The San Francisco call., 1898-04-07
Baked in Over Twenty Thousand Dollars and
 Decamped.
Are Now on Their Way From Honolulu En Route to
 the KlOndike.
PATENT ATMOSPHERIC GAS
With It the Promoters Were to Enrich All the Stock
 holders.

A party of five-three men and two Women-who are very much wanted in sydney, N. S. w, are on their way ,I san Francisco on one of the sugar fleet now about due. The men were the promoters of The Atmospheric Gas Company" a swindle which grew to such proportions in New South Wales that it caused the values in the regular gas and electric light companies stock to suffer a steady decline, while the price of shares in the new venture jumped from $5 to $35O i.-side of a month.
 When the bubble burst the promoters had cleared up over $20,OO0 and were on their way to Honolulu, where they re- : maiued until all fear of extradition was past, and then took passage for this : coast.
 It was in September of last year that two men named Lee and Elliott, ac- : eompanied by their wives, took passage on the steamer Alameda for the An ;: tipodes. On their arrival at Sydney they lost no time in putting their scheme, which had evidently been ma tuTed before the journey was under . taken, into operation. They hired a SA+OP A-A S4AS OA l4AC p4 illNIpdl streets OI the metropolis of New South Wales and began giving demonstrations of the value of the illuminant. Crowds flock ed to see it, and when the shares were placed upon the market they were all . subscribed for in forty-eight hours. .- Among those taken in by the scheme :. were Jacob Garrard. Minister for Pub z lie Instruction in New South Wales, :. and F. Kron, brother of Oscar J. and Henry Kron of the Kron Tanning Z Company of this city. MT. Garrard ;: Nas chosen chairman of directors, and v explaining how he came to be caught said:
 Lee went over to the shelf and took up a small thing about the size of a baking dish; he blew into it, and lit lie 5as at the other end. When he ceased to blow the flame ceased 1 saio, This is marvellous! How do you do ..it| Lee said, There are two cham : bers inside filled with a certain kind of shdvingS which are saturated with chemicals, and the air passing through is so impreVnated that it comes out in the shape of an illuminant.' l repeated the expression. This Is marvellous. .. Lee turned to another part of the room and explained the working of the TO- .taly pump. As an old mechanic, I rec .QgpiZed that it was a very ingenious Epecaanical device for getting contin- 'u0us supply Of air and expressed my opinion to that effect. Thus, being con- vinced of the bona fides of the thing, I consented to go on the board"
 When everything was ripe Lee and Elliott agreed to sell to the syndicate 4their patent rights for S15, 900 cash and 1900 fully paid up shares. This was in . the latter part of November and the . shareholders objected because they said all the trials of the machines had been made by Lee and Elliott alone. They therefore asked that the ingredients used and the workings of the machine should be revealed to the directors. Lee and Elliott objected, stating:
 # +'We still hold three-fourths inter est in this gigantic concern, and you syndicate shareholders only hold one fourth. Now, it is quite possible, if we reveal the secret to six or seven gentle men. it might leak cut, and steps be ~ taken to rob us of our rights. We are : willing to reveal it to two of the direc- tors
 *'.. This was agreed to and then the two .sGhemers said the machine in operation ' was not a very presentable one and they asked for time to have another one made; also another generator. Dur ing the consequent delay the necessary patents were applied for and all the transfers made by Lee and Elliott to Lne SyndlcdIe, after Wnlcn the Sl5,00O (sas paid over.
 On December 15 Lee revealed to the two directors the ingredients. They g went to the different chemists and ob- tained them, the reason for this being that 1t was desirable to keep the secret as closely as possible. They charged the machine with those ingredients, put tapes on the apertures, and seals upon the tape. The connection for lighting not being quite ready, 1t was agreed that they should go back next morning to light up. On presenting themselves the following morning it was reported that some of the charge had leaked, and that the generator had been taken away to be repaired. In order that there should be no suspicion 1t was decided to exhaust that charge, and begin de novo. The gas was ignited, and they got some 2250 feet as result c this leal1y charge. Everybody was delighted and the stock boomed, during which time Lee and Elliott unloaded all they could.
 A second trial resulted in 3o60 feet of - gas, and 1t was then decided to turn . the syndicate into a limited liability - company, and at the same time sell the rights to the new discovery to a New :. Zealand syndicate. Another machine 7. to be shipped to Auckland, N. E., was : inade, but just when it was ready for
 
 ,: An investigation followed, and the whole fraud came out
 ; The first discovery was that Lee had rented the djoining room to the one m which the experiments were carried on for man named White. The dupli- cate key w~5 secured and then it was seen that MT. White had taken a very active part in all the experiments His place was to supply the generator with OH or citronella during the night. This was done by tearing off patch that was on the machine and soldering it on again as scon as the oil had been put in the generator. The directors were . nara to convince, however and the two 6h whom Lee and Elliott had confided 2 count. While at work one of them turned of the supply of gas from the generator while the other, with a s!ighted match = and, had the tap at tne end of the pipe open. The gas ig-
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