The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-10-21
PROHIBITION DOES
GUST GOOD TURN;
He IS BANKER NOW
Former Owner of Bar in Spokane
Is Better Off In Every Way
Since State Went Dry.

Spokane, Wash. Oct. -. Gust
Pearson, who used to own the Stock
holm bar. has done something for
himself. but prohibition has done
something for him as well.
Spokane people are entitled to some
little information on the rise OF the
substantial Wall Street Bank. which
now stands where once Pearson had
MS Saioon--an example of an insti-
tuition which In the matter of fact
ana easy-going pioneer days was a
common thing for Western towns. but
when the morals of a modern age
finally refused to tolerate.
The transformation of the man and
the establishment both stand as an
interesting tribute to character, and
10 prohibition, which created the
necessity that mothered invention.
PEARSON hadn't the advantage oil
the education that he Is now giving
his SIX children, when he came to Spo-
kane, back before 1890, with $3.50. He
rented the corner of Wall Street and
Trent Avenue, in the saloon, red-light
and gambling district, for SIPS a
month. He finally bought the real
estate for s22. 500. His place cleaned
up sufficiently to last through the long
period of increasing regulation that
preceded prohibition.
At one time in his saloonkeepine
career he got into a quarrel OF some
kind with his banker. Paying S per
cent for loans needed to finance his
trade was an uncomfortable requisite
of getting money, and, just as an ex-
pertinent, he put sign up over his
bar. agreeing to pay that interest on
any sums of money his lum her Jack
and laboring clients cared to leave on
deposit with him for thirty days.
He got lot of money entrusted to
him. and lot of trouble with the
state banking authorities. Eventually
he quit, but the experiment had left
him the germ of a pretty big idea.
When the lid went down last Janu-
airy and the thinking men in the IL
qnor trade knew that 1t had dropped
to stay. Gust Pearson was ready. He
had considerable real money, the
charter of an almost defunct banking
institution. and his hard Scandinavian
head filled with his ideas
He Immediately opened up the
Land Title Savings Bank right on
the corner, and about a month later.
amidst some joshing. renamed 1t the
Wall Street Bank" Men who run
the big city institutions didn't pay
much attention to Gust Pearson's at
tempt, and looked at 1t on the whole
as a sort Of Joke 1t hasn't come to
be in eight months a factor in the
larger financial field Of the city, but i,
is a matter of common note that II
has bankers considering 1t seriously
now
Gust Pearson in his years behind
the bar had come to know a lot OF
la boring men, and had come TO know
their ways of thinking and their ways
OF handling money. For long wears
he had cashed their pay-checks when
they came in from the Jobs, taking
out ten cents ard giving them for 1t a
stamped tag, which the bartender &C
cepted for beer or whiskey.
In many OF the cases most of the
balance Of the checks got into his
cash register during the laborer's ceie-
tration OF a hilarious Saturday night
OF a blowout after six months IN the
woods. Like all tho rest OF the peo-
pie in Spokane. that phase OF his bust
ness Pearson accepted with tho phi
losophy that custom induces
When prohibition came, and his
little Joke bank was running, the
same laborers came in to cash their
che cks without the opportunity for a
t. per. gave them the cash, minus the
ten cents but Instead OF beer check
ahnded them out little savings bank
pass book, inscribed with their names,
and the notation of ten-cents de-
post.
Amid hiliarity--but with a new idea
and q new pride shamefacedly con-
cealed--the men took their bank
books and thet~ money. Some OF
Pearsons associates advised against
the procedure. holding out at leas,
the demand that he require twenty
five-cent deposit, but the newly-in-
stalled banker knew what he was do
ing. Ten cents was the custom. the
laborers expected to pay that much
and wanted to pay 1t to show their in
dependence OF charity. 1t was Just
like the old system.
So they came in droves.
Tho first result was that Gust Pear
son and the Wall Street Bank got
1000 depositors In three months and
Is still getting more. The secondary
result was that the fellow who never
had possessed a bank account, who
thought 1t took $50 or $500 to start
one, came to realizing himself in the
interesting possession of something