The Portland daily press., 1898-08-08
FISHERS EARLY DAYS.
His Old Employer, in a Brooklyn Store,
Tells of Him.

New York, August 6.-Charles e.
Fisher, who was associated with the Rev.
p. +. Jernegan, in the E]ectrolytic
Marine Salts company, may, 1t appears
from facts that have come to light in
Brooklyn, have been prime mover in the
swindle.
Mr.. Ashe, of the dry goods firm of A.
V. Namm & Co., that employed Fisher
as floor walker, told today what clever
fellow Fisher was.
he was so versatile, SO insinuating, I"
said Mr.. Ashe, "that he could twist al
most anybody around his finger, and I
have no doubt it was the attractiveness
and precision with which he could make
propositions, which enabled him to in
duce persons to enter into his gold ex.
traction scheme.
He entered our employ in 1888" said
MIR. Ashe land soon made himself a
great favorite with all the employees here,
especially with the young women. To a
great extent placed considerable conf
dence in him, and yet, there was some
thing about the man which / could not
overcome
You know continued Mr.. Ashe,
not infrequently we have reason to sus-
peot some of our employees. Well. when
we thought any particular one was dis
honest l would call Mr.. Fisher into my
office and tell him the facts. He would
listen attentively and grasp the entire
case with rare perspioacity. He would
say: Yes, l understand. just leave the
matter with me. Mr.. Ashe. and I'll at
tend to it. And, sure enough, he would
find out who was the dishonest person,
and in few days, by skilful methods,
he would confront the culprit with 1ndis-
putable evidence of guilt.
''We felt that with Fisher in the store
we had man on whom we could I'M
plicitly rely to look out for our interests.
And in conversation, as we'll as IN CORE
spondence, he was inimitable He was
eloquent, persuasive and conciliatory.
He could bring any one around to his
way of thinking.
Did we suspect him of any dishonesty?
we'll, no. And I'll tell you why we did
not Fisher had nothin mean or small
about him. Except where big game was
involved, am assn red of his honesty
and would trust him implicitly. For
some time after he came to us we noticed
that the re were q great many exchanges.
Under our old system, the signature Of q
floor walker was always taken as
sufficient guarantee that goods had been
returned, and that we could properly re-
fund the money. Exchanges got SO
numerous that we thought, maybe some
body's friends were claiming to have re-
turned goods, and that some one was
sharing the money which we refunded
purely on the strength OF signature
that they had been received. Thinking,
as 1 say, that we were refunding money
on goods which were never brought back,
and, perhaps, never purchased, We adopted
a new system, which made such g practice
impossible, and it is q significant thing
that the exchanges signed for by Mr..
Fisher dropped off in number very soon
after.
CATER he had been with us for couple
of years a man used to come into the store
here and have long talks with Fisher.
This man who called on him, he told us
was Phelan, who had a detective agency
over in Manhattan. He never told us the
subject of his long conversations, but
from what / know now am su re that
they were in regard to this gold scheme.
Then again, another thing VS. thought
rather strange; he would go away for two
or three days at time at regular inter.
walls. We knew nothing of his movements
during those periods but suppose they
were connected with this scheme.
s'Finally, after he had been with us
almost three years, he returned from one
of those little trips and told us he wished
to resign his position. He told us that he
was interested in some scheme down in
Florida, and he told us he could do much
better than we conld do for him, there
was nothing else for us to do but to let
him go. And he went.
"Ever since then, up to six weeks ago.
he frequently called here, sometimes to
see me and sometimes to buy goods.
A bout six months ago he came in here
lxr Tv1
PRODUCED as Mrs. Fisher. I think he
bought bill of goods of u.s. Then about
six weeks ago he was in here and bought
lot of stuff, including carpets, rugs and
other goods which could be called Office
furniture. He seemed to have plenty of
money. He paid his bills by check and
the goods were sent by us to Lubec Me.
81 think he made mistake when he
took such a shrewd man into his schemes
as Phelan. Phelan saw further >han
Fisher intended he should, and am abb
solutely certain that with the fellows
consummate address, his polished ways
and persuasive eloquence, he would be
successfully engineering that corporation
into the millions if Phelan hadn't given
t he thing away. My only wonder is that
he failed in his scheme before he had in
volved in it millions instead of
thousands.
COMPANY'S DAYS NUMBERED.
Boston, August 6.-The days of the
Electrolytic Marine Salts company are
now mum bered. 1t has been decided to
hold meeting of the directors Monday
to devise ways and means to
dispose of the plant and close up the
affairs of the company.
The directors who will attend this
meeting are Messrs. Ryan, Usher and
Sawyer. 1t has also been decided to hold
another meeting of the stockholders in
Boston, before calling the regular legal
meeting in Maine.
The meeting of stockholders few days
since was to allow conference of some
of the heaviest hackers of the company.
1t seemed to be the general sentiment at
that time to have the company's affairs
settled as soon as possible.
1t will also undoubtedly be the senti-
ment of majority of the smaller holders
to close the company's transactions at
once.
TN. -I,o 80 +1o oko