The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-10-21
LOST Her MONEY.
A Millbury School
Teacher Makes Bad
Investment.
AMERICAN INVESTOR COMPANY.
People Who Pay in Their
Money Say 1t Never
Comes Back.
AMERICAN INVESTOR COMPANY.

The American Investor company has
again come into local prominence
through the suit against it by Mrs.
Hester P Hood of Milbury. Col. w.
A. Gile was counsel for Mrs. Hood, a0d
when the case came up for trial in the
jury-waived term of the superior court
the defendants did not appear.
A judgment was not entered by de-
fault as there are certain damages to
be assessed before obtaining judg
ment. j. Percival Stewart was one of
the principal officers in the company,
which has had offices in Boston, Provi-
| dence and New York Col. Cile wrote
to the different addresses of the COM
pany, but the letters have been returned.
The history of the case is as follows
Mrs. Hood wanted to buy a little place
in Millbury, consisting of four acres of
land and a good house. She wrote the
American Investor company, saying
she desired tn purchase the place and
wanted the company to buy it for her
according to its widely advertised plan,
by which any one paying in small
monthly sums equivalent to rent could
in time get a deed to the property.
Members of the company expressed
themselves willing to accept the propo-
sition if the board of directors would
80 vote, and the price of the place was
fixed at $4,000. Mrs. Hood was to take
% shares in the Boston Rent urchas-
s,,,r nd (
once. This Mrs. Hood did for several
months, but finding that she could not
get any definite answer from the COM
pany, asked it to discontinue proceed
ings. She had paid in about 800, and
she soon received a letter inclosing
bill for $500 for services in trying to
make the purchase. Finally she
brought suit against the company, but
it did not appear to defend 1t. Col Gle
has received a letter from E. S. Taylor
of South birmingham, who also has
had dealings with the American In
vestor company He writes that he
sent it a check for $51.30 last Novem-
Der, and that il promised 10 advance
5000 on a house he had built. He also
wanted to see If something could not
be done to get back his money.
Col Gile states that J. Percival Stew
art and D. J. Pierce, another officer of
| the company, were arrested in New
| York city in January, charged with
using the mails for fraudulent pur-
poses. They We're indicted by the fed
eral grand jury of the western district
| of Kansas, he says, and bench war
liant was issued by Judge Rogers Of the
United States district court for that
district of Kansas. Thousands of cir
culars had been sent to Kansas farm
ers, asking them to take shares in the
| Fort Smith real estate purchasing
fund. and pay an advance of u months
dues, The company guaranteed to buy
land at Fort Smith and erect buildings
| thereon.
The American Investor Company was
| chartered in Rhode Island in 1897, and
a movement has been made to have
! its charter revoked. The United
States investor, a conservative banking
journal, says this of the company
THE American Investor Company
| is one-man affair, G. Percival Stew
art being the presiding genius. Stew
| art, as a result of the hostile attitude
| of the New York banking department
and the newspapers, was obliged to
| give up the American Investors trust,
| so he organized it under the name of
the American Investors Company. 1t
acts as a sort of clearing house for a
number of societies known as rent
purchasing societies., obtaining money
q
double mortgage business, the rent pur-
chasing societies receiving second mort
cages Imposing on the annual crop of
unsuspecting persons who never fail of
being f1eeced this Investors Com
pany' has succeeded in doing a consid-
cradle business, and numbers among its
victims small investors and laboring
men all over the country
Even so conservative a paper as the
New York Evening Post has referred
to this company and gives an example
of how 1t does business. The paper
tells of man who called upon the com
pany and was told he could secure a
loan of $500 on a piece of suburban
property provided he paid 80 admission
fee and certain rate per month He
paid in his monthly sum for several
months, but he did not secure his loan
| The matter was put off, and some time
| after he learned that the representative
| of the company had applied for the
money of the identical land company
of whom he had bought his lot
| That the security was ample was
proved by the fact that the applicant
succeeded al once in getting the money
from the local association to which he
| applied after he found he had been
| deceived in regard to the Investors
| Company. Concluding that he would
get no loan, he wrote the company,
| asking that the application might be
Cancelled and the money he had paid
be returned. He received a statement
Of expenses incurred by the company
in considering the loan that took all
but So Of the $41. 40 he had paid in.
! This is the scheme to induce people
to pay in monthly sum, for as long
as they can be induced to keep it up.
and if the party wishes to Withdraw,
bill is sent for practically the amount
| paid in.
Mrs. Hood is a school teacher in Mill
bury, and has lost about 500 by her
deal with the Investment Company.
Col. Gile thinks that things have been
made too hot for it in New England,
and the schemers have gone away to
| fresh pastures.