The Terry & Barnum stock which was taken in at par, was not worth twenty-five per cent, which had a tendency to reduce the value of the stock of our Company, though I have recently heard that the Secretary bought stock at par for the Jerome Company of some former owners in the Terry & Barnum Company, in Bridgeport, only a short time before the failure.

To show the confidence the Secretary had in the standing of the Company, he recommended one of his own brothers, not more than one month before the Company failed, to buy five thousand dollars worth of the stock, which he did.

It was owned by a Bridgeport man and he paid par value for it in good gold and silver watches at cash prices.

All of these transactions were made without my knowledge, and I have found them out by piece-meal ever since.

I do fully believe that if the Secretary had been worth half a million of dollars, he would have sacrificed every dollar, rather than have had the Company failed under his management as it did.
It has been publicly stated that Mr.Barnum endorsed largely on blank notes and drafts and that he was thus rendered responsible to a far greater extent than he was aware of; such, however, was not the case.
The troubles that have grown out of the failure of this great business, have left me poor and broken down in spirit, constitution and health.