The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1899-12-01
CHECKED BY THE Law 4 n
The Franklin Syndicate, Of Nav
York, Closed Up


Brings Enormous Business.
New York, Nov. 25.-William p. Mil
Ter, head of the Franklin syndicate,
which has accepted the deposits Il Of
thousands of persons in Brooklyn un-
der promise of paying. dividends of ten
per cent. a week, or $40 per cent. per
annum, and Cecil Leslie, his secretary,
were indicted by the Kings county
grand jury Friday. Bench warrants
were issued for their arrest, but neither
has been found 49,
In the course of the afternoon Miller,
made an assignment to John L. DAILY,
ex-sheriff of Richmond county, who
was one Of his employees. Mr.. DAILY
closed up the place at 7:45 p. M.
Howgreatis the alleged swindle no one
knows, for the amount of funds on hand
cannot be- even Appropriated, but it is
confidently asserted that Miller has
taken in not less than $4,000, 900 since. he
began business. The receipts of. the
concern, especially in the last few days,
have been enormous, and how many
persons will lose their principal cannot
be even guessed at. Many of the de-
positors or victims were persons of
small means, who put all they could get
together into the concern.
Big Sum of Money Found.
Louis H. Miller, brother of William
liam F. Miller, was arrested at 9:45
o'clock Friday night on charge of
grand larceny preferred after the dis
covery of $500 which had been Sc
GREETED by young Miller during the
afternoon under soft in the next
house, 142 Floyd street, where Miss
Alma Gorley, one of the employees. lived.
He was taken to the Vernon avenue sta
ton. Miss Gorley was also questioned,
but was not held.
Mr.. Daily, the assignee, said that be-
tween $4,000 and $4,000 in cash was
received on deposit Friday. There was,
however, quite a demand for the re-
turn of deposits. Friday was the first
day that there was any rum or indi-
cation of any uneasiness. The people
on Thursday were almost tumbling
over one another to put in their money.
Fully 1000 people were standing in
the street in front of the house Friday
evening. There was no excitement1and
the police had little difficulty in hand
ling the crowd, which seemed disposed
to talk over matters quietly. There
were evidences in the conversation on
every side of confidence in Miller.
Paid Big Dividends. Z"
Miller began the Franklin syndicate
in very small way, locating his office
among the poorer classes in the Dor
ough of Brooklyn and making one. fea-
ture of his business the acceptance of
very small sums of money and the
alleged investment of them for the
poor people. He claimed that by in
side tips on the stock market he was
able to reap large and quick profits, of
which he was willing to pay large per-
centage to his clients. He paid the in
terest on the principal each;week and
his business increased. Within the
past few months he advertised extern
sively and in all parts of Brooklyn
could be found men who could tell won
derful stories of the weekly dividends.
Then some of the financial concerns of
New York began to look into the bust
ness of the Franklin syndicate and not
only did many of the prominent 1inan-
ciers denounce as preposterous the offer
of ten per cent. interest on money in
vested, but some of the banks refused
to accept Miller's account or do bust
ness with him. e.
1t is claimed that Miller was simply
the representative of syndicate of
men who had been engaged in con-
Quoting blind pools for years. It is
said within the last week Miller has
received deposits of hundreds of peo-
pie, aggregating a daily amount of
from $4,000 to $4,000. It is easy to
see under these circumstances how
the Franklin syndicate could readily
pay out ten per cent. of this amount
a week and still make money.
Miller claims to make his abnormal
profits through speculation in Wall
street, though no evidence is forthcom-
ing up to the present time to show that
he ever speculated in stocks to any ex-
tent.
On Tuesday of this week, Just before
charges of libel were preferred against
Miller, he is said to have taken in $780,
900 and paid out $4,000. The conf
Dental representative of one of the
banks who visited Niller's office about
this time said that he never saw so
much money scattered around loose in
his life.
Money in Boxes and Barrels.
He said it was an absolute fact Mil
Ter did not have facilities for taking
care of all the gold and greenbacks
which poured in upon him, and empty
barrels were brought up from the base
ment of the building in which he OPP
Grated and thousands and tens of thou
sands of dollars were dumped into these
barrels by the employees and clerks en-
ployed by Miller in his establishment.
One of Miller's trusted employees is re-
sponsible for the statement that the
Franklin syndicate man had taken in
over s4,6oo,oo
= Made n Good Showing. @
Boston, Nov. 25.-Against tide, wind
and heavy head sea for at least half
her course the. new battleship Kentucky
made a record of 16.s77 knots an hour
Friday on her official speed trial over
the government course from Cape Ann
to Boone island, and by her work
showed that she is a little faster than
her sister chin tho EaorSo rro which, no
Gently was sent over the same course.