516 



MILLATJD, MOISE. 



MINNESOTA. 



prefers gelatine to albumen ; it is cheaper, more 

 easily obtained, and the slight viscosity which 

 it gives to the liquid materially assists the for- 

 mation and maintenance of the emulsion. He 

 especially recommends this in the manufacture 

 of "siege milk," on account of the obviously 

 numerous articles from which gelatine may be 

 obtained. 



MILLAUD, MOISE, a French journalist and 

 banker, of Jewish parentage, born at Bordeaux, 

 August 27, 1813 ; died in Paris, November 13, 

 1871. His first introduction to active life was 

 as a bailiff's assistant; but at sixteen years of 

 age he was the director of the "Athenseum," 

 a society of a hundred members, in Bordeaux. 

 At the age of twenty, he founded a journal 

 named Le Lutin, in his native city. Three 

 years later he came to Paris, where he was, 

 for some time, desperately poor. He attempted 

 to start several journals, but all failed, and he 

 picked up a scanty living by commissions on 

 subscriptions to Emile Girardin's journal La 

 Presse. In 1839 he founded I? Audience, a 

 Sunday journal, which was tolerably success- 

 ful for six years. This was his fifth news- 

 paper. At the time of the Revolution of Feb- 

 ruary, 1848, he started La Liberte, a paper 

 whose circulation soon ran up to 122,000 

 copies, but in June it was suppressed as a 

 Bonapartist sheet. About this time he went 

 into financial speculations with M. Mires (see 

 MIR^S, in this volume), a fellow-townsman, 

 and like himself a Jew, with whom he had 

 previously undertaken some of his newspaper 

 enterprises. Purchasing the Railroad Journal, 

 they began to operate in railroad shares, and 

 soon after founded The Counsellor of the Peo- 

 ple, with Lamartine secured at an immense 

 salary for editor. Fertile in resources and in- 

 genious in devices, Millaud next established an 

 office to call in a great number of subscribers 

 of small capital for financial operations, and 

 was so successful as to be able to pay in 

 two years ninety per cent, of profits to his 

 subscribers. This insured him any amount of 

 capital. This project was the germ of the 

 Credit Mobilier. He next opened an office 

 for dealing in railway shares, and in four years 

 the profits of Mires and himself were over 

 three million francs ($600,000). A grand 

 land speculation, the land to be divided into 

 city lots, was his next operation. The sub- 

 scribers did not come forward very promptly, 

 and Millaud took the whole upon his own shoul- 

 ders, and made a vast profit out of it. After 

 starting two or three more journals, Millaud 

 purchased a half interest in La Presse ; but, 

 in about three years, was compelled to sell it 

 out at a sacrifice. For three or four years, 

 fortune seemed to have deserted this hitherto 

 lucky journalist and banker, but, in 1863, after 

 having tried his hand at writing dramas and 

 other speculations, he went back to his old 

 calling, and founded the Little Journal, a 

 penny daily, whose circulation in all the cities 

 and villages around Paris he provided for, and 



soon obtained for it a circulation of from 160,- 

 000 to 260,000 copies, going occasionally as 

 high as 300,000 to 400,000. He added eight 

 other journals to this, and, with them and his 

 successful banking operations, had regained 

 more than his old wealth at the beginning of 

 the Franco-German War. He lost heavily in 

 this, but left a considerable fortune neverthe- 

 less. He was fond of display in furniture, 

 equipage, etc., and not always regardful of 

 good taste in these matters. 

 ' MINNESOTA. On May 2d a popular vote 

 was taken in this State on a proposition for 

 the settlement by arbitration of certain long- 

 pending claims against her. Bonds were issued 

 by the State in 1858, and loaned to railroad 

 companies, of which payment has not been 

 made; the majority against the proposition 

 was so large, that it is assumed the people aro 

 determined upon repudiation. These bonds 

 were issued on the authority of an amendment 

 to the constitution, which was adopted in 

 April, 1858, by a popular vote of 25,023 yeas 

 against 6,733 nays. They were 2,275 in num- 

 ber, of the denomination of one thousand dol- 

 lars each. The amendment referred to con- 

 tained this clause : 



The said "bonds thus issued shall be denominated 

 State Eailroad Bonds, and the faith and credit of the 

 State are hereby pledged for the payment of the 

 interest and the redemption of the principal thereof. 



But the companies which received these 

 bonds soon after failed to carry out the con- 

 ditions of the grant. The State from that time 

 neglected or refused to pay the interest on 

 them. In 1860 another amendment to the 

 constitution was adopted, " expunging " from 

 it the amendment of 1858, and providing that 

 " no law levying a tax or making other pro- 

 vision for the payment of interest or principal 

 of the bonds denominated Minnesota State 

 Railroad Bonds shall take effect or be in force 

 until such law shall have been submitted to a 

 vote of the people of the State, and adopted 

 by a majority of the electors of the State vot- 

 ing upon the same." Before this amendment 

 was adopted, the mortgages held by the State 

 had been purchased, and the railroads on 

 which they were given bought by the govern- 

 ment at nominal prices. In accordance with 

 this amendment, the May election was ordered. 

 The total vote in favor of the proposition was 

 9,293; against it, 21,499: showing a majority 

 of 12,206 for repudiation. St. Paul and Min- 

 neapolis, the two largest cities in the State, 

 voted " yes." The total vote on the measure 

 was less than half the average vote of the 

 State. From twenty-one counties no returns 

 were received. The opposition held that the 

 bonds were of questionable validity, and that 

 it had been established, by the admission of 

 many of the owners and other credible testi- 

 mony, that a large proportion of them cost 

 their present owners and holders but from 17 

 to 50 per cent, of their face. 



The Legislature was in session from January 



