Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1904-06-28
A SCHEME THAT FAILED.
Alleged stock JoBbing Plot with the
Northumberland


Tonopah has been greatly exercised
during the past three or four days over
the revelations relating to a sensational
stock jobbing scheme. says the Tono
pah Miner, which, II il had been carried
out as planned. would have temporarily
closed down one of our great mines and
worked lncalculablc injury to the min
ing interests Of this district. The mat
ter has been very widely discussed and
many erroneous statements respecting
the details are current, The Miner
with a desire to present the facts to
the public without doing injustice to
any of the parties concerned, has made
a most careful investigation Of the case,
and believes the account which It here
gives can be fully substantlated.
The principal In the transaction Is
Barton Plttman, the senior member OF
the local stock brokerage firm of Bar
ton Pittman & co. Some time ago Mr..
Pittman conceived q plan whereby he
believed he could create successful
bear" movement I'm the stock of the
Montana Tonopah Mining company.
The details of the plan can be most
briefly outlined by quoting MIR. Pitt
mans own statement made to promi-
nent citizen Of Tonopah whom he APP
preached with view OF securing hls
cooperation In Carrying the scheme to
fruitition, Mr. Pittman said, substan-
tally! 81 viii transfer 1000 shares of
Montana Tonopah stock TO you and
want you to go over To the company's
office and have Dunlap reissue II i'm your
name. After that / want you to go
there and ask Dunlap to let you ex-
anime the books. Dunlap will refuse
this, You won't pay any attention 10
that, but tell him that you are stock
| holder In the company and that you
| want to know what the income and
| expenses were last month. He VIII say
that II IL none Of your business; but
| you viii pay no attention to that. You
viii then repeat to him that you are q
| stakeholder In the company and that
| you demand the privilege OF going down
| into the mine, and he win say, We are
not taking people through the mine
| now; you can't go through Then |
| want you TO bring suit against the COM
! pany and apply for a receiver. on the
| ground that you have been refused ac-
| cess to the books and denied admission
TO the mine. | viii prepare am article
| stating that a receiver has been asked
| for and will have II printed In the To-
nopah Sun. and viii give II to the As
ISOLATED Press and II will go all over
the country, and viii knock the stock.
| You can see for yourself that
when the small stockholders learn that
n receiver has been applied for they will
| tumble over one another to unload, and
we will buy their stock up when II gets
| down to where we want II, and we viii
| make the biggest cleanup you ever
heard Of. l have any amount OF money
To carry out the PLAN and we can't pos
sibly fail
The gentleman TO whom this hlluring
proposition was made declined TO have
anything to do with the transaction.
Quite recently Mr., Pittman made
practically the same proposition tC
Daniel w. Edwards, state agent for the
Aetna Life Insurance company, who is
at present in Tonopah, and promised
Mr.. Edwards large sum Of money fol-
his services In case OF success. Mr.
Edwards agreed 20 cooperate with NV
Pittman In putting the scheme into eX-
ecution and received 500 shares of Mon.
tana-T onopah stock, which he took tC
Secretary Dunlap, who reissued It In
Edwards name MIR, Edwards, who
declares he had no intention OF proceed.
Ing along the lines laid down by MIR
Pittman, then went to two or thre,
prominent stockholders OF the Montana
Tonopah and laid the whole schem,
bare. In the meantime Judge, j. X
Chambers Cwho, by the way, declines
to be interviewed ON the interesting
subjecD, as attorney for Mr., Pittman
prepared the necessary papers for pre-
sentation TO the district court at Bel
mont. and an article was prepared b!
Mr. Pittman, setting forth the facts II
regard to the application for a receive
on Tuesday Mr. Edwards on the ad
vice OF the three stockholders witt
whom he had been comforting from tim
TO time, disclosed all the details Of tn
scheme to Secretary Dunlap and 4
Geo. a. Bartlett, the attorney Of tn
company These gentlemen immcdi
ately informed Mr.. Pittman that thy
had learned Of his plan and warned hin
to proceed no further, Late Wednes
day afternoon Mr.. Pittman, who ha
been under terrific mental strain 10
many hours. and who evidently realize
that his scheme lacked motive powe
and cohesiveness, threw up his hands
and instructed his attorney to 90 n
further in the matter OF applying for
| rpcpiNor