St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-01
A POWER IN The CHURCH,
BUT TRAVELLED AT TOO FAST A
PACE.


Humphrey 8. Chamberlain Was a
Napoleon at Financiering, but
Operated on Too Large a Scale.
and Numerous Of His Clients
Now Wonder Where Their
Money Has Gone.
NEW YORK, Jan. 31.-Humphrey B.
Chamberlain, president of the Cham
berlain Investment company, OF Denver.
which failed last July, has been arrested
and held in $1,000 bail on an order of
Justice Lawrence. of the supreme court,
i'll an action brought by Joseph E. Pals
ley, OF the shoe firm of j. E. Paisley
Sons, of Sixth avenue, to recover
$1,000 for alleged false representa-
tons. Paisley was one Of the
many church people who claim to have
been nipped by the Chamberlain repre-
sensations. He says that Chamberlain
SAID that the Fort Worth Park Place
Land Company, of which the Chamber
lain Investment company has large
holding of stock and about 400 acres
near Fort Worth. Tex. Chamberlain
let him have 500 shares of the Fort
Worth Park Place Land company at $50
each. par value $500. He told bin
He would get his money back In three
pears and still have his investment.
Paisley says he went down to Texas and
found that the company never owned the
land. He says ne got no dividend, and
has been unable to connect with any of
his $1,000. Chamberlain gave bail and
was released. H. b. Chamberlain. pres
ident of the Chamberlain inve Stment
company, is one of the most prominent
figures interested in land and real es-
tate in the West. After comparatively
few years of rapid success in DE nver at
time when values were raising III the
city at an almost unprecedented rate,
he was elected president of the cham
Der of commerce of that city, and
has recently spent most of his
time in Europe and the East of this
country enlisting capital for the numer-
Gus heavy projects in which his COM.
pany was involved. Many of these
proved disastrous. The property at
Fort Worth. in which the company was
principally interested. comprises large
tract of land four miles from the city,
reached by an electric car line
kept up by the company. AT the ter
minus of the road was the famous Ar
lington inn, political hotel built as a
resort, and to establish the locality as
fashionable neighborhood. 1t was run
at loss for some time, and was then
closed. The boom that struck Fort
Worth was short lived, and the compa-
ny found themselves in possession of a
white elephant of the most burdensome
character. The properties in the South
west, although not of such an ambitious
character, deprecated to such an extent
that the small companies which con-
stituted the Chamberlain, coupled with
the fall of values in Denver which cul-
minated last fall when silver went
down with run, finally swamped the
larger concern.
In Denver for the past few years the
business has been personally super
vised by w. A. Chamberlain. a younger
brother of the partner against whom
proceedings have been commenced. A
great deal of money was cleared by
dealings in inside town property and
Capitol Hill investments. lots in
the latter district jumping from
$500 to $4,000 in the course of few
years, this upper portion of the town of
Denver beng now entirely occupied
with the mansions of the wealthy mining
operators of the state and successful
citizens of the city. More than one ex-
tensive speculation in outside property
followed, and these not only
proved failures, but the burial ground
of capital mostly subscribed by smaller
investors, who had been induced to place
their money with the company on the
reputation it had won in its earlier en-
terprises. A vast amount of English
capital was taken care of by the COM
pany, large proportion of It's clients
being individuals connected with the
Methodist Episcopal church, of which
the CEamberlains are prominent mem
berS.
H. B. Chamberlain has also been In
timately associated with the Young
Mems Christian association, and has
lectured In London. the headquarters of
the society, during his trips across the
ocean. The arrest will naturally cause
a great sensation among the unusually