Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1873-10-09


month q marked change came over th.
spirit Of the depositors. Over fou,
millions of deposits were withdrawn il
the seven days's blowing, and owe,
fourteen milli0ns.i an the next twenty
The 14th Of October was the date o
The banks suspension. On the da,
following Withdrawals ceased ani
restoration ekGn. One of tht
carses alleged by the bank,
themselves themselves for their sus
pension was the sudden with
drawal Of country balances, and
for this the telegraph was Responsible
It not only took the news to the
country banks of the collapse of credit
in the city, but brought back thei1
orders demanding their deposits in
specie. The Clearing House. too, war
alleged to aid in ipcreasing the general
collapse: It's daily settlements in coin
forced the. smaller banks into contract.
ing their loans, into sacrifices of prop.
erty, and finally Into bankruptcy.
Default at the Clearing House became
the Banquo's ghost that appeared al
the bank b oard of all the enaller insti.
tdtions. The most universally accepted
cause for the panic of 1857 is the vio-
lent contraction of,bank loans immeli.
ately after tie, 18th of August. And
this was entirely the action Of the
banks, and they had only Themselves
to blame. It was, too, the expansion
Of banks previous to the panic that
hid the foundation for the memorable
commercial orisiss of 1857. s."
THh PANIC OF $50.
In the early months of 1855 the
financial position and feeling in Lon.
don was IN q morbid state; organized
bear cliques formed during the months
Of March and April, and: were bearing
all kinds Of stocks, but especially the
newly created fnancial companies and
several Of the stock banks, Of which the
Agra and Masterman was q central
object. Although Overend l. Gurney'a
company was selected for attack,
yet NO, one of the most sanguine
Bears dreamt Of the really rotten
state of the great discounting
house. On the beginning of May,
1866, people OF Change andin the city
congratulated themselves that the
morbid feeling in financial affairs was
past, and the stocks all round were
considered better and stronger. These
de]ueions almost invariably follow the
graatest disasters. On Thursday, the
9Th Of August, 1866, was walking up
Newgate street about four r. H., when
l met one Of: those noisy, busy men
who hear and know everything first.
1 was on the opposite side of the street
when this man bawled out to me,
"Did you hear Overend. Gurney's have
failed Z" Walking acrosst he street
to meet him "a dozen men
or more were already arrested
by his loud commuDication,) I
cautiously said "hush," when with a
louder tone he bawled. out again, 81
say Gurney's have failed T." BY this
time perfect mob had gathered round
us. LEFT the crowd and wendell my
way to the we'll known corner house
in Lombard street. To my astonish.
ment I saw no crowd no excitement,
The only sign of suspension wasstha
closed doors of the house. It must
be-. understood that, although No
official business il done in bank after
three p. H., yet the doors arc always
kept open until six p. \. for clearing.
and taking bills up. Going into tht
opposite building Of Messrs. Barnetts,
Hoar Il Co., I saw one of the tellers, who
significantly shook his head. t.Yor
will find great excitement tomorrow.
said he, "the tumble has come" Loi.
tering and Longing about, still ken
by some mysterious attraction neal
the great fallen corner house. twilight
had Get in, and the crowd began K
increase. Suddenly q man passed tn,
crowd and said in an audible whisper
as ifspeaklng to himself. 1.-THE Agra
Masternlan will go next" Immediatel,
the theme was taken up by tn
bystanders, and it was pretty vel
settled that the bank would fail. @
course no reason was asked or given
It must he stated that althoue]
all London knew of the failur,
by five Or six P. n, yet no excitemen
ensued. There was q sort of gloon
prevailing early on Friday, that's, earl.
for London. About ten A. n. a vas
crowd was swaying to and fro from tn
Poultry, or the Mansion House, throuo]
Lombard street, Threadneedle street
and Margate street, and the memora
BILE Black Friday had fairly. set in. Blu
IT is remarkable that, Wit
the exception of the Allianc
Bank, no run was noticeable, and We
every ten minutes brought news Q
suspensions of banks-the Europea,
Bank, the Bank of London, three o
the newly'created Indian banks. TIL
discounting houses fell down like nine
pins. What at that time SCENE,
strange to me was to see an unusua
number of Quakers in Lombard street
dressed az thoy were in their stiff
stoid dresses. Their appearance onl,
added more to the general apprehen
sion of something awful going on. B,
twelve o'clock news came that the ban1
act was suspended. But calmly speaking
now, I feel quite certain that no rea
relief was felt by this announcement
Events later proved it. However, t,
compare q New York panic with
London panic is about al good q
comparing an evening at the Mabill,
with prayer meeting. The solemnity
the gloom, and actual menta
distress of London panic i
the extreme painful. No on,
thinks Of eating, drinking or smoking
Stolen whispers pass about, ana n,
one would consider it propriety t,
speak above his breath, while in Ney
York tho liveliest times, the eayes
lunches, the most spicy Jokes, are th,
order of the day. In fact great disan.
pointment is felt by New York Grove
It the panic for ten minutes slackens
The panic in London really only LASTED
that is to say, the excitement-dur
ing Friday. On Saturday the usua
quiet appearance in the streets wa
restored, although more than G2O, 600.
600 in firms and banks went bankrup
after the excitement, In London tn
shock of Black Friday was enough t,
search out the most tender spots j,
financial weakness, and it took fiy
long years to restore or rather rebuilt,
the structure anew -'-. 49, :
49, pL1dk.rRpAY.
While the other great commercial
crisi which at different epochs hav
held the credit of the country in tn
balance have been brought about NOR
by the laundering of fnanciers thai
through the systematic Efforts on tn
part Of one man to effect such results
Black Friday was solely and entirel
the work of clique, of which Ja
Gould was the head. During the cras
of failures on that dismal DAY the or
was that "some one had blundered.
but that q great crime: was being CON
mitted. The history of this crime i
the history of Black Friday, which wa
q massacre in the midst of q financit
['peace. In August, 1869, lthere Wa