The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1889-01-11
A sTuPENooUs FRAUD.
The Greatest Humbug Of the Age Was til
ElanS.ic pxocess af II aanlnE SnxaT

The Greatest Humbug Of the Age Was the
Electric Process of Refining Sugar.
NEW YORK, Jan. 6.-The Evening Sun
prints what it calls an "almost incredible
tale of q gigantic fraud" 1t states that
the Electric Sugar REFINING Company has
been duped to the ext ent Of over s. 600, 900,
and that its whole secret process turns out
to be q humbug of the most barefaced kind.
The "secret process" was the invention Of
Henry c. Freund. who appeared in the
trade about four years ago with
samples Of wonderfully pure sugar,
which he said had been refined by
his electric process" About a year
ago he induced a number of English
and American capt. alists to organize q
company and buy the 'secret process"
from him. This was done, factories erected,
but no one was allowed inside of them save
Freund, his wife and a few ignorant work
men. The rooms where the refining was
supposed to be going on were always kept
securely locked, as Freund said his process
was not patentable, and he couldn't afford
to allow any one to share his secret In
the meantime the stock Of the company
had been bouncing up until it was worth
nearly $500 per share of $10) par value.
Freund then began to unload, but suddenly
he d;ei.
The officers Of the company suspected
nothing wrong until few days ago, when
it was found that Mrs. Freund and all who
had been connected with the factory had
disappeared, Mrs. Freund leaving word
that she had gone to the West. President
Cottrell, the treasurer, Robertson. and q
number Of stockholders proceeded to the
factory and invaded the secret rooms.
What they discovered made their eyes
bulge out and each and every
hair of their heads gave limitations
of the quilts of porcupine when
he is fretful. There were a number
of machines used in breaking cube sugar
into smaller particles, and in graduating
the coarser grades, aud nothing else. There
was no mysterious electrical apparatus by
which the sweet stuff could be tran sferred
as by a flash into the purest saccharine
crystals, no wonderful cylinders, pots or
pans charged with purging electrical cur
rent. There were crushers and that was
all.
Investigation at once set on foot showed
how the great scheme had been worked.
Not pound of raw sugar had been refined
in the factory. Quantities of refined sugar,
chiefly cubes, had been purchased by the
operators and prepared i'm some secret spot
with a chemical liquid which eliminated
the ordinary impurities found in all
sugars. This "doctored" sugar was then
carted to the factory in bags purporting to
contain raw sugar. The chemical used
had CRY stallized the cubes to a large ex-
tent and when they were broken they had
finer appearance and quality than sugar
was ever known to possess.
Mrs. Freund and those connected with
her received a large sum of money in cash
from the company for the process, and
heavy block of the stock, which was dis
posed of, partly in England and partly
here, at price away beyond its par
value. Just how many persons Were in
terested in the scheme does not seem clear,
nor will the officers of the company tell
how much money was paid to them,
though they admit that adding the cash
and the proceeds Of the stock together
they must have received a sum approx
imatins $500 The scheme was cleverly
worked to the very last.
The results of further investigation of
the affairs of the Electric sugar refinery
gives additional evidences OF fraud, and
President Cottrell has left the city for the
purpose of procuring the arrest of Mrs.
Olive Freund ard her accomplice, Will
liam E. Howard.