The sun., 1898-01-18

NouuluH.
Papers were signed III the city yes
terday in connection with deal, whicl
will in a few hours put the control o
the Wilmington City Railway Company
in the hands Of a syndicate Of capitalist.
of Philadelphia and Chester.
In the syndicate are Il. Wctherill, the
president Of the big Boiler Manufactur.
ing Company OF Chester, and president
of the Chester Railway Company; Peter
A. B. Widcner and William l.. Elkins,
the traction magnates of Philadelphia.
Deep secrecy was maintained by the
officials of the Wilmington City Rail.
way Company, concerning the signing
OF the papers. Indeed their secrecy was
SO profoundly deep that they went so
far as to enter denial OF the report of
the deal when they were accosted last
night, and were asked for information
about it. There were others, however,
who knew the papers had been signed,
and through them few details Of the
deal leaked ont
The deal involves the purchase of
10000 shares Of the Wilmington City
Stock at 4 figure quite close to 5000 Il
share, or about $6OO,0OO.
The total amount of shares issued by
the Company is 5000 the directors
controlling 2G POO or more than one half.
Under the terms OF the deal these 26,2OO
shares have been purchased by the Syn
dicate, and $500 additional shares in
order to make the control sure. The
papers giving over the stock OF the dircc-
tors to the Syndicate were signed in the
Office Of the Equitable Trust Company
yesterday afternoon.
The parties through whom the negoti-
ations for ,ha purchase of the road have
been made is said, are Clark 4 Com
pany, brokers, Of Philadelphia, repre-
senting Mcssrs Wcthcrell, Widcncr and
Elkins
A local broker also had hand in the
negotiation and by slick manipulation
bought in without aroEsing much sus-
pici,n, three Thousand shares for the
syndicate.
Although some Of The officials OF the
road, would discuss the not matter. it was
learned last night that the deal for the
purchase of the road has been going on
for several months and that pending it
the annual supplies Of the road, which
were, as a rule, ordered at this season.
and which nccessitatcd a big outlay OF
cash have not been bought, and that at
present the supplies Of the road are in
an EXTREMITY poor condition.
1t was also learned that despite lrc-
quent dcnials on the part Of officials, hat
the road has been for sale for more than
year that its profits have been very,
small in the past two years and tIiat
its inability to secure from the IegISa'
ture the power to increase its bonded IN
debtedncss had retarded its progress to u
point whore the officials, directors and
Stockholders saw little hope for future
pcnses Of the road for the past three or
four years have been about ninety per
cent. Of its earnings, forty per cent. more
than they should have been. The r'lr-
chasing syndicate, il is said, regards the
property as highly valuable and propose
to operate it on a more economical basiS
Robert J. WcthcriIl, president OF he /.
Chester Railway, it is understood, is the
main factor in the syndicate, he having
evinccd IN ambition more than Il year
ago to get control Of the road Three or .
four weeks ago in company with Prpsl- |.
dent Lea, Willard Salisbury, and Peter
A. b. Widcnrr, he went over the entire !
line, ut night. Mr.. Widrnrr was in
Wilmington on Sunday last, it is sad,
in connection with the deal.
In securing control OF the Wilmington .
CITY line it is understood that the Syndi-
cate intends to make it a connecting link .
in the trolley chain from Philadelphia
to Washington. 1t will be remembered
that Mrssrs. Elkins and Weidner built
the trolley road connecting Baltimore
and Washington and that when they
started that road they announced their
intention to build line from PhiIadel-
phia to Washington, Since that time
they have built the line between Phlla-
delphia and Chester and only recent y
got the right to extend that line to
Marcus Hook, on the Delaware line.
Their stumbling block las been the
WilmingtonCityIta Railway. They knewt that
to get through Wilmington they would
have to go through bitter fight with the
Wilmington city people and they knew
it would be unwisc to build the link south
of Wilmington to Baltimore without first
getting the right-of-way through VIII
mington. Now, by the purchase Of the
Wilmington city line, the obstruction is
removed. The CIay,nont and Whining
ton link is not completed and it VIII IN
all probability, not be a hard matter for
them to secure control of it, thus making
it possible for them to bring their line
into Wilmington.
1t has been gossipcd in finaVial cir
cles here for several years that william
du Pont is anxious and determined to
secure control of the Wilmnton City :
Railway Mr.. du Pont owns $500 shares
OF stock but these, it is understood, have
not been dickercd for by the