Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1887 — A NAPOLEONIC SWINDLE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A NAPOLEONIC SWINDLE.

Henry S. Ives Said to Have. Fraudulently Issued Railroad Stock. Nine Million Dollars’ Worth of Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Preferred Put Afloat. [New York special.] Nine million dollars is in jeopardy, and Ives <fc Co. are again before the courts. But this time Wall street’s latest “Napoleon of Finance” must answer a more seriouscharge than making away with cash-books and ledgers. It is that of deliberately swindling the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton stockholders out of $9,000,000. Ives’ Career. We present herewith a faithful portrait of the young “Napoleon of Finance” who has created such a flurry in Eastern financial circles. The story of his wonderful career reads like a romance. Nothing like it has ever appeared in the history of finance, and a generation later it will be one of the greatest reminiscences of the Wall Btreet of the past. Bom in Litchfield, Ct.,.

the son of an internal revenue officer, he went to New York eight years ago, then, only 20 years of age, and acted as a bellboy for Harper Brothers. He ran errands, took visitors over the building, and deemed himself happy, no doubt, when he became assistant advertising solicitor and when he got a salary of $lO a week. He stayed with Harpers three years, and left them to take a clerkship in a broker’s office in Wall street. He left this broker for another, became mixed up in one or two sharp speculations, and three years ago established a banking house of his own. His ideas were big. He dealt in millions and came within an aca of rivaling Jay Gould. The $lO a week bellboy of eight years ago, still under 30, now fails for from $15,000,000 to $20,000,1.00. Stephen Girard left only $7,500,000 as the accumulations of his lifelime. George Peabody, charities and all, did not reach $20,000,000, and the men. who are worth that amount to-day can be counted upon your fingers and toes. Still Ives failed for this much when only 28 years old. The beardless boy clerk deals with giay-headed millionaires and outwits them.