Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1899-12-09
A ROMANCE OF BANKING.
0are Good Fortune of Chicago Stocks
holders Twenty Years After
Failure.

| closed it's doors and Il receiver was an.
| 2oiEted to satisfy the depositors. Some
! 81 the stockholders feared an i1nmed-
ate assessment for the payment OF LA
Utilities and offered to give their stock
/ to anyone who would assume its ohliGa-
lions. To-day this stock is held at near
1 " double its par value, and it is re-
sardcd as gild-cdged security. Within
live years, although the baull has re-
uivcd no deposits, made no loaus, is
! sued no currency, sold no drafts, Il
has paid Two dividends to its stockhold-
ers and promises many more. The
very name of tho bank has been for
! gotten, except by a few gray-hcaded
men who are personally Interested in
It's affairs. Moreover, it is unique in
being a corporation having large assets
md no liabilities beyond the obligation
to its stockholders.
(! The earliest report on the condition
| Of the bank, made BY the receiver, Col.
Harrington w. jackson, showed tEnt
the nominal assets were about Sl,S0o,-
)VO and the debts were nearly 1000.
100, leaving nominal SSCO,0OO to pay
the stock liability Of $3.50, 600. On paper
his looked most encouraging, but a
close examination showed that 1nlE:S
Of the loans of the bank. made in flush
times, were secured by colaterals OF
uncertain value, and real estate sched-
nicd at boom prices and taken rs the
oniy available payment for money
loaned. There was too much slow
paper and not enough short" paper.
OF the real estate, one tract Of 100
n n h nd RI
The lake shore and nearly ten miles
southeast Of the city hall, in wholly
unsettled part Of II suburb. Another
r;,ct Of As acres was nearly as far to
the west OF the city on the bare fat
prairie, where there was little prospect
Of its ever being anything more than
u cabbage plant. Still another piece Of
property lay far out in the southwest
ern portion of the city, in a region as
yet almost wholly undeveiuped and
promising little immediate growth, eX-
rcpt in taxes and special assessments.
There was q 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 "squceZ-
ING" and the sacrifice Of some Of the
&hoiccr pieces Of real estate the re
ceivcr managed to pay before the close
Of 1881 the dcpositors the face value
rcivcG their interest in full, and the
II u,
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 a quantity Of doobt-
u! claims and lawsuits, the legacy Of
the panic.
. Eut Chicago was growing. The sub
urb in which the hundree-acre tract
was located became & par; CT the city.
x cable line reached down and almost
touched it; an electric line dropped
passengers Immediately in front Of it;
m elevated railroad approached it
within half q dozen blocks Early in
the ninctics the worlds fair found root
IN jackson park, which adjoiEed the
tract immediately on the north. a city
OF great hotels, apartment houses and
residences sprang suddenly into cx-
|lstence around it, and Chicago was &
city far out beyond the park.
! In July, 1891, the receiver called the
stockholders together and laid before
them an offer Of 81 100000 for the de-
spiscu 100 acres OF land, and the stock
holders, upon ma ture elaboration, re-
Jected it, feeling that it would be worth
much more few years later. II the
offer had been accepted it would have
paid OFF not ouly the entire capital
stock of SI15o,0LD, but it would have left
q comfortable S250,00O 10 be divided
among the stockholders for their pa
iencc. In manner hardly less re-
markablc the 4;-acre cabbage patch be-
came valEablel Car lines passed it. the
able city, grew out around it, and every
year has adIe thousands Of dollars
to its value.
And SO it hal opened that in 1893 the
receiver was al: le to pay a dividend OF
ten per cent. tx, the stockholders, and
he followed it in 1895 with a second div
dcnd Of five pc5' cent.
And thus, by q combination of good
fortune, shrewd management and pa
he'Ace, the Third natonaY bank now
D PRESENTS the spectacle, probably IN
equalled in tina,3ce. OF a business insti-
iution for 20 years dcfuEct, and yet
payin" dividends on stock 'a;orth near
ly twice it's par value.-Chieago Even
ing News.
/