The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1866-06-20

VickSburg, Shreveport and Texas Railroad.
The Monroe correspondent of the New Orleans Bee
gives somewhat different account of the affairs Of
this road from that published by week before last
from the Monroe Inteligencer Our only aim in pub
fishing the following is to give publicity to the facts
bearing on this important work
A special term Of district court held last
week at Monroe for the purpose Of TRYING what IS
known as the great railroad Casa contest be-
tween Brannon & Co and Ludeng Co., the bid
ders at the sheriff 5 sale in February last at this
place. of the Nicksburg, Shreveport aud Texas rail-
road
The suit has been decided so far as the lower court
is concerned and Judgment rendered in favor of the
present possessor Messrs Ludeng and associates to
whom the road was knocked off at the second bidding
for fifty thousand dollars The road and its proper
ties including four hundred thousand of land
is well worth million of dollars and its present pos
SCISSORS will no doubt realise splendid fortune from
this lucky speculation. Creditors of the road who
have not far interfered, shonld leave them unmo-
lested which is not their intention Those purchasers
in their haste to be rch have forgotten that honesty
is the best policy always and that if the maxim that
the property of man or of corporation is the COM
mon pledge of all his creditors be a correct legal pro-
position they cannot il there be justice in the land,
be permitted to appropriate to their own use property
soemny set apart and obligated to repay moneys
borrowed to create that very property they cooy
claim to be theirs, by virtue of Judicial order.
The court of last is not likely to affirm and
perpetuae this great wrong will not be the first time
that appellate tribunals have upset the decisions of in
ferior Judges and administered a scahing rebuke TO
the grasping spirit Of souess spectators Between
Brannon & Co and Lndeling & Co. there is little or
no difference as to merit They were both seeking
an advantage at the expense Of absent and innocent
creditors The debt Of the road amounts to nine
hundred thousand dollars which is secured by first
/ mortgage on the entire property of the company.
/ Inb ie hold bv WilOWs and mi and
orphan children and by the SUGGESTIONS of inestate
persons whom the loss if it has to be borne, will
be severe These purchasers (Ludeng & Coz say the
mortgage above referred to wiped out and extln-
guished by the sale-that they have paid the price
bid $3.50 090) and that the road is now theirs. How
far will this sum 90 TO pay the debt? To the extent
of five and a halt cents on the dollar The iron on
the road is worth much than that to say nothing
of the franchises lands rights and other property.
But even this beggary per cenage has not been dis
tribued among the creditors and it may pertinenty
be asked what has become of it? That is of the
secrets known only to the intated but It's shrewdy
suspected that the bid paid in bonds Of the com
panv taken by the sheriff their face value, that
bondhoders on the spot obtain all that IS due them,
while those who unfortunate enough to reside i'll
distant lands, and who are ignorant Of the contcm-
plated sacrifice of their interest have to be satisfied
with five aud half per cent. or nothing. No court
of Justice can ever sanction inquitouS proceeding
1t NAV be asked what steps the president and dlrec
tors of the company took to prevent this sacrifice aud
TO protect the interests Of stockholders and of absent
creditors Those officers adopted no measures at all
to this end, because they did not intend to regard
those interests 1t their purpose that the road
should sell for its value They knew that the creditors
whose interest it that the property should bring
all it was worth, scattered over the whole coun
try and il Europe and could not possibly be co9nSan
Of the sale aud as faithful duciaies thought it fail
opportunity to obtain for themselves the property
they were in honor bound to administer and preserve
for others in the language OF the law, as prudent
father of family administers the estates of his chill
drer for about one-twentieth part OF It's real value
Those officers were themselves stockholders, but they
could well afford to abandon that investment wheI
they had the arrangement made BY which they were
as if by magic to become the sole posSesorS and own
ers of this great public work. The State of Louisiana
is interested pccunarly in this matter and togethe
with the other creditors of the road should place thu
company in liquidation, it being iusolVent. That il
the course when an individual partnership be
comes unable to pay its debts and there is no dstinc
ton when it is a corporation.
The plaintiffs in the case, Messr5 Brannon & Co.
represented by judge ". q. Swan of your cty) ap
peared through the Hon. Charles NJ. Conrad VIII
came from New Orleans to plead their cause, an,
Judge r. W Richardson, of this parish, who fount
themselves confronted by almost the entire bar 0
Ouachita parish From the first the court ruled ever
pont almost in favor Of defendants and it was evideu
his mind leaned in the beginning against the plaintiffs
and perhaps correctly, for as have said before tn
only difference between them that party ofere
5550,0O0, while the other offered $4,000. In tn
first case the creditors would have received about fit
per cent of their claims and in the last they onl
obtain about FIVE per cent The point in dispute wa
as to the amount of cash the sheriff authorised
demand Of the bidder before adjudcating the proper
IT, and the decision Of the court is that the plaintiff
did not comply with their bid consequently the
} adjudication lawful. An appeal from this judg
meut has been taken, which will probably be tried a
the July of the supreme court sitting at Monroe
FURTHER PARTICULARS OF THE Loss OF THE CRY o
: MEMPHIs.-The Atlantic and Mississippi company
steamer City of Memphis built at Pittsburg
1856 or 1867, receiving her boilers of the Cryst'
Palace, in for years previously; and const
rnars old the tinn of the