Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-10-12
A BIG SUM SECURED
On Drafts on a Broken Bank by
Women Claiming to be Wives Of
ABSCONDlNG ENGLISH FINANCIERS.
Shortly After Arriving in New York TheJ
Succeed in Pocketing
S95,OOO In GOOD 0. S. CERTIFICATES.
Ths Ladies Arrested Advice BY Cable and Lodged b
the Police Station
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE prsPArcH.1

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPArcHI
NEW YORK, October 11-Among the ar
rivals at the Fifth Avenue Hotel one day
almost two weeks ago were two women and
child Of years. The women registered
as Mrs. E. Browning and Mrs. Cornelia v.
E. Miller. Mrs. Browning was a brunette
of perhaps 40 years. Mrs. Miller was Q
blonde and younger. The child was Q
sickly looking little girl. Who was gen.
orally dressed in Kate Greenaway style.
| The two women bad plenty of money and
acted in every way like women accustomed
to luxury. Mrs. Browning seemed to have
the most to say in the direction of their
affairs. After they had been here several
days Mrs. Browning sent for Lawyer Abe
| Hummel. She informed him that she was
Mrs. James H. Field, the wife of the senior
partner of the London banking firm of
James II. Field & Co. She said she had
been
DRAWING ON HER HUSBANDS BANK
through Brown Brothers & Co., of SO Wall
street, and that she had deposit with them;
that she had called at the bank for a draft
and been informed that the firm had re-
ceived instructions from London to stop all
payments on drafts to her order. Through
| Howe & Hummel she entered suit for the
amount of the draft. 1t was for S., 900.
This was the latter part of last week. Last
Monday Mrs. Browning, or Field, and Mrs.
Miller removed to the Coleman House and
| took less expensive rooms. On the register
of the Coleman House their names are
written, "Mrs. Miller" and "Mrs. Brown
ing"
On Friday evening Mr.. Hummel called
upon them and held long consultation.
To-day, just before noon, two men called,
and the women came downstairs, left their
key in the Office and went out, accompanied
by the little girl. Before going out they
sent message to Mr.. Hummel. When Hum
mel got the note he went before Judge Bar
rett with an application for a writ OF habeas
corpus. He told Judge Barrett that the
two women had been arrested by the police
without warrant and with no authority
except a cablegram from London.
FOUND IN A POLICE STATION.
Judge Barrett granted the writ and Mr..
Hummel hurried to police headquarters.
The women were not there. After waiting
as long as he could, Mr.. Hummel returned
to the Supreme Court and got another writ,
returnable on Monday. With this he ap-
peared again at police headquarters. This
time the woman and the little girl were
there in Inspector Byrne's Office. The law
yer served the writ, and having done all
that he could. left his clients to spend>Sun-
day in prison.
Hummel said that the arrest was an out
rage, and that Mr.. Byrne had no right TO
make it. He told this STORY: News
reached here last night that James NJ. FIELD
& Co., American stock brokers and organ
izers of syndicates in London, who failed
some time ago, had absconded, leaving their
affairs in great confusion. The story was
that receiver had been appointed and had
found out that during the past two months
Mr.. Field had turned over ESQ, 900 into
American currency, and that 1t was thought
that this money had all gone with the abb
sconders. Now these two ladies reached
here two weeks ago, and it is nothing
against Mrs. Field that she registered under
an assumed name.
ACTING ON FOREIGN ADVICE.
'1 suppose that Inspector Byrne has re-
ceived a cablegram ordering the arrest Of
the women. 1 suppose the English authori-
ties think that Mrs. Field and Mrs. Miller
have the ESQ, 900 in their possession. Mrs.
Miller is the wife of an employe of the
are Americans and their wives are also.
Mrs. Miller is from Chicago, and Mrs.
Field is also from the West. Now
1 am convinced that these two
ladies have not the money, and 1 am certain
that the only ground for arresting them is
the suspicion that they may have it. But
because their husbands may be embezzlers
is no ground for arresting them as access
sories. As 1 understand it, Mr.. Field and
his partners are accused of collecting and
making away with something like half
million dollars, the money Of Americans
and Englishmen, whom the firm induced to
invest. The habeas corpus case comes up
on Monday morning at 1890 o'clock, and no
donbt the ladies will be released forthwith"
Inspector Bvrne said tonight that the
women were supposed to have with them the
proceeds OF a big swindle which their
husbands and Mrs. Miller's son had perpe-
trated in London.
$4,000 SECURED ON DRAFTS.
A year and a half ago, he said, James n.
Field, William Wadsworth Miller and
William Gates Miller, his 19-year-old son,
opened a banking house in London. It
was sort of Ferdinand Ward concern. It
promised big returns for deposits, and
actually paid at intervals Of one or three
mouths alleged profits to the depositors at
the rate of 25 or 30 per cent year. Mat
ters came to head FIVE or SIX weeks ago.
Then the firm dissolved, not in a legal way,
but disappeared, and with it went its assets.
The male members of the two families were
supposed to have gone to the continent and
the women to have come here. Each
party is said to have carried away
a share of the plunder. The
British Consulate asked Byrne to arrest
the women. They were supposed to have
about 5000, 900 of the booty with them. Be-
fore they left England Mrs. Miller took
large sum to the Bank of England and got
Bank of England notes for it. These she
took to Brown, Shipley & Co., the London
bankers, and exchanged for drafts on Brown
Bros. & Co., OF this city.
The women got here on September 8, and
Mrs. Miller had already got sos, 900 worth
Of these drafts cashed here before informa-
ton reached any one interested. Then,
upon a telegram from the London house,
payment was refused on further draft for
s35, ,000 The drafts that the women pre-
sented we're, according to information from
the other side, sent to New York by steam
ers following the steamer on which the
women left for America. The object of this,
The police say, was that in case the women
had been arrested here on their arrival no
evidence could have been found
,n them.
Howe & Hummel, Byrne says, were
already in the employment of the women.
They tried without avail to get this last
iraft cashed. The S95, 900 they got all in
2, 900 and $40, 900 United States certificates.
Michigan. Michigan. Michigan.
Just received five carloads of all kinds Of