A. I can answer in the language of Saturday last. There was I would not say dishonest, but improper loaning to men who were not responsible; loaning upon insufficient security; loaning on illegal security, such as city scrip and personal chattels; and permitting employees at the branches to loan without the knowledge of the trustees. The Actuary [Stickney] gave them such permission as that. They quoted him as authority for such loans. I do not think that the trustees ever stole any money. [Credulous Alvord!] The matter of Vandenburgh is one of the marked instances that I would range under insufficient security. Q. You seem to be very well acquainted with Vandenburgh, from your boyhood up. Do you know whether there was any business connection in the street paving business between Vandenburgh and Alexander R. Shepherd at the time these loans were being negotiated? A. I do not know that there was any business connection. Q. Tell us of any other connection that there was between them. A. I know that they were acquaintances, and that Mr. Shepherd was at the head of affairs here, while Mr. Vandenburgh was a contractor. Q. Contractor under him? A. Contractor of him; he contracted to do his work in the city for pay.... By Mr. Bradford: Q. Where is this Mr. Stickney, the actuary? Does he live in this city? A. Yes, sir. Q. What was his pecuniary condition when he entered the service of the Freedmen’s Bank? A. He was a man without any appearance of any considerable amount of means—not very large amount of property. He is a wide-a-wake, active, business real estate broker. Q. How much property has he got now? A. I cannot tell.... I think he has an interest in a good many pieces of property; how large that interest is, or how well secured, I cannot say. The above will serve to show what kind of a man this G. W. Stickney was. The simple truth is that, when he took charge of the bank’s affairs, about all the property he had was his pretensions to being a high church Republican, and his stock in trade in religion of an assorted kind.