The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-15
While Friends Are Planning to Aid Him Financially
 He Dies
HEALTH AND REASON
 BROKEN BY REvERSES
Charles T. Barney, Former President of the Knickerbocker Trust, Com nits the Act Just a Few
 Hours Too Soon.

New York November 14-Charles Tracy Barney. the deposed president of the Knickerbocker Trust company. and until recently a power in the financial world, shot and Killed himself today in his home. His loans with the bank. it is said, are amply secured, and when he was forced from it's presidency he was to all in- tents and purposes eliminated as a factor In banking circles. What ill effects his unexpected taking off might have had on the financial situation generally has long since been discounted. In distress Of mind over the dissipation of his private fortune and the loss of his high standing among business associates, intimate ac- quaintances, is found the hidden drift that broke his health and reason. Even much of his personal wealth must have been saved. At the time that Barney was dying at his home at East Thirty-eighth street and Park avenue, and surgeons probed for a. bullet, that, directed by a nervous hand, had entered the body be- low the heart, a handful of friends at a downtown office were concluding an ar- engagement of the loose ends of tho bank CTS enterprises by which they were to be fixed up and financed by stock com pany, which, if not wholly successful, would at least rescue from the wreck age sufficient to insure the promoters fu- lure financially. The conference broke up at the announcement that MT. Barney was dead.
 Bullet In His Breast.
 MT. Barney, who was in his fifty-sev- enth year, shot himself early today while alone in his chamber at the rear of the second floor of his home. The bullet en- tered below the heart and lodged under the left shoulder blade He died about 2.s0 o'clock this afternoon after suffer ing intensely. The death was reported to the coroner at little past 8.
 The story is, due to the excitement of the hour, it was determined that Mir. Barney deliberately shot himself while alone and soon after rising. As the bullet entered his body he fell unconscious upon the bed. The report of the revolver startled the family. Mrs. Abbott Meade, guest. was the first to reach the chamber, and she summoned the physicians pr. Dixon responded and also called two other phy- sicians. MT. Barney was revived. and to Dr. Dixon, for 20 years his family phy- sieian, said:
 Doctor, this is an accident
 In reporting this to the coroner. Dr.. Dixon added, with this I coincide.' Ether was administered and efforts were made to recover the bullet, but they were not successful. During periods of con- sciousness the patient suffered much, but according to those who were with him made no statement other than quoted by Dr. Dixon.
 No Cause Given.
 A desk in the chamber was filtered with memorandums and piled high with papers, including letters from bankers and other financial correspondents throughout the country, but the coroner was unable to find any communication from Barney that suggested confession of self-destruction.
 Mir. Barney was born in Cleveland, O., January 27, 1851. He was a son of H. A. Barney, president of the United States Express company. After graduating from Williams college in 1870 he married Miss Lilly Whitney. sister of William O. Whit ney. and settled down to an active career in the banking business of New York city. As his success in the banking busi- ness became pronounced he determined to increase the scope of his interests and became connected with the stock ex- change firm of Rogers & Gould as a special partner. At the sames time he began to make personal investments in New York city property, and his keen insight coupled with general upward trend of the market made him very successful for many years. As an officer and director he was connected with 34 concerns, large ly financial institutions. From some of these he was forced to retire when it appeared that some of his business ven lures were going against him.
 Cause of Trouble.
 Mir Barneys undoing came with the disclosures in the Knickerbocker Trust company management, which followed the failure of Otto Heinze x Co., Mir Barney had been associated with O. F. and E. R. Thomas and Charles W. Morse and when these three men were eliminated from the banking business suspicion was di- rected toward the Knickerbocker On the afternoon of October 21 the National Bank of Commerce notified the Clearing House association that it would no longer clear for the knickerbocker. A meeting of the trust company directors was hur- riedly called. That night MT. Barney resigned the presidency. The following day there was a run on the Knicker- booker which forced it to suspend.
 Mr. Barney. who had seen the insti- tuition grow from the custodian of sl1. : OOO000 to be the holder of s65 900 000 of trust deposits, took the matter greatly to heart The receiver soon determined that MT. Barney's dealings with the nstitu- tion were proper and that so far as he
 
 in no trouble. Freed from banking con nections he set about to straighten out his personal affairs, but seemed to lose courage The circumstance of the tragedy shows that MT. Barney was a victim of acute melancholy eliminating in suicidal mania. His recent troubles weighed on him heavily and when friends sought to cheer him. he repeated: Its no use: it. s all over with me-" This does not refer to the Knickerbocker affairs, for he was satisfied that the company would emerge from it's troubles in good condition, but the shattered personal blow his name had suffered before the community gave him constant concern.
 The receivers for the Knickerbocker Trust company-Ernest Thalman, George l.. Riyes and Henry c. Ide-issued a state ment this evening in which they said that they had nearly finished taking over from the bank department the securities and investments of the company. The comparison with the books had not been completed but tho books apepared to be