Daily globe., 1883-05-13
PLEASANT PRESENTATION.

The Retiring President of the German
American Bank Silver Serviced.
As is we'll known to the readers of the
GLOBE, the German American bank of st.
Paul has been transformed into National
bank with two million capital, there beir g
but ten other banks in the country of
equal magnitude. The new bank will be
open for business tomorrow
under charge of Walter Mann as
president, Gustav Willius, cashier,
and Joseph Jockey, assistant cashier. An
episode of this change took place at the
bank last Monday evening. Mr.. Ferdinand
Wiliius, the retiring president of the Ger
man-American bank, was invited to join
his associate directors and officers ia col
lation to be served in the directors room.
The table was decorated with flowers and
presided over by Mr.. Mann, incoming
president. 1t was also supplied, greatly to
Mr.. Willius surprise, with an elegant
solid silver service of six pieces, which
Gen. j. B. Sanborn, presented substantially
as follows
Mr.. WILL1Us: Your old friends and as
sociates of the board of directors of tho
German-American bank, are impelled by
the highest and best feelings of their ma
ture, to signalize, in some appropriate
manner their high appreciation of you and
their regret at your retirement from the
exalted financial position which you have
filed so long and successfully.
More than a quarter of a century has
passed away since you took your position
at the head of the banking institution,
which has now grown into national bank
with two millions of capital stock, with an
established business unsurpassed in the
northwest and business prospects more
promising than at any previous period.
During this time generation of business
men have passed away; the small retail
store of the merchant and one clerk has
been succeeded by the wholesale establish
ments of to-day, employing millions of
capital and furnishing employment to
thousands of men; the few river steam
boats that gave US some eight hundred
miles of steam transportation, have been
reinforced by three thousand five hundred
miles of railroads in our own state, and we
find ourselves to-day in direct and imme-
diate connection by water, railroads and
telegraph, with the whole commercial
world; the territory of a few thousand peo-
pie has been followed by the state of
more than one million of industrious and
contented people the hamlet
of few hundred souls
has given place to the great commercial
city of nearly an hundred thousand peo-
pie; during this period you have seen
states spring to life and move of on their
long career of power and empire, you
have seen the country ravaged by CORY and
destructive war and the unspeakable bless
ings of white winged peace, redeeming
the waste and restoring more than was
lost. You have seen and passed through
recurring financial panics, delaying for
the time being all values and sweeping
away with single breath the hopes of the
young and the accumulations of the old
In and through all the vicissitudes of a
quarter of century you have safely
guided the bank of which you have had
charge, maintained its faith and had every
promise and obligation fulfilled. The
most humble depositor has received the
same consideration and care as the greatest
capitalist, and holding high the star of
hope, in the midst of depression and
gloom you have given confidence to and
beckoned forward the weary and discour-
aged to new fields of labor and enterprise,
and to success at last. In the darkest
financial days and in the heaviest storms
the bank has stood as a rock unmoved and
immOvable, because the principles Of its
existence have all the time been those that
survive all and ultimately will triumph
over time itself; Exact justice 10 all. While
your success, so deserved, so merited is so
grateful and pleasant to US
Io- S-f, l. liz
can not exclude from our minds, and would
not if we could, those emotions of sadness
that nature sends to US all when old asso-
Citations are broken; long continued condi-
tions are changed; a circle that has in some
measure become social, is severed never 10
be united. The thought will come that We
who have drifted along together taro15h
storm and sunshine, on the great OCEAN Of
life, are now to be separated, :.aI heuc5-
forth simply drift towards thai shore not
far distant, whose dim outline is vlsib {,
and towards which all are moving, but
concerning which we speculate much but
know little.
1t is my happy lot to express TO you on
this occasion, the high appreciation
which all your associates of the board of di-
rectors of the German-American bank have
for you as a citizen, neighbor and friend,
and to convey to you their earnest wishes
for your future welfare and dhappiness; and
that henceforth amid those scenes you love
the best you may haYe the satisfaction and
delight of crowning "a youth of labor
with an age of ease," and when nature de-
mands of you the payment of that debt
which all the living owe, may it be yours
to Bend to the grave with unperceived de-
cay"
Your associates have directed me to ex-
press to you their appreciation in a man
ner more substantial and enduring than
that of mere words, and in their names
and on their behalf now present you this
silver table service-a model of art and
taste-upon which in the retirement
of domestic happiness you may daily
look and be assured that
your principles of and devotion to bust
ness, your labors and energies bestowed to
keep secure and make profitable the in
vestments and property of others, were
appreciated. in some degree, at least, by
those who knew most concerning them.
And when we all shall have laid down
the burdens of life, and be sleeping the
long sleep in the dark house. then NAV