Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-08-31
PROMOTER SELLS
CITY A JUNK Pile
How Oklahoma Boosters, Here
Two Years Ago, Were Taken
in By Stranger.
PUTS UP $4,000 BONUS
Closes Contact for Removal From
East of Plant of Watch and
Clock Mandatory.

Two years ago it will be remember
ed that the Tulsa Commercial club Wis
ited Rock Island advertising the Ok
lahoma town, and made quite a hit
with its demonstration. Now comes
a bit of interesting information from
there to the effect that the town
bought a glittering gold brick which
cost the city $4,000, in return for
| which the town has on its hands a
pile of junk which formerly was ma.
chinery. The city supposed it was
getting watch and clock factory.
Here is the dispatch:
Oklahoma City, Okla, Aug. 25.-Ok-
lahoma's glittering gold brick record
has reached a scintillating climax with
| city as the victim and a factory as
| the brick.
One day businesslike man appear
ed at the Tulsa Commercial club and
presented a card showing himself to
be the representative of well known
eastern watch and cNeSk company. He
said he was enroute to Oklahoma City
and Dallas to look for a location for
a watch and clock factory to be oper-
ated as a branch by his company He
had no intention of stopping at Tulsa
until he made the acquaintance of
some Tulsa boosters" and interested
by their talk of cheap power and ship
ping facilities, concluded to stop and
have a '1ookin" anyway. :.
Tulsa took the stranger for a ride1
over the city and through the gas
fields. He was pleased and wired his
company.
Makes Liberal" Proposal.
The company approved and the rep
resentative made his propositions
liberal one. He would make use of
certain abandoned factory building
in the suburbs as temporary factory. |
He was to have the privilege of build |
ing power plant and connecting the
power with the temporary factory
In addition to this he was to re-
ceive a bonus of $4,000 in cash, $15,.
900 when the machinery was all at
the depot ready to be unloaded and |
$4,000 when the plant was complete |
and running full force.
1t looked all right to Tulsa and the |
contract was drawn and signed. One |
stipulation the representative made |
was that there was to be no publicity |
Of the matter Secrecy was readily |
pledged and the representative went |
back to New England to have the ma |
chinery shipped.
"Machinery' Arrives.
In due time the Commercial club |
was notified by a local railroad that |
two carloads of watch and clock ma. |
chinery was at the depot, consigned |
to the Tulsa Commercial club On the |
next train the representative ap-
peared.
The first thing was a visit to the |
building to be occupied, followed by |
great howl from the representative /
because 1t was not cleaned up. A |
gang was set at work forthwith to |
clean up and repair the place. No |
machinery should be moved until that /
building was spick and span to re-
ceive it. Then contracts were made
with transfer companies to unload and
haul the machinery under the super
vision of his construction manager.
who would arrive with a corps of as
sistants. In the meantime another
car of machinery had arrived. A con-
tract was made with a local building
concern to build the power house just
as soon as possible-rush orders. In
the meantime four more cars, each
with bill of lading as long as a tick
er tape with names of machines never
heard of by the Tulsans, Tulsa
boosters" were aglow, and when the
representative asked for his SIS, 900 so
he could get off to st. Louis that night
and buy his power plant and have it
rushed through, they all got busy and
by night gave him the money.
Sale of a "GoId Brick"
For the next two days they were
kept encouraged by the reception of
long telegraph messages instructing
as to what should be done about a
lot of things. Then the kilograms
stopped. Later the seven cars were
found to contain broken, rusty ma
chinery and scrap iron from ST. Louis
junk piles.
Needless to say, the promoter"
never came back. They never do.