The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1894-02-22
WIMAN'S DOWNFALL.
The Well Known Railroad Mag
nate Charged with Forgery.
INDICTED DY THE GRAND JURY.

Arrested and Imprisoned In Default o
Daii--His Alleged stealings Aggregat.
6s29.o0O--Ths Accused Mans Herol,
Efforts to Secure n British Title.
NEW YORK, Feb a2.-Erastus wiman
tho well known capitalist aud railroad
magnate, was arrested on bench war
rant yesterday afternoon on two charges o.
forgery. He was brought into court at
o'clock, and in default of $685. bail WA,
committed to the Tombs by Judge Mar
tine.
Two indictments were found against Mr.
Wiman by the grand jury.> They are foi
forgery and uttering checks Each indict
ment contains two counts. The tota
amount involved In Mr.. Wiman's alleged
forgeries is s229, 600. The complainant
against him is II. G. Dun, president of the
Mercantile Agency association, of 8l4
Broadway,
The warrants were executed at Wiman's
office, on the sixth ileor 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
ohense Is punishable with not more than
ten yenrs for each of the indictments
The letter on which the indictments
against Mr.. Wiman We're 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. In
the first place, he was moved by considera.
tlons OF sympathy for Mr., Wiman' 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
70 him In letter
TN the second place he had then no ap-
probation OF the extent of Wlman's EN-
be2Zlenlent nor Of the length of time, last
Ing many years, during which he had sys.
tematically abused his confidence and
Infused the trust rpposed In him
"ln view Of the fraud practiced upon his
general creditors as well as upon Mr. Dun
himself, and the conviction that a 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 -5
In reply to q message sent him by his
son Harry last night MIR. Wiman wrote
that he had committed no crime; that he
had no doubt blundered. and he was Will
Ing to stand the consequences His note
concluded with the statement that he hnd
all engagement TO speak tonight in gram
mar school No. A, ON Forby-second street.
and please God he would keep his engage-
ment. He was to speak on 1.-THE Great
North Land Mr.. Wiman will not keen
bis engagement, however, as bail cannot
be secured until tomorrow. General Tracy,
his counsel, says this will be fort hcoming.
Wiman was the originator of the scheme
that put IAN iron band around the water
front Of Staten Island, and he became A
director OF it when it developed into the
Staten Island Rapid Transist company.
de was also the promoter and president of
the Staten Island Amusement company,
(which owned the old Metropolitan base
ball team. This was failure, and the
property at st. George Is now used by the
Staten Island Electric Light company, In
which he was also interested as well as In
tho South Beach Improvement company.
tfe was supposed to he possessed of valu-
able real estate On Staten Island, but its
value WAS grossly overestimated when he
Ravered his connection with k. q. Dun &
Co, about two years ago, after having made
an assignment.
Nimau is u native nf Toronto, and In the
senith OF his power he uscd to give out to
9ewspapernen who called upon him at
Dan's agency printed sketches of his life.
In which il told of his having earned his
hrst tifty cents on fam, and how he
went to work IN The oifice of the Toronto
Globe rs devil, T" and finally became re
porter. He was about IL years of age, ac-
cording to his own biography of himself
when he wrote u report giving statistics of
sie condition Of The crcus In the province
that were 80 much at variance with those
published Ly the government thar they at
arHcted attention all over the country. An
Investigation resulted in Wiman's figures
being sustained. les incident. he said
was the first stepping stone TO his rise in
pmiuence Tbe biography stated that his
skpertness in statistics attracted the at
sention Of II. g. Dun & Co, and he was
employed by that firm. He next became
manager OF the Toronto branch, and he
was sent TO New York to take charge of
elie business there
| In 1887 Wiman made grand effort To
secure the title of Sir. and he got up a
great demonstration of Biitishers in New
York on the occasion of the queens iubi-
lee The Staten Island Amusement com
pany was in n fourishing condition then
and owned the grounds al St George and
at Erastina manned after himself). The
crowds that visited the two places were SO
great that the grounds were thrown open
and no more tickets could be gotten. The
people were so thick in the grounds that
there wes no moving about. II was esti-
mated thnt there were no less than 200, eco
British subjects in Richmond county that
day
Elaborate reports of these proceedings
wore rabled by Winan to Europe; bat the
money was wasted, for none Of the British
papers published anything that he sent.
The credit for the big demonstration was
given to Wiman, but the failure of the
notices to get In print resulted In the
queens attention not being called to the
honor intended to be paid her by her sub
5fcts in New York, and Wiman failed to
$at kpighthood. Since that tims he has
advocated annexation, commercial union
ti,d other schemen of anti British ten
dsncy. He also helped by his money and
Ehftosnce to found the British-Ameriean
Association of the United States He is
niarried man and has two sons and two
daughters grown up.
---------H-----r---
Rev. Mr.. Aukcrman Acquitted.
WASHINGTON, Pa, Feb se-Trial of the
now notorious Aukerman case was con.
sludod last night. A sealed verdict was