The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-20
WHERE ARE THOSE SUITS?
Five Hundred Men Looking for
Their Toys.
EVERYBODY SURE TO WIN
Sure-Thing- Y ou- Can't-Lose Club Col
lapses and the Manager Flies the
Nest-A Bond That Isn't as
Good as 1t Looked.

There are about 500 men in Butte
who are doing more or less kicking
because of the collapse of the latest
of those -thing-you those suit
clubs The 500 are losers in amounts
running from few dollars to about
$40 or $50 each, according to the best
information obtainable, and as the
manager, Adam Brayton, has left town,
the true state of affairs cannot be as
certained. When he went out of bust
ness he had five different clubs going
and there We're supposed to have been
100 men in each club. Many men were
drawn into the sure-tO-win game by
the representations made by Brayton
that he had $1,000 bond up with a
well-known firm of insurance agents
TO guarantee all club members against
loss. Inquiry developed the fact that
the bond was up all right and that the
Fidelity and Trust company was surety
on it, but after Mr.. Brayton had dis
appeared and further inquiry was made
about the bond it was discovered that
it secured the members only against
embeZzlement by Manager Brayton
and there was no evidence that he had
embezZled any money. at least they
couldn prove 1t, though their money
was gone: besides, before leaving Mr..
Brayton prepared careful and very
long statement showing how the clubs
money was disbursed and he filed ID
with the holders of the bond The
statement is supposed to exonerate Mr..
BraytOn. but ii doesn't make good the
losses sustained by The members of the
clubs, some of whom complained to the
county attorney about it. 1t is pos
1N1 IA T1,a y,fl ,,,;,,
under false pretenses may be preferred
against the absent manager of the
clubs.
This particular suit club business
was started in Butte about two years
ago by an outfit styling itself the
Farnsworth Tailoring company. The
scheme, a S in all suit clubs, provided
that 100 men should enroll in one club
and pay in 81 a week. A drawing was
had each week for 50 weeks. and some
member drew a suit al each drawing
No man was to pay in more than $35.
and all those remaining in the club for
So weeks were entitled to a suit anyway
How the club was ever going to wind
up its business so that no one would
lose, no reasoning man could under
stand, but there was that $4,000 bond
to secure everybody, and what more
could man ask. The tailoring COM
pany also made it appear by clear ar
than 80 per cent of the club members
dropped out after paying in from 81 to
about $40 each, and that was clear
gain: then, too / number paid in the
full $35 and received probably a S12 or
SIS suit, and the difference there was
more clear gain. The Farnsworth COM
pany, however. let it be said, made
good all its promises. While it was
doing business its 50, 900 bond was on
deposit with Attorney Emmett Callahan
and he held it until he acquired
troubles of his own and then he trans
ferred its keeping to the insurance
firm.
The Farnsworth company sold out to
Brayton and the name of the concern
was changed to the Butte Tailoring
company, and a rushing business was
prosecuted or some time. Brayton
was real good fellow and he did q
good business: new clubs We're formed
and the dollars came in plenty. Some
of the members had so much confidence
in young Brayton that they Joined sew
eral of his clubs at the same time, and
others, not needing their suits after
they had won. did not order them.
while still others paid in their full $35
and delayed in ordering their suits So
business ran on until one day a fas-
tidious club man kicked because his
suit did not fit him and he had BraytOn
arrested for obtaining money under
false pretenses. Of course the charge
could not be made to stick against the
young man and the case against him
was dismissed, but that seemed to be
the beginning of the end of Brayton's
suit club business. Soon therea he
closed his office and after that he was
hard to find by men who wanted their
suits. A number had already been or