The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-10-12

- LoUlS TNhNCOlS NENAJLs
was the first man to buy outlying tracts,
plat them and put them on the market.
He made money from the start-that is,
enough to live on-and when the first boom
struck the city money poured in upon him
SO fast it seemed as if he had the Midas
touch. Every piece of property that he
bought seemed to be transformed into
money.
confidence. Menage always had con-
fdence in himself. he bought property,
plated it, laid out streets III built houses.
He went away out in the country and
bought farms which he transformed into
Minneapolis who are comfortably rich to-
day who started in with nothing at all and
followed the same plan as Menage, only
not with his boldness.
1t was in 1880 or 1890 that Menage first
entered upon the speculations which caused
his downfall and that of the Northwestern
Guaranty Loan company. He began to
operate in Montana and Washington. The
operations were in Helena, Bozeman and
Great Falls, Mon, and in Seattle, Wash.
Some idea of the operations may be gained
from the Great Falls deal. There Menage
bought some outside property, paying
therefor $25, 900 in cash.
This property he plated and then placed
a blanket mortgage On all the lots, which
was placed with the Helena Trust company
as trustee, and hen bonds amounting to
$3.50 600 were issued against this property,
which originally cost S25 5000. Near Seattle
in Lake Washington Menage bought an is
land, paying therefor $4,000, also in cash.
He plated that, laid out streets, bought a
steamboat to run back and forth from Seat
tie to the island, and then bonded this &c.
600 worth Of property for 100000. Many
Of the bonds of both of these tracts of land
have been floated throughthe Northwestern
Guaranty Loan company. In Seattle Men
age organized the North Seattle company,
which handled the Lake Washington is
land property, with a capital stock Of ST.
OG0 1000. He organized the Puget Sound
Iron company, with a capital stock of ST.
OOO, 600. The condition of affairs in that
part of the country is hopelessly entangled,
When the boom flattened out in Wash
ington, Menage turned his attention to
Chicago. Incidentally he had a few schemes
in Iowu, Florida, Texas and other places,
for Menage loved to trade real estate as
much as Yankees love to trade jackknives.
In the last five years Menage organized
no fewer than "a corporations with an ag-
gregate capital stock of over $15,000,OO
What has become Of all the money realized
from his transactions nc one knows. Ger
tainly Menage did not spend it upon his
family. He lived in q modest house in
Moncure avenue in Minneapolis.
William S. Streeter, vice president of the
Northwestern Guarantee Loan company,
the most powerful man in it except Menage,
was recently arrested in Minneapolis. Mr..
Streeter is a tall, slender man, with a soft
voice, a sweet smile and smooth, suave
way. He suffers from i'll health. He was
born in st. Albans, Vt. He entered a bank
there and subsequently removed to St.
Johnsbury, VT, where he was made teller
and afterward cashier of the Merchants
National bank Of that town. He was
prominent in the church and Sunday school
and stood high in the estimation of the
good people Of that place. Streeter did not
hesitate to take in his own relatives, and
$50, coo worth of alleged gilt edge stock
was placed in st. Johnsbury and vicinity,
much Of it with widows and aged persons to
whom the failure will DO a heavy loss. His
old townsmen speak Of Mr.. Streeter very
bitterly in consequence.