The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1905-01-18


to be in very bad way He lay in
darkened room, his head swathed in
bandages. and in such pain that con
yersation was an effort The pitiful
wreck enlisted the sympathy of the
caller. who was willing. however. to
buy his mining stock at a sacrifice. The
sick engineer acknowledged that lie
had 500 shares of the stock, and from
under the mattress produced certif-
icate worn and crumbed. When asked
the price. he said:
1--WE been hanging onto this stuff for
a long time, and although it is not
worth much now, | believe there's
money in that mine some day, and |
am not at all anxious to sell. But
am sick. and down and out and /
make any old sacrifice for ready cash"
CLOSING THE BARGAIN.
Asked to set a price lie usually
named S15 a share With a wink to
the victim. the other caller said: "Oh,
it isn't worth it, You know it isn't"
After a lot of hagging, the deal was
closed at $40 a share. The purchaser
was unwilling to believe in his good
fortune, so he rushed to the nearest
telegraph office and wired the offices of
the Horse Shoe Copper Mining Com
pany' The reply always came back,
"Twenty-hve dollars offered
Then the machinery began TO whizz
The purchaser FASTENED to the head
quarters Of the company in the Park
Row Building. and presented the stock
expected to clear $500 by a turn of the
hand Here his experience became dis
heartenng The polite President OF
the soft-spoken Secretary was encour-
aging at the outset: why. certainly,
we are ready and glad to pay the price
agreed upon for the shares. A check
will be drawn at once. Let us see the
stock. Five hundred shares, do you
sayf"
Then the face of the official clouded
with disappointment
why" said he, "these are not
shares of the Horse Shoe Copper Min
ing Company, but of the Horse Shoe
Mining Company. a New Jersey corpo-
ration, absolutely worthless. We
thought all the while that you had
snapped up the 500 outstanding shares
of the Horse Shoe Copper Mining Com
pany of Arizona. You have been vic
timized. my dear sir. | advise you to
see the police at once"
These details sound a bit confusing,
and they were intended to fuddle the
intellect of the victim. In few words.
the Arizona Company. with Copper
inserted in its title, was a real corpora
ton. whose officers were using it to
promote their own professional rogu-
cry. and they would have picked out
any other mining company as readily
III they could have found a directorate
as unsuspecting and careless as the
gentlemen who were reputably inter.
ested in the Horse Shoe Copper Min
ind Company. The cleverest part OF
the plot. a touch rising to the level OF
genius. lay in the fact that there was
also incorporated. on paper, this second
Horse Shoe" company, with New
Jersey charter. and its only mission
on earth was to further the schemes
of the "Sick Engineer" gang.
This device caused the police 10 end
Of trouble and perplexity. for when
the conspirators We're arrested in Balti
more. last yeay they We're able TO SCI
no a defense that made conviction i'm
possible at that time 1t was alleged
that the victim had been the loser sole
IN by his own blunder in buying stoci
of the "siek engineer which stoci
was not that of the company from
which he had received the glltterins
promises. 1t is not impossible that al
eager investor. dazzled by the sight O
quick profits. should have confused th'
Horse Shoe Copper Mining Company
with the Horse Shoe Mining Com
pany.'
THE GAME PLAYED in PARIS.
On the surface of things. the victim
had no redress, for he could not prov
that the officers of the Horse Sho
Copper Mining Company" had any con
nection with the swindle When h
went cunning for the sick engineer,
the bird had flown, suddenly GONZALES
cent. and in some secluded corner wa
dividing the profits with his very goo
friends. the rest of the east" 1t wa
matter of two years before the pc
lice could obtain evidence 10 connec
the two concerns and their operators
The first complete exposure Of th
sick engineer swindle was made b
the writer Of this article. as repoi
torlal assignment for a New 1or
newspaper-Co Weekly.