MISMANAGEMENT AND OTHER TROUBLES 69 
proper execution of their trust, and were not re- 
quired to make any deposit in the bank. The 
law fixed as a quorum nine out of fifty trustees, 
and further required the affirmative vote of at 
least five of the nine on money matters. But the 
trustees provided in the by-laws for a finance 
committee of five to pass upon loans, of whom 
three should be a quorum. Thus three officials 
could and did habitually dispose of financial 
business when the law required at least nine. 
Often two members of the committee, or one, 
or even the actuary (cashier) negotiated impor- 
tant loans without reference to the trustees. 
Sometimes the actuary made a loan and then 
hunted up three members of the finance com- 
mittee to sign the proper papers. Vice-president 
Clephane testified that the actuary sometimes 
came to him and said, “I am going to count you 
present,” although Clephane had not been at 
the finance committee meeting. As he said, “We 
left [the making of loans] very much to the ac- 
tuary to examine into. We were apt to take his 
representation of things.” 
When at last the rank and file of the trustees 
began to realize that they were being used as 
dummies, the sharpers who had been managing 
them resigned and left them to flounder about 
in their own confusion. Alvord, the president 
after 1868, was probably honest throughout, but 
he was weak and old and at one time was so 
deranged mentally that he had to be sent to a 
sanitarium. The finance committee refused to 
allow him a vote on measures that came before 
them. He could only preside. But he was kept