MORE TIME FOR KEELY. THE MOTOR MAN GRANTED TWO MONTHS TO COMPLETE HIS INVENTION.
PHILADELPHIA, Penn., Dec. 12.—There was a meeting of the stockholders of the Keely Motor Company at the office of the corporation this morning. A general air of cheerfulness and good humor prevailed, and several groups, composed of corpulent and comfortable-looking shareholders, cracked jokes and made bad puns. A secret meeting of the Board of Directors. was first held, after which the stockholders were called to order and C. K. Dutton was invited to preside. President Randall announced that the Board of Directors had prepared no printed or written report.
”We have several reasons for this,” he said, ‘‘the principal cause being that any report at this” time may do Mr. Keely great injustice. Twelve months have elapsed since our last meeting, and although great progress has been made, yet Mr. Keely has made no advance which at this time would be beneficial to the company’s interest to make public. He has met with great obstacles, both mechanical and domestic. For a year Mrs. Keely has been ill, her death occurring about one month ago. The mechanical obstacles
have been very many, and some of them almost insurmountable.” Mr. Randall then read a letter from the inventor, dated Dec. 4, which was listened to with breathless interest by the now excited stockholders. In his letter, after lamenting his many disappointments, he said: “You ask me for some statement as to the time when I shall get through. So often have I complied with such requests, and been self-deceived in doing so, incurring the blame as well as the disappointment of others and myself, that I deem it unsafe as well as unwise to risk a repetition of such a course. I will say, however, that I do not see why I may not fulfill your expectations within the next two months, and I would suggest that the meeting of stockholders be postponed to Feb. “1884.” President Randall then moved in accordance with the wishes of the inventor, that after the election of Directors for the ensuing year the meeting adjourn without further action until Feb. 01, 1884.
“You do not expect to adjourn this meeting simply with an election of Directors do you?” excitedly exclaimed Rowland F. Hill, jumping to his feet.
“That's all we intend to do,” quietly replied Mr. Randall.
“Then you intend inaugurating another year of the same character as the present one,” said Stockholder Hill. “I don't see why we should postpone this business for two months. We want to see where we are drifting to and what has been done with the money we have been spending so lavishly of late.”
Mr. Randall, in an evident desire to pour oil upon the troubled waters, announced that upon the adjournment, any stockholder could obtain a knowledge of the condition of the finances of the company by an examination of the Treasurer's books. Radcliffe Baldwin, one of the Directors, asserted that if, at the end of the two months’ postponement, Mr. Keely offered nothing definite, then the stockholders could take Proper measures for getting the property out of his hands.
“During the next 60 days we propose to give Mr. Keely nothing,” said President Randall; “our only expenses will be the maintenance of the New York and Philadelphia offices.”
The following Directors were elected for the year 1884: Joseph Annin, Radcliffe Baldwin, George B. Collier, A. R. Eddy, Frank G. Green, E. J. Randall, and John J. Smith.

Published: December 13, 1883
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