The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-08-18
MANY BUSINESS MEN
TRIMMED BY CLARKE
Put DO Not Want to Publish
Their Losses.
SUMS AGGREGATE $4,000
crARKE's OPERATIONS ON THE
COAST.

r--. ETarqld's exposure of that prince
- .,-,r51srs. Y c. Clarke, was the talk
Of the rorn among business men yester-
lsv but like the people who paid their
rood hard money to see the sIx-Iegged
ra1f. not one of these business men would
admit for publication that he was a VIC
tim. But the Investigations of the day
,,-0ved that the minimum estimate OF
$500 as the loss to the city was not too
h5Eh. in fact, some who saw the list Of
subscribers state that there were Very
few of the prominent business houses
it is admitted on all sides that V. c..
Clarke with his Illustrated Twentieth
Century Edition t1f the Pacific Coast" IS
The most successful and accomplished
skinner that ever struck Salt Lake. It IS
some consolation to know that Boston
the Intellectual hub OF the universe, was
worked by this same Clarke. A young
business man of this city states that he
has a distinct recollection that a fellow
by the name of Clarke operated in Boston
through Boston newspaper some thee
or four years ago. tnaI ne there was a
high roller with a. fast team and q steam
Yacht and got off with a large amount
of money In the end. He also worked in
Akron o., through the Republican of
that place This is taken TO be The same
Clarke He worked the same game at
Los Angeles and has been Z card from
on the Pacific coast since Having Salt
Colonel T. G. Weber. the manager of
z. c. NJ l., denied yesterday that he was
one Of Claarke..s victims. The first
heard Of him" he said, was what /
read in The Herald this morning. II he
displayed a contract and a check pcr-
porting to have been signed by me, then
must denOunce them as forgeries,
Colonel Webber's statement was cOrrob-
Grated by his private secretary, Christian
OrlOb.
Shrewd Business Men Bilked.
4 number of business men and profess
siOual men confessed that they had been
o. ken in by the swindle, but would not
permit the use of their names. Among
these are some who are considered the
snreWdest and most conservative busi-
ness men In the city Another feature or
the swindle that did not come out at
first is the free distribution Of copies Of
the book among friends of the subscrib-
ers. The firm OF George y. Felt & Co
was 10 have received twenty-five copies
of the work on their contract for $50
worth Of advertising space IN the book,
and as the book was to DC worth $40 per
volume 1t is very evident that TINS was q
very liberal offer The BOOKS were 20 be
sent, too. by express ar the expense or
the publisher. Tt IS said that the Taylor
Romney-ArusU0ns company was TO re-
Give 100 copies of the book on their con-
tract and furnished a list OF names OF
LersOns to whom they were to be sent.
Major NJ. A. Breeder Is another man VINO
is said to have taken stock in the enter
prise
one prominent business man of this
civ wrote to the Journal Of Commerce
of San Francisco for an explanation
July . J. s. Waddeu, the published. re-
piled that the publication was under lease
TO J. y. Hertsche who made an arrange
rnent with Clarke 70 get out the illus
Jrated issue. Many hundreds C dollars
were collected by Clarke and finally,
April p, Hertscne was forced out. but
the trouble with Clarke continued till the
police had to be called in and a repudi6-
zion of him run at the head of the paper
WaddeH expressed the wish in this let
ter that someone would prosecute Clarke
The Salt Laker wrote hack and asked
why he did not do fl himself, as, IL what
he said was true, he was the heaviest
sufferer of all, and that he could not eE-
pect a man to 60 from Salt Lake to san
Francisco and hire lawyers there ID
prosecute q iaWbreakeT who should BE-
punished there without the aid of out
siders To this Waddell replied that he
had consulted with the police and yeith
his attorney and discovered that while
the Journal was the most injured party,
81 was not Legally the party aggrieVec.
He said he then tried TO get some OF
Clarke's victims out there to prosecute
him, but that they, fearing exposure of
how they were duped, refused TO act n
the matter He said further; 81 would
gladly 20 TO Salt Lake or elsewhere AID
lend my b5st efforts toward his prose
cutiOn He has a bad record and has
already served time and should serve
more