The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-09-06
THE CHICAGO BANK FAILURE.
Scenes in Front of the Bankrupt Institu-
tion-The Wretched and Beggared De-


positors.
from the Chicago Tribunel
/ The news of the failure of the State
Savings Institution took all the deposit
ors by surprise. Nearly all of them had
recovered from the July scare. and were
firm in the belief that the bank had sue
cessfully weathered the storm, and that
their interests were secure. So firm were
they in the faith that some of those who
had drawn out small amounts during the
scare regretted their action, by which
they had cut off what interest was due
on their deposits. There were more
careful ones who closed up their accounts
during July and August, fearing to run
| what seemed to them dangerous risk.
But there was that other class,
utterly unsuspecting, whose previous
doubts and fears had been Quoted, and
who were living along in fancied secur-
ity. To them the news of the failure
came with all the suddenness and crush
ing effect of a blow in the dark. Trust
ing, they had been deceived; and the
savings of years, often of a lifetime,
scraped together from the results of
weary toll, seemed gone forever. Such
was the picture they painted to them
selves in the first moments of anger, sor-
row and disgust following the general
spread of the news. Then they began
to reflect Something might be saved
from the wreck. Hope, which is said to
be the only medicine for wretched souls.
began to dawn on their minds. With
the feeling of those who would
know the worst and build their hopes
on the smallest chance, they resolved
to visit the place where their little wealth
was locked up, and learn on just how
slender thread these hopes might hang.
Accordingly, the sidewalk in front of the
State Savings Institution presented, as
early as o'clock, a scene wholly I'M
usual at such or any other hour. Men
and women, boys and girls, some appar-
entity well-to-do, and others with the
signs of poverty depicted on their
pinched, wan faces, and their mean,
well-worn, threadbare garments, were
there; some of them modest and sad,
more of them brawling and mad Here
was poor woman who took in washing.
In her hand she carried o pass-book
wrapped in a dirty handkerchief. With
her pass book-the title to wealth slowed
away in the vaults-she pressed forward
and sought to gain what satisfaction she
could out of a fat policeman standing on
guard at the door and keeping out all
outsiders except those who had keys to
the safety-deposit boxes. She didn't get
the satisfaction she wanted, and had to
fall back. Then man whose clothes
seemed to say he had seen better times
came up and recited his griefs to those
around him. He had managed to save
81, 200 in gold, he said, when he was out
in California, had put it in that -
- bank, and now it was all gone. And
here were these bank officers going scot
free. Why, if he'd stolen loaf of
bread, he'd been jagged for it. And his
voice grew thick, his tones more angry
and excited, and it is more than probable
that the tears would have flowed had not
burly Irishman behind him, in a red
checked flannel shirt, put damper on
him by singing out: ooh, you needn't
talk; there's many poorer'n you as has
lost every cent they had. We're all in
the same boat. A newspaper man, as
he contemplated the loss of his care
full savings, muttered: Wouldn't I
like to seek Sioux Indian, that had
been fed on raw beef about two months,
on that id old reprobate Spencer"
"Wish we had him here, said rough
looking workingman, who had overheard
a knot Of men talking about Spencer and
his absence in New York, "we'd fix him
on the nearest lamp post, the -
thief" A job-printer on Clark street
told the reporter that he and his mother
had managed to put away $4,000 for
home, and to keep them during rainy
day. It was all they had, and now they
would have to begin over again. Two
Irishmen who had been taking care of
gentlemen's horses down on Wabash
avenue, and doing any odd jobs they
could get, said they had saved $4,000
between them, and now the savings of
twenty-seven years were all cleaned out.
An old German walked up to the door
and demanded to see the cashier. When
informed that that gentleman was not
around, the old fellow started out on a
fierce TRADE against the bank officers,
telling the crowd he had been working
for years, and had saved up a little
money, but now he supposed he'd have
to start again. "Never mind, said he,
"I'l be rich in ten years, andit'n be all
right. In closing his harangue, he
sarcastically advised his willing hearers
to take piece Of the banks doors or
the stone walls home with them to feed
their wives and children on. At later
hour in the day little old woman,
poorly clad, but of respectable appear
ance, her features sharp and thin, her
eyes swapping fire, and her arms flourish
ing very dangerors-looking umbrella,
bitterly denounced the bank-oficers for
what they had brought upon her. ct
had my last dollar in the world here,
she said, "and those sharks have ruined
me. Talk about mobs Why don't
you mob the rich mems houses, the
castles of those who rob the poor. in
stead of fighting and killing each other
Oh, God, is there no mercy, no pity for
the poor? Must we grow poorer that
/ III