The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1906-07-13

advertisement without his knowledge and
decided to Investigate. 1t didn't take
him long to reach the conclusion that the
North American Realty was proper
subject for his official attention. One
afternoon he descended on the company's
offices and attempted to arrest the entire
outfit. As he had no warrants. however,
this move failed. Carlton, Rowley and
Ware promptly fed the town. On De-
cember 12 the Grand Jury indicted them
and after thorough search of surround
ing towns, they were finally arrested.
On May 10, 1908, they pleaded not
guilty to an Indictment charging them
technically with misdemeanor. They
We're brought to trial on May 26, and
after listening to testimony for two days
the jury found them guilty, though it
added to its verdict a recommendation
of mercy. Ex-Judge Skinner, sitting in
the Essex Court of Sessions, sentenced
them to two years in state prison on
June /. Rowley and Ware both served
out their terfs. but Carlton was par
doned on December %, 1904
To show how convincing their scheme
was, it is only necessary to add that be-
fore he left prison Ware succeeded in
persuading the deputy warden that if its
business hadn't run foul of the law the
company would eventually have been as.e
to meet all its obligations.
No trace of Benton, or Carlton, had
been discovered up to yesterday after
noon. D. C. McClese, who is at work
experimenting the Strengthening out of
the Mutual Home Realty's books. said
that he had heard rumors to the effect
that Benton was still in the city. He
was inclined to discredit them. In ad
Gition to McClese, a certain boarding
house keeper in Bay Ridge would like
very much to discover Benton's where
abouts.
A meeting of the officers and directors
of the company has been called for the
near future, to devise means of increas-
ing the capital stock of the company.
The company is now capitalized at $780,
coo, very little of which has been paid
in, according to a statement attributed to
David Goldberg, its secretary and treas
urer. The outstanding contracts to date
aggregate nearly $1,O00,000 and the sup
ply of ready cash is said to be small
especially since the looting of the safe
on the night before Benton disappeared.
McClese reiterated his statement yes
terday that even though the books of the
concern were tangled, enough had been
discovered to warrant the assertion that
the company was on firm financial ba-
sis. One of the clerks in the office,
however, said that since the appearance
of the story regarding the disappearance
of Benton, many of the firms customers
seemed to have taken fright and that
the company had had to pay out large
sums of money to clients who called at
the offices and demanded their money
back.
| McClese asked that one or two correc-
| tions be made in his statement be made.
He said he had not intended to convey
the impression that young wmen had
been permitted to smoke in the office,
! either before or after his connection with
| the company. He had never seen any
women smoking there, he declared. He
also stated that the statement that he
| had been asked to take his present posi-
ion through Mr.. Peck, of Poughkeepsie,
was not exactly true. He had met Mr..
Goldberg through Mr.. Peck, he said, and
Mr.. Goldberg himself ahd engaged him.
He also wished to have it understoo
that the company always paid its advers-
ing bills promptly and that any bills
which he found in the office when he
took hold were merely current bills.
/