Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-10
BURKE'S BIG SCHEME.
~ OAtAAA - OAO NNhAAAA'
Why the Major Was Called Back
From Queenstown 10 London.
HIS SYNDlCATES DEMANDED 1T.
They Didn't Want Their Business TO Suffer
BY Any Little Breaks.
WAAT THE COMPANIES EXPECT TO DO

DuIhe ; SuOOSn return from Quee0SIOWu W
London last month, which so disappointed
his American friends, has borne golden
fruit. Some of this fruit, with the nursery
men who are to raise plenty more of 1t in
Honduras, left here yesterday morning for
San Francisco, en- route for Amapala, on
the Pacific coast OF President Bogran's re-
public. They took with them the marvel
Gus collection of silver and steel and glass
and leather tools they have had made to or
der in the English metropolis-such an out
MT as no travellers ever exhibited in New
York before, triumphs of mechanical and
scientific ingenuity, constructed steam en-
glnes, stamp mills, portable kitchens, drug
stores and all, so as to be carried safely and
easily on muleback for hundreds OF miles
over rugged mountains and through the
tropical forests OF Honduras.
BURKE's BRAINS IN IT.
The brains to contrive all this and money
TO pay FOR it were furnished by the ex-Treas-
urer of Louisiana, whose name has been
banded about on mems lips for weeks in COM
pany with the words defaulter, embezzleT, and
the like. Has the man transmitted his very
shame TO gold, or rather has he achieved sue
cess in spite of evil report? VIII the money he
realizes from this syndicate's wonderful pur-
chase of his Central American mines, in spite
of tidings harsh enough to ruin many surer
scheme and sUouter heart be used by Major
Burke in redeemIng and retiring the baby
bonds" and others oveT-issued in his native
State? This last some of his friends believe.
The director general OF the work II these
vast Hondurean placer and silver mines. which
Major Burke has Just placed so advantageously
in London, is Douglas L. V. Brown. we'll
known mining expert and practical operator.
With him Ia the party who left here yesterday
Enuinnnr
miner ef experience, and Mr.. William Hod-
ding, an agent of the great banking
house of Rothschld, and, to some extent
representative abroad of the Louisiana Lot
tery. Mrs. Rodding is a daughter of that we'll
known jurist, Judge Jennings, and she and her
daughter accompany Mr.. Holdings as far as
San Francisco. There the party will meet Mr..
L. Z. Tucker, one OF the most expert placer
miners IN California. Mr.. Tucker is still
young man, but his exploits in deviating the
bed of the Sacramento river, and reclaiming
thousands of acres Of agricultural land in the
Sacramento Valley after the famous decisions
were rendered in the formers favor, seem to
have pointed him out to the Burke syndicate as
THE RIGHT MAN
to work the 30 miles of river bed which Bogran
made over to Burke. and which Burke has un-
loaded on these English shareholders.
All this is the elimination of an international
romance in which the actors are the President
of Honduras, Major E. a. Burke, Colonel Nc
Murdo, or London, the most famous of Ameri-
can promoters now deceased, and the Argus
eyed newspaper press of two Continents. 1t was
possible for Burke in the face Of a criminal in
dictmeht itself, to cOnsummate this great
financial deal, to which the Republic of Hon
duras, the State of Louisiana and Great Britain
are all three parties If the London Herald had
not published, just when it did, the news,
cabled from New Orleans, that Burke's ac-
counts with the State were found, TO every
bOdy's intense amazement, to be short. this
great mining deal would have gone through
long ago. If Colonel McMurdo had not died
suddenly last spring, almost with pen in hand,
and in the very act of closing the documentary
part of Burke's transfer to the committee of
stockholders, it would have gone through still
There is a queer issue of fate and queer
flavor of instability Of human fortune pervad-
ing the whole affair. These men gambled
is Burke, now? Is Major Burke in Belgium
nowS This question was asked of one Of the
mining expedition, as he got of the steamer.
