The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-11-30
FINANCIAL FAKES.
Miller's Recalls Fam.
Gus Ones of
\ the Past.
FERDINAND WARDS VENTURES.
Craze Of Merchants and
Clerks to Invest
Money.
FERDINAND WARDS VENTURES

Early in the fall 1t began to be no
ticed oy bank officers in this city,
writes Holland" in the New York let
ter to the Philadelphia Press, that a
great many small drafts from 81 up to
50 were being sent from various parts
| of the country for collection from the
makers. who appeared to be a partner
ship dong business in the borough of
Brooklyn under the name of the Frank
| lin syndicate. The number of these pet
| ty drafts and the nuisance involved in
their collection naturally attracted the
attention of the banks here to which
they were sent for collection to this
somewhat mysterious syndicate.
One cay a month ago one of the
banks received in it's morning mails
from tire west a score or more of these
small drafts, and was obliged to send
its messenger to the street and mum
Der Indicated as the headquarters of
the syndicate. The messenger discov-
cred in a shanty like building that may
have done service at some time as a
cheap boarding house for laborers, but
that certainly had no suggestion of
financial or aristocratic association, the
was hustle the clicking of many type
writing machines, and what had been
formerly kitchen and dining room
seemed now to be the business part of
the Office of this syndicate.
The drafts were paid upon presenta-
ton, but it was evident to the mes
| senger that the syndicate was taking
| in a great deal more money than it was
paying out, and there seemed to be
something like a frenzy of desperation
on the part of some of those who were
| in line due to eagerness to deposit their
money with this syndicate.
OF course, banks that made investiga-
| ton notified their correspondents else
| where that there seemed to be some
thing mysterious about this syndicate,
| and, at all events, it would be crafty
| ing If the out-of-town correspondents
would send no more of these drafts to
their New York correspondents for col
| lection.
PROBING THE SYNDICATE.
Unknown to the syndicate, an investi-
cation was begun, but it resulted in no
more than this, that no unlawful thing
was being done by the syndicate so far
as could be learned, although it seemed
as though its managers had confidence
| that same weakness of human nature
that led to the Dutch tulip bubble, the
South sea bubble. George Laws mag
nificent speculation, and in our own day
to the exploits of Ferdinand Ward,
would bring to this syndicate the same
| offerings of money which these early
bubble makers at first secured.
| Very likely no public notice would
| have been taken of this syndicate and
! it's operations had it not been for the
fact that its profesed head saw fit to
sue for libel a person who had accused
the syndicate of improper practices,
and who had intimated that it was en-
gagged in a magnificent attempt to swim
! die the public.
| 1t seems, however, to those who made
some investigation into the operations
of this syndicate that If there be a
swindle it is one which the public can
only blame itself for being victimized
thereby The syndicate published ad-
vertisements and sent correspondence
| here and there apparently all over the
country, announcing that it would re-
ceive deposits of even so small a sum as
$40 and would allow interest at the rate
| of 81 a week upon these deposits or, for
a $40 deposit, would pay $50 year. Fur
thermore. it announced that at the be-
| ginning of the new year it would per
init deDositors to exchange their de-
posits for certificates of stock, there
| by beco ming stockholders in an organ
ization that was certain to make much
greater profits than $40 per cent year.
There is nothing unlawful in an In
| vitation and a promise of that kind
Nobody need deposit with this syndi-
cate unless he wishes to, and If he
deposited on the faith that the syndi-
| cate VIII pay 10 per cent week, or
| hereafter share equally in the profits
| of the corporation, that is no more
than capitalists do when they join
blind pools or when they invest in the
| certificates of some of the industrials
like the Standard Oil or the Sugar
trust.
The manager of this syndicate claims
that he uses the money intrusted to
him for speculative purposes on Wall
street, and that his speculations are in
variably successful and enable him to
pay this great interest. But 1t is on
similar assurances, formal or implied,
that some of the great capitalists buy
without hesitation the certificates of
the Sugar trust or cheerfully subscribe
to blind pools like that one with which
ex-Gov. Cornell was associated, or af-
terward Henry Willard, or recently that
one which organized the new copper
trust.
The manager of this Brooklyn syndi-
cate seems to have reasoned that the
same impulses IndL induce rlCn men
to operate in Wall street upon the faith
that some other rich men will make
money for them, will induce poor peo-
pie to commit their money to some one
who promises to return handsome di-
vidends or interest and as he has for
nearly a year paid every obligation
upon presentation, he has inspired con-
fidence in his ability to keep his prom
ises, so that today, in spite of consider
able notoriety, there were hundreds of
persons of limited means waiting in
line in front of these shabby offices
clamoring for an opportunity to deposit
their money with this man.
So. too. last spring, at one of the
greatest banks of the world there were
seen hundreds of clerks, messengers
and agents of capitalists standing in
line that they might hand n their
checks and money to pay for subscrfp-
tons to an issue Of stock by one of the
closest blind pools ever organized. And
so enormous were the transactions of
that day that this bank was represented
at the clearing house by the largest
sum ever recorded in the history of
that organization, being a little over
S50,000,000. In the case of the Brook
Ign syndicate and Of the new copper
trust, precisely the same impulses in
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