sts constant trouble. A large amount of the stock of the Richmond
and Danville, as well as most of its bond issues, remained still
outstanding in the hands of the public. Consequently the only way
in which Brice and his friends could save the Richmond and Danville
property from completely breaking up was to merge it more closely with
the holding company in some way. But the credit and standing of the
holding company itself were anything but high, for in addition to paying
no dividends it had piled up a heavy floating debt of its own and had a
poor reputation in Wall Street.

The situation thus becoming acute, the management carried through a
remarkable stock-juggling plan. Instead of merging the Richmond and
Danville directly into the West Point Terminal Company, the directors
secretly decided to turn the Terminal Company assets over to the
Richmond and Danville without apprising the stockholders of the Terminal
Company. In conformity with this plan, early in 1886 the Richmond and
Danville leased the Virginia Midland, the Western North Carolina, and
the Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta railroads, and later in the year the
Columbia and Greenville and certain other small lines. At about the
same time the Richmond and Danville obtained in some unknown way large
amounts of the Terminal Company stock, a portion of which it now
issued in exchange for stocks and bonds of certain of these subsidiary
companies which it had leased. Having carried through these transfers,
the Richmond and Danville then threw the remainder of its Terminal
Company stock on the market, where it was bought by investors who knew
nothing about these secret transactions.

The Terminal Company was now left high and dry so far as the Richmond
and Danville was concerned. But at this juncture a surprising thing
happened. The management of the Terminal Company, in its turn, began to
buy shares of Richmond and Danville stock and in a short time regained
its former control. This shifting of power exactly reversed the
situation which had previously existed, when the Terminal Company itself
had been controlled by the Danville Company. These changes were followed
by a further move on the part of the Brice and Thomas interests,
which now formed a syndicate and turned over to the Terminal Company a
majority of the stock of the East Tennessee Company for $4,000,000 in
cash and a large amount of new Terminal Company stock.

When these transactions had been accomplish