The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1905-04-18
WHERE DOES THE PUBLIC COME mi

is charged with having some of his
household employees carried on the
rolls of the society at large salaries.
An instance is said to be one, the
alleged superintendent Of Hyde's
country estate, who receives $1,000
year from the Equitable-for doing
nothing for the Equitable, but all for
Hyde, the Alexander people say
A Dinner and a ReveL.
Charges of another kind against
Hyde relate to various great personal
cEtraNa gances put upon the society.
one of these touches the dinner of
unprecedented magnifcence to Am
hassador Cambon at Sherry's in 1902.
There were $50 guests. including the
pr>Si 'cnts of Harvard, Yale and other
important universities. The thing
went off magnificently-and Hyde, II
is now said, charged the whole ex-
pense of it to the Equitable society
on the ground that IT advertised the
company! Report at the time was
that the dinner cost upwards of $780,
600, but Hyde's friends say that 1t
did not exceed $4,000, and that Hyde
has since paid this, and more, too,
back into the society treasury.
.}ut what made a greater sensation
than the Cambon dinner was the
Louis XVI. rcvel at Sherry's at the
ead Of January of this year. con-
siderable number Of those who esteem
themselves as constituting New
York society" were there. At any
rate there were 400 guests, all in
fancy costume. Four or five floors
of Sherry's great establishment were
engaged, one floor being specially ar
ranged as a theater, where ballet
troup from the Metropolitan Opera
house danced and where the talented
French actress, Nine. Rejane, with
chosen members from her company,
presented a French play expressly
written for the occasion.
The other floors and apartments
given over to Hyde were specially
decorated with hangings, furniture,
flowers and plants to resemble diff
ferent periods of the court of France.
BY universal consent it was a mag
nificent affair, perfect in all its APP
pointments. And it cost, according
to common belief, 100000. This, the
Alexander faction say, Hyde charged
up to the advertising account of the
Equitable society.
But why was Hyde permitted to
do these things? Where was the
were the other officers? They were
in their Offices, presumably. They
now say that they were practically
helpless, because Hyde controlled 81
per cent of the stock, and this stock,
in fact, ruled the society. At any
rate, the officers intimated that Hyde
could turn them out at the next cleo.
ton of directors and officers if he so
chose.
Hyde says that President Alexan-
der ard the other officers acquiesced
in all these things as being perfectly
proper until a time came when they
thought they could force the control
of the society away from the ma
jority of the stock ana into that of
the policy holders, or rather of those
who should hold the proxies of the
ppllCy holders.
The man in the street will probably
see some truth in both statements.
Hyde. in his middle twenties, was
suddenly, by reason of his fathers
will, put into commanding position
in a corporation having assets and
surplus of 100000 900. No wonder
his head swarm, the more especially
gray-heade men whose purpose there !
was to uses the moneys of the great !
company to buy up stocks and bonds /
of railroad and trolley and gas and !
other public franchise corporations !
all over the country, in which they |
were in one way or another inter |
ested.