The Portland daily press., 1897-02-27
SAVINGS BANK ROMANCES.
Experienc Told by Presidents OF Ne"
York Institutions.

If one has the good luck to get several
presidents of savings banks together
and, when they are through with talking
business. hear them exchange interesting
experiences, he will have an enJosa oie
hour. Here are some of the things whlcN
will be likely to hear, or might nave
heard any time within the last few years.
Imagine a group of presidents seated
around glowing sea coal fire in the lux
urious office of one of them. latter 0he
conversation has become general, as
some of the novel writers say MT. "a
discourses to this effect:
az don't know whether any OF the resi-
of Won have ever had anything Ike thls
in your experience or not. 1t Is against
the rules, of courfe, for our bank taKe
obarge of the books of any of the deposl-
tors but I ust plead guilty to violating
the rule. to a certain extent, myseH. III
one of the drawers in my desk, Tor the
last six or seven years, I have kepb 1he
book OF q woman, who opened an ac-
count that long ago. AS soon as she hao
done SO she oaIce to me and toisi me d
luo ing tale of the cruelty OF her nus
band, saving that he would give ner no
peace day or night if he knew sh" had
put money in bank. She was afraid TO
take the book homo with her, as she mad
no place to conceal it where he could not
fini 1t, and she didn't want to tell any
friend about what she was doing unbe-
knoynst. as sh. might have said. go she
Begged me-, " it'll tears in her eyes, TO al
low her to leave it with me, and as per-
sonal favor l nssnted to take charge OF
it. Every now and then she comes ID
here. asks for the book, takes it out to
make her deposit, and then returns 1t to
me. Her account now amounts to
about $500. And think I can soy that
| have never suffered from "a prtcking of
conscience because of having winked at
a viola ion of a rule of the bank. ="
Mr.. A. having been acquitted by the
unanimous silence of his confrsress
President B. began TO speak. = don't
want to bore any of you who may have
heard this before" he remarked, but 1T
certainly was q singular experience.
Some years ago Woodworking mechanic
ouened an account i'll our bank, to
which he added regularly for some time.
After that for long period the account
lay dormant, growing by the addition OF
the interest until it amounted to about
So, 200. In some way an unscrupulous
lawyer heard of it, and, after the man
ner OF his kind, went to the meobaaic
with a plausible tale. What will you
give me- he asked. il will prove to
YOU that there is @ sum of several thous-
and dollars due you, and put you in the
way of getting the money!" The me
chsnic was naturally astonished. and
was easily prevailed on by the smooth
tongued lawyer to sign contract that, If
the lawyer could make out such case
RS he said he could, the money would be
divided between them. Thereupon the
lawyer let out his secret. THE money
is due you, he said, from such and such
a savings bank 'Oh, know all about
that replied the mechanic. i have
known all along that I had the money
there But the lawyer Haunted the COLI
tract In the mans face, and, though it
was a plain case of fraud. the man be-
Iieved it was valid contract. and actu-
ally gave the scoundrel lawyer half the
amount in the bank.
After suitable interval President
G. took up the tale. 81 don't know that
can do BETTER he began, ethan to tell
little story which I heard few years
ago from the president of one of the
Brooklyn banks, and / shhll try to tell it
az nearly as possible in his own words,
as | recall them: AS was sitting in
my office one day one of the young men
in the bank came to me and showed me
a book which bore date Of many years
before. He said it had been brought in
by All old woman. 1 told him to send
her to me. On inquiry learned that
she could neither read nor write, but
she said the book belonged to her, and
she had put money in the bank long
time before. AS nearly rs she could re-
member the amount was about $500.
anu several UlEucS, pUlHtih& III t4o oooA,
she asked anxiously if 1t was not all
there. ! assured her that it was, and
proceeded to question her as to why she
had left the account 80 long undisturbed.
She said that many years before SIZE had
been employed as q servant in Brooklyn,
and had taken all she could spare from
her wages and put the money in the
bank. After time Hhe went away from
the city, and had never set foot in it IN
til that day. She was getting old, and
thought it would be good thing to so
and get her money. Again she asked if
it was all there, indicating the book.
and of course I told her it was all right,
except the interest-a word that seemed
TO convey no idea to her mind be-
came convinced that she was entitled to
the money, and told one of the clerks to
write up the book just as though it had
been An active account all the time.
When his work was done found that
the amount due the old woman was