The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-01-02
ROMANCE OF TREASURE HOUSE

then, sharp and clear above the pande-
tnonlum of yelling, was heard the order
From those windows poured a deadly
volley, end when the smoke finaily
cleared away. go rioters lay stiu or
writhing IN the agony OF mortal wounds
on the open space covered by the es-
pianalde Of the Royal Exchange
The attacking army wavered. stopped,
broke line and fled, and the Gordon riots
were at an end.
In the early days of George II il was
the custom of all banks to give a receipt
IN payment OF a deposit the receipt being
ttasseo from hand to hand and serving
me same purpose as the check of today.
Inc growing power of Child's. a pri-
Yate bank which at that time had the
backing of half the English nobility had
become matter of serious alarm to the
sank OF England, whose notes were az
a discount of 10 per cent. And so little
by little, through their agents, the man
ayers OF the Bank of England bought I'D
every receipt bearing the name of Child's
bank. permitted the collections to ac-
eumulate with each succeeding year until
the time should be ripe, during a shortage
OF gold, TO present the receipts in one
vast mass for payment. 1t was figured
70 be certainty that Child would not be
able to meet the demand and would thus
be crushed out of existence
Happy for Child was it that one of the
Bank Of England's agents, over the bot
tie, let slip the secret.
And now at BIenheim they tell the
story of that famous night $50 years ago.
When the wild changing of the bell at
the great gate awakened the people of
the village. and White-faced travel
stained man staggering into the hall and
brokenly entreating an audience of her
grace the duchesS-nOne other than the
famous Sarah Jennings-fOr in her the
bank found its most powerful friend and
patron. Down came the indomitable
sS IN her dressing gown to receive
the visitor and demand his excuse for
disturbing her peace
Your grace, = began the messenger.
the Bank of1England hold our receipts
for G520,O90 ($3.1e0, Oe0). Those receiDts will
be presented for payment at noon today:
we have not gold enough to meet them.
Unless we can answer the demand in
eight hours we are ruined. There is but
on person in this world who can save US
our need
Without a word the duchess sat down
at her writing table and wrote out
check aud handed it to the banks agent.
II was an order on the Bank of England
for the payment of e700,0o0 (s3, ,00Q).
Take this check to the Bank of Eng
land. Tell them that ii they hesitate for
one single instant in paying it I'll pro-
claim them as defaulters But you will
see they won't refuse. The $50 600 may
be useful as margin in case of neces-
sity."
The hour of noon saw the Bank of
Englands agent at Childs counter bland
~ presenting the big bagful of receipts
and deftly suggesting immediate payment
But even at that moment Child's clerk
was in Threadneedle street receiving cash
on the duchess check
Chtld's cashiers displayed all the pre-
monitory symptoms of blindness. for IT
took them fully half-hoUr to scrutinize
even the first batch of the receipts, and
they were at the end of the first hundred
when their messenger returned. Then
they suddenly recovered their eyesights
and within ten minutes the Bank of Eng
land had been paid literally in its owrf
coin The net result of the whole trans
action was that Child's bank was many
thousand pounds richer, since which time
the Bank of England has not looked for q
fight.