New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-12-13
THE FAILURE OF BOTTLES BROTHERS.

THE FAILURE or BOTTLES BROTHERS.
II cannot be pleasant for any one to read
the account of the failure of the house OF
Bowles Brothers which we publish to-day, but
we are nevertheless clear that the publication
should be made The failure is the worst OF
recent years. 1t is not only the occasion OF
much inconvenience and even some distress
to Americans residing abroad but 1T stains
the American name among fair-dealing busl-
ness men in Europe. The failure was not
caused by any accidental loss or temporary
monetary stringelcy. 1t was the natural and
logical result of the character and system OF
the firm from the beginning to the end of its
career.
There are many Young gentlemen who i'm
agine that energy and enterprise can supply
the place of capital This is not altogether
true, and it becomes altogether false when the
means chosen for the exercise of energy are
merely clever talking and profuse advertising.
The rooms Of this new firm cast the modest
! quarters of older and sOunder houses in the
shade The courtesy, cheeriness, and amia-
bihty of the members of the house proved an
irresistible attraction to the gregarious and
slightly home-sck American travellers. They
obtained n considerable business, and gave
great satisfaction to their customers until the
crash came, and it was found that the firm
was list of names and nothing more. With
the exception of Mr. Appleton, who has ex-
hibited a generous willingness to make all pos
sible sacrifices for the honor of the house,
there seems to have been no money in the bust
ness from the beginning. The partners, who
70 boy m IN
habit of drawing out whatever they needed at
any time. There was no basis of cash in the
affair, and when the current business fell
short, it was natural enough for tho en-
barrassed bankers to take the special
deposits of securities and obtain adj
vances on them from otherlbanking houses
Eighty thousand dollars were thus obtained
from the Union Bank. Mr.. D'AgiOnt of Naples
had deposited $11,0 900 of bonds as security for
his drafts. These were thus pledged and lost.
An elderly widow from the South was thus
deprived of the slender income she had pre-
pared for her old age. Some of the victims
made their deposits within twenty -four hours
of the crash, when the condition of the House
must have been well known to its managers.
The relation of assets to liabilities is grotesQue,
$llOOU 10 meet S4l0,UO OF ODnsatlOns. Inc
affair touches the regions of the burlesque.
Now there is nothing especially American
about this way of doing business yet the
world will call it so. There was another fail
ure of an American house, somewhat like this,
in Paris few years ago. People thought in
finitely less of it than If Frenchman had
become bankrupt. Fraulein Sptzeder of Mu-
mich has made scandalous and rascally fail
ure, and because she lived few years in the
Bowery the swindle and collapse are called
perfectly American Every successive event
of this kind increases the dubious fame OF
our countrymen abroad, and the result will
be seen in an imperceptble lowering
of our credit. We will pay little
more for loans than other people. ShOpkeepers
will add few francs to our bills. Everybody
who deals with us will try to guard against
the supposed average of rogues by overcharg
ing every one who speaks what Mr.. Clay
always insisted on calling the American Ian
guage To this end the Messrs. Bowles have
greatly CONFERENCE.-The is the result of four
years Of business, begun with the best inten-
tons and prosecuted with cheerfulness, cour-
age, and amiability to this miserable end. 1t
is scarcely necessary to waste time over the
inevitable moral
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