Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-07-09
BIG BANiSRUPTS.

Modern Men and Enterprises That
Have Reen Forced to the Wall.
From the London Mail.
The sensational, and, to those not in the
know, sudden and unexpected failure of a
man who not long ago was supposed to
have cleared couple of millions sterling
out of q single DEAL recalls to mind several
other similar colossal commercial catas-
trophies.
One of the most dramatic, if not actually
one of the largest, SO far as the liabilities
were concerned, was that of Baron Albert
Grant of Emma mine notoriety. Grant
was the uncrowned king of the financial
world of his day and generation. He made
millions almost as deftly as the lats Mr.
Barney Barnato, and he spent them right
royalty. He bought Leicester square, and
presented it. free gift, TO the people of
London. He gave dinner to nearly a
thousand city magnates, at cost which
was popularity reputed at the time to have
exceeded a hundred guineas a head: and
which, in any event, undoubtedly tablish-
ed a record IN eXtravagant dinner-giving
which has yet to be beaten. And he started
out to build palace In Kensington which
Should knock spots off, all other privats
residences past, present or to come. Every
thing was gotten up regardless of expense.
The ball rCcm walls were inset with panels
of pink italian marble, costing 800 guineas
apiece. In the entrance hall We're four pill
lars of porphyry worth $4,000. The building
was scarcely finished when the crash came,
and it remained for long brick and-mor-
tar white elephant on the hands of the
trustees in bankruptcy. Eventually most
of the interior fittings and decorations were
disposed of piscemeal the grand staircase,
which had cost to build some f40, 900, being
acquired by the representatives of The late
dow The
of that sum. 1t now forms the man ap-
preach to the upper and principal suite of
rooms of the new exhibition buildings in
the Marylebone road.
OF colossal as distinguished from sensa-
tional failures, none has occasioned more
Widespread ruin than that of the great bill
dlscounting house Of Overend, Carney &
Co. This took place on May II, 1866 day
known ever afterward throughout the mer-
camille world by the significant appeiiation
of BLACK Friday The suspension was an
nounced at 10 in the morning and at half
past the Bank of England raised It's rate of
discount to per cent. An hour later the
English Joint Stock Bank and its thirty
branches closed their doors. Next was an
nounced the failure of Messrs. Peto &
Belts, with liabilities estimated ut over
t4,OOO,00O; and by O'Clock in the after
noon more than forty firms had gone under,
including the Imperial Mercantile Credit
Association and the Consolidated Discount
Company. with capitals of f5,0O0000 and
hi,oVt,oSp, respectively. lie panic was Ter
rible, and for months afterward there oc-
CURED, from time to time, other great fall
ures directly attributable to that unparal-
leled financial cataclysm.
One of the most distressing features of
thsse commercial debacles IS that it is
largely the innocent who are involved and
ruined. In thousands of homes today wo-
men and children are suffering for the
criminal recklessness of Jabez Balfour. The
failure of the City Of Glasgow Bank, again,
caused Widespread and acute distress
among the unfortunate shareholders.
1t Is satisfactory to note that, while there
have been several English failures that
have run into eight figures, we by no
means hold record in big bankruptcies"
America has beaten several times with
In the last dozen years or SO; as has also
france, on at least two occasions. The
worlds record, however, rests with Egypt,
whose late ruler, Ismail Pasha, failed in
1876, with personal debts exceeding fa1-
Ooo,009. No other single individual has ever
approached anywhere near to this figure.
Probably no one ever will. Financiers and
merchants are no longer, in these latter de-
generate days, so confiding as they once
were,