The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-10-06
ARNOLD CLIENTS
 GOT 45O PER CENT
Connecticut Broker, Facing Bankruptcy, Was Great Ben
 eft Say TOwnsmen
ONCE POOR TEACHER
Made and Spent Money in Put nam Like Water For Nine Years-Had Participating Ac- count Practice

Putnam, Oct. 6-F'rom poor school teacher to a position as influential broker, in which he was able to pay
 many clients profits of from fifty ato four hundred and fifty per cent. szd set a whole town to flourishing. Such is the history of Ernest M Arnold, who faces involuntary bankruptcy proceedings here.
 The sudden collapse of his phenom- enal nine-year business rise has af- fected persons all over New. England and in a part of Canada. Every cred itor would have been paid in two years If he had been let alone, MT. Arnold says
 There are hundreds of creditors on MT. Arnold's books, it is said, with whom he has done business on the participating account principle, while others have been let in on special has he promised a customer more than six per cent, but if profits allowed ne paid more. It is said some got four hundred and fifty per cent, while others had to content themselves with anywhere from six to fifty per cent
 Some of those who got in early and who stood high socially got out hand some1y. Several citizens put in small amounts and received enough profits, it is said. to purchase first class auto
 mobiles. while one customer was able
  tended stay.
 MT. Arnold was a school teacher in thompson before coming here to open up a brokerage office, and since that time and up to within three months did a land office business. He had dealings with people in all walks of life and says he made a lot of money for some of them. He is about fifty years old, is bachelor and lives in the most fashionable thoroughfare in the city with his mother and sister.
 He is a, prominent fraternity man and a leading worker in the local Methodist church, and has class of young men in Sunday school that he teaches every Sunday. He has done much to build up certain parts of the city and has erected one of the finest greenhouses in the country. He has spent money like water since coming here and the city is greatly benefited for it, in the way of improvements.
 MT. Arnold says if he is forced into bankruptcy many people will suffer misery throughout New England, and that he will not be able to pay even two per cent. to his creditors.
 The petition ordering MT. Arnold in- to court at Hartford next Monday is signed by these prominent Windham county citizens, who loaned money to MT. Arnold on notes which are unpaid; they are comparatively few when all those in New England and Canada Woodstock, $50; Samuel Reynolds, $23654; George Waugh, Putnam, s1,150; Dr. Omer La Rue, Putnam, s762.2s; Thomas Raw1ey, Putnam, s2, 300; and Percy Waterman, Putnam, $500.
 It is alleged that the unsecured claims are more than half a million and the assets a slight equity in. real estate and stock, value unknown. The petitioners are all well known business men. They allege that last June MT. Arnold committed an unlawful act by transferring, when he was insolvent, seventeen tracts of land in this city to c. s. Andem, the agent of the large cotton mills in Thompson, to prefer MT. Andem over other creditors. MT. Arnold asserts he gave four mortgages to MT. Anden last June for $22, 300 for loans of money that he then made to him, the money advanced being in the way of outright loans and not for in vestments made in the business.
 MT. Arnold has had both his office and house telephones discontinued. He has just issued a statement of his present financial condition, showing g assets of s575, ,797.20 and liabilities of $7O, ,997.24.
 Revelations of a sensational and far req aching character are promised by Samuel Harvey of Willimantic. counsel