to-day was for
the purpose, it is said, of squeezing"
W. E. Howard when he is caught. How
ard is the man who swore before a no
tary public that he had seen the ''pro-
feSsor' refine raw 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 occurred two
days before the blizzard last March.
COTTERILL's CLAIM.
ANN ARBoR, Mich, Jan. 5.-Presi-
dent CotteriIl, of the Electric Sugar re-
fuery, was found at the Arlington this
morning. He says that 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 develop
ments in few days. He denounces the
claim made by Mrs. Friend that the
contract made with her does not specify
raw cane sugar, but only cane sugar, as
an unmitigated falsehOod. The process
is far too expensive to put on the mar
ket. There is no question, he says, but
that the product is finer than that pro-
duced by any known process, and would
sell better than ordinary refined sugar
if il could be made from raw
sugar. The deception consists in
manipulating refined sugar instead
of refining sugar by a new
process. On behalf of Mrs. Friend the
claim is made that Prof. Friend III
vented two distinct processes. one for
making a superior article of sugar from
refined sugar, and the other for making
it from grapes, and that the latter is
worth millions. President Cotterill
pronounces this 'humbug," but says
that If there is anything in the grape
process the company is entitled to it.
Mrs. Friends attorney says that there
was
NO INTENTIONAL FRAUD,
but that the company expected more
than was promised. She says that the
company was to furnish money to equip
a refinery for refining the sugar by
Friends secret process. The company
alleged the refining was to be done from
the sugar cane. This she cannot do.
The contract her husband made was to
refine the sugar at so cents ton, or to
sell out his stock and secret for $250,000
after everything was running. The
company has been running five years
and put in over 100000, but no sugar
has been refined for the market. Mrs.
Friend says that the company are now
trying to force from her another secret
by which she mades a superior article of
sugar from grapes, instead Of getting
the secret their contract calls for. The
last secret she refuses to diVulge for
any amount.
No arrests have been made and none
even threatened by the company's
agent, who returned to New York
Wednesday. Mrs. Friend is the only
one of the party interested in the trans
action, the others being merely en-
ployes.
MOUTHINGS OF a BIOTHER-TN-LAW,
MILAN, Mich, Jan. 5.-The Friends
elegant home, half mile east of here,
was completely deserted this morning.
At the home of W. E. Howard, Mrs.
Howard was found, Just setting out to
Join her husband and daughter MRS.
Friend at Ann Arbor. She is sharp
eyed, brainy old lady, with a deter
mination not to give away what she
knows further than to say that If the
New Workers have broken open the
Electric sugar refinery they have s'lost
all their rights, and 1t would have been
we'll 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 big
swath here, building elegant homes and
living as gentlemanly farmers with
princely incomes from some source not
generally understood. though 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 excited, but not whit sur
prised.