He's not where people over here have been
led to believe him. You can depend on that
was the answer" As soon as his London stock
holders will let him, think be will return TO
Louisiana How is he? My God! Don't ask!
You Wouldn't know him. Six months ago be
was young
VIGOROUS, DARK-HAIRED MAN,
apparently in the prime of vigorous. useful
manhood His hair is now gray, indeed. al
most white. The lines of the face are drawn
and he has all the look of man whose life is
being worn away by tremendous grief Mr..
E. h. Lowe, the international steamship agent
and purveyOr of travellers comforts, sailed on
the Teutonic with Major Burke and his wife,
on October2 2 The Major was returning to the
United States to face his accusers"
Nobody over here has ever understood ex-
actly why Major Burke left the Teutonic at
Queenstown. and returned post haste. with his
wife, TO London. 1t was ascribed to fear and
guilty conscience asked Mr. Lowe YESTERDAY.
in view of the fact that the Burke properties
had Low at last been successfully launched IN
the English market just what he knew of the
MAJORS departure at Queenstown.
=, IL sounds like novel" said Mr.. Lowe, "for
Major Burke had twice been on the verge Of a
great fortune before. At last he touched
It as he now seems TO have done, and
the second of these occasions was the
means of dragging him back from the
terest. Major Burke acquired from President
Louis Bogran at, and after the Worlds Fair at
New Orleans, concessions Of territory
which have since made the ex-
Treasurer of Louisiana. the dictator, practi-
cally, of the mining as well as the fruit ship
ping interest of Honduras. Bogran had be-
come indebted to Burke for enormous sums.
some OF this spent on the Worlds Fair and
some in the TiMes-Democrdt, BurFe's
paper, on Bogran's behalf. The only
way Bogran could pay this back to
Burke-who bad in the meantime. for
lack of cash, and by reason of his enormous
OUTLAWS become somewhat embarraSsed-was
by presenting him with a golden river bed 90
miles long, and other vast mining claims down
IN the Central American Republic Burke
went down to Honduras. He had been down
there repeatedly. believe, and Bogran said to
him: 'I'll not only give you one river bed; tn
give you two: now you see what you can make
out Of them"
NOT A CARE IN SIGHT.
Last January Major Burke went to London
70 organize stock company to subscribe to |
shares and develop his Honduras properties. 1 !
was in London when be arrived, and he was as |
jolly and clipper, handsome and agreeable a |
man as you could meet anywhere. He didn't |
seem to have care. and was quite sanguine /
about disposing of his mines. Colonel Nc /
MurdO, the rich American, one of the most /
famous promoters this country has ever sent /
Rb road, became interested in Major Burkes 4
affairs, and matters went well.
zone morning Colonel McMurdo came down |
70 the Office to execute the last legal document /
which would vest the title of the Burke prop- /
critics in the new share syndicates, where Nc |
Murdo had arranged to purchase them. Every /
thing was IN readiness and be was about to /
sign his name when death interfered. He was /
carried out Of the room helpless, and ordered 4
by his doctors to seek a change of air in Paris. |
De obeyed, but to no purpose. The end had |
come, 10 all lntents and purposes, when the pen /
dropped from his nerveless fingers.
'This was late in the spring, but Major |
Burke set TO work at once through other pro- /
motors to organize other share companies.
Death had frightened of the first formedA
These new promoters OF Burl1e's Hondurean I
enterprises worked tooth and nail and had an
other company formed and everything prac-
tieally in readiness for the transfer when
bang the treasurer of Louisiana fired at Ma
1or Burke a bomb whose echos reYerberated
through Lombard street.
But the Major was indomitable, and he
stuck to his work. He got everything in good
shape again, and had matters seemingly SO Sc
cure that his London agents could now without
his help. close up the transaction once for all
and make him
A VERY RICH MAN,
when Thought he I will 90 hone and fana nv |