Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1885-03-21
The Treasury Watchdog.

! is lOOKCu upon a. the Hfnl, umCOm-
promising opposcr of all jobs on
the L. s., Treasury. lie poses us
the man who can't be bought or in
Inundated, by the railroads, and is
frequently pointed TO as II model
scentcr of mrighteous schemes,
and according to the story told be-
below, he may be said to be a
model "centre" of schemes.
About Dec. l, 1884, the Middle
town Ny. National Bank failed. An
interesting account of the failure is
published by the y. Y. Times from
which few extracts are taken:
The substance of the whole affair
is this: Benjamin ID. Brown, a
grain Spectator, brought up in this
region, and n man who had been
somewhat prominent in county af-
fairs, succeeded in gaining the UNI
limited confidence of the president
of the bank, Mr.. King, and of its
Board of Directors. Some of
Browns ventures were wild almost
to to the limit of Imagination, but
he was a good talkcr, and succeed
ed in making other people believe
in him. King was in partnership
with him in some in some creamery
business, and used to allow him to
draw on the banks money. Last
Summer the Government found it
out and ordered halt. No halt
was taken. Brown continued to
speculate and to borrow, raising
plenty of money on his bills Of
lading, which he offered as security.
These bills of lading were attached
to drafts and sent to the Middle
town Bank for collection. King
used to take off the securities and
send them back to Brown, who
promptly used them again as a
basis for borrowing more money to
| buy more grain. Brown drew
money from the bank in other ways,
but it was in this way that he
swamped it within 20 days. Ii was
impossible to ward off the resist
less tide of drafts which there was
no money in the vaults to meet.
The bank went under.
The Directors profcsScd to be
stupcficd with amazcmcnt. There
were eight of them besides Presi-
dent King-lI. K. Wilcox, A. J..
Vail, Judge J. G.. Wilkin, ID. G..
Duscnbury, United States Senator
c. III. Van Wyck, of Nebraska !;
Daniel Corwin, the Cashier; IL. 7.
Hayes, and W. I'll. Clark.
!. !: = >:
Senator Van Wyck was called
from Washington. He came and
found that matters were very much
worse than he had supposed.
Brown was called, too, and made
what the Directors believed to be
an assignment of all his property.
He got off the tram at Goshen on
his way to New York and raised
loan on some bonds which he had
in his pocket all the time he was
talking with the Directors. 1t was
said on Browns behalf aftcrward
that these bonds were not his to
assign.
x x x x x x
The Governor sent Bank Exam
liner George T. May here to straight
en- out matters. lie found no diff
fculty in following the banks
transactions with Brown on the
books. If the Directors did not
find them it was because they failed
to look. The Examiner did find
difficulty, though, in discovering
any trace of a private memorandum
book kept by Mr.. King. After u
while Mr.. May sent IL his report
and the Controller of the Currency,
Mr.. Cannon, sent A. W. Blye, of
Syracuse, as Receiver, to wind up
the affairs of the bank. Mr.. Blve's
arrival was not hailed with delight
by those interested in having anOth-
er man. Senator Van Wyck had
urged the appointment of Il resident
of this town who was presumed to
be friendly to the Directors. The
Controllers action in sending an
old friend of his own who knew
more about banking did not meet
with popular favor. However, Mr..
Blye has gone quietly about his
work, cutting off irregularities at
the root wherever he found them.
x x :; = 4
1t is said here that the Control
Ter of the Currency would like to
sec any guilty parties punished.
But any action seems almost sure
TO involve the Directors, and all of
them, Senator Van Wyck particu-
larly, arc prominent and influential
men.