The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-30
RAILROAD JAILS EX-OFFICER.
TALE or LOSS OF $4,000 AT ROU-
LETTE DOWNTOWN.


HNNN0a FitctrtC mAlWuy tVbtlphuy
Accused OF Embezzllng Sl1A,00O.
OF which s3O.0lS Was Recovered.
Cornelius W. Van voorhis, formerly secre-
tary and treasurer Of the Havana Electric
Railway Company, was arrested yes terday
on an order from Supreme Court Justice
Vernon NJ. Davis and locked up in Ludlow
street Jail in default OF $4,000 bail.
Van voorhis, who says he Is a relati We
Of Congressman Van Voorhis, is charged
on the complaint in a civil suit with en-
bezzling s1i4,cO0 from the Havana Electric
Railway Company, $50. s1S Of which the
company recovered. He confessed on
July 8 last that he was a defaulter, but
tho company merely discharged him at
that time and set a watch on him, in the
hope of being able TO get back most OF the
money he had Incorporated. Detective
work on the part Of the officials and the
lawyers Of the company resulted, the law
yers said last night, in the discovery that
Van voorhis had not lost all the money he
had made away with. Accounts of his in
various banks and trust companies were
located, and yesterday the company decided
70 have him locked up,
He insisted when he was arrested yester-
day that he had lost all the cash he en-
DtXHtcu cACcpt II AcPdy 20 NO Ao0 ~
soon as his d~efalcation was discovered last
July. Part Of it was sunk, he said, in Wall
Street plunging, and at least s42 900 in try
ing TO beat the roulette wheel in Town.
town gambling houses in the neighborhood
OF Wall Street. The c~ompany's lawyers
found out that he had told the truth about
his stock speculations. but they think he
wasn't talking straight about the big
amounts he lost in buoking the wheel.
Van Voorhis is a New Yorker by birth,
about IS years of age, a vigorous, energetic,
wideawake, h~ustling young man, according
to the officials of the company, and was
believed to be straight as a string until last
summer and a very valuable all around
man. He is married and lived with his wife
and one child at $50 Lenox avenue. He
was inclined to boast OF his social connec-
tons.
He went TO work in 1905 for the Havana
Electric Railway Company, which was
organized in 1899 to build a system of street
railways in the city of Havana. He was a
favorite with Edwin Hanson, the president,
and Of William l.. Bull, the vice-president.
both of whom cam to have implicit con-
fidence in him. AS secretary and treasurer
he had a pretty free hand with the concerns
financial affairs, but he was never suspected
Of crooked going until about June 20 last.
On that day the cashier OF the company
happened to be looking over the check
book stubs and came across two stubs
representing checks for $50 900, drawn
TO the order of Cornelius W. Van Voorhis
as secretary and treasurer. Endorsements
on the stubs indicated that Van Voorhis
had drawn the checks to liquidate a loan
Of 100000 which the Havana Electric
Railway Company had obtained from the
Central Trust Company. The cashier
thought that was rather a queer way to
do il, so he spoke to President Hanson
about it. The president thought lightly
Of the matter, suggesting that Van Voorhis
had probably taken that method as a simple
way Of settling, but nevertheless he called
up the Central Trust Company and inquired
II the loan had been paid. He was in
formed that it had not. Then an examina-
ton Of Van Voorhis's books was begun.
On July 8 the cancelled checks. for $50, 900
apiece, came back from the Knickerbocker
Trust Company with the KnickerbOcker's
stamp on the back showing that Cornelius
w. Van Voorhis was the payee. President
Hanson called Van Voorhis on the carpet.
The secretary-treasurer admitted drawing
the checks to his own order, but said that
he had got the money from the Knicker-
booker Trust Company and had paid the
loan due the Central Trust Company. Presi-
dent Hanson promptly convinced him that
he hadn't. Then Van Voorhis, the COM
pany's representatives say, broke down and
confessed that he had taken the money for
his own uses, depositing the money to his
private account at the Kniokerbocker
Trust and drawing on IL heavily from time
TO time to gamble In Wall Street and to
plunge at roulette. President Hanson
asked him II there was anything left. He
said he had an equity in stocks he had pur-
chased and a deposit Of slO,O 900 remaining
at the Knickerbocker Trust Company.
President Hanson believed Van Voorhis
was telling the truth and instead Of having
him arrested then decided to give him a
chance to make good whatever he could.
II was early in the afternoon. Van Voorhis
said that if the president would go with him
to the Kniclkerbocker Trust, or make an
engagement to meet him there in a short
time, he would produce his private accounts
and show exactly where the money went
and how much was left. Mr.. Hanson had
enough faith in Van Voorhis to let him walk
out OF the Office.
Van Voorhis went straight to the Knicker-
booker Trust Company and drew out s42 1000,
according TO Herbert A. Heyn and George
II. CoVington, the company's attorneys.
They didn't discover that, however, until
several months of difficult investigation.
Then he put the company in the way Of
getting back $50 900 worth OF securities that
he had remaining to his account with his
Wall Street brokers and 4 1000 that he left
In the Knickerbocker Trust Company. He
asserted with a show OF frsnkness that
there was not a cent remaining.
Meanwhile investigation had shown that
Van Voorhis had distracted fourteen first
mortgage bonds Of the railway company,
worth par. or 81, 900 all told before he made
his 500, 600 coup with the checks. He
had borrowed SO, 900 from the trust COM
pany, giving the fourteen bonds as security.
The money, Vanl Voorhis said, went with
the proceeds of the checks-in Wall Street
speculation and in crude methods Of
gambling.
The $40, 900 that he had remaining TO his
account in the bank did US no good, F" said
lawyer Covington last night, because we
drew IL out with one hand and had to pay
tt back with the other to get possession OF
our bonds"
After part restitution had been made
the Havana Electric Railway Company put
- " -