The Topeka state journal., 1898-11-26

brar1eS, its elegant furnishings, its
spacious rooms, it's bountifuI hospital
ity, it is like the finest of English
manor houses taken straight from a
noveIist's Imagination.
In buying the cattle Mr.. Gillett over
estimated his ability to buy the corn
for them, and the result was that last
Monday he found he had no more corn
left and he had no resources upon
which he could raise money to buy the
corn sufficient to prepare them properly
for the market. He became frightened
and turned the cattle and all his inter
est in some 5000 acres of farm proper
tv and the greater part of the town of
Woodbine over to D. w. Naill of A b
iIene, as trustee for the benefit of his
creditors. Mr.. Naill refused to accept
the trust, believing that he had no
right to take cattle covered by a, chat
tel mortgage, but he did notify all the
commission men at the Kansas City
stockyards, who had f1oated Mr.. Gill
Iett's paper. It is known that st. Joe
firm holds his paper for about $4,000 or
$50, 900 more.
All the local creditors expect and hope
to come out all right. They probably
will, for 10000 cornfed cattle are worth
nearly twice what has been borrowed
on them here and the local brokers
claim to hold a first mortgage on the
stock.
Gillett's downfall seems to be due to
his having bitten off more than he
could chew as the saying is. The
system he had several times before
worked at enormous profit he pressed
too far His 10000 cattle ate fabu-
lous amount of grain. Even his mile
of cribs did not hold enough to get the
immense herd ready for the market.
He had paid a big sum for the cattle
in the first place. Then he had fed
them awhile and then mOrtgaged them
to replenish his cribs. His scheme was
to borrow these immense sums, put the
money into corn, feed the corn to the
cattle and finally by the sale of the fat
stock realize enough to meet all his OBJ
lie9fiOnS have profit.
or so, left for himself
Nor was this the wild dream Of an
Alnaschar. Gillett had carried the plan
through before, and on a grand scale,
too. He is known to have cleared $780,
900 in a trifie over a year.
Gillett was wont to give a mortgage
on a certain bunch of cattle as whole.
Then the sum would be split up and
mortgages given the same people for
the divided amounts, thus giving them
double protection. From the commits
sion firms he either secured money or
cattle. The latter he sold to farmers
and feeders on time, taking chattel
mortgages on them, which he was sup
posed to turn over to the commission
firms against his own paper.
But with this falls huge herd it was
different. They did not fatten as fast
as he had anticipated. And they ate
more than he had counted on. Last
week the corn in the mile of cribs ran
very low. Gillett was at the end of
his rope. He could borrow no more on
his stock, for it was already mortgaged
for all the brokers cared to loan. He
could not market the stock, for it was
not yet ready for market as fat cattle.
He seems to have given up and left the
affair to his creditors to see what they
can do.
But whatever shall come of it, all
Gillett's speculations have already
borne marvellous fruit. Four years
ago he was station agent at what was
then the little whistling station of
Woodbine. the town he has since come
to own. He began his cattle operations
by feeding steers for others, and, pros
pering, was soon doing a bigger cattle
business on his own account than any
other man in the state. He seemed to
have unlimited credit He bought i'm
mense droves of cattle in Texas and
brought them north for sale and for
feeding. On all his trips to Texas he
took his cowboy band,' made up of
drovers in his employ, and the organi-
zation soon became famous all over the
west. All of Ginett's dealings were on
the spectacular order, but none of them
were more spectacular than the col
lapse.