The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-12-13

railroad, from which he was discharged about eight or nine years ago. His as- sociate in the board, J. E. Brazee, was discharged by the same company in 1895. Weisz is at present entirely occu- pied in the promotion of the projects named above, He has a downtown private office in the Potter building, and employs men to travel and solicit large contributions to the support of the club from the well-to-do among his honorary members The club has house at 115 East Thirty-fourth street, which has been bought, fur nished and heavily mortgaged. Liquors are sold there, and the register shows average daily visits of four members. We have not been able to learn of re- putable conductor in the vicinity of New York who avails himself of the club. From a large number of them the testimony Is uniformly that 1t is un- worthy"
 Notwithstanding this, the work of so- liciting subscriptions went merrily on. One subscription of three hundred dol lars was made the occasion for ban quet of jubilation by Weisz and his l friends, But the fact that names had l pSNll II StuNolGlllly llSeu lOW Ceiillt lp bliS notice of the Charity Organization soci ety. and General Secretary Edward T. Devine, having secured a list of the 1 honorary members, wrote to them ask ing what they knew of the club, As told in the Sun on Thursday morning, of 40 replies received, forty seven were | from men who had never heard of Ire | club, sixty-six from those who weren't sure whether they knew anything of it or not, eighty-siX from men who hadn't | contributed on solicitation, seventy from men who hadn't on solicitation, eighteen who couldn't remember Wheth- CT they had contributed, but knew they had been solicited, and 1?3 who either had not been asked to contribute or who | didn't remember whether they had been asked or not.
 | MT. DeVine's letters came at an ad- mirable time, for three days later the l "club" sent out notice that all honora- 1 ry members had been assessed five dol | lars each. It is supposed that the re- | turn was small. About one hundred of these letters were turned over to MT, l Devine. It was about this time that | the club property at 115 East Thirty l fourth street was being put through some peculiar eVolutions. First, it was | transferred by Charles F. Weisz and others to H Henshaw, from whom it had been originally bought for ''ona 1 hundred dollars and other valuable con- alterations" the property being subject | to q twenty-five thousand dollar mort ] gage. In the transfer back to Henshaw | "Wesz and others" took purchase money mortgage for ten thousand dol | lars at six per cent. This ingenius l transaction is commended to the notice | of the honorary members" whose sub | scrlptions are being thus juggled. The ''club" moved to rooms over the Chin- ney Corner at Twenty-flfth street ard | Sixth avenue. The news of this real es- tate transfer was printed in the Rail- way Age, which was then conducting an investigation into the club, under the heading, "The Conductors Club'-A Fraud" Here are some of the replies received by the Railway Age to letters asking alleged honorary members what l interest they had In the club;
 Never heard of it.
 know nothing about this club or it's purposes.
 To the best of my knowledge and be- l lel anu IeCOllcClluil,. l ltNtL litdlN 'L the Railway Conductors Club of North America before.
 I do not know of any reason why my name should have appeared in the cir cular issued by the Railway Conduc- tors Club of North America, or how I came to be elected an honorary member,
 have never given any indorsement to the Railway Conductors Club
 I have never authorized my name to be used in any connection whatever with the association.
 I know nothing at all about it.
 These replies all came from promi- nent men, most of whom live in this city. Matters were getting warm fol Weisz. He came to the Charity Organ ization to see MT Devine He said that it was entirely q club affair, and that subscriptions were solicited only from honorary members but afterward ad- mitted that the scope of the clubs beg ging might have been extended beyond the honorary membership.
 "But I have letters from men whose names have been used without theil permission" said MT Devine.
 For every name that we have useG we can show an autograph letter." sait Weisz. Give me some of the names O.
 men who say that their names have
 been used without authority and IT come back and bring you autograph let
 ters from them"
 MT. Devine sent him partial list
 That was a month ago. Weisz hasn'' been back yet,
 A Sun reporter found Weisz yestrday in his office at 25 Third avenue. tn, same office, by the way, from which the
 sale of the "club' property on Thirty
 fourth street is advertised, the nam,
 of A. J. Hall being used. As soon at
 the reporter announced his errand, twt
 men who were with Weisz began tt whisper together earnestly.
 "The club will have something to sa.
 by and by" said Weisz.
 "Who will say it?'' asked the reporter "The Board of Governors" "Is the club still in existence?"
 "Oh, yes, it's still in existence"
 'Do you like extra dry champagne?'
 put in one of the men who had beer whispering together, at which enig matic remark the three men laughet
 heartily
 'Is the club bona fide railroad con