The Florence tribune., 1897-09-25
THE MOUTH PIECE BLEW OFF.
The Herald Man Scored The Aransas
 Pass Harbor Company to the Core in His Dying Utterances.

m HIS DyinG OtteranCeSs
 From the Aransas Pass Texas) Beacon Aug. 2l.l
 There appears to be such thing as asuperduous redundancy, and was never more fully demonstrated than through the point in view. The Herald man has grown sick and tired of his unpleasant position, and in his it of exaspe ton in last weeks paper under the headiug of awho Was De eeiyed ?" he gives utteranee to . few terse remarks of merited rebuke to the notorious Harpor Company. The only regret that the people express is that ha was so long about it. After he said his say ne quietly consigned .hat pnbli- cation to the tender mercies of the daisies. Annoug many things, he said :
 There appeared in the Herald ol January Sd, 1895, an announcement over the names of all the directors oi the Aransas Pass Harbor Company, to the people of Southwest Texas, begin ming as follows:
 It is with unalloyed pleasure that we announced that the don. Brewster Cameron, by his indomitable energy, unsurpassed industry and untiring perseverance,, has at last secured all the money necessary to remove the bar at Aransas Pass and make Aransas Harbor first class port.
 Parties with an abundance of cap. ital are ready and willing to commence the work on gigantic scale and prose cute it to successful termination il we secure for them without delay. a land bonus valued at six hundred and forty thousand dollars.
 The rest of the document was an appeal to the people to subscribe the modest bonus on the strength of the above very positive assurances. Ot course the names, wealth and reputa- tion of the capitalists, Alexander Brown & Sons were freely, used in making up the bonus, in print, at mass meetings and in soliciting individuals, until the impression of their unlimited financial ability and their absolute re- liabiiitg became firmly lodged in the minds of the people The idea that the arraugementswitff the capftafists would admit of anything short of the completion Of the works was not al . lowed and If there had been a suspicion that upon the people subscribing the Sonas Q contract would be made fo1 anything less than the total amount of money required, it is not likely that any bonus would have been subscribed except conditionally on maximum depth. When Mir. Brown signed the contract on July 1st, 1895, it was posi-. lively advertised that the contract made the opening of Aransas Harbor to commerce an absolute certainty and that the work would be accom-. plished in six months. When he paid over the $145, ,000 it was naturally be. heved to be mere installment of the money secured to carry the work Ion g magnificent scale to completion" Ii was not for that paltry amount that the people subscribed bonus of nearly five times as much, and through theil representatives granted concessions figured to have prospective value o thirty to fifty millions of dollars.
 The true inwardness of the trans action was not exposed until the publi cation of Pres. Franklin's lugubriou report in July, 1896, depicting il pathetic terms, the depiorably i'm pecunious condition of the erstwhil "multi-millionaires." and implorin, the minority stockholders to donat another twenty-five per cent or nor Of their reduced holdings for the re lief of the unfortunate bondholder who were represented as dissipatinl the majority of the stock alread, donated to them, under style of tinanc ing about az reckless as that of tn prodigal son. This verbose, ramblini And depressing production sprung up on the confiding public the followin startling revelation:
 "Messrs. Alexander Brown & Son 1 signed an agreement to pay the $145. .OO to the contractors, Messrs. Clarke & G This was the only agreement they eve signed, and the only one they engage to sign"
 So that instead of having secure ample capital to carry on the work 70 magnificent scale to completion g
 stated in the above mentioned doc,
 ment, and repeated and emphasized
 every way possible, it seems that tb
 Harbor Company secured the marnit
 cent bonus demanded, turned aroun
 and made a private deal with the a
 legged capitalists for only one-half of th
 estimated cost of thefrst item of tb works-the breakwater. And whe