The age-herald., 1898-02-10
LAMBS GALORE
 IN NEW YORK Always a Sucker for a Gold Brick
 Scheme. THE AGE-WORN FAKE STORY Of GOtham'S HilliOnairaS Will Bear a
 FeH Corrections. McKANE'S TERM NEARING AN END President of Brooklyn Borough Threatens to Resign $5, ,00O Office Unless Given More Work-Wont Draw Sal
 ary He DoesntEarn.
MckANE's TERM NEARING AN END
Special to The Age-Herald.

New York, Feb. 9.-The resignation of the cashier of the Chemical bank because he had loaned nearly s4O0,0O0 of the banks money on wildcat securities has furnished a mild sort of sensation for a few days and has served to call public attention to the advantages of New York as a market for gold bricks. There will be a Hull in the demand for such articles for week or two until the Chemical bank matter has been forgotten, but no oily tongued pro- moter with choice bricks to sell need wait longer than ten days to offer his goods.
 The average native New Yorker is the most egotistical and provincial mortal on earth, and 1t is as natural for him to boast of his business acumen as it is for him to breath. Let him talk until he is intoxicated by the effiorescence of his own vanity, then open your carpet bag, lay out your samples of gold bricks and he'll buy the whole lot at par quicker than country farmer will buy patent churn.
 It seems to be an easy matter to float al- most any financial scheme or to raise cash on any kind of security in this city if the promise of big dividends and high rates of interest is sufficiently alluring. Men with money to invest are always looking for securities that will pay high rates of in- terest and there seems to be in this city
  willing to take great chances on promise of making money fast
 There Are Lambs" Galore
 Ranks are, as a rule careful about the securities on which they loan large sums of money, but the gold brick buyers are found outside the banks and the lambs do not all come from the country to Wall street. The officers of the Chemical bank announce that the sum loaned by Cashier Quinton, 900, has been charged to profit and loss. It may reduce the next quarterly dividend a trife, but that will be the only effect on the bank The case has also drawn public attention to the possibilities of the banking business in New York.
 The Chemical National bank has cap- tial stock of s3oo,0 900, surplus of s7,5oo,Oo0 with average deposits of $30, 900 000 It's stock, par value, $100 per share, has sold as high as s4,200 per share
 But to return to the smart New Yorker who laughs at the green goods victim from the backwoods. He is an interesting study taken individually or collectively, and while not near so smart as he thinks he is, he Is as rule a good loser and keeps quiet about it when he has tested his gold brick and finds that it is not even good brass. That is why the demand for such deceitful articles is always equal to the supply. The country dealers do not really understand what good market they can find in the metropolis.
 Down in Nassau street there is a little shop where he may buy for a few cents gorgeously Autographed certificates of stock in a great variety of enterprises in all parts of the world. Most of them are stocks in western mining land compan- ies that exploded long ago. The beautiful certificates were never really worth the paper on which they are printed, but smart New Workers paid good sound money for them once and later charged them to profit and loss, and sold the pretty stock, printed In green and red to the dealer in curios for a song.
 Most of the victims of wildcat specula- tion in New York are found among the wage earners or people in very moderate circumstances. To the man of moderate income in New York, the man who can ment in city real estate is out of the ques- tion. He can get only or 3R per cent in- terest from the savings banks. and he is all the time on the lookout for an invest ment that will pay him or s per cent on his savings. Probably three men out of every five among the middle class and wage earners in New York has at one time or another been cleaned out of all his savings by an investment in gold bricks
 McKane's Term Nearing an End
 John Y. McKane, formerly the czar of Coney Island, will leave the state prison at Sing Sing on April 30, having served term of five years for violating the cleo tion laws. His friends have already made arrangements to charter special train and bring him back to the city in triumph, escorted by 200 of his former subjects. On the night after his release his friends will also give him banquet at one of the hotels in Brooklyn. McKane has never ceased to be a hero in the eyes of the men who followed his political fortunes when he ruled Coney Island with rod of iron and defied the supreme court with the remark, "injunctions don't go here!' He Is a rich man and may again be power in politics. but he can never asume sway over Coney Island, which is now part of the Greater New York. In the days