Mr. Brown had been a soldier in the Civil War and had lost an arm in its service, was very upright, and a downright man, and did not depend upon his suavity of manner for his success in life. He was a man of quick temper and abrupt manners, but was sensitive of his honor and at all times conscious of his integrity of purpose. In pursuance of his official duty he felt the necessity of strict supervision and a thorough examination of the insurance companies of the state, that had sprung up in almost every important town and city in the state, and the officers and directors of the different companies were not paying much attention to the detail of the affairs of their companies and would generally entrust the business to the persons who had organized the company and become its president and secretary. In selecting a person who could make these examinations with fidelity and thoroughness he deemed it necessary to engage some one who was not a resident of the state and who would not probably be influenced by local or political consideration in the discharge of his duties. He employed as chief examiner of these companies a gentleman who resided in Chicago, and whose reputation was beyond question as an expert, by the name of H. S. Vail. This gentleman charged for his services twenty-five dollars a day for the time actually engaged, and in addition thereto some five to ten dollars for assistant accountants. The law provided that the expenses of these investigations should be approved by the Auditor, and upon his certificate the several companies examined were required to pay the bill. These examinations proved to be very expensive in some cases, and perhaps in a few cases an unnecessary burden and expense to the companies, but the real cause of complaint was that the expert found many irregularities, and without fear or favor, reported them in writing to the Auditor for his action. In one case the president of an insurance company had been electing his board of directors by stock issued to himself, upon which he had not paid a dollar into his treasury, and was paying himself out of the limited income of the company the handsome sum of ten thousand dollars a year as president, and his son-in-law three thousand dollars a year as attorney of the company. In a number of cases the president of the company was found to have issued to himself stock upon which he had not paid a dollar, and the Auditor required all of these and many other like delinquencies to be corrected.