The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1899-10-05
A ROMANCE OF BANKING
holders Twenty Years After
. RailuFo.


- -
More than 20 years ago the Thirt
national hank of Chicago formal,
closed it, doors and . receiver was up
pointed to satisfy the depositors. Som,
Of the stockholders feared an immedi
ate assessment for the payment Of La
bilities and offered to give their stool
to anyone who would assume its obliga
tons. To-day this stock is held at near
" double its par value, and It b re
garded a. gild-edged security. Within
five years, although the bank has re
ceived no deposits, made no loans, f.
sued no currency, sold NO drafts, Il
has paid two dividends to its stockhold.
ers and promises many more. The
very name of the bank has been for.
gotten. except by a few gray-healed
men who are personally interested in
its affairs. Moreover. it is unique in
being q corporation having large assets
and NO liabilities beyond the obligation
to its stockholders.
The earliest report on the condition
Of the bank, made by the receiver, Col.
Huntington w. Jackson, showed that
the nominal assets were about $780,
600 and the debts were nearly $1,000,-
300, leaving . nominal $500, 900 to pay
the stock liability of $3.50. 900. Onpaper
this looked most encouraging, but a
close examination showed that many
of the loans of the bank. made in flush
times, were secured by collaterals of
uncertain value, and real estate sched-
uled at boom prices and taken as the
only available payment for money
loaned. There was too much "slow"
paper and not enough "short" paper.
OF the real estate, one tract of 100
acres lay on barren sand ridge near
the lake shore and nearly ten miles
southeast of the city hall, in wholly
unsettled part of a suburb. Another
tract of As acres was nearly as far to
the west of the city on the bare fat
prairie, where there was little prospect
of it's ever being anything more than
a cabbage plant. Still another piece of
property lay far out in the southwest
ern portion of the city, in region as
yet almost wholly undeveloped and
promising little immediate growth, ex-
cept in taxes and special assessments.
There was a score of other lots and
parcels of land, some in New York city,
and great quantity of paper, much of
it more or less doubtful or worthless.
In fact, it seemed to some of the 90
stockholders that it would hardly pay
the bank to retain its property and
meet the expenses of management.
+. BY the process known as ''squeez-
ing" and the sacrifice of some of the
choicer pieces of real estate the re-
ceiver managed to pay before the close
Of 1881 the depositors the face value
of their claims. A year later they re-
ceived their interest in full, and the
stockholders were left, nearly five years
after the close of the bank. with a score
Of pieces of expensive real estate, most
of which had comparatively little pres
ent cash value, and quantity of doubt
full claims and lawsuits, the legacy of |
the panic.
But Chicago was growing. The sub !!
urb in which the hundred-acre tract |
was located became part of the city. |
A cable line reached down and almost |
touched it; an electric line dropped |
passengers Immediately in front of it;
an elevated railroad approached it
within half dozen blocks. Early in |
the nineties the worlds fair found root |
in Jackson park, which adjoined the
tract Immediately on the north. A city |
of great hotels, apartment houses and
residences sprang suddenly into ex-
istence around it. and Chicago was a !
city far out beyond the park.
In July, 1891, the receiver called the
together and laid before
them an offer of $1,000, O0O for the de-
spised 100 acres of land, and the stock.
holders. upon mature elaboration, re-
jected it, feeling that it would be worth
much more few years later. If the
offer had been accepted it would have
paid of not only the entire capital
stock of s750,00O, but it would have left
q comfortable $250,OOO to be divided
among the stockholders for their pa
icnce. In a manner hardly less re-
the 45-acre cabbage patch be-
came valuable. Car lines passed it, the
suburb of Oak Park, itself a consider
able city. grew out around it, and every
year has added thousands of dollars
% its value.
And SO it happened that in 1893 the
receiver was able to pay q dividend Of
EN- per cent. to the stockholders, and
,e followed it in 1895 with q second div.
dend of five per cent. |,
And thus, by a combination of good
'ortune, shrewd management and pa
fence, the Third national bank now
the spectacle. probably un-
'qualled In finance, of a business insti.
ution for 20 years defunct, and yeti ]
aging dividends on stock worth near. ,
twice its par value.-Chicago Even.
ng News.
Edible Birds Nests.
The nests Of the little swift e kind OF ,
gathered along the rncLv ,