New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-04-28
TIE BRO1D ROAD.

1t is hard to make business men think about
business, but it would really seem that blow
between the eyes, like that of the dcialcation
of the Cashier of the Atlantic National Bank,
could not fail to cause at least n moments
reflection. 1t is not merely a startling and
enormous crime; it is also an alarming
symptom Of a wide spread disease. How many
banks are there in this city in the same
situation This is the question which con-
Germs every man who reads his morning paper
to-day. How nanyf cashiers are there whom
ignorance and Incidence permit to "run the
machine in their own way, and whom the
devils Of pride, avarice or scnsualily lead in
the broad and easy way to ruinl Every few
weeks, some instance comes up to the surface,
is talked about for day or two and forgotten.
But only those are heard Of where the disaster
becomes fragrant and irreparable. 1t is i'm
possible to say how many banking houses are
now lowering on the verge of ruin, their life
or death depending upon a turn of the cards
in that vast gambling game which never ends
in Wall Street If it is possible for a cashier to
steal half million of dollars from the bank
where he is employed, and play it away, car
rying on this habit for years, the deficit grow
ing continually larger and his ventures con-
tinually more desperate, and no one know
anything of it until he has cleaned out every
scrap of negotiable paper from every drawer
in the Office and then comes cOOlly to an
nounce to the Clearing house that the game is
up-what security is there in bank at all,
and what is the whole elaborate system worth
There seems to be no reliance except upon
the sanity perseverance and perfectibility of
cashiers.
This Taintor case is one which would seem
monstrously improbable in fiction. The entire
capital of the bank went in his gambling and
the greater portion of the depositors' money
followed it. He says he has been long time
about it ; that at first his luck was good and
he intended to do great things for himself and
for the bank. But luck changed, and when
he was once started down bill he went with
always accelerating speed. He spent all the
gold out of the vaults; all the securities of
every kind; he did not even scorn the petty
cash, and all this while the rest
of the officers of the institution sat
comfortably in their arm-chairs, think
ing no evil and asking no questions
They were the only men in the Street who sus-
pected nothing. The reputation of the bank
gradually declined in that indefinite way
which no one can exactly explain. But this
atmosphere of suspicion produced no effect
upon the tranquil minds of the directors,
until everything was gone. Then they reused
themselves to pay some attention to tho COM
mon rumor, and talked of an examination of
the books. Upon this, Mr.. Taintor, who was
determined, whatever happened, to end with
style, went quietly to the Chairman of the
Executive Committee of the Clearing house
and informed him, with an air of conscious
merit that the Atlantic National was bursted,
and that he was a defaulter Tor Four Hundred
Thousand Dollars.
After the incredible laxity which made such
performance possible. the next most remark
able thing is tho moral idiocy Of the criminal.