El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-01-18
wATERED STOCK
Issued in Mining Companies
and Bought BY Bankers.
Bootb 'acks, Widows,
and Maids.

The New York Journal is out with
a two page story exposing the many
schemes said to have been worked by
the well known DR.. R. C. Flower of
New York
The report reached Ell Paso last
week that Flower had failed to the
amount of 81 ,0OO, 900 and had left the
country The report could not be yeri-
fed and no further particulars being
obtainable the matter was allowed to
wait. It is said that the scheme re-
vealed by the Journal was a familiar
one but had been kept secret by those
most interested in order to get at the
bottom Of the scheme.
! The Journal asserts that Flower and
ton. worked widows, bankers, Eotel
clerks. and. walters all the same and
collected nearly a million and a half
dollars out of the sale of stocks in a
mine ia Arizona that was not even
good prospect. The New York Journal
of January 18th has the following:
DIR. R. c. Flower. pretending to be
: Z.
with w. J. Ashton, floated more than
S1.000.Ooo worth of the stock of an
Arizona mining company. They prom
ised two per cent a month dividends,
and even more than the usual roseate
future that is suggested in the pros
pectuses Of such companies.
THE purchasers range from bank
presidents to bootblacks.
The stock paid five monthly divi-
dends. Then a mechanics lien for $1O,-
900 took its mine from the comrany.
Even the splendid fixtures of their
magnificent offices were sold, and now
all the shareholders have left are the
beautifully engraved stock certificaes.
Dire Flower and w. ]. Ashton,
promoters of the Arizona Eastern and
Montana smelling. ore purchasing and
development company, over a million
dollars worth of the shares of which
are held in eastern cities, are both
missing
THE shareholders are declaring they
have been v1ctimized and new officers
are trying to save something from the
wreck
THE master spirit in the venture was
DR.. r. c. Flower. who represented him
self as brother of the late Roswell P.
Flower. Before he took little Arizona
mine and with that as a basis distrib-
uted more than $1.OOO,OOO worth of
stock all over the east. DR.. Flower had
a record from Mexico to Boston. He
has been 4 minister of the gospel, pat
ent medicine practitioner. and promot-
er for more than generation.
He has managed to steer clear of
trouble. to keep magnificent suites at
the Waldorf-Astoria, to travel in a spe
cial car and generally live on n mil
liOnaire scale through it all. The Ari-
Zona and Eastern company is still in
existence. but the doctor has vanished
utterly, and the second guiding spirit
of the concern. w. ]. Ashton, disap-
peared from the Imperial hotel in this
city last Monday night, leaving his
baggage. big unpaid bill and no ad-
dress to which to forward the bales
of mai, that are accommodating for him.
$500. 900 Stock Sold
There wss million dollars in treas
ury stock when the company was in
corpOrated under the laws of West Vir-
ginia in 1899. according to the con-
fessiOn of one of Flowers secretaries |
that was all disposed of at par-S5 per |
share-aad a half million dollars |
worth additional that came-nobody !
knew whence-was also sold. The beau |,
tifully engraved stock certificates were |
scattered over the land. and men who |
ought to have known a great deal bet /,
ter eagerly snapped it up on the prom |
ise of a per cent monthly dividend
Five Of these dividends were paid |
out Of the money realized from the |
sale of the stock. according to one of |
the lawyers for the wrecked concern.
The company had gorgeous Offices at |
No. 33 Wall street. There is no busi- |
ness place in all New York more mag
nificentiy fitted up than that in which |
the Arizona Eastern company con-
Quoted its affairs. Rosewood desks, up
holstered chairs, plate glass and brass |
work impressed everybody who enter !
ed with the richness of the company" |
The Local End.
While the details of this affair are