The Portland daily press., 1892-12-16

1854 he came to grief by failing, and 1T
was very disastrous failure; owed
large amount and had no assets; those
who had collateral got, more or less what
was due them, but / never heard any
body who had demand against Wills
& Co. that ever got a cent of it. think
he got his discharge in bankruptcy. lie
never went into business again. but
he was on the street for some years.
He inherited considerable property from
his father and also from his uncle Henry
who was a bachelor. Hamilton Wills
died, l think, on the sunny side OF fifty
and left quite property which he had
inherited.
Banking business in Boston and else
where from 1910 to 1856 was very loosely
done. There was no clearing house as
now; but cheques deposited one day
were settled the next day, the messen-
gers of the several banks going round
and settling with each bank. Kltlng
was more common than now; but Willis
had privileges that were quite unusual
even then. AS ] said, he drew cheques
on one bank which were honored with
out funds, which he made good by de-
| posting a cheque on the Merchants
| Bank, which reached there the next day.
| money which came every morning which
was used to make such cheque good.
| This foreign money had to be returned
in New York funds every day, but the
| New York funds could be paid for in
| cheque on the other bank and made
| good as usual with cheque on the Mer-
chants Bank, as usual to be provided
| for the next day. Sometimes in bad
weather the boats did not arrive with
| the usual funds; then it was hard work
to make a good showing to meet the
| cheque of many thousand on the Mer-
chants Bank, and considerable shining
| had to be done But that was only oc-
casionally, and the teller partook of the
general feeling with regard to Willis, and
he managed in some adroit way to span
these gaps. The teller Of the Merchants
Bank was the brokers' friend; besides
thinking Willis was big man, he needed
help himself four times year, when the
| directors were going to examine his cash
account, and he had to gather $75, 900 or
| 100000 to make up his deficiency; and
these money brokers used to make it up
for him for one day. They could afford
to do this four times year for accom-
| modations the other three hundred days,
| though not many of them of the magni-
tude that Willis required. But there
| came a time when it was done
once too often, when six or eight
brokers contributed 100000 which they
never saw again. For change was
made that afternoon and the officials
put a new teller in the old ones place
the next morning. When he was in
formed that he was outside for the time
and no opportunity to right things, he
went into the basement of the bank and
hanged himself. When this happened,
| Willis had failed and had been out of
business for a year, and so was not one
of the furnishers of money nor suffer
err The Merchants Bank knew nothing
of this kind of banking, but considered
all the money in the teller's depart
ment it's own. Well, it was, Thus ey-
er the truth comes uppermost and ever
| is justice done. The writer was one of
| the sufferers for much larger amount
than any accommodation he had ever
had; but he never blamed the Merchants
Bank; it only did what was right under
the circumstances. Such things could
not be done on present methods; and
Willis, with his methods, would not last
a week in this day. So the world moves
and improves as it moves.
SHADOWS.