The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-07-17

start, ran its way up and down the
street, and some of those who had con-
templated withdrawing their deposits,
put their check books away and waited.
Even the faint-hearted directors re-
vived and the bank paid each of the
+, county treasurers checks as it was pre-
sented with all of the dignity of indie
pendence. The First National bank
was ready to do anything in its power
it only awaited a formal request.
Other banks also expressed their
friendlneSs.
One hundred and fifty thousand dol
lars of the borrowed money was to be
delivered on Nov. IA. That morning
President Coolbaugh was found dead
at the foot of the Douglas monument
with a bullet hole in his temple. His
bank, fearing for it's own safety, re-
fused to advance the promised money.
The First National bank followed its
example. New York long since had re-
fused a friendly hand-and the Third
National bank found itself deeper
than ever in the mesheS of misfortune.
About this time the park commits
sioners discovered suddenly that there
was a. large block of bonds not yet due
which they could pay. OF course they
wished to save interest-and they
withdrew more than 100000 all in a
day. o.
On Oct. 1 the bank had cash re-
sources amounting to $966530, with to-
tai assets of $S,91O.S91. By Nov. q the
cash had Shriveled away to 1888, 903, and
the total resources to 81, ZAP, 907-and the
big bank with it's thousands of assets
was as helpless as a child.
on Nov. u committee of bankers
from the clearing house association
came in soberly by a side door, like
physicians to a sick bed. They nosed
through the ledgerS, peered into the
vaults and asked questions. Then they
went away and decided that inasmuch
as the old bank was soon to die, it bet
ter be put quietly out of its misery.
The clearing house association wrote
its death warrant, refusing to have
any further transactions with it and re-
solving in formally worded resolutions
that it be suspended"
The next morning this epitaph ap-
peared on the bank door:
THIS BANK IS CLOSED.
..-s-..-....---
Wheat fell 2 cents, pork 10 cents, and
the market in the board of trade closed
weak. Some of the stockholders of the
defunct bank offered in alright to quit
their claims to their holdings to any
one who would assume the liability of
assessment. They were the same ones
who had disclosed an alarming symp-
tom of the banks condition on the week
before by offering their high-priced
stock as far below par as 80. They had
no takers.
The earliest report on the condition
of the bank, made by the receiver. Col
onel Huntington w. Jackson, showed
that the nominal assets were about
$1,000, 600, and the debts were about
Sl,0O0,OO0, leaving a nominal 100000 to
pay the stock liability of $3.50. 900. On
paper 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
scheduled at boom prices and taken as
the only available payment for money
loaned. There was too much "slow'i
paper and not enough short" paper.
OF the real estate, one tract of 100
acres lay on a barren sand ridge near
the lake shore. and nearly ten miles
southeast of the city hall. in wholly
unsettled part of suburb. Another
tract of forty-fve' acres was nearly as
far to the west of the city on the bare
fiat prairie, where there was little pros
pect of its ever being anything more
than cabbage patch. Still another
piece of property lay far out in the
southwestern portion of the city, in a
ASSAOH do yet Utmost wholly undevel-
oped and promising little immediate
growth except in taxes and special as
sessments. There was a score of other
lots and parcels of land, some in New
York City, and a great quantity of pa
per, much of it more or less doubtful.
or wholly worthless-the "cats and
dogs" of defunct bank In fact IT
seemed to some of the ninety stock
holders that it would hardly nav tbe
bank TO retain its property and meet
the expenses of management.
But the receiver was a man of wide
resources and Astounding faith. No one
could foresee the growth of Chicago
especially in the gloomy panic days of
the middle '70's, and yet there were
many men in Chicago who had supreme
confidence in the city and its future
The receiver was one of these.
A little more than three months after
the closing of the bank-on Jan. n
lSfS-the depositorS received a Dividend
OF 40 per cent A month later 10 per
cent more was paid, all from the ready
assets and cash of the bank. Before
the close of 1879 30 per cent more had
been distributed, and then the receiver
began to reach the property that had
been marked doubtful" BY the pro-
cess known as Squeezing" and the
sacrifice of some of the choicer pieces
Of real estate, he managed to nav two
other dividends of 5 per cent each be-