Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1889-03-14
A REMARKABLE STORY.
II ItL VI I-lItINAA
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New York sun.
The Stock Exchange reporters of vari
Gus New Y ork morning papers met Henry
S. Ives in his Office by his appointment OF
August II, 1887. He had sent for then
to announce the bankruptcy of his firm
Coming from his private room he stood
for moment in its doorway with al
an aureole of cigarette smoke curl
ing saint-like around his head Tanning
this away with delicate fingers he advanc
ed and gave jaunty greeting to the gen
tlemen of the press. Then, with amannel
compounded of Alfred Jingle and Alex
ander the Great, he remarked: 81 have al
interesting item of news for you. Ives &
Co have made an assignment. To whom
To their legal adviser, VIM. n. Cromwell
The reporters tumbled on him an inquiry
for the amount of the firms liabilities
| He replied with more of Alexander the
Great than Jingle: "Our liabilities are
| twenty million dollars, our assets twenty
one millions. Now really, gentlemen,
you must excuse me, as | must be very
busy for the next half hour" Then he
withdrew with Alfred Jingle into his
private office, leaving Alexander the Great
to tell the reporters how proud Ives was
Of the magnitude of his bankruptcy; so
proud that he exaggerated it by four mil
lion dollars. A glimpse of Stayner, the
Railroad Presidency member of the burst
firm, was caught through the open door
of the private office, the picture of despair.
His head was sunk between his shoulders
like that of hen demOraliZed by pro-
tracted northeast storm.
About five years before this dramatic
exhibition of vanity and moral insensi-
bility, Ives was washing spittOons in the
establishment of Harper & Bros. for two
dollars week. From spittOon-cleaning
he budded into an errand boy and copy
ing clerk in Wall street brokers' Office,
from which he was soon dismissed for
eavesdrOpping. Thence, after q brief
baccalaureate course of raScality in two
petty business partnerships, establish
ed by himself, he full-bloOmed into
master of the art of stealing a railroad
With a cash capital of only $4,000 he
acquired legal ownership and absolute
control of the Mineral Range Railroad
Company, of Michigan and in about a
it utterly and threw it into the hands of
Receiver, so as to maintain the cOrpOr-
ate organization in which he and his tool
Stayner were President, Vice-President,
Treasurer, Secretary, Executive Commit
tee, Board of Directors and Stockholders
With fairly earned diploma of master
thief and with only $4,000 cash and $780,
600 face value of securities StOled from
the Mineral Range Company, he bought
majority of the voting stock of the Gin
cinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad
Company, and acquired absolute control
of it and of its leased lines, of all the
money and SuretieS in its treasury, and
the entire legislative power of its stock
holders, Board of Directors and EXecu-
tive Committee. Within year and
half he robbed this captured company of
the enormous sum of 50, ,053, 1928, and
tangled it up to the very verge of bank
ruptcy, making for his successors trouble
during lifetime of corrective manage
ment.
The master thief's method of crime
should send an electric thrill of appre-
hension through all the owners of Amer
can corporate property. 1t was as simple
as it was deadly: to buy a railroad with
what was in the treasury of the road last
purchased. With mOnstrOus inventive
ness he studied out more than geOmet- /
rical progression in robbery and success
fully put it into practice at the age of
twenty-three. Given. as the elements of |
a problem, Ives extreme youth, cunning
and audacity, the sixteen hundred rail |
roads of the United States and his easy
access in stealing two of them in two |
years, and rObbing them of 1892, 600, |
how many corporations might he not |
steal in his probable life. and how many /
millions of dollars might he not |
become worth by the master-t thief method |
of buying another and more important |
railroad with what was in the treasury of |
the road last purchased? And to the |
elements of this problem add another, |
that, we are ashamed to say, strictly be- |
longs to 1.-THE proverbial uncertainty of |
the law. Then is not Ives invention of |
a geemetrical progression in the stealing |
of corpOI ations and corporate property a |
thing of frightfully feasible application /
and attainable success?
1t may serve to shock corporate stock |
holders and administrators to self-defen- !
sive action through the Legislatures of |
the several States if we inform them, as
we do on credible authority, that in 1887,
in the midst of his negotiations for the 1
purchase of great trunk line railroad
he laughingly informed one of his attOr
neys that he had nearly matured arrange
ments to get possession of the New y Ork
Equitable Life Assurance Company. Its
capital was conveniently small, only $780,
DOU; its assets on the other hand over
S90, 100000 The master thiet'S compul-
sorry suppression of his passion for imme-
diate grabbing of this dazzling mountain
of golden surplus must have been like
struggle against delirium ire
mems.
1t is not safe to say that Ives plan to
get control of this immense corporation
was illogical or impracticable. He had
theory that the stock of any and every
in the United States could
be bought at some price. With his method
Of providing means for payment, price to
him was not of the slightest consequence.
eXOrbitant or insuperably high,
he had but to contract to pay with one
hand, and to pay with the other in what
he stole out of the corporation last pur-
chased. And to further shock the sleep
ing American sense of corporate security
We state, on responsible authority above
that he had matured scheme
to get control of the trust companies of
New York City. He actually had planned