Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-08-09
TRAGEDIES OF A LOOTED BANK.
Melancholy Features OF ChicaEO's
Financial wreck.


The highwaymsn who corners the way
farer unawares, presents his compliments
with a pistol and conhscates the victims
money, presents less dlscreditable figure
than the man who robs by a betrayal Of
confidence. The professional highwayman
makes no pretense Of respect for law or
individual rights, and obtains his loot by
force The other assumes the garb OF
fespectability and honor, gains public con-
idence and deliberately betrays II. The
one gains his end by bold outlawry, the
other reaches the same end by the methods
Of the sneak thief.
The thousands Of victims of the CONT
dence game played by the management OF
the looted Milwaukee Avenue Savings
bank of Chicago would not feel quite as
bad today had they been waylaid on the
highways and robbed OF their savings. The
loss Of their earnings is made the more
grievous by shattered faith in the insti-
tuition and its managers
The two tragedies following the an
nouncement of the banks failure do not
by any means constitute the list. There
are 1000 depositors. Death ended the
worries Of two. Hundreds upon hundreds
Of the living are obliged to bear unlocked
for burdens imposed by the loss Of their
savings. 1t is not surprising. therefore,
that scenes of grief and evidences OF silent
sorrow we're witnessed in the throngs sur
rounding the looted bank. There never
has been a bank crash in Chicago" says
the Record Herald, where so many de-
positors were Of the class who save up for
a rainy day by dribets OF so cents and 81
per week. When these people understood
that they might lose all OF the fruits Of
their labor and self-sacrifce through
many a weary year, their detection was
utter and complete.
Perhaps, again, there mas never been
bank suspension in Chicago where so lit
tie anger was displayed as was the case
| yesterday on Milwaukee avenue. Rage
against the bank officials and wish for re-
venge was expressed but seldom. The
dominant note Of all the hundreds who
gazed at those closed doors yesterday was
despondertcy. Heart-break was what the
crowd typihed It seemed in the ma
| jority Of cases that the unhappy depositors
were too utterly overcome by the extent
of their own troubles, the utter apparent
shipwreck of their hopes, to give vent to
any of the fury which usually attends the
| closing OF a banks doors.
THE explanation for the attitude OF pitt
| able resignation generally adopted was
probably to be found in the fact that
| large proportion of the crowds were of
foreign birth, who seemed to accept the
| suspension as the will of Providence rather
than as the fault Of man.
| 1T must be Gods will that ! am left
| without the money for which / have
worked and sklmped for many years.
was the idea often expressed
The only laughter heard among the de-
posltors at the bank doors came from men.
And very terrible laughter 1t was declared,
! too, by those who heard II. In four in
stances during the latter part of the after
| noon as many men did almost the same
thing in voiclng their laughter. In each
case the man came up to the main door Of
the bank, doggedly, with figure bent and
eyes looking down.
"You can't get in-you'n have to move
! along" said a policeman.
My money is in there-all have" said
| the men in each of the four cases.
I'm sorry, but your have to go on. The
banks closed" replied the police.
Then in each of the instances the men
looked up at the police, stared DULY at the
locked doors, and finally burst into laugh
"a laugh that sounded like a sob and APP
| peared to come from the extremity OF mis-
| cry.
Every cents gone 'then-Ha! ha! ha!"
And each of the four shambled of as
though he had lost all heart and soul.
That's the most awful kind of a laugh
ever heard in my lfe-I guess that's the
sort OF a laugh you'd hear in hell" was
what one policeman said as the last Of the
! four turned away.
A young couple appeared on the scene
! The girl, dark eyed, olive skinned, wept
on her companions shoulder. He gazed
with hopeless eyes at the bank, the marks
of the first great fear settling around his
face. He said his name was Dan Barone
and that he lived at LIT Ohio street. His
story was this:
II came to this country little over a
year ago and saved money as fast as 1
could for my girl to come after me. She
| waited at home and knit things and wrote
letters cheering me up. l worked in great
iron shops by the river and made as much
as IS and SO week. 1t was more than l
ever made in my life and l saved half
| of It every week for her. Last week she
came to me after l had rented a room in
the house where my countrymen live and
we had enough to buy nice things to put
in the room.
81 put the money In here, a little every
| week, because my friends told me that the
man at the head was great man and had
as much money as a king. Also That he
was truthful and honorable man. We
had the furniture picked out and were
going to take half the money out and buy
It next Saturday night.
1.-THE other half we wanted to leave in.
as there is much danger OF getting hurt
where l work and one may lose his good
place" Here the little wife from the old
country leaned closer to him.
We'll" he said taking a big breath, 81
have got her and maybe l will get the
money yet. Are you sorry, little one?" he
asked. She did not answer, but crept
closer, and there in the street wild with
the scene of the panic, dark with the
clouds OF smoke smutty and sordid and
grief stricken, they kissed each other In
that abandon Of convention that charac-
terizes the race. They might have been
in the rose gardens OF Italy instead of
under the shadows Of the building, with
its secret. No one noticed them. Each
ones grief was absorbing, and they were
young.
Lining the curb in front OF the bank
were hundreds who refused TO go home
and wait" according to the police dictum
Il have s24 in there" said woman
I