Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1900-04-14
BIG BILLS SCHEME.
How He Made Fortune With His
Own Board of Trade.

Own Board Of Trade.
"As rule, said detective at New
York headquarters, crooked people
never save their money. / don't care
how wise or smart they are, they gem
orally get rid of it faster than they
get it. But what was going to tell
you about was one of the gang that
had more brains than any of the hand
shakers | ever knew / am not going
to tell you what his name is, and he
is on the level now, lives nicely with
his family and stands well with the
business community. So, for story
telling purposes, | will tell you about
Big Bill and the fortune he made.
Big Bill when a lad served the ladies'
with soda water in drug store in this
city. He was a good-loohng lad and
was favorite with every one. Among
the patrons of the drug store was
well-knoWn confidence man, who took
a fancy to the white-haired lad be-
hind the soda water fountain The
boy and the con man became fast
friends, and one day the boy failed to
report for duty. He was not at home
and no trace Of him could be found.
Three years later ran across him in
New York, and he was the clerk in a
green goods store and the gang told
me he was the greatest kid in his line
that they had ever seen. But he was
only getting very small part of the
coin that was being taken off, and
one day he declared that he was going
out for himself. He quit the job and
| did MT hear from him for several
years. BY this time he was giant in
build and looked to be 80 He was
now the brains Of confidence gang.
and although those connected with
him were years older in experience,
what he said was law. The gang oper-
ated through the south and west, and
were is no way identified with any of
the Red Austins, Tom O'Brien and
Lou Ludlums, whose names are ia.
miliar to the public. Consequently,
they had very little trouble with the
law
The gang made plenty of money.
But it was the same old story-wine,
woman and song-except as far as
Big Bill was concerned. While he
had good time and held up his end,
yet he was not drunken sailor with
his money. All the time the gang was
at work Big Bill was looking for some
bushes to get into. While in a small
town in Colorado he dropped into
bucket shop and at once became in
terested in the workings. The oper.
ator explained the operations and told
him how all quotations were sent from
the Board of Trade in Chicago. Big
Bill at once grasped the situation, and
decided upon a scheme of his own.
He had a bank roll of about $4,000,
so he incorporated stock exchange
just the same as the big Board of
Trade in Chicago. Then he opened up.
He had his own stock exchange with
all the side issues. He had his eleva-
tors, clearing house, grain pit, and
everything was just the same as the
big market in Chicago Then he
opened Offices or bucket shops in 40
small towns throughout the west,
south and southwest The result was
he was doing business just the same
as the Chicago Board of Trade, ex-
cept on small scale. But it was not
so small as one would think, for in IA
months he had cleared 100000. He
continual to do business, and the last
time | heard of him he had retired
from BUSINESS with over 1000, 900.
The business is now operated by
stock company. and Big Bill sits by
and gets his take off just as regularly
as he takes his coffee"