The Waco daily examiner. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 187?-1888, 1884-07-15
The BANK or ENGLAND.
The Great Panic of 1898 and its Eject
The Old Lady of Threadneedlc street.
Bank. Note Eorgeries.
IN. Y. Commercial Advcrtiser.l

The Old Lady of Threadneedle street.
Bank Note Forgeries.
IN Y. Commercial Advcrtiser.l
The excitement in financial circles in |
his city during the past few days gives in.
creasing interest to the panics of the past,
not only i'll this metropolis, but in coun.
tries abroad There was great panic in
the Bank of England in December, 1895,
caused by the redemption of interest On
100000 Of stock held by the public.
The Bank of gland was acting as banker
Tor the nation, and offered to advance
money to the holders of stock to pay off
their principal Investment. This was an
FRA OF speculation, and no less than f312,-
700, or overs 10000, 600 was invested in
all kinds of bogus" stock projects. In
some Of these schemes shares of fl00, ON
which only f5 had been paid, rose to n pre-
MUM of Gao, yielding profit Of eight
times the amount of money paid. Every
thing went merry as a marriage bell for a
time, and large sums had been withdrawn
from the Bank of England, reducing the
gold in its vaults from IS, 900 in Octo-
Der, 1924, to f3,624 1920 in February, 1925.
The panic began ON the 9Th of Decem Der,
1925, when London bank failed at which
the agency of over forty country banks
was transacted, and such reaction was
the necessary result of the pre- vious mad
ness of speculation. Lombard street and
the vicinity of the bank were filled with
excited men and women, some frightened
out of their WITS others raving like ma
MACS. The scenes witnessed in New
Works. financial center the past week We're
of similar nature. The thousands of eX
cited people were waiting eagerly to with
draw their Investments. Next day several
other banks failed. The rush on the Bank
OF England was terrific, but the clerks kept
paying away the gold in bags containing
twenty .iive sovereigns each.
From . O'Clock II. III. until j p. III. each
day twenty-five clerks were engaged III
counting out gold, and as 1T would take
that number Oh clerks to count out Ejo,0JU
in soveregns, if counted by hand, plan
was adol ted 10y which the te.l"rs counted
twenty-five sovereiGnS into one scale and
twenty-five into another, and il the scale
balanced they continued until there were
2lD SOY reign in each scale. In this way
1850 were paid odt in a few minutes, the
weight of 1000 SovaregnS being twenty
one pounds, while jl2 bank notes only
weigh one pound. In this way fil1 900
IN gold was paid out in nine hours to clam
orouS depositors.
Instead of contracting their issues the
directors of theiuank boldly extended them
In one day they discounted 900 bills. Ga
December $ the discounts of the bank
amounte to f1,lDl ,O)); on the 18th they
were eli 800 800; and on the 10Th Go, o00,-
900 ID December 3 the circulation OF the
bank was g., 100000, an on the day be-
fore Chri stmas, December u, it was ElJ,
8 900, or the enormous sum of T12i, 5W,
800. ANY kind of paper that was not all
solutcly worthless was discounted. IRE
/ nieudous advances on deposits OF bills OF
tx change were made by the bank, stock
was entered as security, and eXchequef
bills were purchased. The gallant old in
! stitutiou weathered the storm, aud on the
! 2Gth of December gold began to come IN
! slowly. During the latter part of the
/ panic week a forgotten box of FL notes
containing fIOJ,o)O, was discovered, an'
these were Immediately issued, and Tn
directors acl nowledged that the torgotte
box saved the commercial credit of til
Bank of England. There WAS only E6)l
900 in bullion and f426, 900 in coin when til
great rush stopped. In February, 10,
when the bank suspended cash payments
there was El,0S0,170 in coin and bullion re
naming in the vaults.
In old times great many men wer
hanged for forging Bank OF England note,
In one year, it seems, about 1920, ther
were over one hundred persons convicte
of forgery, and nearly nine hundred wer
convicted of having forged notes in thei
pockets. There are many citizens of Me-
York-;hcugh we'll advanced in years.
who can remember the time-the year Isl
when twenty our persons were hnnSe
in one year for forgeries on the bank.
the wear 1903 there was great forger
committed by IA man named Astlett, vii
was one of the chief cashiers of the banl
The amount was SOL large that it frightenr
everybody. Astlett did THIS work so wei
by reissuing exchequer bills, that he d
frauded the bank out of f32l, 900 before I'll
forgery was detected. One can imagir
the general CONSERVATION. The old go'
ernor of the bank nearly went mad.
The biggest forgery, however, W.
Fnuntleroy's, in 1876 for S3LOO0O Faun
leroy was the head partner in bank
! Berners street, London, that had dealing
with the Bank of England. AS the ban
that lie belonged to was in bad stat
Fauntleroy, in order to keep up its credi
-, went to work and forged powers OF alto
nev of "A lot of wealthy depositors and sol
! out their fuAds yet all the time he VI
i. working in this way he was paying div
:, dends to the men he was robbing. But u
!. crash came at last, and before the poll
- broke into Fauntleroy's house they founc
i note breathing defiance against the bal
-. for having refused to discount his acceI
!. ances, and having thus destroyed the cree
"a of his house. Fauntleroy was hanged
~ his crime, and an eyewitness remarks IN
a all London was present at the execution
n A Fierce Battle for Life.
IAppaa nicola Tribune.l