The Portland daily press., 1893-09-30

ment. 1t was the.unexpected failure of
the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Com
pany' one of the most Important institu-.
lions in the Union, doing an amount OF
business throughout the country of mil
mons OF dollars, and involving many in
dividuals and corporations. This was a
fearful disaster, the first blow to give
pubic confidence black eye Men were
Joltlng and crowding; there was Babel
OF voices and much gesticulating; and
everything on Change bear with quick
er pn lse.
was bomb explosion in money circles,
ness houses began to stop payment; then
Followed panic which during that
month became almost universal. The
BEST OF mercantile paper was at dis
count OF from three to five per cent a
month. Then the big banks began to
topple and fall, one after the other, like
a row OF bricks. First the three leading
sion or most of the banks through that
State, and in Maryland, District of Col
UNI bla and New Jersey Then in other
States, including our own.
A fearful time it was in my good city
And this was true of every other city in
the country, North, South, East and
west. The banks of New York and New
England, however, remained firm far into
October, but then had finally to sue
cumb
The climax of the struggle was reached
on Tuesday, October 13th, the day pre-
cedlng the general suspension Of banks
in New York, and Wall street, as the
great centre of money operations in the
United States, presented scene of wild
excitements. To tell of all that took
place that ever memorable black Tues
daV wnul6
q general run on the banks, and about 40,
600 people were at the same moment In
the street in the proximity of the banks.
Portland was spared just such scene
as that, but nevertheless she was a
great sufferer. Business of all kinds
mere was for the most part at stand
still, and starvation, both of food and
uel, stared the workingman in the face
with the dread approach of winter.
Many of the Oldest and soundest firms
elsewhere went to the wall; fortunes
were swept away in "a twinkling. All
sorts OF means were adopted to realize
ready cash for stocks of goods on hand
at ruinous discounts
In about two months from the time
OF suspension: the banks resumed bust
ness on a specie basis, but it was long
time before trade and industry recovered
from their crippled state!
Apropos of the interview just described
with the veteran Portlander is herewith
appended statement which almost
startingly illustrates the great mercantile
changes and vicissitudes in representa-
tive New England city, even when trade
and business were conducted on legiti-
mate basis. 1t certainly is graphic OBJ
ject lesson on the instability of human
affairs.
General Dearborn, Collector of the
port of Boston for 40 years. who had
ample opportunity for observing the
vicissitudes of trade, found on careful
investigation that among every hun
dred of the merchants and traders of
that city-men exceeded by none else
where for carefulness and stability--not
more than three ever acquired an indie
pendence."
. In 1900 Boston antiquarian took
memorandum of every person doing bust
ness on Long wharf, and in 1910 only five
in one hundred remained all but those
had either failed or died insolvent! In
1898 the Union Bank began business
There was then only one other bank in
Boston. The Union was overrun with
business. And yet an examination
made some fifty years from the starting
of the bank showed that of one thousand
accounts opened at the commencement,
only six remained; all the others had
either failed or died Observation-Disclosures
whose papers had passed without ques-
ton!
If such showing can be found in
readily understand why such astonishing
changes take place In the country at
large IN time of general business nnpanic,
our own lovely and conservative For
est City" not excepted.
CHARLES o. STICKNEY.