The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-12-08

was that which has just been writtel
into New York's financial history a
the panic of speculative bankers, bu
with all its grimness it was not withou
it's humor. Even the depositors wh'
waited so many weary hours in long
shivering lines that never seemed t.
get them any nearer the paying teller!
window relieved the monotony of theil
waiting with an occasional laugh a
some one more nervous and excited
than themselves.
There was no time or space to write
about it while the panic was under
way. Nor was 1t fitting, then, to tell OF
the tactics of delay resorted to by pay
ing tellers in their efforts TO wear out
the bank runners. 1t would only have
increased the panic. Now that the
storm has worn itself out incidents of
the lighter lining to that black and
ominous cloud are coming out.
Expert paying tellers. who ordinarily
could pay off depositors with amazing
rapidity and accuracy, became VERT
able snails at the time of panic. The
prize for slowness certainly belongs
big downtown trust companies, which,
after vainly trying TO wipe out the run
by paying off at three windows, decid-
ed to tire it out.
There were several hundred in the
line. which stretched away from the
paying teller's window and out into the
street one morning when bank run
ming was the all absorbing occupation
Of SauaraT tbnr1Sard y,arSopS
Checks from Montreal, calling for
s29.372," was the remark of the first
man in line when the wicket finally
opened disclosing the smiling face Of
the paying teller.
Under ordinary circumstances he
would have been paid off in ten min
utes. But the paying teller took ten
minutes for reading the checks over.
Then he was ten minutes more making
list of them. 1t took seven minutes
TO check the list.
How long, o Lord, how long?" sigh
ed the second man in line. Twenty
seven minutes and no sign of cash.
But the paying teller had just start
ed. The signatures of the Montreal
depositors were strange to him. They
had to be verified, the teller informed
the waiting line. This took so long
that one of them was moved to ask:
Say, are you sending those checks
TO Montreal for veriication?"
Just minute, just a minute" said
the teller. blandly.
After an hour and fifteen minutes
he brought out q pile of small bills and
began to count them YEARLY. He would
get halfway through pile of one thou
sand and in some strange manner lose
count. Finally he got the right amount.
But the end was not yet. The custom
er had to count them, and long weary
task it was. His pockets were filed
with bills before he had half the
amount slowed away. Finally he open
ed his waistcoat and filed his shirt
front.
A LOAD OF GOLD.
The second man in line was there to
withdraw his entire account. Tt took
half an hour to make certain that he
was not overdrawing. The teller
chose to pay him in gold pieces. He
piled them up one by one. Then a
clumsy movement would knock a pile
spinning.
What am l going to do with all
that bullion?'' gasped the depositor,
when the gold in hundreds of coins was
pushed out to him.
The receiving teller has a window
next to me- said the little paying tel
Ter. You might put it back, now that
you've proved to yourself that we have
it."
II guess not cried the man. "Td
get another scare tomorrow and find
myself in line again."
He filed his pockets and scraped the
remaining coins into his hat. Two or
three fell on the floor. He dared not
stoop for fear of splitting more, and
was in a quandary which sent litter
down the line until policeman went
to the rescue.
There was no little sharp practice
regarding places in line, but the mean
est trick so far reported was played
upon a young woman of most attrac-
tive form and figure.
Her place in line, was we'll to the
'front.' and by noon she was almost
within the outer door of the bank.
Some one noticed that the check she
fingered nervously was written in pen
Gil.
They'll never cash that check" OBJ
served the man just behind her. Moth
ing but ink goes on a day like this"
The young woman, having confirmed
her worst fears of the worthlessness
of a penciled check, was on the verge
of tears.
I'm hold your place while you go
somewhere and write it out in ink"
said a dapper young man, who was
hooking on.
oh thank you so much" she gush-
ed. You're just an angel to do it.
I'll be gone only a minute"
''Sell you my place for S." offered
the Good Samaritan" as soon as she
was out of sight.
Take YOU said gruff. whiskered
merchant who wanted to cash a check
so eover his payroll.
The beauty returned in ten minutes
&c find her place gone. She burst into
tears and then walls. which brought
the police. She smiled on the bluecoats
through her tears and they made a
place for her just ahead of the man
with the whiSkers. IT was the irony
of fate-or, perhaps the justice of it
that the young woman was the last