Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 72, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1914 — STORE GOES KERPLUNK. [ARTICLE]

STORE GOES KERPLUNK.

“Chicago Bargain House" in Hands of a Receiver—No Statement Yet of Condition. Considerable surprise was occasioned here Saturday night when a representative of the Central Trust Company of Chicago, came down on the milk train and closed up the store in the Makeever bank block, which has done business here under the name of the Chicago Bargain House. The store has been doing business here for about a year and was owned by Isadore Koffman ot Chicago, whose brother, Sol Koffman, has been in charge. Koffman owned one or two other stores in Chicago, and it was his failure up there that carried down the Rensselaer store. The store here has been doing a good business right along, and whether or not it was realy necessary for Koffman to go into the bankruptcy courts The Democrat is unable to state. No statement of the affairs of Koffman has been made public at this writing, and the receivers said Monday that they did not know the condition as it had just come to them Saturday. The procedings are in the federal court in Chicago. Young Koffman, who was in charge of the business here, never carried an account with any of the Rensselaer banks, and all the cash taken in was either taken by him to Chicago er sent there. He boarded at the Dunlap & Haskell boarding house, and left Rensselaer Saturday night, carrying, two suit cases containing his belongings and also took all the receipts of the week’s sales, it is understood. He left a few unpaid bills here, perhaps amounting to a couple of hundred dollars. The store was to soon undergo some extensive alterations and failure came as a genuine surprise to everyone. Quite a number of clerks, mostly ladies, were employed in the store, and they, of course, are now thrown out of a job. Just what will be done with the stock of goods has not been announced, but the man sent here to take charge, thinks they will be boxed tup and sent to Chicago. It really looks as though a studied effort had been made to beat everybody. The Democrat is caught for |69; the Republican for SSO, and none of the clerks were paid their last week's salaries, while the wholesalers are caught right and left, it Is said. It is not probable that the creditors will receive very much, although the clerks will probably get their pay in full, but will have to wait some time for it.