The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-05-12
A Dead Wildcat.
A New One Born.

The Sheriff has seized and advertised for
sale the assets of the Franklin Fire Insu
rance Company, of New Orleans. An ex-
animation of the schedule, published in full
in Sundays Republican, shows what a
wretchedly rotten concern it was from the
start, and how deservedly it now dies. Ua-
fortunately, this swindlng institution was
allowed to send out through the country
agents, who solicited and obtained numerous
risks, by offering to insure the country mer-
chants at lower rates than was being charged
by our old established companies. In some
Instances these deluded people have burned
out and now find themselves ruined, because
of the utter worthlessness of the company's
assets
These assets are composed almost entirely
of the notes of class of real or imaginary
persons and are worth altogether about the
price of the paper they are written on.
Among these "stock notes" are SO many
signed by members Of The Kellogg Legsla-
ture as to give the impression that it must
have been conceived and born in some of
the numerous committee rooms On Dryades
street.
In most every other State there are laws
preventing any such swindle being perpe-
trated upon the community by requiring
that the capital shall be full paid in cash or
secured by first mortgage on good city prop
erty worth at least double the amount of the
mortgage. But here companies like the
Franklin have multiplied lately, and are
destined to run the same miserable course
of infamous deception. Among the notes in
the schedule above alluded to are those of
the officers of a new fedged insurance com
pany.
The charter of this company is, if any
thing, a worse one for It's policy holders than
that of the de,unct Franklin and our i'm
preston is that the officers of this new as
pirant for public patronage improved upon
the lesson learned from the Franklin, and
determined to make still better thing for
the stockholders of the new company.
By its charter only fire dollars share is
required IN cash, the balance being made up
in note due ten gears from date. OF course
a note not due cannot be collected The
officers of the new concern do not intend
their stockholders shall be bothered by de-
sparng policy holders, for some years at
least.
But even under such easy conditions, and
with much work it has been impossible to
get off more than eighty thousand of their
$4,000 authorized capital. Thus the public
can see that five dollars per share will give
the stupendous cash capital Of four thousand
dollars, out of which the premiums Of con-
fding insurers, the expenses and losses in
cident to fire insurance are to be met.
We have not seen the list of stockholders
i'll this company, but the officers and direct
ors are wholly and entirely unknown in the
business community.
If we have been misinformed upon any Of
the above points, we shall be glad to be set
right; but to us it looks as though the
Franklin Insurance Company, just dead, was
in all respects better entitled to confidence
than the one newly born.
To prove the utter worthlessness Of
append the list Of sales of the stock
holders notes, by the Sheriff, yesterday, at
the Merchants and Auctioneers' Exchange
We will premise by stating that most of the
notes were appraised as being worthless,
and fell due July 1st, 1875.