The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1903-06-05
COME TO BLOWS IN STREET.
Prominent Spokane Men In
Fight.

Observation-Disclosures and social cir
cles suffered shock when personal
encounter between Col. William NJ.
Ridpath, the we'll known politician
and capitalist. and Seymour Birch. a
mining operator and financial agent.
occurred IN the ROOkery building.
The two men represent opposite
factions of shareholders in the Lucille
Dreyfus Mining company. and their
encounter was the direct result of the
alleged discovery Of the embezzlement
Of several thousand dollars by H. ]. /
kressly.
In Financial Straits.
kressly is a very prominent young
mining broker, and has stood we'll
socially here, but it has been known
for some time that he was in hard
straits financially. He has been sery-
ing as secretary Of the Dreyfus COM
pany. and has been very friendly with
Col. Ridpath. who is president OF the
company.
The latter resented an imputatiOn
! that he was aware Of Kressly's pecu-
! latiOns and advanced to attack Nh
| Birch. who is much smaller than him
! self. He grasped Mr.. Birch by the
! throat, but was forced TO desist by
! James A. Williams. an attorney OF
| this city, who was present.
Stock Not Credited.
| Amusement is universal at the
news of Kressly's alleged shortage.
AS secretary of the company he had
access to the stock book and it is said
chat he has been selling stock and not
! iojg <
of the members of the company were
aroused and they demanded an inves-
tigatiOn Of the books For several
days Kressly had put them off, but
finally when legal proceedings were
threatened he opened the books for
their inspection.
1t is said that an OveriSsue OF about
900 shares Of stock was discover
ed Immediately. and admitted by
Kressly. His method Of operation, it
is alleged. was at follows: Some 500
| certificates OF stock had been proper
ly issued and Kressly had then OBJ
| tanned a duplicate stock book The
numbers in this book ran from $50
10 S45. and the certificates bearing
those numbers are false. He would
fiji out a certificate. sign his own
name, and. it is claimed, also the
name of ". NJ Ridpath, as president
Of the company. In any event. the
signatures of Col Ridpath to these
certificates are admittedly forged.
Big Fraud'ilent Issue.
In all about 800 900 shares OF stock
were issued on these certificates. with
spurious signatures. and most of the
stock was sold to eastern parties. One
f. S. Willard OF Ohio is said to be the
worst bitten. as he has accepted more
than 250,000 shares of this issue. The
stock had been selling for ) and 6
cents. SO that it is probable that
Kressly- has cleaned up from $4,000
to 500 600
| kreSSIy kept no record O,h9r than
the stubs OF these spurious certifi-
Gates. so far as has been discovered,
and in many places the stubs were
filled out for less stock than was is
sued Kressly owned some stock and
he also issued stock against his cred
its, but the amount Of the issue is
said to be ten times greater than the
amount owned By him. About 800
600 shares or more, however, were
simply issued and sold not being
charged to any account.
Slams Other Names.
It is also admitted by kreSsley that
he has put the names Of Col. Rid
path and E D. Sanders to stock con-
tracts and other documents and has
hypothetical and sold other stocks
belonging to Ridpath, for whom he
has been agent in various mining en-
terDrises. 1t is said that the money