Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-09-27
BORING THE ROCKIES.
Brick Pomeroy's Great Ambition Is
His Big Tunnel Scheme.
IT WILL BE A HOLE FULL OF GOLD.
Some Of Ills Quiet Observations on the
Promoters of London.
ENGLISH INVESTORS IN AMERICA
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE p1sPArcH.l

notability, Mark NJ. Pomeroy, otherwise
"Brick." Somebody had recently told me
he was dead, but they must be mistaken, for
here found him at an immense desk piled
with papers, stack of exchanges at his
feet, in one of the handsomest suites in the
new building. The open doors revealed
the near presence of the usual corps of ste-
nographers, typewriters and clerks who
invariably form a part of his working
system.
"BHck' is apparently very much alive.
He has lost none of his old buoyancy of
spirit or bland suavity of speech or manner.
When parted from him years ago in La
Crosse he had pawned his watch to take
faithful employe to Denver. Out there he
made third fortune, and spent it in push
ing tremendous scheme to bore hole
through the Rocky Mountains. There was
an effort made to squeeze him out, and the
whole scheme became involved in litigation,
out of which "Brick" emerged on top. But
he was again penniless, and came to New
York once more and began patiently and in
dustriously at the bottom.
MASTER OF ANOTHER FORTUNE
The recuperative powers of such a man
are wonderful. He is now again financially
well of, and has lovely home in Brooklyn
and three beautiful children. As he has re-
Gently been abroad in the interests of his
tunnel enterprise, the conversation natural
ly drifted into the channel of American en-
terprises and the London market. His
graphic pictures can only be reproduced in
his own rich ooloring, but it is quite as in
structive as tits amusing.
"There is plenty of accumulated wealth
IN, ha ua1t
many opportunities to invest as in the
United States, and naturally a desire to
invest it to a reasonable certainty of
profit The prudent English investor de-
sires security rather than speculation. He
is man who thinks much of and for his
family. He is not so quick to see point
or strike into value as is the American,
but he is loyal to whatever he embarks in,
aud it is shame that such men should be
bled and swindled as they are by their own
people in London, and by untruthful men
on this side of the ocean, as this hurts
legitimate business here and wrongs we'll
intentioned men there. The too general
fashion in London, is for the investor to
lock himself up in his den and rely upon
his solicitor, or .wyer.
HIS IDEA OF THE SOLICITOR
'~The solicitor is a varied customer. He
advises his client to go verv slow; to trust
everything to his solicitor who carries two
razors up his sleeve, one to shave the
American who comes to him for money, the
other to shave his client who invests
''When a man with property, good, bad
or different, reaches London and registers at
a hotel or an exchange he is flooded with
cards from men who offer their services in
in any line. from doing the slums' to ex-
amining the News (stables) where the
Queens horses are kept; from introducing
you to the most successful promoter to the
Archbishop of Canterbury, or the pudding
maker of Cranberry. The streets swarm with
promoters and other agents. If he runs you
into clothing store and you buy, he has
a rake-down. If he takes you to hotel.
restaurant, coffee house, Bodega, lecture,
doctor, jeweler, banker, railway Office,
lawyer, promoter or investor, and you deal
dnced, the solicitor drops in later on for his
commission, and aside from this is continu-
ally striking you for small loan.
HOW THEY PRACTICE
"English promoters come to this country
by scores, and they line the Atlantic coast
from Cape Cod to Florida They lay in
wait in New York for whoever has property
to dispose of. They intercept every man
borrow money in New York on account of
their Gondon connections), get options on
breweries, gin mills, ect., otc., tangle affairs
all up, then to get out of the way, demand a
bonus, and if you won't be blackmailed
they will turn against you.
eyes, had experiences in London, and
they were both funny and educational. I
was first called there by men who wrote me
they wished to invest in our Atlantic
Pacific tunnel, but wished to see me first.
They gave references in London, which 1
afterward found to be rotten gimcracks, in
cahoots with the plucker. They talked big,
made offers and-borrowed a shilling or
sovereign or so, till they came in town,
as they hung Danny Keever in the morn
ing To get at the real investor was, for
time, impossible without greasing the
sIids, and when 1 refused to do that, word
was passed along the line and the street
gang yelped their notes of warning.
PROMOTERS NEVER GET LEFT.
'The ordinary London promoter counts
on taking all the cream and half the skim
milk. He makes the British investor,
whom he can reach through the church,
club or family influence, pay from three or
four times the actual value of what he buys
or buys into, and the promoter thus makes
his fortune easily and quickly and retires
on consols. There are honorable excep-
tions to the above, but this is the general
rule.
'There are in London, as here, men who
as attorneys are true to their clients and
who conscientiously advise them. Honest
promoters and honest advisers-and they
are in the minority. Of late London capi-
talists are sending honest, sober, reliable
men to this country, and on to the West,
North and South to see for themselves, and
to recommend only what is good. There
are two distinct families or classes of in
vestors in England. Those who invest for
o permanency who demand interest based
on living wealth containing substantialities,
and American substantialities are coming
to the front ahead of all others. Men and
women who seek first mortgage bonds on
living property in which the music of actual
labor is heard and in which industry here,
as we'll as capital there, is alike invested.
These persons do not care fig for
PUNCH AND JUDY SHOWS
as offered in Stock Exchanges, for the
shearing of sheep and stripping of suckers.
They seek values, and give values for values. |
The other class are the spectators, gamb- |
lers, percenters, promoters and those who |
wish to ride fast, be it uphill or down; who |
are crazy to gamble; to be in the swim; to |
clip, cut and run; who would beat the angel |
that WIS carrying them to heaven if there |
was shilling in it for them.
eyes, 1 visited London twice in efforts to |
interest capital in our tunnel enterprise,
merely to hasten the work on to completion.
The first time l fell in among those of the
Dunn-Brown order, whose references were
banks and bankers, Of the class who plotted