In the preceding chapter I called attention to some of the atrociously
false statements that were published on the day following the raid. I
gave only an inkling. The newspapers declared that Ely Central had cost
the Scheftels company 5 cents per share, that the capital stock was
over-issued, and that the property was worthless. Jumbo Extension,
which has since distributed $95,000 in dividends to its stockholders,
has still a treasury reserve of $100,000 and is selling to-day in the
markets at a share valuation of about one-quarter of a million dollars
for the property, was also described as a "fake stock." Rawhide
Coalition, which has produced upward of $400,000 in bullion, and which
is to-day recognized as one of the substantial gold mines of the Far
West, was labeled plain junk. Bovard, which represented an investment
of nearly $100,000 for property account and mine development and which
had been promoted at 10 cents per share on representations that it was
a "prospect," was stated to be a raw steal.
The Scheftels corporation was said to have got away with millions of
dollars by selling "fake mining stocks." It was also stated that I had
profited to the extent of millions for my personal account. The
Scheftels mailing-list was described as a regulation "sucker list,"
notwithstanding the fact that the principal names that were on it were
stockholders in Guggenheim companies.
The ringleaders were pictured as myself--"a man with an awful
Past"--and the "notorious character," "Red Letter" Sullivan. Mr.
Sullivan was styled as the facile letter-writer who had addressed the
"suckers" and hypnotized them, principally widows and orphans, to
withdraw their money from the savings-banks and send it to the
Scheftels sharks. "Red Letter" Sullivan was also referred to as a man
with a "Past."
The true facts regarding Mr. Sullivan's connection with the Scheftels
company were these: A few months before, he had applied for a position.
He was then employed as manager of a Boston stock-brokerage office. He
was awarded the job of time-clerk in the stenographers' department.
His job, while employed with the Scheftels company, was to see that the
stenographers reported on time, did their work properly and were not
paid for any services they did not render. He had little or nothing
whatever to do with the correspondence department. He never dictated
any answers to letters received by the Scheftels company. Never was he
employed in an executive capacity by the Scheftels company. We knew
little or nothing of the "Red Letter" title with which he had been
decorated. The first we learned of it was in the newspapers after the
raid. Investigation revealed that ten years before, while a broker in
Chicago, he had issued a weekly market letter which was printed on red
paper.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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