became the highest and best bidder, at and for the price of $100.00 and at the same time and place I executed the writ of vende exponas issued to me in this cause and offered for sale all the interest which the City or Town of Clarksdale had in the Capital Stock of the Louisville, New Orleans & Texas Railway Co. or in the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company, offering said interest at the same time with said certificate of stock to the said Pacific Improvement—for the said sum of $100.00, that being the highest and best bid offered for same.
"Dec. 6th, 1897.
"(Signed) A. J. Cooke,
On the back of the certificate the marshal inscribed the following:
"Pacific Improvement Company vs. No. 3900 law. City or town of Clarksdale, Mississippi, in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Western District of the Northern District of Mississippi by virtue of a writ of fieri facias issued in said cause, I levied upon certificate of stock on August 3, 1897, and thereon December 6, 1897, pursuant to said execution and to a certain writ of venditioni exponas, I in the manner provided by law sold this certificate of stock, all the interest of the city or town of Clarksdale in the stock of the Louisville, New Orleans & Texas Railway Company, to the Pacific Improvement Company. Witness my signature this, the 6th day of December, 1897. A. J. Cooke, United States Marshal."
Counsel for the City attack the sale chiefly on two grounds, first that the levy was void because made on a mere muniment or indicium of title to the stock, the certificate, and not on the stock itself; and second that the sale was void because not made at the county court house, as required by the laws of Mississippi.
