Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-04-02

Edward, and that he has, ip very many in
stances where interest was not left to COM
pound, paid to the depositors as interest
much more than the amount of their orig
inal deposits. OF course, that fact does not
relieve him from the obligation to pay the
principal also; but the knowledge of it can
not but mitigate the seeming severity of the
loss of such depositors. Father Edward
could not say "No'' to any who asked for
aid. If the party soliciting loan from him
profered mortgage, he would take it.; but,
if one was not forthcoming, he would accept
a mere note of hand.
One man Who borrowed $4,000 from him
simply gavesin return, aReceived of Father
Edward $15,OOO,' signing his name to 1t,
and that was quite satisfactory. 1t is af-
firmed that not less than $4,000 were loan
ed by him and are still outstanding, in sums
of from $50 to 1880, for which he re-
ceived nothing more than verbal
Acknowledgements and promises to pay. And
as for worthless notes, he has torn up hun
dreds of them, convinced that nothing could
ever be collected on them, and hundreds
still remain upon which the assignee has
some vague hopes of getting back small
percentage. He was particularly weak in
helping his friends among business men,
out of their financial embarrassments, and
in that way has got rid of some very large
sums. By the failure of one big dry goods
house, for instance, he lost $4,000, and by
another bankruptcy $4,000, and these are
but samples of numbers of his financial
transactions in that line. So he went mer-
rily sailing along, like the tabled earthen
pot floating among the brass ones, bound
to go to smash in the end. Meanwhile the
| archbishop, not suspecting anything Of
this. had continued all those years
drawing upon him for money to aid churches
| and institutions of various sorts throughout
the diocese, and some tedious llwsuits were
costing him pretty heavily. One Patrick
Considine, in dying, left large farm on
Mount Adams to the archbishop, for denomi-
national uses. His natural heirs contested
| the will, and the litigation thereupon lasted
many years, costing the archbishop $4,000
before it was finally settled.
When the hard times came and deposits
fell off, the demand upon Father Edwards
treasury were not correspondingly diminish
ed, and then he found it necessary to go out
end raise money by mortgaglng the real es-
tate to which he had chung so many years,
and by hypothecating the more or less worth
less paper which he had confdingly taken in
lOI SOOu money.
Then false reports of other losses by the
failures of two local banking institutions
converted the alarm into panic, and the
run upon him began. He did not last a
day, nor an hour, under it, in the sense in
which savings banks might be said to last,
for he ran out of cash at the first dash, and
stopped payment. But he fastened to get
some more money, and began paying again.
In an hour or two his strong box was empty.
Then he closed, went out and borrowed some
more money, opened again, paid it all out,
and closed. And that was the way he went
on from day to day, solvent and honoring
all obligations for about two hours every
forenoon, and bankrupt the rest CT the
twenty-four hours. Of course, the deposit
ors grew wild. The very uncertainty of
whether they were going to be paid or not
maddened them. An excited multitude be-
sieged the house. The aged archbishop
noticed their presence and asked what was
t the matter. Father Edward told him there
was merely little temporary trouble about
money. The other priests in the house
, thought there was only some temporary
3 trouble, and borrowed for Father Edward
from their personal friends several thousand
7 dollars. The next day Father Edward played
paying teller q little longer than usual
7 Then some wealthy Catholic laymen gave
several thousand dollars more but still the
trouble grew daily. At length the end was
reached. There was nothing more to mort
{ gage; no more money could be raised, and
3 the depositors kept coming in greater num-
r bers and with larger claims every day. The
3 hideous fact of bankruptcy could no longer
f be concealed from the archbishop. HI
at once insisted upon the entire af
0 fair being turned over to boart
: of trustees. Even then Father Ed
2 ward could not realize that he was in Fl,
from which he could not get out quite easil
f if he had twenty or thirty thousand dollars
s and when the trustees talked of issuing
9 100000 of bonds to meet the deficit he pooh
y poohed their estimate and after some elab
j crate fgurings and divings into his memory
Q assured them confidently that $325,O0
}, would be more than ample to cover ever,
y cent owed to depositors. When, a fey
/ weeks afterward, he was informed that the
# then knew that the debt would exceed So,
i 100000 and possibly reach $4,OO000O, h
9 was more astonished than anybody else coul
it possibly have been, and indeed seems neve
7. since to have quite gotten over the stunnin
<, effect of that discovery. The allegation ha
i been made that large amounts of the depos
d tors money had been sent to Rome. That
n however, is positively denied by the arch
y bishOD