At the outbreak of the civil war the Adams Express Company turned its routes in the Southern States, in which it had enjoyed a complete monopoly, over to the Adams-_Southern_ Express Company, _created by the Georgia courts for the purpose of assuming this business_. The property of the association was to be represented by 5,000 shares, of which 558 were then issued. The Adams Express Company has held to the present day a dominant interest in this association, which it created to facilitate business _during the war_. After hostilities ceased, it resumed some of its Southern routes by agreement with the Adams-_Southern_ Express Company, whose name had meanwhile been changed to the _Southern Express Co._ The two companies still work in common and use the same wagons and offices in many places. But close as the Southern Express is to its parent company, it has a separate enough existence to justify a separate account of its _money-making capabilities_. Referring to the original 558 shares of stock, the secretary and treasurer of the Southern Express says: “_None of the original twenty-four stockholders are living and there is no existing record to show how much was realized from the distribution._” This does not help us much, but in another report to the Interstate Commerce Commission the company appears to know what these records showed, for it says “_none of its stock was ever issued for real property_, equipment, acquisition of securities, or for any other purpose in the sense in which the issuance of stock is understood in connection with corporations.” But we do find that in 1866 the number of shares was increased to 30,000 and distributed to the owners _as a stock dividend_. Plainly, the civil war did not impoverish the express carriers. Then in 1886 enough more new stock was created to give the owners five shares in place of every three which they already held, so that there are now 50,000 shares. Five hundred and fifty-eight shares of stock, the circumstances of whose issue are known to no one living, have sprouted into 50,000 shares by the mere process of _paying stock dividends_. Dividends of 8%, or $400,000 a year, are now paid upon the 50,000 shares, although the entire value of the company’s property, real estate, buildings, equipment, furniture, etc., was only $944,179 _on June 30, 1909_. Here are dividends of 8% on $5,000,000 stock, or more than 40% on the value of the property employed in the business. And this is not all. The Southern Express Company owns high-grade stocks and bonds valued at almost $4,000,000, which may some fine day form the basis of another melon.