Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-30

! many of which he sold.
| He was removed October 25. 1903.
OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT At
ToRNEY GENERAL.
| The administrative methods of Tyner and
| Barrett are clearly illustrated IN number
of cases which were passed upon by them.
E G. Lewis.-E G. Lewis of ST. Louis,
| Mo-, was conducting what is known as an
endless chain scheme Barrett ruled that
| his scheme was a lottery, but 10 fraud
| order was issued, and as an acknowledge
| ment of Barrett's lenent treatment Lewis
| presented him with a gold watch.
| Samuel Harris.-Samuel Harris of New
| York published in the papers picture Of
| an eye, then the letters d and 4, followed
| by the picture of a hoe. The advertisement
| announced that 500 reward would be given
| to any one who would correctly answer the
| name of the state represented in the pic
| ture. When an answer was sem in the
correspondent was advised that under the
| rules of the company 1t was necessary
before cash prize could be given for him
| to purchase one package of the renowned
Curaline tablets, costing 30 cents. After
buying the package the victim was advised
that SO great number had answered cor
rectly that 1t became necessary to divide
| the 500 prize among them equally. The
amount due each would not exceed or 3
cents.
| A fraudorder was issued against Harris,
but after Barrett retired from Office he be-
came Harris attorney, had the fraud order
revoked, and Harris ran the same old bush
| ness for months without interruption.
Cassius NJ. Upton.-Cassius NJ. Upton,
publisher of cheap illustrated paper in
Chicago, sought to extend his circulation by
| the puzzle plan. In one of his schemes he
submitted the initials of nine leading rail-
roads running out of Chicago, with the
names OF the roads spelled out, emitting
few of the letters. He offered $500 reward
pnt to lan lF-t
condition was that in order to get a prize
1t would be necessary to send 81 for q
years subscription to Upton's Illustrated
Weekly. The puzzle was so simple that
any one could answer 1t correctly. The
result was that the $500 prize would have
been divided up until the winners would
receive less than five cents each, and this
Upton failed to distribute He was arrested
for using the mails to defraud. Assistant
Attorney General Tyner protested against
the action of the post office inspector in
causing the arrest. And upon Barrett's
urgent appeal the attorney general. over
the protest of the district attorney, directed
that the case be disn Kissed.
L. M. Cushman.-At the same time that
Upton was operating In Chicago, L. NJ.
Cushman, publisher of the Columbian, of
Boston, Mass, was also operating schemes
OF exactly the same character, and on July
l, 1899, Barrett declared his schemes
fradulent, stating >hat the case should be
presented to the district attorney with q
view of his Indictment Yet short time
before he had declared the prosecution Of
Upton for exactly the same offense was
unwarranted."
When the Louisiana Lottery Company
was broken up by the federal government a
number of bond investment schemes sprang
UP over the country embracing lottery fea-
lures in their methods of business
Assistant Attorney General Thomas de-
clared, in 1899, that these so-called bond
investment schemes are more dangerous to
society than avowed lotteries
Shortly after Tyner and Barrett were in
stalled in office eight of these bond in
Vestment companies, against which fraud
orders had been issued by Thomas formed
an organization and sent representatives to
Washington for the purpose of having
these fraud orders revoked. G. A. Where
of New Orleans, a representative of these
companies. on June "a wrote the secretary
of his company follows:
Il have got the strongest assurance that
the government is our friend, and will do
all they can for us. Being sure of this I
wanted to return home, but Butterworth,
Dudley and Tyner himself tell me that l
must stay here; that will be needed
On June %, four days later, he again
wrote:
Had long interview with the law clerk
very satisfactory. He is a nice fellow,
and relative of Tyner's wife. His name
is Barrett. and he has charge of this mat
ter of ours, and Is conducting the investi-
cation / expect suspension order
by about Thursday"
This letter was written on Monday, June
nesday, the Both, one day earlier than VIII
lere expected.
After the fraud orders against these In
situations were revoked bond-investment
schemes multiplied until there were several
hundred in the United States.
Early In the year 1900, Barrett and J.
Henning helms, an agent for a bond-in-
yestment company, made a verbal agree
ment to enter into law partnership Janu-
airy /, 1901. Shortly after this agreement
Barrett announced that he intended to rem
der a decision as to all bond-investment
schemes. This opinion rendered
December 5, 1900, and 1t held all bond
investment concerns as fraudulent. But
while declaring them ''inimical to the pos
tai laws" Barrett suggested that they be
given an opportunity to make such changes
as Will eliminate all Objectionable features
before further action Is taken by this de-
partment in the direction of depriving them
of the use of the mails.
And the same mail that carried the opfn-
ion with this suggestion to the bond-nvest-
ment concerns also carried the announce
ment that Barrett had resigned and formed
law partnership with helms. The result
ly sought his services. In letter to the
secretary Of one of them. written ten days
before he retired from office, Barrett said:
believe we can eliminate all the obiec-
tionable features in the contracts and put
them in such form that they will meet
fee would be $1,000 retainer and 500
month for twelve months.
A number of representatives of bond IN
vestment companies were in Washington
during the holiday week Of 1900, but they
could get no satisfaction out of Tyner But
onsthe 31st of December, after 4 o'clock In
the afternoon, they met Barrett by appoint
ment and employed him as their attorney.
On the next day he presented the matter