The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-03-14
IvES'S OPERATIONS.
The Story Of the Master Thiefs Nine Weeks
Possession of the yandalia.

With an ambition to rob that only the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans could limit, the
master thief resolved. in 1887, to possess a
line of transcOntinental railroad from Bal
tlmore TO San Francisco Soon after he had
confirmed his grip on the Cincinnati. Ham,
ilton & Dayton, pursuing his simple but
deadly method of buying new road with
what was in the treasury of the one last
purchased, he made approaches to the
principal owner of the Indianapolis q Ter
re Haute railroad, Familiarity known among
men of the rail as the Vandalia. Its CAPT.
tai was Sl,9SS, $50. Its stock was In half
shares of the par of so. Of this, so, 923
shares had been issued and were outstand-
ing. Unissued and in the company's treas
ury, were $50 shares. 1t was this proper
ty, apparently idle and nOn-prOductive,
that aroused the master thiefs Inst of APP
preparation. His fingers ached to get hold
OF 1T, and make 1T do its share of the worlds
work.
Easy is bargaining where the purchaser
peoples money. An offer of 100 for the par
of 80 fetched the Terre Haute stakeholder
and his contract to deliver majority of its
stock put the indianapolis g. Terre Haute
pocket. Immediately on his return from
his successful bargaining, Ives ordered
President StaynOr, of the Cincinnati Ham,
ilton q Dayton. to summon Staynor, Ives
and the necessary straw directors to meet
as board on May so, 1887. The meeting
was held and Ives put through it resolu-
ton authorizing him to buy for the Cincin-
natl, Hamilton IL Dayton 10000 shares of
the Indianapolis d Terre Haute stock. at
not exceeding 500 share, OF 100000.
Then he put through another resolution
authorizing him to sell block of 10000
shares of the stock of the Dayton Il MIchi-
gan road, which the Cincinnati, Hamilton
d Dayton owned, and which was lying idle
IN its treasury, at price not less than 20
cents on the dollar, to provide money to pay
in part for the purchased 10000 shares.
Without delay this Dayton IL Michigan
stock was sold for S700,000 cash.
IveS'S purchase of the Indianapolis &
Terre Haute stock amounted to 3d. 900.
When he bought it for the Cincinnati,
Hamilton d Dayton, he secretly purchased
for himself, as part of the deal, 446
the indianapolis IL Terre Haute owned,
called the Terre Haute d LeganspOrt. The
cost of this little side attraction was SILL
$50. The master thief would have been
ashamed to pay for 1T with his own money.
Of course he mixed up the transaction with
the larger purchase for the Cincinnati,
Hamilton & Dayton, and subsequently
paid for his 4,446 shares with that COM
pany's funds
Quick work, as was his wont, did the
master thief make of this his third aston
fishing performance of getting hold of a new
railroad with what was in the treasury of
the road he had last purchased. He paid
for the Terre Haute & Indianapolis in
1887, he paid $SS95OO cash, and took
delivery of IL leo shares for the Gin
cinnati & Hamilton company, with
those 4,446 Terre Haute & Logansport
shares for himself He also then gave to the
Indianapolis & Terre Haute Company the
note of Henry S. Ives, Trustee for $685.
$50. with collateral attached, consisting of
ell the shares just delivered to him. His
sorted to merely to simplify and facilitate
fraud. On the 4th of June he paid 552.500,
and took delivery of $50 shares more.
This completed the 2O0OO-share purchase,
and put the indianapolis & Terre Hauts
mercy, and provided the third link of his
projected transcontinental line. Without
the loss of day he began to materialiZe
his success. He went to New York with the
last received s, $40 shares snug in his pocket.
The certificates, of course, had been made
out in the name of "HenryS S. Ives, Trustee"
Without scrap of authority from
the Cincinnati, Hamilton a. Dayton
company; which Owed them hen ne trapsferred
5. Ives a. Co., his fence" for stolen railroad
I property. That concern forthwith sold the
stock and poured the cashprOceeds into the
many sinkhOles of its insolvency, cOpart-
with immense trouble, the Cincinnati,
| Hamilton d Dayton company traced and
| recovered 1910 shares of this stock. but had
| to pay $146,6S0 to get it.
|
outrageous rascalities the master thief per
! petrated against the Mineral Range Rail
road Company, of Michigan, and the Gin
| cinnati, Hamilton 81 Dayton company,
which the Sun has narrated. he now COM
mitted with rush against the IndianapO-
| lis Il Terre Haute company and its helpless
stockholders. He made himself director
| and president on June 4, 1857; had his New
York fence, Henry S. Ives a. Co, made
the corporations fiscal agents; within one
hour thereafter shipped $3.50. 900 of its money
| to Ives & Co. in New York; subsequently
raked and scraped the doomed company's
| treasury industriOusly for more and more
cash to be deposited in the New York fence,
and in every way robbed the corporation
| right up to his firms assignment to their
| legal adviser That act paralyzed the
| master thiefs larcenOus hands, and gave
| the nearly ruined railroad company time TO
breathe. Twas diabolical industry! He
| got possession of the unfortunate corpora
ton june He assigned to Cromwell on
| Aug II. In little over nine weeks he
scooped out of the Indianapolis & Terre
has as yet been paid back or recovered.
| Before he got control of the company he
was totally bankrupt. He and his firm
were bankrupt throughout his pos
of his negotiation to get hold of the prop
erty, his only real capital was his satanic
ability to buy a railroad with what was
stolen out of the road last purchased. One
/ JtNtldUlOu VI SuCu II nave
| shamed our civilization, Three revelations
of it should electrically shock the owners of
! railroads throughout the United States and
| arouse them to defense.
If the plundered stockholders of the three
corporations which the master thief so rap
! idly Quilted could have gotten asSuagement
| of their rage and grief out of the spectacle
| of his magnificently vulgar waste of their
| money, they are to be pitied for not having
| witnessed his princely gift to disrepu-
| table woman of dozen decorated dinner
plates, for which he paid 81 200: for not hav-
| ing seen him hoist his broad pennant on
the magnificent yacht Tillie, the flagship
| of the New York Yacht Club. for the white
washing and ennobling ownership of
| which he paid $4,000 with $4,000 cash
| down and 1000 shares Of the stolen pre-
ferred stock of the Cincinnati. Hamilton e.
| Dayton company. They should also have
seen him princely in the almost constant
| use of a magnificent directors car, nomin-
ally the property of the company, flashing
in snowy luxury through the country.
| scorning to touch change for ive-dOllar
bills handed to porters to buy newspapers,
and living by day and by night fully up to
| his ideal of a sultan of the ancient Turkey;
and they should have caught glimpse
through curtained windows of dinner in
the stunningly gorgeous dining room of his
mansion in Brooklyn, the title to which
| was held by woman, and in which to
feast was to become acquainted with the
saturnalia of imperial Rome.
Among the residuary assets of the three
successive railroad rObberies committed by
Ives and StaynOr, the stories of which The