Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1903-05-21
MADE A SCApEGOAT.
Remarkable Story Of The Silver City
Banker Told by Man Vino Knows.
FRIENDS LOYAL TO GRAYS0N.
From New York Sun.

JOnn BTOWn, % William street, new
York, or Charles F. Grayson, of Silver
City, N. NJ, or Moody Merrill, of Bos-
ton, arrested at Seventy-second street
and Riverside Drive on Wednesday by
charge of embezzling SIS, 900 some ten
years ago from Sarah Cohen, of Bos-
ton, will be arraigned in the Center
street police court this afternoon at 2
o'clock. 1t may be that some of the
old mans history may then become a
court record. Until then, his lawyers,
Wentworth, Lewenstein & Stern, of
346 Broadway, refuse to make any
statement regarding their client, and
none of his friends in town-he ap-
pears to have many of standing and
wealth in the financial district-will
say much about him. This all-around
reticence is the result of a request
made by the prisoner himself. To his
lawyers and to some of his Oldest New
| York friends he said yesterday morn
ing:
Il have been arrested OF a serious
charge. which must be tried in court. |
do not wish to shirk responsibility or
avoid punishment for any wrong act
| of mine which l have not righted. l
wish to affirm or deny nothing. | am
down as plain John Brown, SIS William
street, New York. Let me remain as
such for the present"
His attorneys said they would be
glad to make an extended statement
about their client, had he not bid them
to keep silent. But a man who knows
said:
when John Brown, SIS William
street, New York, was taken into GUS
tody, the New York police arrested
one of the biggest f~nanciers of New
Mexico. Down in that country John
Brown is Charles F. Grayson, presi-
dent of the Silver City national bank.
The bank has a capital of $4,000, a
surplus of $45, 900 and deposits ag'
~gregating 1925, 900. It's New York
correspondent is the Hanover Nation
al bank, and it has correspondents In
st. Louis and Kansas City. 1t is one
Of the strongest banks in New Mexico
and Mr.. Grayson has been its presi
dent for more than ten years. And
want to say, although | have no au'
thority for so doing, that / believe
should there be a run on the Silver
City National bank as a result OF the
arrest of John Brown, the Hanover
National bank will stand behind the
New Mexico institution until the run
is over. The Hanover people will dc
this, believe, solely because of theil
confidence in President Grayson.
In the past Mr.. Grayson has han
died very nearly SIS, 1000. 900 for various
banks and bankers in New York, ant
every zen has been scrupulously &C
counted for.
"This may seem no e~xtraordinar!
thing to the average New York bank
err, but / mention it because this maj
for the time being, is held up as
crook If he were naturally dishones
he could, in the country in which h
has been living for so many years
have got away with a good part o
the millions he has handled for New
York accounts and the New Yorker
could have whistled for their money.
!. But what is, perhaps, more inter
esting than anything else is b fac
that Charles F.. Grayson, the NeN
i Mexico banker, has never tried I
conceal the fact from his friends !
New York and elsewhere that he is, |
reality, Moody Merrill, lawyer and (
nancier of Boston. | don't mean I
say that he has worn ~placards al
~nouncing the fact, but have reaso
to believe that people in New York an
in Boston knew that Grayson and Me-
rill were one and the same.
Il don't know that Grayson woul
thank me for telling the story, bu
now that he is under arrest, / a sc
no harm in telling of the incubus III
der which this man has lived and worl
ed and righted wrongs done to other
many years ago. AS Moody Merrill
Grayson was a bigger man in Bosto
than he is today in New Mexico.
Property was intrusted to him an
money given 10 him to invest. On
day ii came out that a large part {
these trust funds had been dissipate'