82 FEDBBAIj bepobteb. �suit in behalf of his wife, and had ako assisted Mrs. Benedict in the commencement of proceedings in her behalf. Mrs. Benedict testifies that she lived opposite the residence of the bankrupt ; that not a word was said between them about her suit, and that it did not disturb their relations. The testi- mony shows that even after the suits were commenced, and up to the twenty-first of October, 1876, the bankrupt con- tinued to order goods from houses in Chicago and elsewhere, buying upon credit and giving notes payable at times when he must have known he could not pay them, and ail this when he likewise knew that suits were pending against him, and were almost ripe for judgment, to the amount of $15,000, in favor of relations and of the defendant Caswell ; and it appears that goods were thus ordered, not only by letters written personally by the bankrupt, but by letters and orders written and given in his behalf by L. W. Coe, his brother and book-keeper, who of course knew of his condition, and was acting at the very time as the agent of his wife in measures then in progress .to secure to her the position of a preferred crediter by means of a judgment in the suit in her favor then pending. In a letter of date September 16, 1876, written by L. W. Coe, the bankrupt orders from Eathbone, Sard & Co., at once, a quantity of stoves. In a letter dated September 28, 1876, written by L. W. Coe for the bankrupt to A. A. Thompson & Co., a small remittance of $227 was enclosed; collections were spoken of as very slow, and an order for goods to the amount of over $1,000 was aLo sent. On the fourth day of October, 1876, the bankrupt, by letter, ordered from the Vulcan Iron & Nail Company two car loads of nails, one on 60 days' time, and one at four months. On the twelfth day of October, 1876, the bankrupt wrote to Eath- bone, Sard & Co., ordering stoves. In a letter of October 13, 1876, written by L. W. Coe to DwightBros. & Co., he ordered three tons of felt paper, and in a letter of same date, written to Barrett, Arnold & Kimball, three tons of tarred felt paper were ordered, and on the twenty-first of October, 1876, he wrote to the Chicago Stove Works, sending them five notes, amounting in ail to nearly $2,500, and in which letter he ��� �
