The Sunday Oregonian., July 13, 1902, PART FOUR, Page 30, Image 30

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THE SUNDAY OBEGONIAN, PORTtAND, JDLY 13, 1902.
GKEAT B"RITAIYS MIGHTg BANK
FOUNDED BY WILLIAM PATTERSON, OF BOSTON,
THE FIRST "AMERICAN INVADER."
fRWW &r'Tfiww!: j n rwi jrp"
LONDON, June SO. I -was taken over the
Bank of England today by its secretary
and shown the enormous funds on hand
In bullion and notes. I had a letter from
our Secretary of the Treasury to the Gov
ernor, and had called with the hope that
I might have an Interview -with him on
the American Invasion and other matters
relating to the financial condition of thi3
richest empire of Europe. The Governor,
however, for obvious reasons, gives no
interviews to the newspapers. His opin
ions might create a rise or fall of stocks
and, therefore, he has to be careful of his
utterances.
The Bank of England is perhaps the
chief financial institution of the world.
It is a private corporation, but it has
clncc its organization been the depository
of the Government funds. It has much to
do with financing the Government debt
and It might be called the National Bank
of Great Britain. The bank is now 203
years old. It was founded on the 27th of
July, 1634, by an American. His name was
William Paterson and he was born in
Scotland, but he ot tho foundation of his
fortune on this sido of the Atlantic. He
came from Bristol, England, to tho New
World to seek his fortune, settling in the
province of Massachusetts Bay. He lived
eome time at Boston, and at one time was
a merchant and shipowner there. From
Boston he sent out privateers to prey
upon tho shlp3 of countries then at war
with Great Britain, and also had ships
trading with the Bahamas. He wasaar
rled in Boston, and later on left there and
settled in London.
The Firat American. Invader.
air. Paterson might bo. called the first
American invader, for he was the first to
tako capital, made in America, and use it
In Great Britain. He had in his character
many of the elements of Pierpont Morgan,
and he saw his chance to make money out
of the British Government, which was
then financially crippled by its wars with
France. The Government wanted money,
and Paterson saw that it could give ex
clusive banking privileges to an institu
tion which would furnish' a permanent
loan at a reasonable rate. He organized
a combination of some of the chief British
merchants, backed by a capital of $6,000,
000, and offered to loan this amount to
the Government at the then low rate of
8 per cent per annum, on the condition
that the Government would give the com
bination a charter to deal in bills of ex
change, bullion and bonds, and pay it $100,
00 a year for handling the Government
debt This offer was accepted and the
Bank of England -was the result. PateV
eon was one of the original directors, and
during his life the bank became firmly es
tablished. The institution was a prosperous one
from its start. The Government steadily
Increased its connections with it. and to
day it owes the bank about 10 times as
much as when it was founded, although
the interest rate has fallen from 8 per
cent to 21 per cent per annum.
Bank of England Xotes.
During my trip through the bank I spent
some time in the printing department
watching them make the Bank of England
notes. The scenes there are much, the
same as in our bureau of engraving and
printing at Washington, save that" the pa
per is different. Our bank note paper has
a grayish tinge, with silk threads of dif
ferent colors running through, it. The
English bank note paper is as white as
the whitest parchment. It has a sort of
transparent whiteness, and It is exceeding
ly thin and remarkably strong. It is made
of pure linen rags by a secret process in
paper mills which do nothing else. The
paper is the same today as it has been
for 100 years, and it is almost impossible
to imitate it.
The notes are almost square. There Is
no lathe work upon them. They are print
ed in Jet black Ink, and the printing ma
chines are such that they number the
notes from 1 to 100,000. This numbering
Is done automatically, so that the notes of
each bundle of 10,000 are In their natural
order when they are taken away. The
smallest notes now printed are those for
5, and the largest for 1000. The paper
Is so thin that in the bank vaults where
bundles of notes are kept I was able to
hold a million pounds worth of them in my
two hands. This amount represented a
Talue of $5,000,000, and it did not weigh
more than a score of the Sunday edition of
The Oregonian. It made me feel like a
millionaire, but the feeling was raomen-
THE TURNING
JAN "VRAGNIZAN stool among the
net-racks of Kinney's cannery and
watched his boat-puller in tho boat
, below. To bis eyes, tho young man was
more than ordinarily deft and neat-hand-ted.
To be sure, ho never had had one
who was not quite up to tho standard,
or he,' Jan "Vlragnlzan was noted on the
Columbia for his success in fishing, and
fee had always had his pick of men. In
a. dull way he somewhat resented this
'effective activity on the part of Dravhan,
end ho raised his eyes to view tho sky.
