| Notes |
- . 1898 Feb 3 - San Franciso Mining Scheme.
AMATEUR DETECTIVE McCarthy, Blacksmith Unearths an Alleged Gold Brick Scheme.
Captain Bohen Will Investigate the Serious Charges Made.
Patients With Klondike Fever Warned Against a Local Corporation.
A TELLTALE CERTIFICATE. The First National Bank's Name Used Without Consent - Ten Men Now Happy:(Drawing of John McCarthy, the blacksmith detective is a man with a mustache, hat, vest, leather apron, he leans on the hammer in his hand.)
John H. McCarthy, the blacksmith detective. That sounds well as a headIng for a dime novel & would delight the average youth; but if subsequent developments Justify the title there will be many whose minds are turned Klondikewise to whose ears the words will sound as a strain of the Sweetest music. In fact, McCarthy's detective work concerns a corporation which has gone into the mining business on a large scale.
As a consequence he asserts that the Alaska Electric Exploration & Mining Company, with offices on the third floor of the Mills building, is not a bona flde organization so far as integrity of purpose Is concerned & after hearing his tale Captain Bohen, the head of the local detective force, agrees with him. The officers of the company are:
E. B. Hore, president; C. G. Cleary, vice-president; C. V. Lodge, secretary; F. A. Berlin, attorney. The First National Bank is represented In its circulars as the treasurer, although this claims forms one of the main features of the story. Eugene McGrath is the mining engineer.
"Captain," declared McCarthy in an excited tone, as he walked into Bohen's office yesterday, "I have been offered a gold brick by a supposed Klondike company & I want to show them fellows up." He was told to g o ahead & related his story as follows:
"A few days ago, as I was returning here from Los Gatos, I met a man named J. Withey, who says he is general agent for this Alaska Electric Exploration & Mining Company. He seemed to be a pretty nice man & when he learned that I contemplated going to the Klondike he said I was the very man he had been looking for opened up his heart, gave me his card & expounded a regular gold brick tale of the company he Is connected with. Of course, I didn't know that at the time. I told him I could see some of my friends who Intended to go as well as I did. This was on January 7.
"I saw the boy & told them what I had learned & they told me to go down to the office & see Withey. There were 9 of them, Daniel Denihey, Mr. Elson, Dr. Donnelly, Thomas Crowell, Mr. Maloney of the Southern Pacific Railroad, Pat McCue, a brother of Neill Johnson, the blacksmith & two others my nephew, Mr. Crowell, had brought in. So I went down to the office & found these men all fitted up in fine style, a big safe In the room & a lot of other things to take the eye. I had a talk with them & learned that I would get $25 a day working at my trade & that the other men would also get paid well for whatever they did.
"Wlthey said we would each have to pay $500 & that they would have probably 65 men In the whole party They were going to have a deep-water steamer & a boat to go up the Yukon, a dredger to swoop gold out of the water with & a lot of other things, as well as running several stores & letting the steamer stay In the Ice In winter & be fitted up for lodgers at the rate of $5 a day. When I heard all this, says Ito myself: 'McCarthy, you've struck a bonanza, but you want to go slow just the same.'
"You see, I didn't notice then, but It comes to my mind now, that every time I went down there was a whispering & one man would always go out & then In a little while a lot of men would drop In & want to go In on the scheme. Then they would talk of the arrangements they were making for a vessel In the East & that 200 men, all paid up, were coming out with It.
"Well, the first thing I does Is to go down to the bank & there I found that the men had no account there & that it was probably a scheme. They said they had inquiries from all over the country about the company. Now Withey had told me they had $10,000 in the First National Bank & that 36 men had paid up, but last Sunday when I was talking to Lodge alone he told me they had only $1000 in the bank. So I pretended to Withey that the others would not come in unless they saw something substantial done. Then I wrote him a letter & sent It down by a boy saying that if he would let me have my 500 shares the others could probably be induced to come in. Here Is the reply I get," & McCarthy exhibited a letter reading as follows:
. 1898 Feb 1, Thrus. SAN FRANCISCO, Dear Friend Mack: Your note received & will do as 1 said I would. This is between you & I, of course. It is no one's biz how you get it. Now, Mack, do your best, & you will always find me your true friend. Yours very truly, HARRY J. WITHEY, General Agent.
Accompanying this letter was a certificate for 500 shares in the company, which McCarthy says he was expected to show the others In order to get them to "plank down the dough." McCarthy then wanted to have everybody connected with the company arrested, but upon the advice of
an attorney that nothing could be done unless it could be proved that some body had actually paid money Jn, this was considered premature & a detective was detailed on the case. James K. Lynch, cashier of the First National Bank, asserts that the in situation has never been notified of being elected treasurer for the Alaska Electric Exploration & Mining Co. & has no account with them. He knew one or 2 of the men by reputation only & had always considered them good citizens. "We have received two or 3 Inquiries from local residents about them," he said, "& one came from Montana. They have no right to use our name on their billheads without first getting our consent. It appears to me to be done for the purpose of backing up their company with the name of a reputable concern."McCarthy, the complainant & amateur detective, Is a brother of the famous "White Hat" McCarthy & is engaged in blacksmithing at 22 Golden Gate avenue. He asserts that he had a "tough job" to keep Denihey from Joining without any investigation & that if Denihey had not confidence In his friend on account of the fact that he had been elected to the Assembly in 18S8 from the 39 District he would surely have lost his money.
Ref: The San Francisco Call Newspaper.
Obituary
. 1890 Jan 27 - AA Wood, Fred Dunbar & J J Withey are wrestling with la grippe.
Ref: Riverside Daily Press. - - -
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1870 - 1949 (78 years)