The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1878-09-28
THE
GOmmertlalAOOertlsr
SATURDAY. SEPTEMBER IS.
a Letter from San Francisco
SEPTEMBER 81, 1873.

A NEWS CENTER.
San Francisco is very well placed to be the gath
erer and disseminator Of the news of the world. The
morning and evening papers sre now loaded down
with the kilograms which give eli the principal move
nents transpiring in the world each day. On the
Eastern shore the news Is collected, assorted and
condensed as it comes under the ocean from the old
world. and over the wires from al parts Of this e1-
tensive country. Then j, is transmitted to this
Western shore. and the types scatter it into human
intelligence; and for all this The people pay fifteen
cents q week 10 a daily paper.
MISPLACED CONFIDENCE.
Another bank has gone up" sending a large pro
portion of its depOsitor's money to where the
woodbine twineth." 1t is the Masonic Savings and
Loan Bank. 1t has the name but no connection
with the order of Free Masons. For a long time
two or three years-this bank has been insOlvent.
1t appears that the Directors made q loan of about 8
quarter of a million to Geo. NJ. Pinney, taking Z. 5
Navy pay certificates as security. Another large
bank on Clay street did the same thing. These GER
tifcates we're not worth anything as security at the
time, so Pinney now says, but the Directors took
them to 6 get around the Bylaws" They proba-
bly, did think the U. S. Government would cash them.
But this security was not real estate or U. S. bonds
the c~ollsterals the Bank was organized to loan
upon. What makes men do such naughty things
and burst the Bank! Why, they got paid for it
They were not incorruptible and unde6led, and be-
fore q tempting offer their principles faded away.
The Government repudiated the Navy Paymasters
certificates as fraudulent. The loan of $3.50 900 was
a little too much for a Bank with less than $780,
900 of paid up capital TO stand, so after calling the
loan 81 good " for a number of years in published
statements, but getting no interest on it, they finally
" face the music, - and announce that the Bank will
wind up its affairs, and that 90 depositors will be paid
in full of course.
LOOK OUT,
Now, all ye Bank custodians of other peoples money.
The last State Legislature passed a law creating
Bank Commissioners. 1t is the duty Of the three
gentlemen on this committee to examine each Bank
in the Safe once in six months and report to the pub
lie. This is an excellent law. It was these Bank
Commissioners who told the Masonic Bank what to
do after they had found the skeleton in the closet of
that institution. These Commissioners are going
from Bank to Bank looking for rottenness if any ex-
lists, and letting the public know about it. Let US
hope that their price is so far up in the market rate
of men that it will take many Banks to buy them.
MINING STOCK EXCITEMENT,
The curse of California and Nevada has been exceed
ingly lively of late. While other business is dull,
the Brokers have been worked to death for q couple
of weeks-no " hard times among the Stock
Brokers. They are all smiling to see their commits
sions come in. Well, people must gamble. Where
ever men congregate they ~gamble-bet, and gain
and lose. If a man is profane he will gamble, and
nine-tenths of men in general can't keep from pro-
family. Hence it comes that we are almost all of us
in the business. Ii seems to be human nature.
Mining Stocks will be dull or lively, not according
to the developments in the mines, but according to
the development Of the plans of the Bulls and Bears
on Pine street. So a stranger from the country had
better not go in. There will be sc no money in it" for
him; but there is no use telling him that. He'll
get this bit of information in some other way, and go
home a wiser and 8 better man; that is, if he profits
by experience. Quite an excitement has really been
g got up - on the street when the gambling is done,
and the shafts have been sunk into n good many
purses and private deposit accounts. Somebody
has made and somebody has lost.
Sierra Nevada has gone bouncing up from $500
to $4,000, and all the rest, Wild Cats" included,
have sympathized with it.
This kind of excitement is very tempting to all
those who are impatient to get along a little faster on
the road to wealth. At the same time it is democrat
izing, because human nature is so constituted that it
gives way. 1t can't stand much temptation in this
direction, and years of savings are sunk; then some
body else's money is used. Stolen? No, borrowed.
The young, the middle aged and the old are drawn
in, and the slow process of accumulation becomes
very questionable. But that's California life.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Is here. He is the lecture excitement of the hour
just now, and the pulpit excitement, as well, for he
has preached both Sundays he has been in town. He
came out under a contract with the Boston Lyceum
Bureau to deliver ten lectures in the State, four of
them in San Francisco.
The people here have been very anxious to hear