The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-01-18

i screw trail for the delectation of
the public He was one Of the
greatest and most reckless promisers in
his efforts to secure the control of the
money of people with whom he came
in contact that has been in evidence
on this coast for many years.
The experience of people who have
had dealings with him shows that he
not only possessed immaculate clothes
but gift of CAB and a conscience the
elasticity of which was something to
marvel at. He was usually about TO
sell a very valuable piece of property,
or close d great financial deal, which
would place him in possession OF big
sum of money, and by such means he
was enabled to carry his schemes along
and avoid the payment Of his debts un-
I'll such time as he could go through in
solvency and afford his creditors an op-
portunity TO whistle for their money to
the extent of $50, 600.
The fact that Mr.. Wright could work
his way into the confidence Of the pub
lie TO the extent of that vast sum and
convince the court at the time of his
application in insolvency that he was
possessed Of assets in the shape OF
wearing apparel of the value of 500
only. shows the fellow TO be possessed
Of talents. the proprietOrship Of which
the average citizen would not care to
acknowledge. In short, his manipula-
lions for the promotion Of the inter-
ests of one Wright were such as to
make his patrons sorry they ever had
dealings with him.
n Howard
Wright methods of doing business
probably the best posted man in San
Francisco, aside from Harvey, is Rus
sci II Winston, capitalist and general
investor. with Offices in the Chronicle
building Mr.. Winston has been con-
versant with Wright's progress since
the pyrotechnic young man entered
into the partnership of lie Roy G. Har-
vey d Co, becoming the company
and while he may have missed some
of the star plays of the ready-promlSer
he knows that individual to his sorrow.
This special sorrow is best Illustrated
by five figures.
Yes, l am sorry to say that 1 know
Howard Z. Wright very well" said Mr..
Winston yesterday afternoon My eX-
perience with him was due to the fact
that I had been doing business with
lie Roy g. Harvey long time before
MI. Wright DeCdllG d iIlGlIlDSl VI TIC
firm. l had had quite large sums of
money in Harveys hands and 1 always
got my interest until some time after
Wright was projected into the business.
knowing Wright as we'll as l do
l would not trust him in any position.
He put up a job to bunko me out OF
stocks and securities of large value,
bat | was fortunate enough to be able
to see through his scheme and refused
n HARVEY
a shrewd man, but this fellow was too
clever for him. Harvey was doing a
good safe, growing business and then
his i'll luck came in the person of
Wright, who told him Of the large lines
of business he could bring into the
firm and thereby make it great in
stitutiOn. Furthermore that he had
valuable properties in the country
which at a favorable time he would sell
and pay for his share in the firm of
lie Roy G. Harvey & Co.
Harvey was charmed with Wright's
manner and taking him to be what he
represented himself to be, accepted
Wright as a partner. The new partner
was a swell dresser, and in the YER
nacular of the street, con talker'
hard to beat. Whatever other things
he did he did Harvey successfully and
his system was most certainly clever.
The promise talk went on without ces-
sation and when the situation looked
all right Mr.. Wright began reducing
the funds of the firm by drawing upon
them most industriously. He always
had an urgent reason why he should
have the desired amount without de-
lay and he got it.
Things went on in this way for some
time and finally when the drafts of
Wright upon the resources Of the insti-
tuition had developed the fact that the
wrong man had been admitted to the
firm, asked Harvey one day why he,
whom everybody regarded as an able
and careful business man, had per-
nitted such gosling to get the best Of
him. Harvey's reply was that he had
met with many hard propositions, but
that Wright was the smoothest article
it had ever been his bad luck to come
in close contact with. He was GER
tainly correct in his deductions.
About that time Harvey was putting
pressure on Wright to induce him
not only to make good his overdrafts,
but to produce the money due from him
10 be applied to the capital Of the firm.
Wright played the same game on Har
vey that he did on me. 1t was a good
one and calculated to deceive almost
anybody. 1t was in the shape of a
dummy dispatch, and my recollection
is that 1t was dated Nevada City. 1t
set IOILn dn OlleT- VI SOU,VUU. 10 w
for a piece of valuable ranch property
in the section named. Wright in the
promotion of his scheme declared that
ii would be a shame to sell the property
for such price and that he proposed
TO hold on and get better figure.
This is no fairy tale, for L saw that
kind of a dispatch on Harveys desk
one day after he had been endeavoring
TO induce Wright to make good his OBJ
legations. At that time the dispatch
was supposed to be authentic, and a
man who was in a position to convert
real estate into $50, 900 at any time was
supposed to be safe to wait upon. The
time finally came when we suspected
Wright of deception, and we instituted
a search for that sixty Thousand dollar
ranch. You may be surprised to learn
that we were never able to- determine
upon what particular portion of Gods
green footstool that valuable property
was located. The reason was that that
ranch existed only in the very fertile
brain of Howard E. Wright. 1t was a
good scheme and it worked nicely.
when Wright's duplicity was finally
discovered, and it became evident that
he must get out of the firm with the
large claims against him still unsatis-
fed he evolved another idea and put It
into execution. This was nothing more
or less than to go around among the