The herald., 1894-01-04
THE SEATTLE FASHION.

The scare Of last June's great panic is
long since over, but far from being for
gotten. The herculean efforts of Isaiss
w. Hellman and two or three others OF
our leading financiers, who, to save the
good name of their banks as we'll as
the reputation of the city whose busi-
ness firms had become their tributaries,
risked their private fortunes in stemming
the tide, will live long in the memories
oftheir psnicky but grateful depositors.
Every city on the coast felt the shock
except one, which was Seattle, situated
on Elliott bay, an arm of Puget sound.
Just why that city should have escaped
q single bank suspension was and has
been the mystery which, ss the Ia
mented Lord Dundreary would say. "No
fellah can find out" Its oldtime COM
mercial rival, Tacoma, had three sus-
pensions, and two Of them had quite a
time resuming; Spokane, town forth
fed largely by Seattle capital in her
early days, had every bank closed be-
tween sun and sun; and Portland,
which in 1880 was rated as having the
largest amount of money per capita OF
any American city, had six banks sus
pend, of which four have not resumed
up to the present writing. How, then,
did Seattle escape the crashf
Simply by unity OF action. Itwas one
for all and all for one. Every here
knows that while Los Angeles had the
greatest boom ever known on the Pacific
coast, she is mot in it" with Seattle ae
Q boom town. Seattle has about half
our population and twice our number of
real estate agents, while the number of
''boosters" who figure from time to time
as grantees in ''wash sales" of suburban
property would fill pretty good sized
town by themselves. Los Angeles h g
grown, since the opening OF 1890, upon
the healthiest of conditions, expanding
in q nice proportion to her tributary
country, which is the richest as well as
the healthiest portion of the American
sentiment.
Seattle, on the other hand, has no
broad acres of waving corn or orange
groves that recall the tabled orchards of
the Hesperidea She ia located at the
west end of az dense forest of fir and
hemlock as ever rang with the war cry
of the red man or gave shelter to the
red deer. Once out of her city limits
you pass few struggling milk ranches
and market gardens, and then comes the
somber forest with its silent colonnades
OF ancestral pines, dark and gloomy as
in the day when the warlike Klickitats
crossed the great Cascade range to exter.
inmate the little band of hardy pioneers
who had erected their huts on Alki
point. All the comparisons between the
two cities, therefore. are in favor of Los
Angeles, which had her share of the
financial panic, while Seattle had none.
How the latter city escaped it. is told q
member of the HERALD staff by gem
sieman of that city now climate refu-
gee under our own balmy skies.
The oldest banker in the place looked
out with the eye of veteran mariner,
and read in the clouds to the southwark
the advent of the gathering storm. On
the day of the Portland panic came
rumblings OF discomfort and lack of con-
fidence at Los Angeles. San Francisco
herself, the money center OF the coast,
was in none to good position. His own
bank, for years the only one on allsthe
shores of that great inland sea, was by
long odds the richest OF all in the north
west, but even be had doubts of his
ability to meet the opportunities OF all
his creditors In single day. He there.
fore arranged for secret meeting to be
held that night, composed ot all the
bank presidents and cashieIs in the
city.
Promptly at the hour named the