The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-07-27
In ON this MINING VENTURE?
or HAS WILLIAMSBURG GOT 1T
ALL To ITSELF

A Lot OF People Over There. Including
Tollers and CIergymen. Sue the FIN
horn Mining and MIXING Co., which Was
BACK ID BY Well known Business Men.
A good many Williamsburg people who
fully expected at one time to get rich from
dividends on their stock In the Elkhorn
Mining and Milling Company are saving
their pennies nowadays to pay the ex-
penses OF a suit that has been brought In
their behalf in the Supreme Court. Brook
lyn. against the directors Of the company
The suit is for an accounting and the re-
oovery Of money alleged TO AVE been
diverted. The defendants are among the
best known business men of Williamsburg,
including Louis Beer. the wealthy real
estate broker; Nathan Levy. head Of the
Wholesale meat house Of that name; Jacob
N. Herrle. tea merchant; Theodore Yonkers,
Louis Fink and Ernest W. Morche. Charges
of fraud. conspiracy and deceit are made
in the complaint. The facts also have been
laid before District Attorney Clarke of
Brooklyn.
The Elkhorn Mining and Milling Com
pany was organized under the laws of
Arizona in 1908. with a capital stock Of 81 .2S0.-
900, par 81 a share. Before the company
was incorporated Jacob N. Herrle had
acquired from one John Klaes. Jr., thirteen
alleged gold mining claims in Buena Vista.
Cal. agreeing to pay Klaes $40 900 in cash
and $4,000 of the stock Of any corpora
ton that might be formed to operate the
property.
According to the complaint the claims
and other property. If any, were of little or
no value; certainly not worth more than the
am no0 - ~,ah KnaUtnn 1hat thu cIaipna
were worth the defendants. il is alleged.
conspired together TO form a corporation
for the purchase OF Herrle's rights. They
voted all except 443, $50 shares Of the stock
to him and put the balance in the treasury.
with the understanding that the $40 900
in cash was to be paid from the proceeds
Of the sale OF that stock
The complaint charges that the stock
which Herrle got, with Klaes's 10000
shares deducted, was to be distributed
among the defendants OF the COMPANY
without any consideration or return there
for. This plan, however, was not carried
out The books show, so the complaint
alleges, that 81 800 shares were issued to
variou persons and charged against Herrle.
and for these the company has never re-
ceived any consideration.
When the corporation machinery had
been perfected and the company had
ODentO an OWCe IN tnt w ludII1bDuTK lTueJ
Company Building, on Broadway, the
directors began to let the golden secret
out a few links. As MIR. Levy said last
night, they certainly thought IL was a
good sNcd thing fIissd and .I PASSED ss1.i i along w GRiy to
burg made the thing a little family affair.
No outside Brooklynite got even a look in.
Everybody down in Williamsburg knew
Levy the meat man, and Beer who sold
houses by the score. II the EIkhorn was
good enough for them it was good enough
for anybody.
The Williamsburg clergy got in early.
Tn late Rev. Father Francis Pauletighi,
pastor Of the Roman Catholic Church OF
the Annunciation. North Fifth and Second
streets. invested 1000. representing the
savings OF q lifetime. h Rev Father
j.. B. Whitman, another Roman Catholic
clergyman, got the good word from one
of his director friends. n he put in g. 900.
/ Father Whitman is not inclined to take
a very charitable view OF the proposition
why said he Yesterday. there was
misrepresentation all the way through.
We were led to believe that the company
would be paying dividends in a reasonable
length Of time"
II is estimated that Williamsburg people
paid between $50, 200 and 800. 600 into the
The complaint in the suit charges that
the directors got out a prospectus, cir
culated literature and hired agents 20 sell
the stock. All tnese expenses, II 10 charged,
were paid out Of the assets Of the company.
The stock at first was sold for so cents
a share. Then the price was boosted to
par. The complaint charges that the
directors sold a large number Of shares
to themselves; that thereafter they in
creased the price and reaped a profit. IL
is said that the price paid by the directors
for stock was so cents a share. The COM
plant charges further that persons were
induced TO purchase the stock through
| representations made by the defendants
or their agents that they lthe ~purchasers)
we're dealing directly with the ompany
and that the money paid in was TO be
turned into the company's treasury.
such REP presentations" says the COM
plant, were false and known to be false
when made"
Things ran along in, the impair with n
d always in sight. bur never arriving
until 1905, when the directors met and voted
to merge with the Buena Vista Refining
and Smelling Company. All the Flkhorn's
anasta XsrD IN he ftirpad ,r,v 40 ali.