Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-05-24
THE BERNSTEIN BANKRUPTCY.
A Series of Sensations in the Affairs of
an OskaIoosa Firm.

an Oskaloosa Firm.
Special to Times Republican.
Oskaloosa, May 24-The arrest Of
Sam Bernstein by United States Mar
shall Willis, and his confinement in Jail
at Des Moines to await trial, is only
one of a series of sensational develop
ments that are expected as the out
come Of the Bernstein bankruptcy case
in this city. Sam was not one of the
principals in the case, his brother, b..
Bernstein, and the brothers wife, being
the parties whom it was understood the
officer was after.s Their present street
and number are not known. Early last
fall the firm of Popofsky & Bernstein.
proprietors Of & fair store, accepted
bankruptcy. There was such differ
ence between their assets and liabilities
that creditors were made suspicious,
but no evidence of fraud was found un-
til recently, when Mr.. Propofsky dis
covered a big stock of dry goods secret
ed at Bernstein's home. He told of his
discovery and the goods were seized.
For TWO weeks the matter has been
before Judge Johnson in pankruptcy
court, and witnesses have beten exam
ined almost every day. Owing to the
fact that several of the witnesses could
not speak English, an interpreter was
necessary, and Max Rothschild has
acted in that capacity. Testimony has
been somewhat mixed. but as the old
saying goes, lit may come out all right
in the wash
Dry goods and notions, which in
voiced at $500, and a pile of junk esti-
mated to be worth $1,000 constitutes
the property at issue. 1t is charged by
the prosecution that the dry goods be-
longed to the Fair store and were a
part of the stock before the failure, and
that the junk was purchased by other
goods, also taken out of the store. AT
the time of the Popofsky & Bernstein
failure, Mr. Popofsky was ignorant Of
the existence of these goods and sup
posed everything had been turned over
in bankruptcy. When he made the dis
covery he asked for a reckoning. Inn
mediately after tn seizure of the dry
goods, Bernstein swore in bankruptcy
court that his brother, who recently
came from the old country, owned the
goods. This was disputed by Popofslky,
who produced the cost mark Of the
store and showed that it correspondent
to the marks on the tags on the goods.
Mrs. Bernstein claimed an interest in
the goods and declared that Bernsteins
brother did not own them, but that
brother-in-law Harry Bate was the
real owner The brother also put this
same construction on the question of
the ownership of the goods Bate has
NOT been examined vet.
Mrs. Bernstein claims all of the junk.
Mrs. Bernstein claims all of the junk
and says she bought 1t with $1,000
which she brought from Europe. and
which she kept secreted in her stocking
for several years, up to the time of the
failure. When confronted with a let
ter she had written to her husband,
who preceded her to this country. in
W hich she told him she was out of
money and asked him to send her a
ticket to America, she explained that
she had the thousand dollars at the
time, but wished to fix up a surprise fol
her husband. The surprise came to d
head after the failure, when she pro-
duced the coin and engaged in business
in her own name. She says she made
the money by keeping a shop In her ma
tive land.
To compllcate matters still further
Mrs. Bernstein In the meantime gave
Hill of sale on the junk to parties in
Centerville
Judge Johnson has already declared
and paid an IS per cent dividend to the
creditors of Popofsky & Bernstein. II
all the goods now at issue are proved to
be a part Of the firms assets, another
large dividend Will be possible.
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