The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-05-02
money that came through.

He said, the bank had told him that if he could not raise $10,000 to make up bank balances that they were l going to shut him up."
 'I said It is not as bad as that. ; IS ft?' That's what they say'y he i said, and they said they would take your note.' g
 i Chamberlain said that he could not pay the note within three months, but was told the bank was willing to carry him along. "I went to the of fice," continued Chamberlain. "and 1 richardson told me how much the contracts were worth. Knapp went over to the bank to see if they would extend my note and they told him 1 that they would carry it until it was l paid. I turned again to the Richard son account I told Knapp I did not want to mix up with Richardson in the deal Knapp told me, Richard son has got all that's coming to him. I said, if that is so, I will buy this tract I want you to have the deeds executed to me and ] will have to trust you with making out the con- tracts and having them recorded He l said that he would do it. I signed the note and he came back from the bank as happy as boy.''
 Attorney Bowers directed several questions to MT. Chamberlain the purport of which was that a mortgage might have been contemp mpIated in pre- ference to a deed, and that Cham ber- lain might have endorsed a note made out by Burr & Knapp rather than a note made out by Chamberlain. Chamberlain was not sure what kind of a note it was because he was in hurry to get away. In fact it was an endorsement and when it came due, Cham berIain asserted that he had discovered that fact and insis- ted that it be changed. He has never been able to understand why the note was presented to him for signature in that way.
 Chamberlain was away when the deeds were transferred. He did not return until after the receivershfp but had teIegraphed explicitly from Cana da that be did not want mortgages substituted for deeds on the property. It has since transpired that Mrs. Richardson has put in claims for her one-haf share in the property.
 Questioned as to whether Chamber lain believed the company to have been insoIvent when he went away he indignantly stated that his own money was on deposit, that of his sis ter and also about 1000 of MT. Hull, his partner.
 "As matter of fact your own per sonal account was over drawn and your account as administrator was overdrawns was it not?'' asked MT. Bowers.
 
 of $1,500 and he had a $2. 800 mort gage which he wanted me to take in place." replied MT. Chamberlain,
 Was not MT. HuIPs account also oVer-drawn ?''
 ''I know Mir HuII's account is short something like $2,00O,'', was the reply.
 The question of a statement pre- sented to Attorney Lawrence Finkel- stone as assets of the company was introduced. The statementwas de- c1ared. by Chamberlain to have been some statement found in the offices of the company, for what purpose he was not aware. The statement how ever was not a correct statement of the assets of the company at. the time l of failure, showing thousands of dol- lars more than the conpany's assets and witness declared that to his own Knowledge it had never been submit ted to the attorney for the minority creditors as statement of the com pany's assets at the time of failure.
 Questioned about the sale of the in- surance business of the Burr & Knapp concern to the Title Guarantee & Trust Co.,, Cham berlain explained that the title company owed $1.764 at the l time of failure, that it was found 1 necessary to rehaFbiIitate the business, l and that a sale was considered proper. It had been advertised at public auc- l ton and the full loss of the company l
 
 purchasers The public was chary of the prospect and a bid of only $1,- 0O0 was first made. This was chang ed to S2.000, which the referee refused ! to consider It was finally agreed | that $4.00O should be paid.
 The turning over of rents, which | are said to have aggregated about $3-I 900 to the Title Guarantee Trust Co.,, was defended by the trustee upon the | fact that at the time there were none in evidence.
 Asked about an audit which had | been made under his direction as trus- tee of the Burr &. Knapp books, MT. | Cham oer1ain said that he had gotten | from the books of the company in three hours what had taken three weeks upon the part of an expert ac- countant to dig out He denied that E he had shaped the report of the au- ditor but, when shown a form in his own handwriting, admitted that he had outlined the legal manner in which the finding should be drawn by F the auditor.
 MT. Chamberlain said further that the auditor had made a special re- port that showed Burr & Knapp were lnsolvent as far back as 1906, though Mrs. Rohn,t the head bookkeeper for Burr & Knapp had made a report that in 1906 Burr & Knapp's books showed they were $8sOOO ahead in the same year.
 Several telegrams bearing the sigpa- lure of MT Chamberlain were attrib- uted to Mrs. Rohn, who, the witness said, had answered others in Cham berlain's name without consultation with him.
 That the Georgia Loan & Trust Go. recently had been paying debts of the Burr & Knapp Go. was admitted by explanation that when the failure came the Burr & Knapp bank had large sums of money on deposit for investment for the Georgia Loan & Trust Co.
 When the crash came the Georgia Loan and Trust company held that hey had constituted Burr SS Knapp heir agents here, and as responsible