The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-10-07

tendance downstairs. In fact, it Is sur prising to find how much attention is given to the ladies in this bank. And the ladies presume upon it to some extent. At the street door of the bank there is man in uniform whose duty is supposed to be mainly opening carriage doors, putting up umbrellas, etc. In the first car riage which arrived after this man began business was a lady who assumed that the man in uniform was as good as any other clerk. She therefore passed out her deposit book containing a roll of bills and directed him to make the deposit for her. Not knowing how to get out of it he finally did so, and since then three out of four of the ladies remain in their car riages when they are making a deposit or cashing checks. and the carriage man goes back and forth between the car riages and the tellers' windows.
 Three Shifts of Clerks.
 "The night and day bank of New York runs three shifts of employees. Their day at present ends at o'clock, but beginning with October l, as I understand it, tho first shift of men will not go off duty until o'clock in the afternoon. The sec ond shift leaves the bank at 12 o'clock at night. and the third is on duty all night. I fe HrSt SnlIl ol i1en Has dS Us heeid the cashier of the bank, the second shift the assistant cashier, and the man in charge at night Is called night manager.
 "Outsde of the counter there is at all times a pleasant. well-dressed individual who looks over customers as they come in. who introduces them to the cashier or assistants if desirable and instructs them where to go. This man is a retired officer of the police force in New York. He is well acquainted with the city crooks and many times his knowledge of the shady side of life has been of considerable value to the bank at night.
 Popular With the Public.
 .'The convenience of the bank to the public generally has been demonstrated many times It Is in a stylish, largely residence section and does not seem to bid particularly for large commerciSl ac- counts. It gets many commercial ac- counts. but usually secondary accounts. the main account of the individual or firm being kept downtown near the store or office and the account of the night bank being largely for evening convenience.
 "One of the banks largest depositors came to it several months ago in an un- usual way man entered the bank. He was from chicago. as I remember, and is
 
 open a New York connection. He received a telegram one evening that his son had been severely injured in Chicago. He wanted to start for Chicago Immediately and applied for a special train which would make a fast run. For some req son, probably because of the lateness Of the hour, he could not satisfy the railroad officials, and he did not have enough money with him to pay for his train.
 Coming out into Fifth avenue he saw the sign of the night bank, called in and explained the situation to the night man ager, who took the chance of the man identity and gave him the necessary funds for his special train. A week later he re- turned to New York and opened an ac- count with the bank, depositing s4O,OOO. Such stories without number are told by the bank people and are all interesting and demonstrate the real place which such an institution fills
 Plan for New Departure.
 MT Watson and I came back really quite enthusiastic, and we feel entirely sure that place will be found for a night bank in Washington. and after our report to the board of directors of the Washington Exchange Bank 1t is our inn pression that we shall be directed to go ahead as fast as possible and Washing ton will probably have a night bank i'll operation by November l. We have changed our ideas as to hours. and i'm