St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-10-20
THIS is THE STORY
AS Related by the Party Himself,
Who Was the Unfortunate Vic

tim.
BUSHNELL. Sept. "a, 1SSS.-H. L.
Loucks-Dear Sir: In regard to the
difficulty which had with the First Ma
tional Bank of Brookings, Of which
Hon. G. a. Mathews, believe was then
and still is. the vice president. the fol-
lowing are the facts to which am will
ing to testify.
Being sick and unable to attend to my
business [ applied to H. Fishbaek, cash
Ter Of the First National bank. for q
loan with which to pay store debts and
labor bills. Mr.. FiShback said he would
let me have the money at II per cent in
tereSt and commission OF per cent.
| therefore looked over my accounts and
found that | would need about $500. Mr..
Fishback filled
UP A CHATTEL AIORTG AGE
for this amount, which L signed, but
before delivering the money to me he
presented ME harvester note for pay
ment. l told him had not intended to
pay that note out of the $500. as | had
written to the company asking for an
eXtention, but had not yet received
reply from them. He insisted upon pay
ment, and represented 10 me that he
had instructions to enforce collections
on the note. | told him | did not like to
pay Is per cent on machine note, as l
had to pay double price for the ma
chine He still insisted upon payment
of the note. and thus cOerced me to take
enough money in addition to the $500
which had applied for to pay the note.
l set the time of payment at a time
when | thought | should be able to meet
it from collections on thresil bills which
were then due me, but which l had
failed to collect on account of my sick
ness and severity of the weather At
maturity of this note | had still neglect
ed to collect my thresh bills. and APP
piled to the bank for an extension upon
my note. The cashier said they could
give mean extension on payment, but
said money is now worth
2 PER CENT PER MONTH"
and | was obliged TO pay them this rate,
which | did for twelve months, by pay
ing from time to time in advance So
called commission of l per cent per
month. and letting my note run at II per
cent per annum. At about the expira-
ton of twelve months | applied for a
loan upon my real estate with which to
paw this chattel mortgage which | had
given to the bank. | told the cashier
that l had applied for the loan on my
land. and would pay my note to them as
soon as my loan was completed.
and he agreed to wait OH me till | got
the money on my loan. L had previous
to this given a chattel mortgage upon
nv crops to secure another note to the
harvester company. In this chattel
mortgage was clause making the mort
gage a lien upon my land. | asked in
formation in regard to that clause, but
was induced. under a false representa-
ton. to sign the mortgage, letting the
clause remain as a lien upon my land.
The collection of this harvester note
had been left to the First National bank.
At the completion of the loan on my
land the cashier of the bank presented
while | was ABSENT this harvester note
to my attorney, and drew the money on
that note. which he knew | was intend
ing to use in paying my note to the
bank Upon my calling at the bank to
settle with them the cashier. IL Fish
back. knowing that he had drawn me
short of funds. demanded
TWENTY DOLLARS USURY
of me. and, as | believe, intended to
again coerce me into hiring money from
the bank to pay them what | was lack
ing OIL account of his having collected
the harvester note from my attorney.
Nv reasons for believing that he meant
to thus cOerce me, are these: | told him
| would go out and get the balance
which | lacked, to which he replied,
No, you are here now, and l will
foreclose that mortgage the minute
your back is outside of my office" and
upon my hesitating, he added. You
would not want me to send out and
bring your property in on that mort
gage. would you?' ! replied, mo, of
course l would not, and you could not,
either" He asked, why not" l said,
because 1 could raise the money and
pay that note before you could get the
property in here" to which he replied.
''may-be (?) you could. can fix it so
you can't get any more money"
Those facts occurred while g. A
Mathews was vice president of the
bank. as you will see by copy of the
Brookings County Sentinel, which L
will send you, in which is an open letter
which | wrote to II. Fishback, and in
the same issue is the advertisement of
the First National bank, with q. A.
Mathews vice president. Yours
truly +. L. GARRISON.