Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 178, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1911 — Eugene Purtelle Falls o Get Backing And Threatens to Take Road Over Another Route. [ARTICLE]

Eugene Purtelle Falls o Get Backing And Threatens to Take Road Over Another Route.

Rensselaer people did not make up the 6500 which Eugene Purtelle. tne railroad promoter, wanted, and Mr. Fvrtelle left the city this Saturday morning on the 10:05 train. Before going he said that he was disgusted with the place and that he had realized for some time that he was making a fool of himself by trying to enthuse the people here. He had expected to go to Goodland this morning to try to get the people there to take up his project, but he did not go, owing to the fact that the automobile he had engaged became disabled. Mr. Purtelle should realize that his failure to receive support here is altogether his own fault. He has taken no steps to secure for himself the confidence of the people and the solicitors found the lack of confidence in hljn the cause of refusal to give aid to the project along the lines undertaken Friday. Purtelle gave checks aggregating 6300 or 6400 in payment for labor and other things some two weeks ago and these checks were not paid by his Hammond bank because he had no funds deposited there. Some of the men who are holding the checks threaten to send Purtelle over the road if they are not made good. At Thayer work has been suspended and a Hammond newspaper states that the foreign laborers came there with a check for $345 and there were no funds to Purtelle’s credit. Purtelle tells an unlikely story about his backing refusing to pay the claims because he was pot receiving the local support he should. He has refused to give any friend or advisor reason to believe that he has any financial backing.

He is said to have sold to a woman near Roselawn SSOO worth of stock in the road and to have received that amount in cash; He has made a few other small sales and the aggregate of these is probably about all the money that has been spent at Rensselaer and in Newton county. A large number of people think that in voting the subsidy in Marion township and in granting the franchise in Rensselaer, and helping secure the right-of-way the people have done about all that is necessary and until Purtelle makes good ou a number of his promises the community is under no obligations whatever to him, and should not build up false hopes of getting a railroad. The Republican is for the railroad tooth and toenail, as it always has been, but it does pot believe in encouraging the public to confidence in a man it personally distrusts and the public knows that SSOO would not be a drop in the bucket toward building

an interurban railroad. That some determined man with a small amount of money and a high regard for truthfulness and honesty might build the road we have always believed, but we do not believe that Purtello has the qualities that will get very far In railroad building.