Morning journal and courier., 1892-10-19
THE LEASES RATIFIED

As a Matter Of Course - The Consoli- dated Road in Possession of the Housaton1c and Derby Railroads- Particulars of the Meeting in Bridgeport Yesterday Railroad
 Magnets Present.
 BRIDGEPORT, Oct 18.-By a vote of 21,- 091 shares against 2,sO7 shares at special stockholders meeting, the Housatonic main line was leased to tho New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad com pany for period of ninety nine years on guarantee of an annual dividend of 1 per cent. Asa further consideration the hold CTS of l per cent. Housatonic stock may, if they like, exchange eight of their shares for one share of 10 per cent. Consolidated railroad stock. All of the stock of the railroad except about 5000 shares was rep resented in the vote. The meeting was held in the office of the vice president and general manager of the road in this city, and was called to order a few minutes after 12 o'clock. President J. Mccullough Miller, the new president un- der the new order of things, presided and faced such financial kings as William D. Rockefeller, w. D. Bishop, ex-president Consolidated, O. B and O. G. Jennings, broth er-in-]aw and nephew respectively of MT. Rockefeller, J. Pierpont Morgan, the emil nent financial general, General s. E. Mer- win, A. B. Mygatt and about @ score of others. The brisk and energetic presence of Charles P. Clark, president of the Con. solidated Railroad company, was offset by the portly and dignifed form of Luciuf Futile, the affable and courteous vice pres ident and general manager of the same corporation. Under the influence of these
 two men and Messrs. Morgan and Rocke
 feller the business of the meeting wal
 transacted with 6 vim and rush which shed
 8 great deal of light upon the minds o1
 some of those present as to how the Con
 solidated railroad had become one of tn,
 most perfect railroad systems in tn,
 world.
 The expected protest against the leasint
 appeared at the very outset. George H ) Sullivan of New York, Attorney R. L
 Fowler. for Stockholders E. Gardner, Dicl Bros. & Lawrence, W. H. Field, William
 Burney, W. J. Nevins, jr., and Josepl
 Davoll, all of New York, and Attorne,
 Heuitzheimer. for J. P. Goodbart 6 Go. also of New York, entered notice of pro test against the legality of the meeting a
 well as of the proposed lease. Their pro
 test was based upon allegations that tn
 lease was not for the best interests of tn
 railroad or all the stockholders for the req E son that a majority of the stock whicl
 would be represented in the vote in favor o the lease was held by the Consolidated rail road company, or by parties acting fo
 or in the interest of the lat , ter corporation. So little importance wa
 attached to the formal protest that it wa
 scarcely considered worth discussion, an . after the usual preliminaries the vote wa taken with the result as stated. AS tn
 protestants also voted, after having by re quest had their names recorded on tn 2 minutes as holding the opinion that th |, meeting was not legal, those who voted i I by the action of the unfriendly parties :, voting at what they declared to be a l illegal meeting, the latter voluntarily rt . linquished whatever chance they migt have had for legal protest.
 Immediately following the meeting ( the Housatonic stockholders the meetin of the New Haven and Derby stockholderl @ called for similar purpose, was held wit | President Futile in the chair. The latte meeting was without special incident, tt s 3, 734 shares which were represented bein y voted as unit in favor of the lease. I'll f term is also for ninety-nine years with a '- annual dividend of per cent. The optic of exchange gives four shares of Ne York, New Haven and Hartford stock ft
 thirteen shares of New Haven and Dert
 stock. After the business had been co
 cluded all adjourned to President Clark d private car, ,sidetracked opposite the depo n and ate good things washed down by }. quids corresponding.