Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-01-07
THE SUGAR SCHEMERS.
Friend, the Inventor, Died of
 Alcoholism.
IS MRS. FRIEND IN CANADAe

How the Gay Quintet Feasted the
 Proceeds of Their Mammoth Swindle.
 Flooded Horses by the Score and DIu-
 sical Instruments by the Dozen.
 NEW YORK, Jan. Thus far the only as sets which the English shareholders in the Electric Refining company can seize on are an old man named Jerry, copper pail and a saddened memory of the interesting MT. Friend Three men drove up in a covered carriage to Jefferson Market court yesterday morning and had lengthy private interview with the police justice. They carefully con- cealed their identity, but it soon became an open secret that they were small investors who had read that Mir. Friends reported death was, like his life, sham, and they wanted a warrant for his arrest. Even this little consolation, however, was not vouch- safed them, for MT. Friend is in the better land
 All that remains of his mortality is in a handsome coffin up in the mortuary at One Hundred and Fifty-fifth street and Tenth avenue, in this city. Still, it may be some little matter of interest to the mourners to know that their money was used freely in killing him. He drank himself to death.
 Dr. John B. Crosby, who attended him during his last spree, said yesterday:
 "Friend is certainly ill the bosom of Abra- ham, and if it is permitted him to talk in that place I have little doubt that he has poor Abraham's brain swimming with wild schemes this very afternoon. l attended him frequently in professional way and he was perfect marvel, stockily built and inn pulsive. and ever ready and competent to talk on any subject. It is nonsense for any body to suppose that he is living. He died f,ov, I,~1t, ,l~ what will tell you, but it is positive fact that that man drank every day that I knew him one gallon of the best brandy that he could get.
 Tt was simply idle to try to stop him. He was accustomed to having his own will grati- fled and could not be broken from it. He could talk entertainingly any subject but when that talk would drift toward chemistry he was positively charming"
 "Did he ever with you drift toward his great sugar scheme!'
 "Oh, yes," laughed the doctor, ''many a time he did, but there were good many things l didn't understand about it, and I steered clear. If his machinery was only the size of copper pail and worked practically of itself, 1 never could see the necessity of having this man Howard and two others mixed up with him. I thought the affair sham, and I told some of the stockholders so. Besides, you know" added the doctor who is still a bachelor, 'I was aware that Mrs Friend declared she knew the secret, and that made me exceedingly suspicious I concluded that there was no secret about it to divulge or she would have divulged it. She wasn't the sort of a lady to sit down and make her life weary with the weight of a secret upon it."
 It was queer family the Friends had at their home in East Sixtieth street in this city while they were manipulating the mon- eyed men of the two continents. Friend himself had a great love for music, and, in addition to piano, he had handsome music boxesr one of which cost S1, ,500, placed in every room. When he would become mellow with brandy he would order each of these boxes wound up and set the whole agony in motion. To intensity the matter he would insist that Mrs. Friend, who didn't know one note of music from another, should play gavotte upon the grand piano. Howard, the mutual friend, was facetious fellow On Sundays he would preach from the city hall steps, but every evening found him and the mysterious "Gus" and the other pal playing stud poker in Friend's,back par.or
 Life was riot with the gay quintet. In their home they lived on the choicest, and when outside they rode only on rich cushions
 
 Twenty-seven of the latter assisted them to enjoy life Of course, they sometimes went to the factory on Hamilton avenue, Brook lyn, but only, when the notion suited them. Jerry, the mysterious man, kept guard on the premises in Brooklyn. When Secretary Robertson or President Cotterill strayed anxiousy over to it, Jerry would peep at them through the little porthole in the door, and ~ would sum rily drive them off with a threat that he would blow them into next week if their exit was not both rapid and immediate. Jerry is still in the building, and three employees of the company who have taken possession of it have been trying to get the secret from the old servant, but Jerry's only answer is a very prolonged and significant whistle Last evening he was asked to take them to the machinery that Friend ran in the building, With great gravity the old fellow led them to sort of cupboard, in which he pointed out large tin pail.
 . ss'What do you call that? asked one of them.
 II dunno what the boss called it. I call it a 'growler,'" was the reply of Jerry, and he sighed as he thought of the trips it had made from the factory to Higgins barroom across the street.
 A secret conference of many of the leading 6UOCkAOlucIS " dS uelu ldUe on oaCurQaV 6V6n- ing, but no action was resolved upon. Pend ing advices from President ~Cotterill, who has not yet got home from Michigan, where he is pursuing the remnants of the band of imposters, it is not likely that anything definite will be done. MT. Friends attor- neys, however, have evinced disposition to show fight in the matter. They insist that the original contract between Friend and the company called for process of clarifying or of improving refined sugars and not of refn- ing sugar from the raw material They hint that Mrs. Friend has another secret in the shape of how sugar may be made from grapes, but she does not propose to part with it without couple of millions of dollars more
 The losses will be mainly on the other side of the water. A very considerable DOT tlon of the stock held in this country and in Canada was purchased cheaply, and in many Instances enough of it resold at premium sufficient almost to recoup them for their original investment
 ANN ARBoR, Jan. Mrs Friend exc cuted mortgage to William D. Hartman Friday for $4,00O, on all her real estate. Mrs Howard executed another mortgage on the same day of S4,O00 on everything they had. Mrs. Friend and George Halstead took the train east Friday, she stating that sine was going to New York. Holstead returned