LABORATORY NOTES: $8,070.38
Against These Obligations, Nearly All Unsecured, Company Has Assets Valued at $953.02?Operated to Petersburg and City Point. Unable to pay its debts, the Merchants Steamship Line, Inc., with headquarters here, filed a petition in voluntary bankruptcy yesterday afternoon in the United States District Court. The company, which has not operated for more than six months, formerly encased in river traffic between Richmond, City Point and Petersburg, its liabilities amount to $8,071.38, of which $7,041.13 is unsecured. The assets total $13,02. A meeting of the board of directors of the company was held yesterday at which time it was decided to file bankruptcy papers. The following resolution was adopted: "Resolved that in as much as this corporation is unable to pay its debts, it should be placed in bankruptcy under the provisions of the bankrupt law of the United States, and it is therefore resolved that the president and secretary of this corporation be and are hereby authorized to take any and all necessary steps and to perform such acts as may be proper to place said corporation in bankruptcy as a voluntary bankrupt."
REBECCA OF THE COMPANY
Reuben Burton, president of the corporation, and Charles H. Eastenberg, its secretary, certified to the action of the board of directors and signed.  The bankruptcy application. C. Ridgway Moore acted as attorney for the bankrupt corporation. The company has scores of small creditors, but only three have claims amounting more than $100. The largest creditors are Reuben Burton, Charles H. Kastelberg and Phil O. Kelly, with an unsecured claim for $5,000. 