PARaOHS ». eAriWBLL. T9 �the Bteps taken to obtain judgments in his favor, the defend- ant Caswell acted as his agent. �The defendant Orra B. Benediet was the bankrupt's sister, living in Milwaukee. The defendant Charlotte E. Coe was the vsrife of bankrupt's brother, L. W. Coe, and he was the bankrupt's book-keeper and confidential clerk. The defend- ant Caswell had at some time been a hardware merehant in Milwaukee, had previously sold to the bankrupt his stock, was or had been the bankrupt's landlord, had had many business transactions with him arising ont of loans of money, had evidently been for a considerable time in inti- mate business relations with the bankrupt, and at the time the suits in question were begun and the judgments rendered occupied as his office a room partitioned off in the bank- rupt's store. AU the suits upon which the judgments in question were rendered, were begun in a manner that avoided publicity until the judgments were rendered and execution issued, though this ia a circumstauce which I esteem of no consequence, since it involved nothing wrongful or unlawful on the part of the creditors. �It appears from the testimony that one Phelps, a salesman for certain creditors of the bankrupt in Chicago, was in Mil- waukee on the twenty-first day of Oetober, to look after the interests of his firm, certain ageneies having reported that the bankrupt was refusing payment, or that his paper was being protested. This was after the suits in question had been begun, and this witness testifies that the bankrupt told him there was no reason for such reports; that there was no real foundatiou for any reports afifecting his credit, and that he gave a sort of general assurance that he was solvent. Again, this witness was in Milwaukee on the second day of November, which was the day when the judgments were rendered, and he testifies that he asked the bankrupt if any suits had been commenced against him ; that the bankrupt replied that two or three suits had been commenced in justices' courts for small amouHts; that he had procured one or two to be ad- journed, and that he would not allow judgment to be entered against him in favor of any one against the interests of ail ��� �
