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Show PROMOTER IS IN DEEPJROUBLE Salt Lake. April 30 A sidelight on the career of C. W, French, promoter, pro-moter, v. ho was in Salt Lake Citv j last fall endeavoring to interest capital capi-tal in the Pacific Steel company, and I who left with the Hotel Utah two drafts, for $2600, In payment of hla account, is given In the San Diego Union of recent date. The two drafts which French cashed cash-ed at the hotel were not honored by the people on whom they were drawn and French was arrested in Ixs Ango-Ics, Ango-Ics, and after a considerable amount of red tape had been unwound, Governor Gov-ernor Johnson of California honored a requisition for the man's return to Utah French then went to Arizona, where the same proceeding was gone through with only Governor Hunt decided de-cided that the Utah extradition papers pa-pers were faulty and French was released. re-leased. He later returned to California Cali-fornia and was arrested on the rendition ren-dition warrant that had been issued following the decision of the California Califor-nia executive. The supreme court of California, however, decided that the governor of that state had erred in honoring the requisition and the promoter went free. The Hotel Utah has charged off the $250U paid on the drafts to the profit and loss account of the house The San Diego Union story, which tells of a difficulty the promoter is now in In that city is a follows: "Like the fanciful tale of a novelist, novel-ist, laughable lb its extremes, amus-,ing amus-,ing and incomprehensible, was the story of the' operations of C. W. .French, the steel plant promoter, as it was unfolded in the courtroom of Judge Sloane yesterday, during the trial of the action of J. B Smith of this city to recover on two $2500 notes, which it is alleged that French stole from W. S Tevis. a San Francisco Fran-cisco millionaire. "From the testimony elicited yesterday yester-day it would appear that the profits of French during hlB operations on the Pacific coast would approximate $500,000, all of which was obtained on notes executed by wealthy people, and given him to back up his proposed pro-posed scheme. French was a man who talked in sums of million?, of dol lars. who wound big business inpn. bankers and capitalists about his fingers, fin-gers, extracted notes from them and apparently never had a dollar of his own. "As an example of his operations. E. Bartlett Webster of this city told of how French had mulcted him out of $10,000 in the twinkling of an eye. French began his work in San Diego ten ear6 ago, when he appeared hero with the glad tidings that he was to establish a $100,000,000 steel plant and build a railroad east. He was dined and wined and feted in re turn, but he never paid the bills. He went to Webster and on the. candid representation that he needed $10,000 immediately in the promotion of his 6teel plant and railroad enter prise was given Webster's note for that amount. It was to have been deposited in a local bank. In return French executed his note for $15,000 and turned over a block of stock In the steel corporation. "French, according to Webster, went to Loa Angeles, discounted the note at the National Bank of California Califor-nia there and put the proceeds In his pocket. A few days later, said Webster, Web-ster, he had the effrontery to come back and try to get another note. When Webster wrote to him Biking him to settle, ho says he received nn answer saying that French would have him arrested if he did not stop harassing him. "Under similar conditions and with the representation that the notes were to be used in the promotion of the steel plant and railroad enterprise, he obtained notes from other pronr-neni pronr-neni San Diegans, George W Mars ton was subpoenaed to tell his storv to the court yesterday, but the sher iff was unable to find him, as Mars ton Is out of the City "By Identically the same schema, altered in its details to fit the emergencies. emer-gencies. French duped the wiliest financiers and the shrewdest bankers on the Pacific coast. "In addition to the names of former President McKinley, Mark Hanna, Harrison Grey Otis and U. S. Grant Jr., which were brought into the case Thursday, the name of Charles M Schwab, steel magnate and associate of Andrew Carnegie, and the late J Pierpont Morgan, entered the record yesterday. French used indiscrim inately the names of the big men of the country, according to the testimony, testimo-ny, and dazzled the efs of the financiers finan-ciers of the coas' with his accounts of the friendship and backing of he greatest financiers in the world "A large part of yesterday was opent in reading depositions of former associates as-sociates of French in San Francisco. The story of how Tevls tried to trap French In New York and failed was also brought out. TevtB Bent repre tentative! to French to say that ho would discount the notes at a certain New York bank, figuring on getting the notes in his possession and destroying de-stroying them "French, however, saw the bait and went to Chicago, where he laughed at Tevls and discounted two ?5O0? notes with Goorge M. Reynolds, 9 banker of that city, and a man of national reputation Tevls claims that French stole forty notes totalling total-ling 1150,000 The notes upon which Smith Is now suing are two of these. "The testimony as to French's fraudulent operations are being al lowed In evidence in an effort to prove that he was known to be a fraud and that the San Diegans. to whom French o!d the notes on which Smith is now suiiiK, should have exercised greater caution before accepting them " |