The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1885-08-22
MILLIONS IN IT.
Lively Scene in the 49, Clearing
Hot
Big Transactions in Cash and Securities
That Must Come Out Even to Penny
How One Bank Squares Its
Accounts with Another.

"I'll venture to say" remarked a
bank official, chat an average of a
score of people a week ask me how the
Clearing House is run. Even business
men, who would naturally be expected
to know all about it, make these in
quiries. The public seems to have a
vague idea that the Clearing House is
a place where the banks make
their daily settlements with each other,
but further than that there seems to be
general ignorance, ;" This remark was
corroborated by Secretary Smith, of
the Clearing House, who observed that
not one person in a hundred, appar-
emily, knows how the clearing opera
ton IS conducted. just before eleven
O'Clock every day the clerks of every
bank in the city collect all the checks
and drafts drawn upon the other
banks, tie each bank S in bundle and
place the whole in a satchel. This
satchel is delivered to a MESSENGER.
who is also given large blank about
the size of legal cap, upon which are
printed the, names of all the banks.
Opposite these names are set down the
amounts of the checks and drafts be-
longing to each bank. The messenger
is also given small blank upon which
is written the total of all the paper
placed in the satchel.
Three or minutes before eleven
O'Clock each business day thirty-eight
young men gather in a room at 80
LaSalle street. Nineteen of them have
the little satchels full of checks and
drafts. These are messengers, and as
they enter the room they deliver to the
Secretary the small blank which bears
the amount of all the paper in the
satchels. This is the Chicago Clear
ing House, and eleven o'clock is the
clearing hour. The other nineteen
young men are the settling clerks-each
bank, therefore, being represented bv
two men. The nineteen settling clerks
take up their stations inside a
large semi-circle desk, with
numbered windows. Each has
upon it corresponds to the number
given his bank on the large blanks.
The nineteen messengers take up their
stations outside the desk, the clerk and
messenger of each bank facing each
other. A few seconds before eleven
Secretary Smith taps bell and the
thirty-eight young men stop their chat
ter and joking. At exactly eleven the
Secretary taps the bell again, and away
they go. 1t is not unlike grand right
and left in the quadrille, every measure
of the music meaning million of
money. Stepping to the next window
each messenger throws down upon the
counter bundle of bank paper, taking
this bundle from the many other bun
dies which fill his arms. He also hands
to the settling clerk behind the counter
the large blank. The settling clerk
signs his name or initials beside the
amount already written there opposite
the name of his bank and returns the
blank to the messenger. Stepping
quickly to the next window the mes
senger passes another bundle of paper
over to the clerk of another bank, gets
his rece pit, and then goes to smother,
and another, and so on around the big
desk. The other eighteen messengers
have followed him, and in five minutes
all reappear at their own windows.
In these five minutes from seven million
dollars to ten million dollars of checks
and drafts have changed hands. Each
bank has delivered to the representa-
tive of the other banks its accumula-
tions of their paper. taking that repre-
sentative's receipt therefor, and re-
ceiyed its own paper in return. Before
each settling clerk lies big pile of
checks. The messenger gathers them
up and returns to the bank where he
and they belong. The settling clerks
do not count the checks and drafts de-
livered to them. They receipt at once,
taking it for granted that the amount
set down is correct. Lists of these
checks are kept, and in case of errors