the income bonds which the old first and second preference bondholders surrendered and the preferred stock which they received would not have been very great, yet here the provisions of the old income mortgage, which forbade the deduction from net earnings of any interest on bonds subsequently created until its interest should have been paid, rendered the loss more serious. To sum up, the holders of junior securities and stock paid the expenses of reorganization, paid the floating debt, lost what right they had to interest before the settlement of interest on subsequently created claims, and got only stock, and for the most part second preferred or common stock at that. The general mortgage bondholders got new 4 per cent bonds, plus 12 per cent, or 2 per cent in cash, had no greater interest charges ahead of them, and without paying any assessment or making any concession, except to allow the immediate increase of the amount of their issue by $4,000,000, and thereafter by $1,500,000 per year, secured a lien on the assets of the company; a privilege which was, moreover, extended to undeposited as well as to deposited bonds. The company itself was dissolved, but the new corporation which took over its assets enjoyed, with slightly decreased charges, freedom from the old floating debt and from the extensions and combinations which had caused the floating debt of the old management, and seemed besides a strong financial backing. In May, 1896, Judge Atchison of Philadelphia signed the decree for the foreclosure and sale of the property of both the Railroad and the Coal & Iron Companies, and on September 23 the sale took place, C. H. Coster, of J. P. Morgan & Co., and Francis Lynde Stetson paying an aggregate of $20,500,000 for the whole estate.[277] The sale ended the life of the old Reading charter; and in view of the constitution adopted for the state of Pennsylvania in 1871, which forbade any railroad owning more than 30,000 acres of coal land, some device had to be sought whereby the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad and the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Companies could hold together. Diligent search revealed the existence of the “National Company,” a corporation chartered in 1871 by special act of the legislature of Pennsylvania at the very time when the new constitution was under consideration. This company, originally the Excelsior Enterprise Company, had power “to purchase, improve, use, and dispose of property to contractors and others and for other purposes,” with privileges fully as broad, it was said, as those enjoyed by the Reading before foreclosure.[278] The National Company now changed its name to the Reading Company, called a special meeting, increased its stock to the amount required by the plan of reorganization, and, jointly with the Coal & Iron Company, authorized a mortgage to secure bonds up to a possible amount of $135,000,000; to be secured on the property of