Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 102, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1908 — FOUNTAIN PARK PAYS ITS WAY. [ARTICLE]

FOUNTAIN PARK PAYS ITS WAY.

This Year’s Business Disproves Theory That Park Helped Wreck the Parker Bank.

It was with considerable apprehension that the directors of the Fountain Park Association took hold of the matter, this year. It had previously -been a Robert Parker affair, and it was uncertain whether it could be made to win out in the face of his recent failure. But it was undertaken in a thoroughly businesslike manner and the result is that it has not only paid out and gives evidence ot a substantial jalance, but it has demonstrated that people like ’it and that even greater success may be attained in future, years. It is understood that the present managers have decided that it was not possible for Mr. Parker to have lost much money in Fountain Park, as it is now believed that he made it pay handsomely each year. It has been reported that the talent does not cost nearly so much as he represented that it did, and the receipts were probably greater than he reported them to be. As Mr. Parker had a very lax way about keeping his■ Fountain Park business record, as he also had in keeping the books of the bank, it will never be known just what he did accomplish in the park management. All of the dire tors had explicit confidence in him, as did of his bank depositors, and he was not required to make reports. Following the failure of the bank people indulged in a great amount of speculation as to what could have become of the money, as Mr. Parker

was not regarded as a man of" extravagant habits, either personally or with his family. It was generally considered that Fountain Park- had been an expensive thing for him and some believed his losses there to be several thousand dollars. Now that it is decided that instead of losing money in’the park he had annually made considerable out of it, the mystery as to where the depositors’ money went deepens, and also does the completely shrouded character of the man in whom every one had the utmost confidence. Unless Robert Parker some time speaks and tells where the money went it is probable that the mystery will never be solved.But it was gone, and it is still I thought the the depositors in the bank will not receive more than 10 or . 12 cents on the dollar. { The stockholders of Fountain Park ( will probably negotiate with Trustee | Cheadle for the purchase of the Park-. er interests in the park, and will at | 1 once set about the task of planning i the 1909 meeting. Rensselaer people have certainly . j been great patrons of the park and if | there was railroad communications between here and the park the attendance,it is safe to say .would be multi- [ plied many times, and persons from ( north of Rensselaer could also attend, j If the Infield interurban could be , built it would mean more than twi e the business for the park that it now . enjoys.