Year: 1873




to become interested in the money of his
friends. As this resource is apt to desert all
gentlemen who do business on Buchu prin-
ciples, his next expedient is to obtain the
money of the community. Naturally he takes
philanthropic view of ''the people" He
admires their virtues, their industry, their
patience in toll, their patriotism and thinks
nothing is more beautiful than to see an hon
est laborer laying up a little treasure for the
day Of rain and darkness and old age, when
the evening comes, in which no man can work.
The result Of these meditations is that he
should care for their money for them. In this
manner came the 'Grand Mutual Metropoli-
tan Buchu Savings Bank" the history of which
| is so familiar to our readers.


| We all remember when this institution was
founded. We were just out of the war. Our
people, tired of throat-cutting, and rebound
ing from the strain of combat were whirling
along in a mad financial career The country
was full of money. or rather greenback SEM
blances of money, which had one value to-
day and another tomorrow. The genius of
chance. which is the genius of gambling
and speculation, tempted every man. There
was no fixed value in our currency, and we
were at the mercy of two irresponsible powers
Wall street and the Treasury. Rates Of inter-
est rose and fell without any just cause, and
money was made SO rapidly by the rich that
there seemed to be no reason why it should not
be made as rapidly by the poor. This was the
argument underlying the statements of the
gifted gentlemen who founded the "Grand
Mutual Metropolitan Buchu Savings Bank.
Poor men were told their time had come
"Why," said our eloquent friends, SHOULD
capital have all the advantages and
labor none? Why should patient industry
not be rewarded as amply as bloated
wealth? In England the national debt is
owned by the rich. There are only one hundred
and thirty thousand holders of consols who
have sums less than fifteen hundred dollars
Who owns our own bonds? The poor man?
No; the selfish German banker or the greedy
Hollander in Rotterdam. In England we have
seen population increase at the rate of fifty
per cent, while poverty increased at the rate
of thousand per cent. In America we are



cause the poor man has no friends, no advan-
tages, no opportunity for profit The clumsy
and sordid savings banks of the past have paid
the innocent working man four and five per
cent for his savings. Four and five per cent!
Oh, blessed Shylock of thrifty memory, look
not down in anger upon the avarice of these
men Four and five per cent when America
pays six per cent, seven and three-tenths per
cent on her bonds, when the National Buchu
Bank pays eighteen per cent week, and bust
ness men in Wall street, who transact business
on sound Buchu principles, earn sometimes
eleven per cent q day But now there is to
be a new era. the dawning of brighter day,
the coming Of blessed financial spring time
for those who toll"


Do we not remember t. the placards,
the advertisements filing pages of the Buchu
press in glaring type at the head of the col
umn; the engraving of bee hive, and bees
flying about laden with honey, and the other
picture, equally attractive, of the poor man in
his Sunday home, reading the Bible, and his
family around him gazing on the grand square
piano which he had purchased with the Last
years dividend2 Do we not recall the maxims
of Franklin which crept over the newspaper
"a penny saved is penny earned" IA
stitch in time saves nine" "Think Of the
rainy day." "Put your money in the Mutual
Buchu.''2 Have we forgotten the elaborate edi-
torials from the uncertain press which COM
mended in extravagant rhetoric the genius of
these new benefactors of the poor? Then
came the vast bank building in granite
and the board of directors, gentlemen
whose Christian principles were assiduously
advertised, and there was scarcely day when
we did not hear some note of the prosperity
of the new concern. The fashionable papers
told us how the President of the Mutual
Buchu had just arrived at Saratoga with his
six horse team, while the distinguished Secre-
tary was about to visit Long Branch with his
pair of spanking bays. And in those as
semblages of wit and fashion and high society
which are published weekly for the informa-
ton of our milliners and chambermaids the
names Of the Mutual Buchu directors were
always present. The business prospered. Other
banks were started on Buchu principles. Rates
of interest advanced. The Mutual Buchu Of
fered seven, while the Original Mutual Buchu
offered seven-both rising to ten-when the
Combination Original Mutual, whose direc-
tors we're distinguished members of Tammany
Hall, came suddenly on the town with its new
charter, its donation of ten thousand dollars
to the new cathedral, and its offer Of nine per
cent.


So the poor laborer, attracted by these
demonstrations OF wealth and pity for his con-
dition; the sewing woman, the chambemaid,
the widow, with her pittance; the brave young
artisan, who had saved half his earnings and
lived on bread, that he might wed his Bessie
and give her silk gown, carried their money