Show CUII o HN IIRTIIRS ASSI GN I V Their Liabilities Aggregate Over a Hundred Thousand CAUSES OF THE FAILUEE The Estimated Assets Nearly Equal the Liabilities Biannual Kahn SInCe Assignee Ulr Louis Cohnfi Statement Dull Times and a Vicious Credit System the Causes The List ot Creditors The heaviest failure that has been recorded re-corded here for many years occurred yesterday yes-terday morning when the firm of Cohn Brothers dry goods merchants went to the wall The assignment was a complete com-plete surprise the general public considering con-sidering the house one of the most solid in the city and hence when the announcement an-nouncement came it created a big sensation sensa-tion in business circles The store on Main street opened as usual yesterday mornine and shortly afterwards the employees were paid up to date and informed of the condition of affairs af-fairs Then the deed of assignment to Emanuel Kahn was executed and at 10 oclock the following note was posted on the front door Closed for the purpose oi taking inventory Due notice wU be given when open for business busi-ness EMANUEL KAHN Assignee Then Mr Kahn took possession of the place and put the clerks at work taking an inventory of the stock ASSETS AND LIABILITIES The liabilities as shown by the deed of assignment aggregate nearly 120000 All of the local creditors whose claims aggregate over 34 000 are preferred Unti the inventory of stock is completed com-pleted it will be impossible to learn the assets It is understood that the stock is estimated by the firm to be worth about 100000 I it inventories this amount the book accounts ought to bring the total assets almost up to the liabilities THE CREDITORS Following is a complete list of the preferred pre-ferred creditors Estate of S Lesser promissory note with interest hu 8400000 MrsH Liopman promissory note with Interest 5000 00 u uu uu uu 5OO O P Schwartz promissory notes with interest in-terest 190000 E Eiseman promissory note with interest in-terest h 500000 Mrs Isidor Morris promissory note with interest u 900 00 Elizabeth Taylor with interest 2JOO 0 Goldenberg Bros C two promissory notes with interest 2312 15 McCornick Li Co overdraft with interest in-terest 5550 71 55071 Salt Lake Valley Loan and Trust Co three promissory notes with interest 3000 0 Simon Bros with Intrtstu 215 3 F Auerbach Uros for rent 20000 Tribune Publishing company 241 62 Herald Publishing company l8 25 Deseret News company 95 0 The unpreferred creditors include 107 wholesale dry goods firms in eastern cities and San Francisco The heaviest outside creditor is the H B Claim company of New York whose claims aggregate 27 500 The other claims are for much smaller amounts CATTSLS OF THE FAILURE A HERALD reporter called upon Mr Louis Cohn yesterday afternoon in order to ascertain further particulars When asked what had forced the assignment as-signment Mr Cohn replied Several causes contributed to it In the first place business has been dull for a longtime long-time and merchants have been forced to turn their goods without making profit This has demoralized the market Then the credit system 6f the city is a most vicious vic-ious one and collections have been bad While we were contending against these difficulties our expenses went on We employed about forty hands and paid out 500 a week in wages In addition to that there was rent insurance and light besides be-sides our personal expenses The merchants mer-chants here have been selling without a profit for a long time The people dont realize that perhaps but it is true Our expenses were not too heavy i business had been goodS good-S The liabilities foot up about 5120000 can you estimate the amount of the assets as-sets Not at present but they are also large Consisting of what Of the stock and book accounts t Can you not give an estimate of what they will aggregate No that will not be known until the assignee has completed the inventory 1 Do you exoect to be able to resume business again Well we hope to but whether or not we will be able to remains to be seen We have received offers of assistance from several sources and some of them were entirely unexpected In view of this we may be able to resume PIONEER MERCHANTS Louis and Alex Cohn are among the old time merchants of this city They engaged in business here early in the 60s and this is their second failure The first assignment was made about 1875 but the brothers were able to settle satisfactorily satisfac-torily with their creditors and resumed business in the present location in 1881 The house soon took its place among the leading establishments of Salt Lake and the business increased to such an extent that some years ago the store was enlarged en-larged On Jan 1 1892 Cohn Bros gave their assets as 150000 of which 107000 was in stock and 17503 in book accounts The real estate owned by them consisted of their homes valued at 20000 which will be exempt Mr Kahn states that as soon as he completes the inventory and learns just where he stands he will commence selling the stock I was rumored yesterday that the H B Claflin company of New York which is the heaviest creditor would contest the assignment but at the office of W H Dickson who is the attorney for the Clafiin company a HERALD reporter was informed that no instructions had been received regarding the matter |