The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-13
SOME RoMANcEs OF A BANK.
Money Centre of a World in Thread
 needle Street.

Money Centre of a World in Thread
 needle Street.
 New York World.
 The Bank of England-that rambling, ramshackle. loose jointed structure of gray stone, blackened by centuries of London smoke, London grime and Lon- don soot. and. forming an almost com plete square from Threadneedle Street n the south to Coleman Street in the north, dces not at first slgL. seem like ly place for romance, and yet its history teens with stories of love, hatred, ambi- ton, rascality and adventure.
 W iliam Paterson, who at one time Of his life controlled every privateer that ,- ran the Spanish main, was the founder of the bank. He laid the foundation of his fortune in the buying and selling Of slaves and the clearing of 100000 pounds as his snare of the gold found on the sunken Spanish galleon. It was with this 100000 pounds and the profit derived from his buccaneering expedition that Pater- son, banished to Holland by James H., and the implacable enemy of the Stuarts, found part of the money for the Prince of Oranges expedition across the Boyne.
 Concurrently with the advent of Nn- liam III. on the throne of England, the l.st plans for the foundation of a na- tioLal bank were made, and those who know Of the inside history of those times doubt not that William III. was indeed, the mosing spirit of the scaeme and that Pate.sOn was his official tool and mouthpiece al the weekly meetings or famous gatherings of hnancIers known as the N e4nesday Cub.
 Blood red in the annals Of the bank lives the story Cf ChaIIes Water God- frey, partner of Paterson. Crossing the channel in the teeth of a fierce storm and laden with 6J.vVv pounds ($s0O,O0O) in drafts for the aid of King Wiiliam. at that time besieging Namur against the forces Of the Fourteenth Louis, Godfrey insisted on his right to oeltver the war Isnt for the money into the ha Ids of the kiEg, who was then tn the trencnss un- der hot fire. And as, with humble obe- .iience, hs handed tine raper to 1ls taei- urn majesty, saying In rIsp1nse to the kl..g gTun TemVnstrance, Am then mGre exposed te danger than you, sir3 a cannon ball swept his head away.%
 Over the massive tireplaSe in the diree- tors room stood some years ago three rusty specimens of the old brown Bess. together wIta number Gf roughly shaped bullets. In these .'elics Is em- bouled a picture of that dreadful night in the NovemDer of 1iS0, when the mob O. Gord"n rioters matched down from Newsate, setting nIe to every Cathohc chapel on the ine of march and advanc- ing with force of o,O00 upon the bank
 Then 1t was that the clerks, armed with musKsls rembered that they were unprovided with snot. Before them lay rows of leaden inkstands, mutely sug- Sesting the possibilities of a new use. In less than half an hour the inkstahds had been melted and turned into bullets.
 trlm those windows poured deadly Volley, and when the smoke finally celared away z10 rioters lay still or wrlthing in the agony of mortal wounds on the open space now covered oy the BspaIande of the Royal Exchange.
 The attacking a. my wavered, stopped broke line and lied, and the Gordon riots were at an end.
 In the early days of George II. 1t was the custom of all banks to give receipt in payment of a deposit. the receipts be- ing passed from hand to hand and serv- ing the same purposes aJ the cneck of to- day.
 The growing power of Chllds' a private banK, wnlcn at that time had the backing of half the English nobility. had become a matter of serious alarm to the Bank of England, wnose notes were at dls- count Of 10 per cent. And so little by little, through their agents, the managers or the bdnk OI EuBIdnu DOuSuL uU every receipts bearing the name of C1llds $ banl. permitting the coIIections to accu- mu4ate with eacn succeeding year until the time should be ripe. during short age of gold. to present the receipts in one vast mass for payment 1t was tig- ured to be a certaiaty that CniIds would not be ape to meet the demand and would thus be crusAed out oI existence.
 Happy for CIiidS was 1t that one of the bank of England's agents, over a bottle, let slip the secret
 And now at BIenheim they tell the story of that famous night l5O years ago when the wi.d changing Of the ben at the great gate awakened the people of the village and of a white faced, travel stained man staggering Into the hal and brokenly entreatlnS an audience of her G.aee, the DucAess-none other than the famous Sarah Jennings-for in her the bank found its meat powerful friend and patron. Down came the indomitable sa- rah in her dressing gown to receive the visitor and demand his excuse for d4s- turDing her peace.
 Your Grace began the messenger. ''the Bank of EnSland holds our re- ceipts for 620.O0O pounds t$S,l0o,0Ool Those receipts will be presented for payment 2, Jvn today; We have not gold enouga
 of them. Unless ve can answer tG