The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-01-25
COTTON SWINDLERS
SUDDEN DEATH or WILLIAM FlJE,
COTTON DUfER- OF DALJlS.

No TosL NuH vomicn n Few Hours BEFORE ny
,nE and would Have igeen Arrested n re
Inndn,t Diod-Methods OF the sTindlers-
Draw WORTHLESS Draris ana ship Linters.
Despctchcs from Dallas, Tex, received in
New York yesterday chroniclcd the death Of
William Falk. n Dallas CO. ton buyer. After
fntimating that Ealk was n suicide, the de-
ppatches outlined tho work. ags of an alleged
gang Of swindlurs, of w~hom.Fshk was said to DO
one. among the cotton buyers of Texas and OF
efforts on tho part Of the United States Gov
eminent to break up tho gang. 1t was stated
that this alleged gang has, in the past few
Years, succeeded in swipdling cotton brokers in
tbis city out of thousands Of dollars.
According TO the dispatches. Falk died sud.
a.p,v MT tho Mcleod Hotel in Dallas last
Friday night. Two hours before his death no
seemed to DO perfectly well. He was taken
violently i'll and physicians were summoned.
They diagnosed the case as one OF cholera
morbus. and prescribed accordingly. The doc
tors did not consider tho patients condition
particularly serious. Two hours after they
Hero called in Falk was dead. Mr.. Hamilton.
the United States District Attorney for the dis
trict in which Dallas is, is quoted as saying
that shortly before Falk was taken Ill he took
n dose Of nux vomica. At the request OF the
mans relatives no autopsy was made. and tho
body was shipped to Memphis for burial.
II is probable that Faik's connection with tho
alleged gang of swindlcrs would not have been
suspected for some time The was known as ono
of tho largest cotton buyers in Texas had it
not been for things said and done by the. United
States District Attorney after the mans death
and had he not died n few hours after 1t be-
came known that the Federal Grand Jury, sit
ting in Dallas, had returned q number OF in
dictmcnts against persons whose names were
carefully concealed. AS soon as Falk's sud-
den death became known the United States
District Attorney asked permission of the un-
dcrtakor to have the dead mans face photo
graphed. The undertaken refused tho request,
and Judge Boarman of tho Federal Court Is
sued an order directing the undertaken to per-
init tho photograph to be taken. After this
had been done United States District Attorney
Hamilton stated that had Falk lived he would
order from the court. Falk's safe deposit box
was examined and moro than $4,000, in cash
and O large amount of securities were found.
While the operations of the alleged gang have
been known for some time, It Is only within two
the supposed swindlers to justice, The de.
spatchcs state that among the New York firms
that It were oi 20 sT ExshsaE wG pia taa5 ao of { i. Is sG also ststsd
that 1t was largely upon the testimony OF Charles
s~chumacher, Jr., one of the members.of the firm.
dictments mentioned. In conversation with n
cotton broker familiar with the methods of the
alleged swindlers, a reporter, of THE sun
learned something about their transactions.
This man said: ~ -.
have been tho victims OF q gang of swindlors
in Texas, some Of them as prominent cotton
sSHs po as as an Buyers u sh and s Teaiiy DO Si = @ai IF ba tsc
mess. n The operations ssa Tssr Of The Thss gang 5gd havf eb ATTENDED Pded
n short time ago that there seemed to be any
prospect Of beating them, at the game or Of
OF. the sudden death of this man Falk. l did
not know him and never before heard it init
mated that he was one OF the gang.
The game the gang worked was very simple,
hut one that / have never known any swindler
S SaSaG has ah sol gang a cargo 70 pe Of cotton toi h " usaai i I s6ips
1t by rail to Galveston. WHENCE it is transported
by steamer to New York, and reshipped here to
in tho town from which 1t is shipped. the ship
per draws a draft on the consienee., attaches
policy on the cargo, and has the draft discount.
ed at his LOCAL bank, The bank forwards the
correspondent. which sells the draft to some
exchange broker.
legged cotton and the alleged consignee was al.
ways a foreigner. In due time the draft on
t tnss sIrt the pr SSns'sf being So aceom np TGeafN Miab Pro 1Ss
statement that no such cargo had been pur-
chased. The protested draft would. of course.
find its way back to the man who drew It. He
would, always have some excuse ready, say
there had been some mistake, or ask for an ex-
tension of time, or make some other bluff. A
little time was usually granted and in that time
he would skip. from the place in which he had
Deen uOlnB DublnfSS dIu JuTn up ~SUmCWnefe clS0
under another name and work the same trick
over again.
1.-THE broker who got stuck with the bogus
draft had only one recourse after this, and that
was to watch for the steamer bearing the cot.
ton to this port. On the arrival of tho steamer
he would attach the cargo. When he attempted
TO sell he would find out the real character Of
the cotton he had attached. The bales. in.
stead OF containing cotton, would contai What
Is known in the trade as ~'linters.' 'Linters'
has q fibre about half an inch long, whereas
the fibre of cotton is much longer. 'tinters' is
worth about half as much as cotton, or less
than hall. You can thus see where the broker
came in.
Instead of following the usual course of
business in getting their drafts discounted,
these fellows would seEd the drafts by mail
direct to some Now York exchange broker. 1t
did not seem possible to bring airy of them to
justice, until a Post Office inspector here con.
cluded that they could be charged with using
the mails for trandpleGt purposes. Such q charge
Dallas returned indictments against several of
the gpng. Until ] hear whether they have been
arrested or not / do not care to give any names.
Since they have been operating l suppose they
have realized from the swindle upward Of
$200,00O."N