The Columbus journal., 1910-03-16
THE GOLDEN TALENT THAT
FRIGHT BURIED.

Up to the time of his death in 1902,
Frederic D. Tappan had been for half
a century one of the leading bankers
of New York City, and for years he
was the head of the metropolitan
clearing house.
81 think" he said to me one day
that one of the most curious expe.
riences that ever came within my per.
sonal knowledge was the silent, almost
pathetic, evidence Of the great fright
which once held in its grip Wilson q.
Hunt, who was famous as a banker
when Commodore Vanderbilt and
Daniel Drew were strong men in the
financial destinies of the country.
at was the so called Bland silver
bill, which was passed in 1873, and
which provided for the coinage Of not
less than s2,OOO,OOO nor more than
s4,OOO,OOO worth Of silver bullion a
month, that gave Mr.. Wilson his great
scare. But that you may haye good
understanding o" the incident, / want
to say first that, besides Mr.. Wilson,
there were a good many old fashioned
bankers and men living upon their
capital, or the income of it. who be-
came greatly disturbed when the
Bland bill became law.
"Why, do you know, that even as
shrewd, clear headed and icy an intel
lect as Samuel J. Tilden became
greatly alarmed when the Bland bill
was enacted into law. Gov. Tilden
whispered to some of his friends his
fear that the country was going excl"-
sively upon the silver basis. lie
thought that meant the cutting down
of capital by at least one.half, and you
should have seen his representatives
buying foreign exchange, and a good
deal of it. His purpose, evidently,
was to convert that exchange into
gold, and very likely keep it on deposit
in some of the greater hanks of Lon
don. But l guess that Gov. Tilden
rot over this scare earlier than Mr..
Hunt did, at all events / never learn.
| ell what he did with the exchange he
bought.
but it came within my personal
observation what Mr.. Hunt did.
Whether he bought exchange and con
verted it into gold or not, do mol
know, yet | do know that when he
trembIed for fear that the country
would 60 to a silver basis, as a result
of the enactment of the Bland hill, he
somehow secured approximately $500.
600 in gold, hal it packed in little
canvas bags, properly marked with the
amount of money in each, and stored
these bags in the vault of certain
bank, one of the strongest institution:
of the kind in New York City. Ifth'
worst came, and the rest Of his fortune
was cut in half by the country gong
to q silver basis, he would ut least
have close Oh to u million dollars il
the sort of money that is good tl's
world over.
Mr.. Hunt died about ten year:
later, and some time before the Blan,
law gave way to the Sherman silver
law. In the meantime, the gold thai
he had boarded against the possible
evil day of silver basis lay untouched
1t did not bring him in penny o
income, and he never looked into th,
vault where it was stored to see il I
was all right. Indeed, these littl'
bags lay so long in the place wher'
first they were put that gradually they
became moldy and the canvas begal
to rot, and at last, when it became
necessary for the administrators L"
Mr.. Hunts estate to remove tina
gigantic nest egg, do you know tina
some of the bags were SO badly rotte,
that their golden contents broke "u
and scattered upon the floor Of ,h'
vault ut our feet?
MIR. Hunt" concluded Mr.. Tappan
"was a wise man and very courageou
in many things, but he had that curl
Gus dread Of silver and that unwsr
ranted fear that the United State
would lapse to silver basis. Tia
dread and that fear he carried to thu
grave with him. 1t has been my
experience that the most courageous
capitalists-and l have known man,
of them-will sometimes lose thei
senses and be persuaded to do Yer!
foolish, almost silly, things in order t.
protect their fortunes. Without ex
ception, every rich man that l hav'
known has had some weak DOint in hi
armor in this resnact - 7 Edwards