Through an advance to him, on deposit, made in his bank by Stener at a time when the stock of the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Street line was at a low ebb, he had managed to pick up fifty-one per cent.

of the stock for himself and Stener, by virtue of which he was able to do as he pleased with the road.
To accomplish this, however, he had resorted to some very "peculiar" methods, as they afterward came to be termed in financial circles, to get this stock at his own valuation.

Through agents he caused suits for damages to be brought against the company for non-payment of interest due.

A little stock in the hands of a hireling, a request made to a court of record to examine the books of the company in order to determine whether a receivership were not advisable, a simultaneous attack in the stock market, selling at three, five, seven, and ten points off, brought the frightened stockholders into the market with their holdings.

The banks considered the line a poor risk, and called their loans in connection with it.