The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1894-02-22
WINANS DOWNFALL.
The Well Known Railroad Mag
nate Charged with Forgery,
INDICTED BY THE GRAND JURY.
Arrested aud Imprisoned in Default of
Bail-His Alleged stealings Aggregate
s229, ,OOO--The Accused Mans Heroic
Efforts to Secure British Title.

New YORK, Feb. 22.-Erastus wiman.
the well known capitalist and railroad
magnate, was arrested on bench war
rant yesterday afternoon on two charges Of
forgery He was brought into court at
o'clock, and in default of $25, 600 bail was
committed TO the Tombs by Judge Mar
tine.
Two indictments were found against Mr.
Wiman by the grand jury. They are for
forgery and uttering checks. Each indiCt-
ment contains two counts The total
amount involved in Mr. Wiman's alleged
forgeries is $4,000. The complainant
against him is II. G. Dun, president of the
Mercantile Agency association, of 3l4
Broadway
The warrants were executed at Wiman's
Office on the sixth fleor of the Field build
ing No. / Broadway. He was perfectly
cool and collected when the detectives
placed him under arrest, and he at once
proceeded with them to the district attor-
ney's Office. From thence he was taken
before Judge MARITIME
The counts in the indictments relate to
forgery and the uttering of forged checks
which were drawn on the Second National
bank when Wiman had no account. The
otfense is punishable with not more than
Jtl years lbI td'u ol lile inducements.
The letter on which the indictments
! against Mr. Wiman were made says in
part:
"Mr. Dun did not submit the proof of
Wiman's crimes to the authorizes on first
discovering them for several reasons. ln
the first place, he was moved by considera.
tions of sympathy for Mr. Wiman's family,
with whom he had been on terms of friend.
ship for many years, and by the piteous
appeals for mercy which Mr.. Wiman made
to him in a letter.
'In the second place he had then no ap.
probation of the extent of Wiman's EN-.
bezzlement nor of the length of time, last
ing many years, during which he had sys
tematically abused his confidence and
abused the trust reposed in him
"In view of the fraud practiced upon his
general creditors, as well as upon Mr.. Dun
| himself, and the conviction that man of
Wiman's bad character ought not longer
to be allowed to masquerade as an honest
man in this community and as an adviser
and eXhorter of youth, Mr. Dun decided
that his duties require him to expose Wi
mans conduct
In reply in % message sent him by his
son Harry r.t night Mr. Wiman wrote
| that he had committed no crime; that he
| ing to stand the consequences. His note
| concluded with the statement that he had
! an engagement to speak tonight in gram
mar schoolrNo. A, on Forty-second street,
| and please God he would keep his engage.
ment He was to speak on "The Great
North Land" Mr.. Wiman will not keeT
his engagement, however, as bail cannot
be secured until tomorrow General Tracy
his counsel, says this will be forthcoming
Wiman was the originator of the scheme
that put IAN iron band" around the water
front of Staten Island, and he became
| director of it when it developed into the
Staten Island Rapid Transist company
! He was also the promoter and president OF
the Staten Island Amusement company
which owned the old Metropolitan base
ball team. This was a failure, and the
property at St. George is now used by the
Staten Island Electric Light company, il
which he was also interested, as well as H.
the South Beach Improvement company
He was supposed to be possessed of valu
able real estate on Staten Island, but its
value was grossly overestimated when he
severed his connection with r. q. Dun &
Co. about two years ago, after having made
an assignment
Wimau is a native OF Toronto, and in the
zenith of his power he used to give out to
newspapermen who called upon him al
Dun's agency printed sketches of his life
in which it told of mis- having earned his
first fifty cents on a farm, and how he
went to work in the Office of the Toronto
Globe as devil" " and finally became a re
porter. He was about 10 years of age, &C
oording TO his own biography of himself
when he wrote a report giving statistics OF
the condition of the crops in the province
that were so much at variance with thosI
published by the government that they at
tracted attention all over the country. Al
investigation resulted In Wiman's fgurel
being sustained. This incident, he said
was the first stepping stone TO his rise iT
J eminence The biography stated that his
eXpertnesS in statistics attracted the at
. tention of r.. G. Dun g. Co., and he wa.
employed by that firm. He next becam,
:: manager of the Toronto branch, and hi
was sent to New York to take charge Of
) the business there.
In 1887 Wiman made a grand effort tt
secure the title of Sir" and he got up
great demonstration of Britishers in New
York on the occasion of the queens jubi
lee. The Staten Island Amusement com
; pany was in fiourishing condition theI
and owned the grounds at St. George anC
Az Lf&aIlud indueu hlleI ulinhblI), INT
9 crowds that visited the two places were 81
great that the grounds were thrown opeI
- and no more tickets could be gotten. Tn,
! people were so thick in the grounds tina
there was no moving about. 1t was esti
mated that there were no less than 200, ,OO
British subjects in Richmond county thai
day.
Elaborate reports of these proceeding
2 were cabled by Wiman to Europe but tn
q money was wasted, for none of the British
1 papers published anything that he sent
1 The credit for the big demonstration wa
! given to Wiman, but the failure of th
' notices 10 get in print resulted in tn
4 ! queens attention not being called to tn
. honor intended TO be paid her by her sub
Q iects in New York and Wiman failed T.
9 get knighthood. Since that time he ha
: advocated annexation, commercial uniol
q and other schemes of anti British ten
r dency. He also helped 10y his money an
Q influence TO found the British-America'