Tho Washington hills were steeped in
flow-lying cloud, and the gray reflection
in the water was ruffled by a gusty south
wind. His glance ran down past Desde
imona Sands and Scarborough. Head to
the Bar, which, under the fitful afternoon
eun, gleamed into momentary visibility
and then disappeared as though it had
fallen back over the edge of tho world.
"A bad night, Dravhan," ho rumbled,
hoarsely.
The boat-puller straightened himself up
and glanced seaward. "Aye, sir; wind,"
he responded, slowly.
His captain strode heavily forward to
the edge of tho wooden platform. His
great leathern boot-tops waggled about
his massive thighs, and across his bulg
ing middle the narrow belt sank as he
breathed deeply. "Elmore's boats are
out," he said. "Get started."
Again the boat-puller looked up and
there was a frown on his face. "How long
do we stay out?" he inquired shortly.
"Morning tide," was the gruff answer.
Dravhan seemed to figure, for his lips
moved and ho crossed the fingers of his
right hand successively with his left fore
finger. "Tomorrow noon?" he finally
asked.
Vragnlzan's face clouded. "Whenever I
d n please," ho answered curtly. Then
he descended with deliberate steps the
swaying ladder, and dropped upon the
tarpaulin that covered the neatly stowed
net. Without further words Dravhan un
fastened the painter, stepped the mast and
rigged the sail. With a powerful sweep
of an oar the boat's head was turned out
toward the channel, and the all expanded
in the wind.
"Leave the sprit out," said the captain,
and Dravhan sat quietly down on the
weather thwart. As they swept on into
the channol tho jolting Tlver waves caught
at them, and now and again a spray of
Icy water dashed across the boat. On
they ran athwart the wide Columbia till
the Sands were behind and the deep mid
dle channel was reached. Here the sail
was taken In; the most wabbled as the
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4 ''iKf!
QjU'iam Pahenton the First American Invader
CJjo Founded the Bank ofEn6anr
tary, for the doors wero carefully guard
ed and the officials of tho bank who stood
about me were lusty fellows, who would
have certainly resisted any attempt at
departure with the valuable paper. The
notes, in fact, weigh only 1S& grains to
the note, and yet they are so strong that
e single sheet of the paper of which they
are made will support 50 pounds weight
without tearing.
All notes are destroyed after they are
redeemed, but they are kept a certain time
in order that any question concerning
their ownership in the past may bo traced.
OF THE TIDE
HOW FORGETFULNESS AFFECTED A COLUMBIA RIVER FISHERMAN r
BY JOHN FLEMING WILSON -a
surge caught boat W E03 full in the
swelling side. Jan Vragnizan threw off
the tarpaulin, and began that wearisome,
back-breaking toll of throwing out the net
the while Dravhan pulled slowly away,
and the corks bobbed into a wavy length
ening lino on the troubled face of the
river.
When all was out, and 803 rode at the
end of the seemingly interminable net, tho
two men stowed the mast and oars. Then
they fell upon their coarte supper, gazing,
between huge mouthfuls, at the flory set
ting sun. Tho chili wind of evening
freshened and, as night fell over them,
there flamed out, as stars into tho sky,
the flaring coffee lights of a thousand
boats riding to a thousand nets.
After the meal they lit their pipes and
sat brooding, wordless, beaten by the
shrewd wind, showered upon by the end
less flux of waves, stirred ceaselessly by
the fecund river. And as their slow eyes
opened over tho shadows about them, they
thought laboriously. Jealously, yet slum
berously; weaving into coarse wob of
clotted reverie the bare facts of life.
And while they meditated, they forgot
the 2000 fishers who rose and fell In the
boats that slept uneasily upon this same
expanse of sea-tainted water.
Dravhan figured again the tide for the
next day, striving to shorten tho frigid
hours that must olapso before he could
once more see Helma Vragnizan, the
shapely daughter of his captain. He had
much to solve; problems lay like tangled
seaweed over bis Cumbrous, rock-like pur
pose. He knew, as a man knows when
a blow strikes him, that her father
grudged him possession. He felt blindly
that he was contending with some unseen
passion in Jan Vragnlzan's breast; yet
through all overlaying of circumstance he
felt an elemental, moving, impregnable
emotion. He had never defined it clearly,
succinctly, till that day on which an un
known spirit had prompted him to say to
Helma: "I love you." And the more he
mused upon" that expression, the more
lustily he felt that she would have to
teach him, as a child is taught to put the
sounds of letters Into words, what that
meant. Opposite him, his roughly carved
face half-hidden by the overhang of his
shapeless hat, crouched, bulklly, Vragni
zan, immobile, watchful, preponderant.
