The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-02-07
SAVINGS BANK ROMHNCES
INTERESTING EXPERIENCES TOLD
By THE PRESIDENTS.
Strange Things Sometimes Happen
Behind the Doors of These
PrOsaic Institutions.
New York Tribune.


his great romance. which the monthly mag
azines will vie with each other TO secure
the right of publishing serially. and which,
in book form. is sure, in the authors mind,
10 run through edition after edition with
marvellous rapidity. The usual conception
of such a bank is that it keeps going
through a humdrum. prosaic round. The
telers and clerks are constantly busted
with pass books and cash books and
iedgers. and large numbers of people, most
of them of an undressing type. come in
from time TO time TO make deposits, con-
sisting largely of greasy bills or tightly
clutched coins.
True. there are vast sums Of money ham
died. and if you chance to get the ear of
one of the bank officers he will discourse
as readily of the millions of dollars worth
of securities deposited in the vaults under
his care as the average dry-goods clerk
does of the wares he offers to people on the
other side Of the counter. There is some
thing beyond the grasp of the common
mind in deposits that run up as is the case
with one of the New York savings banks,
to more than $50.00O00O. and it gives one
pause to be told that the interest paid by
this bank to its more than 1000 depositors
amounts TO upward of s., 600 900 annually.
mat truth is stranger than fiction, or at
any rate sometimes as strange can, how
ever, be learned behind the doors of a com
monplace savings bank though the clerks
porting over the big blank books from morn
ing till night may know il not Many ac-
counts in these banks are opened by people
OF little means. and the sums to their credit
gradually accumulate from small begin
nings. Thousands OF them have only
limited education. and it is hard for them
TO reallze that they are to get the benefit
OF the interest accruing on their money
unless they actually see the amount entered
IN their pass books every six months
Some even go further. The figures are not
d dIe IN for them m They must see and ham
uie the cash for themselves TO be con-
Vlnced SO 1t sometimes happens that one
OF these doubling Thomases will present
ms book TO a paying teller and have the
interest que him counted out, and then,
without leaving the bank, will join the line
on the other side of the room and deposit
1t again.
If one has the good luck to get several
presidents of savings banks together, and,
when they are through with talking bust
ness, near them exchange interesting ex-
periences, he will have an enjoyable hour
Here are some of the things which he will
De likely to hear, or might have heard any
time within the last few years. Imagine
a. group of presidents seated around a
glowing sea coal fire in the luxurious office
or one of them. After the conversation nas
feet:
VIOLATED A RULE.
Il don't know whether any of the rest of
you have ever had anything like this in
your experience or not. 1t is against the
rules. OF course, for our bank to take
charge of the books of any of the deposit
ors. but L must plead guilty to violating
the rule TO certain extent. myself. In
one of the drawers in my desk for the last
six or seven years, l have kept the book
of a woman who opened an account that
long ago. AS soon as she had done so she
came to me and told me a moving tale OF
the cruelty of her husband saying that
he would give her no peace day or night.
If he knew she had put money in bank.
She was afraid to take the book home
with her. as she had place to conceal
it where he could not find il, and she didn't
want 10 tell any friend about what she was
DONG unbeknowlst, as she might have
said. SO she begged me, with tears in her
eyes to allow her to leave ii with me. and
as a personal favor / consented TO take
charge of 1t. Every now and then she
comes in here, asks for the book takes III
out to make her deposit and then returns
1t 10 me- Her account now amounts TO
about $500. And think L can say that /
have never suffered from a pricking of con-
science because of having winked at a vio-
lation of rule of the bank"
Mr.. n. having been acquitted by the unan-
imous silence OF his confreres. President b.
began to speak. II don't want to bore any
of you who may have heard this before ''
he remarked, but ii certainly was a sim
gular experience. Some years ago a hard
working mechanic opened an account i'm
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
10 about $500 In some way an unscrupu-
lous lawyer heard of it. and after the man
to obo, to ,;.I.
a plausible tale. What will you give me,
he asked, If | will prove to you that there
Is u sum of several thousand dollars due
you, and put you in the way of getting
the money? The mechanic was naturally
astonished, and was easily prevailed on by
the smooth-tongued lawyer to sign a con-
tract that if the lawyer could make ont
such a case as he said he could the money
should be divided between them. There
money is due YOU he said. from such and
such savings bank. oh / know all
about that replied the mechanic: i have
there But the lawyer Haunted the con
tract in the mans face, and though 1t was
a plain case of fraud, the man believed ii
was a valid contract and actually gave the
scoundrel lawyer half the amount in the
bank
A SURPRISED DEPOSITOR.
After a suitable interval. President C.
took up the tale. IT don't know that l can
do better" he began, than to tell little
story which heard few years ago from
the president of one of the Brooklyn banks.
and shall try to tell il as nearly as posi-
BILE in his own words, as I recall them:
AS / sitting in my office one day one
of the young men in the bank came to me
and showed me a book which bore the date
of many years before. He said it had been
brought in by an old woman. I told him
TO send her to me. On inquiry I 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 as she could remember
the amount was about $500, and several
times. pointing to the book. she asked
anxiously if it was not all there. 1 assured
her that it was and proceeded to question
her as to why she had left the account so
| long undisturbed. She said that many years
! before she had been employed as a servant
| in Brooklyn. and had taken all she could
! I'm bank. After a time she went away from
/ the city and had never since set foot in ii
/ dntil that day. She was getting old and
/ thought IL would be good thing TO go and
! get her money. Again she asked If il was
| all there, indicating the book and of course
/ told her it was all right. except the in
| tereSt-a word that seemed TO convey nc
! idea to her mind. / became convinced that
| she was entitled TO the money and told
one of the clerks to write up the book just
| as though IL had been an active account
| all the time. When his work was done
found that the amount due the old woman
| was about $1,000. She was simply daZeC
and asked how il could be. l explained as
we'll as l could about the interest. but she
was unable to understand il. Overcome By
/ her feelings she burst into tears when the
money was brought 10 her oh sir she
said. you don know what you have done