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HE GULLED MANY. Brilliant Financial Career of Absconder Louis Menage, MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., Nov. 18.-Louis T. Menage, the absconding president of the Northwestern Guaranty Loan company, must be written down as the colossal swindler of the century. During the last few months of his connection with the company he misappropriated the money of the corporation to his own use in blocks of thousands of dollars until his stealings footed up the gigantie total of $1,650,800.11. This all comes out in the filing of the schedule of his individual liabilities in the office of the clerk of the court of the county. In the schedule all his notes are labeled "secured by collateral security with the N. G. L." No attempt is made to define this collateral. In November, 1892, Menage was the debtor of the guaranty company to the extent of $161,550. Although not alt of this amount can be traced directly out of the coffers of the company. much of it was money which passed directly from the pockets of the patrons of the company to Menage's bank account. At that time his enormous drain on the company began, and between that time and May 18, 1893, the financial pirate has increased his indébtedness to the company by $823,131.49, making his total indebtedness to the company on account of notes and similar obligations $984,691.49. The amount that Streeter, vice president of the company, and Menage are charged with stealing in the joint indictments brought against them is $998,712.56. As d sample of the general run of the loans and the amounts taken during the last months of the existence of the Northwestern Guaranty Loan company, the record for & few days has been picked out at random. January 19 Menage took la round numbers $120,000 in seventy-four notes. January 26 he took $19,126 in nineteen notes. In February he borrowed twenty-eight notes in the total sum of $29,691.50. March 9 he again borrowed. this time $82,000 in twelve notes. April 26 the obliging officials of the company contributed $55,000 to Mr. Menage's personal fortune. But when the last days of the tottering concern are reached all doubt is dispelled, if there has been any, that Menage entered upon the deliberate fleecing of the company. Oa May 10, exactly three days before the company suspended, it had enough money to let its enterprising president have $48,516.17 in one note. But this amount of $993,712.56 is only a part of the total indebtedness of Menage. That amount represents what he got out of his company. There are other items made up of moneys contributed by other lambs. The sum to tal of cash secured from those on the outside is $163,496. Menage's miscellaneous debts foot up $36,451.84. The last item on the List amounts to $426,170.78, and is called the contingent list. The total liabilities are not footed up in the schedules, but they may be closely approximated from the figures given above. Collected, they are: Claims of the Guaranty Loan company, $984,681.49: claims of banks, corporations, ece., $163 commercial paper negotiated by Neher & Carpenter, $40,000; miscellaneous, $86,461.84: contingent liabilities, $426,170.78, making a total of $1,650,800.11. As to the assets they may be largely summed up as "collateral security" and stocks in a thousand different companies of little or no value. The assets are of no importance, for no one expected to get anything out of Menages estate.
