The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-20
THE NEW YORK CLEARING HOUSE
What a Visitor Sees in this Great Bus
mess institution

What Visitor Sees in this Great Bus
mess Institution.
New YORK, April 1S.-One day lately
| had the opportunity to visit the New York
Clearing House in company with a gentle
man well known in banking circles and a
personal friend of Mr. j. d. Vermilye,
Chairman of the Clearing House Associa-
ton. 1t is pleasant to fancy that one has
| unusual opportunities, but whether this
merits the adjective Or not, what was seen
seems to be worth a paragraph. The place
certainly has reputation of inaccesSlbllty
| like the vaults of the Sub-Treasury, and
the amount of form used in conducting a
| visitor about is more than enough to make
| him value his privilege.
The Clearing House is down town, in
what would be called ''the CITY," if New
York copied LCndon's business terms, where
Pine and Nassau streets intersec:, and
diagonally across from the Sub-Treasury
building. 1t is structure of brown stone,
dignifed enough, but inconspicuous. The
building was purchased by the Clearing
House Association in 1870, and remodeled
to adapt it for the purposes which it has
since served.
But once within the guarded doors, the
visitor, however little of a banker he may
be, receives the impression that this place
is in effect what it is in fact, the quintes-
sence Of many banks. Even the hall and
stairway leading up to the clearing room
though done i'll an unobtrusive scheme of
decoration, initiates the traveller with
proper appreciation of his good fortune. An
impressive and heavy air hangs over these
Ginger pointed halls of wealth"
The counting room is large, rectangular
hall, nearly ninety feet long, with three
lines of counters, containing twenty-five
desks, each extending nearly its whole
length. At one end is an elevated platform
where the officer, who had us in charge,
conducted us, and there we met the man
ager, who had just arrived and was waiting
tor 10 O'Clock, when the days business be-
gins.
The manager, Mr. William A. Camp, is a
man approaching 70, and has held his pres
emit position since August, 1864. He has
shrewd, penetrating but kindly eyes, a
high, broad forehead and aquiline nose. He
came to New York from Connecticut and
began his business career as a merchant.
This he soon relinquished for banking,
calling for which he has unusually pro-
nounced qualifications. This is not the OK
preston of my opinion, for, of course;,-I
could form none on the subject, but found
it easy to accept it ready made after being
told that in the twenty-four years he has
held the helm, the clearing house has
handled over $500, 900, 100000, without the
the loss of a cent.
1t was now 10 o'clock, and Mr. Camp
struck a gong. Instantly the clerks took
their places at their respective desks, each
of which represents bank; there being "a
banks, or members of the ass citation at
present Running his eye down the length
of the room, the manager announced
''ready" and struck the gong again. Then
the delivery clerks of each bank began a
slow and solemn procession, each one NOV
ing to the next desk in front of his own, de-
posting upon it the exchanges of that bank,
then proceeding to the next; and so on
until each had made the circuit of the room,
having visited the desks of all the 81 banks
and delivered the proper exchanges to each.
This long moving line of deliveries holds
the attention of the spectator. 1t is made
up Of men of every age, from youth Just
of age, with bright and attractive face to
an old man, grav-headed and dignified, who
has made that trip daily for forty years.
The rest of the business-that done by the
accountants and settling clerks at their
desks is far less interesting and less easily
und rstood yet one need have very little
knowledge of accounting. provided he has
conception of pantomime, TO see that the
clerks at the desks are doing vast quantity
of work with great rapidity and correctness.
| Further than this the average visitor never
gets, buth there is enough on the surface to
keep him interested until 1913, when the
proofsh ct, made upon the platform out Of
all the reports handed in by the various
clerks, receipts and deliveries, credit and
debit balances, appears and stands as the
key for the settlement Of all the days
transactions. The pantOmimic exhibition
of lightning speed holds the most frivilous
spectator until the manager observes that
the allotted time is up and announces,
Proof is made" w. i. S.