The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-12-08
MINORS OF THE BANKING
RUNS IN NEW YORK CITY
Even Panic Has It's Funny Side---How the
Paying Telers Kill Time---The Dodge
of Chronic Borrowers.

,
cred why it was days before they got
their money.
BANK RUNNERS FOOLED
But courtesy to bank messengers was
an unknown quantity in these lately
passed bank run days, as an instance
, at an uptown trust company shows.
There was a long line from the Fifth
avenue entrance to this banking house.
In the line were many messengers
from other banks. A uniformed at
tendant made this announcement.
.All bank messengers line up at the
Broadway entrance
The messengers left the line in
hurry. their faces wreathed in smiles
over the idea that they were to have
preference. They waited at the Broad
way entrance fully two hours without
a sign of payments Then they were
told they must get back into the origin
al line. BY that time there was no
hope of their reaching the paying teller
before the closing hour.
All this was sharp practice, but the
bankers justify it out of their extrem-
ity, and the public, which can draw at
will now that it no longer wants to, is
beginning to look upon it as a joke.
7
erbocker Trust Company after stand
ing a heartbreaking run had many
ironical incidents.
! There was the racetrack mantle
Fifth avenue branch of the Knicker-
booker held several million in sport
ing deposits-who planned to draw
$1,000 to plunge on. a horse running at
odds of 10 to 1. The horse won, and
to his dying day he will charge the
Knickerbocker suspension with a loss
of $4,000.
There was the woman who was just
too late to get her money out.
! II haven't a cent in the world" she
mourned. Then she remembered her
departement store credit. But I can
still go shopping" and she forgot her
banking troubles in hunt for bargains
that will be paid for when the Knick-
erbocker resumes.
A BOON TO SOME.
Tt is surprising, too, how many men
who never had money enough to start
a bank account went around mourning
the tying up of funds that never exist
ed. 1t was a brand new excuse for
loan, and it was worked to a frayed
edge.
Nassau street has long been pestered
/ by a chronic borrower.
'1'll bet you Jones will be around
for loan on the strength of money
he has not lost in the Knickerbocker,"
said the head of one of the departments
to his chief clerk. I'm going to write
a letter and hand it to him the minute
he comes in
Jones, the borrower. arrived shortly
after, long of face, of doleful mien and
short of cash, as usual.
isn't this terrible state of affairs?'
he cried
1T certainly is,'' returned the in
surance man. Il was just writing you
a letter.
"Me?'' questioned Jones.
'sYou," returned the insurance man,
land here it is
Jones read something like this:
Dear Jones: All my ready cash is
tied up in the Knickerbocker. Could
you let me have the $50 of cumulative
loans that you owe me?''
Beat me to it, he muttered. as he
hurried away without waiting to ex-
plain about the $50 he owed.
The people who stood in line told one |
another stories to pass the time, and |
HIoSl OF IHeIH were OIL past experiences
with banks.
do you think we will get our
money!" an overweighted woman in |
an understood tailor-made suit kept |
asking her neighbors in the Trust Com
pany of America line.
Like as not" said hopeful individ- !
ual who was just far enough ahead of /
her to have a seat on the stone steps /
leading into the bank. 'Out in Pitts
burg once I was in a bank run. We
all got our money and there was moth
ing wrong with the bank at ALL
What started the run, them" de-
manded the woman, who was one of a
rather numerous type that was ready
to doubt the solvency of the United
States Sub-Treasury.
1T was all due to a darn fool wo-
man school teacher" went on the man
from Pittsburg. 1.-The bank was Just
across the street from a big factory.
1t was payday, and the men crowded
into the bank to cash their checks. The
school teacher came along with her
deposit. She stood alone at the re-
ceiving teller's window. There was an
ever growing crowd in front of the
paying teller.
All going out and nothing coming
in she said to herself. There must be
something wrong with the bank
'She went out and told her friends.
and in an hour the bank was suffering
as real run as you could imagine. 1t
was long time before the bankers
figured out the reason for it,
STARTED BY A FIT.
This cheering story was too much
for gloomy individual whose figure
made one think of spareribs
Did you ever hear of the run on the
Blank National Bank of Troy?'' he
asked. 1T was years ago, but you
can't always sometimes tell. Provid-
ence takes hand in bank runs occa-
sionally.
This was one of the strongest banks
upstate. No one would ever have
thought of having run on it if a man
hadn't fallen in a fit just in front of the
door This drew a crowd and the
crowd drew anxious depositors We
mad real lively run in no time