New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-01-12
STOCK PLOT WENT DEEP
Continued from FIRST page.

have got hold Of It and disposed OF II DIS SlOIN
of the new company. Armed with one Of these
old certificates and the letter from Mr. FRANK
ln" Seton went to his friend, MI 1hoIlaS Vi
the Hamilton company
Mr. Thomas at once proceeded to turn out five
hundred certificates on Seton's order. making
such alterations from the sample as Seton cdlleu
for SO obliging was he. according to the suolE
subsequently told to the Norfolk and western OF
6ciaIs by the officers of the firm, that ne ola
the work himself, and left off the name OF the
banknote company from the certihcates' Inc
officers of the company were not Informed OF the
order and knew nothing Of it until after seton
had got some of the stock on the market.
FIRST EXPERIMENT UNSUCCESSFUL
The stock was printed in two books of 25O
certificates each the entire lot, in genuine stock
having par value of S5.000,0O0 and market
value of something like $4,300,0O0-
Having got the stock Seton experimental
11nsuccessfuly on Barnard & Clark, as has oeen
told in The Tribune, and then went to Cleve-
land where he managed to get rid of one GER
tificate William Duke, of the brokerage mousse
through which Seton operated in Cleveland, ac-
cording to a dispatch received last night from
that city, believes that it was Seton himself
who transacted the business there. This theory
is upheld by the fact that at the time the sup
posed E /. Green, of Pittsburg. was in Cleve-
land Seton was not in New-Yorll, while he was
here before and after the appearance of Green
in the West Mr.. Duke has been asked to come
TO New-York and If possible identify Seton or
Humphreys as the man who offered the stock
to him.
The fact of the forgery became public soon
after the sale of the stock in Cleveland. Last
Monday. when the directors of the Hamilton
company we're having a regular meeting. the
1o1Io rs he tom
ton and they were Informed by Mr.. Thomas
that the company had made some Norfolk and
Western certificates.
A hasty examination of the books was made.
and with the Seton letter, the copy Of the order
and some samples of the stock, they adjourned
to the offices of their counsel, Harmon S. Graves
of Lester, Graves 8 Miles, No. q Pine-st.
Henry s Fink, chairman Of the board of
directors of the railroad, and a. J. Hemphill
Of the Guaranty Trust Company, the transfer
agent for the stock. were sent for by telephone
and the whole case was laid before them.
Among the evidence was the Franklin let
ter. an order which called for twenty certificates
to be made with the Metropolitan Trust Com
pany as transfer agents, six with the Atlantic
Trust Company as transfer agents, and ten with
the Guaranty Trust Company the agents
IN every. case the Mercantile Trust was 70 be
registrar This is one of the things which is
said to show the accurate knowledge with which
Seton worked The Metropolitan Trust was
formerly transfer agent for the Norfolk and
western Subsequently 1t was absorbed by the
Atlantic Trust. and that company became the
transfer agent.
Last March the Guaranty Trust was made
agent The Mercantile Trust has been registrar
through all these wanderings. The sample stock
shown had the name of the Hamilton Bank Note
Engraving and Printing Company in the border,
but so faint was the imprint that it could be de-
ciphered only with a niscroscope. The rules Of
the Stock Exchange require that the name of
the manufacturing firm shall be outside of the
border and plainly printed.
The members Of the firm disclaimed all
sponsibility for the whole business and put it
UP to Thomas. They laid the whole onus of the
blame on him and said that he had taken the
order and carried it out, that they had never
even known that such stock had been made by
their company until he had told them about 1t
that day According to them. he ntho-
grapher and had done the actual work Of making
the stones himself They could not explain why
he should go to such pains. did they attempt
to.
The railroad officials and Mr.. Hemphill. Of the
Guaranty Trust, were angry. Mr.. Hemphill
made their feeling very plain. He asked the
officers Of the Hamilton company If they did
business.
did you think of calling up the Norfolk and
Western Railway Company" he asked. and
finding out from them if the order genuine?
Did YOU make any inquiry to the identity
Of this Franklin? Did you ever hear of COM
pany having gross annual earnings of S3O,UH,OOO
having its securities Autographed"
The Hamilton officials could make no reply.
Finally Mr. Graves said that they did not know
ANYTHING about the job; Mr.. Thomas was the
manager and he did the work himself.
Mr. Graves was asked yesterday If he did not
think il was a remarkable thing that the Ham
iIton company should have got out the certif-
Gates on no better authority than the letter that
Seton presented.
HAMILTON CoMPANY's STATEMENT
"Oh, I don't know" he replied Things like
that are done down here every day"
Harmon s Graves, of the law firm of Lester.
Graves & Miles. of No. % Pine St. which firm
is counsel for the Hamilton Bank Note Com
pany made the following statement yesterday
ilton Bark Note, Engraving and Printing Com
pany of No. 80 Gold-st., New York City,
learned that bogus certificates of stock of the
Norfolk and Western Railway Company had
been used and at o'clock III the after
noon of that day they were informed by one of
the employees of their company that the COM
pany had made some stock certificates for the
Norfolk and Western Railway Company in
August 1905.
A thorough investigation was at once made,
and ii was found that two stock books, each
containing two hundred and fifty certificates of
common stock of the railway company, had
been Autographed and delivered 10 c. Augustus
Seton & Co. at No 40 Exchange Place New
York City, on August Path, 1905. 1t learned
that the order for these certificates was given
by Seton, who presented letter authorizing
him TO have the certificates made for the rain
way company which letter purported TO come