River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1883-11-15
BANKS AND BANK NOTES.
A Few ofthc Stories Told in the Gre at
est Bank in the World.
From All the Year Round

From All the Year Round
On one OCCASION the bank of England
proved much too accommodating for its
own interests. Somewhere about the
year 1910, one of its own directors, a
man of wealth and of unimpeachable
honor, bought an estate for thirty thous-
and pounds, and for convenience sake
obtained note for that amount. On
returning home, just as he was about to
put it under lock and key. he was called
out of the room, and placed the note
on the mantelpiece, On coming
back, a few minutes later, no
one was to be seen. No one
had entered the room in his absence,
and, after an anxious search, he came
to the conclusion that the precious bit
of paper had fallen into the fire and
been consumed. Hurrving Otto Thread
needle street he told his colleagues what
had happened, and they gave him a
second note upon MS undertaking 10 re-
tore the lost one if it should come again
nto his hands, and. in case of its being
presented by anybody else, repay the
amount to the bank.
Thirty years afterward. when he had
ong been dead and his estate distribu-
cd among his heirs, the supposed non
existent note turned up at the bank
ounter where it was presented for
payment. All explanation of the circun-
-tances connected with it were lost up
IN the presentee-the note had come
t. him from abroad in the course Of bns-
ness, and it must be honored without
delay. There being no'help for it, he
was paid the thirty thousand pounds,
application was made to the representa-
tlves of the Gcfunct director to
refund the money, but they promptly
liselaimed their inability, and the bank
Derforce had to put up with the loss.
The story goes that it was discovered
how or when we are not informed) that
the builder employed to pull down the
dead mans house preparatory to rear
ing a new one on the site, had found the
note in n crevice in the chimney, and
kept it and his own counsel until he
thought it was safe to reap the reward
of his patience and unscrupulsnsness,
and so became a rich man at stroke.
The executors of Sir Robert Burdett
found 10 less than G270,000 worth of
bank notes scattered here and there
about his house, some slipped into
bundles of old papers, some between
the leaves of books, without memor.
andum anywhere to apprIse them OF the
existanct, of such valuables, much less
of their whereabouts. A little better
advised were the executors of the gen
tleman who left behind him scrap OF
paper marked, ''Seven hundred
pounds in Till" although they failed to
interpret its meaning until they had
disposed of all the dead mans belong
ings. Then one of them recollected tina.
his library had contained a ioliO edition
OF rillotson's Sermons, and wondered If
Till" had any reference TO it. The
books had been sold to a bookseller,
who luckily had not found a customer
for them, although he had sent them on
approval to q gentleman at Cambridge,
who HAD returned them as not answer
ing his expectations The executor
bought the TllOtson back again, and
going carefully through the volume, re-
covered notes to the amount of $500.
The Waterman of a factory at New
Haven, America, afforded the admins
traitors of his estate no clue whatever as
10 the hiding place of the savings OF
which they believed him to have died
possessed. Overhauling his clothes, PIE
paratory to selling them by auction, one
when dirty piece of cloth dropped out
Of one of the pockets. Oh examination
this was found to he wrapped around
large cartridge shell, within which lay
notes of 81 ,SG0 value, which, but for
mere chance, smight unexpectedly have
enriched a purchaser of secondhand
clothing.
Some sixty years since a Bank of Eng
land IS note was paid into Liverpool
merchants Office in the ordinary course
of business. On holding it up to the
light to test up it's genuDcness, the cash
Ter saw some faint red marks up
on it. Examining them closely
he traced some half
effaced words between the printed lines
and upon the margin of the note, written
in blood After a long and
minute scrutiny, he made out the words:
IF this note should fall into the hands.
he will learn hereby that his brother is
a prisoner in Algers.' The
merchant imme lately commune ted
with Mr.. Dean, and he lost no time IN
bringing the matter before the govern
ment. Enquiries were set on foot, and
the unfortun tie man disc )vered and
reasoned. He had been a slave to the
Dey of Algiers for eleven years, when
the message he had traced with spin
ter Of wood dipped in his own blood,
reached the Liverpool counting house,
Liberty, however, came too late; the
privations and hardships Of the galleys
had sapped his strength, and, although
lie was brought home to England, it was
but to die.