His mind molded by aging habit was
struggling as a man writhes within a
strait-Jacket. Strange flickers from ha
younger life startled his dark conscious,
ness in which lay invisible, even forgot
ten, masses of crude, unpregnant experi
ence. The .very flares of the distant
boats warned him into more usual fair
ways of meditation. But he, too, felt
within him an elemental passion. It
The Englishman takes tho numbers of his
bank notes, and in many cases he makes
the man who pays them over to him In
dorse his name on the back. The bank
keeps the numbers and after the notes
come in they keep a record of the bank
sending them, and they can in a moment
pick out any note that they have received
during the past five years.
When our greenbacks and silver certifi
cates come into the treasury they are de
stroyed by cutting them in quarters and
then grinding them into a pulp In boiling
hot water. They are "redeemed by the
rushed fluently upon him that he hated
the man in front of him. And that flood
of hate flowed, as ho sullenly felt, be
tween life and death.
Then tho mechanical impulse of cus
tom dulled the emotion, and he fumbled
in his under-pockets for his "fish-book."
With fingers seared by brine, he turned
its reeking pages and reckoned his earn
ings for the season. Again there was
the old result, a debt to the cannery of
$000 and over. To be sure, if the season
kept up, if a good run came in, that
balance would be wiped out. But the
demand that had emptied his pockets be
fore. He sighed uneasily and thrust
the book back into Its place. Helma was
the one on, whom ho lavished his money;
Helma, his daughter. And Dravhan
would take her with that debt unpaid,
and she he cursed audibly would go.
The sole object of his hard, somber, ab
sorbing love loved another. And that
other?
With a quiet word he roused the boat
puller, 'and said: "Wind up tho alarm
clock. Give her three hours.'
Dravhan slowly obeyed, and set the
clock down in a tin basin under a seat
After a look abroad the captain laid
himself down on the bottom grating, and
with his head on a fold of sail lapsed
again into Immobility. Tho boat-puller
also stretched himself out In the fore
part of the tumbling craft, and was soon
asleep.
Within an hour Vragnizan rose quietly
and looked at the clock. Two hours later
the tide would turn. He peered out into
'the shadows to fix his position, and a
savage smile crossed his face. Inside of
two hour, thej would have drifted down
into the clutch of the Bar. Dravhan fig
ured on the tides, did he? Ah. yes! but
this time he had missed. The lights of
a launch crossed toward Sand Island, and
the captain -winked at them with Inert
hatred. Then he crouched down and
waited, listening to the gusty wind, the
slapping seas, the tense roar of the near
Ing surf, and feeling with fisherman's
Instinct the gentle tug of the net.
An hour later boat W 803 capsized Just
lruide the breakers, where the water
bolls with sand and to swim far In clothes
is impossible. The time was well chosen.
None saw; none heard.
As tho deep-bellied craft rolled over in
th trough of tho foaming channel surge,
VrasnJzan came up from beneath, and,
keeping one brawny hand on the keel.
staro-1 out and around. The net ho had
cut adrift long before, and he knew it
would be picked up. Then, a score of
yards away, a form rose on a sheer
comber and disappeared. Jan Vragnizan
wiped the salt from his mouth and whis
The Center of Finanoidl
issuing of fresh notes. The Bank of Eng
land notes are usually redeemed with gold,
gold sovereigns being shoveled out in
scoops Just like the little shovels our gro
cers use for sugar. The gold is not count
ed, but is weighed, the tellers knowing
Just how many sovereigns go to the ounce
-or pound. The notes ,are canceled by
tearing a piece out of a corner of each,
and are then filed away in the bank note
catacombs in boxes for a period of five
years. At the end of this time they are
burned.
I went down into tho bullion vaults.
These look much like those of' the mint at
Philadelphia. In then, are great plies of
gold bricks and gold pigs, which are sent
in from the mines of all parts of the
world. I saw gold from Australia, South
Africa, India and the United States, and
the man told me that it was almost abso
lutely pure. I saw also great vaults in
which are gold sovereigns in bags, each
holding several quarts. The bags are piled
up like so much grain, and the means of
protecting them does not seem to be as
good as those of the Treasury at Wash
ington. I do not remember the exact
amount of bullion on hand, but it is prob
ably less than we have in our own Treas
ury Department, for tho flood of gold U
now coming our way.
I have spoken'of the Bank of England as
a private bank. If you have the right
kind of an Introduction you can open an
account in It, but you have to keep enough
money on deposit to make it pay the bank
to do your business. The officials esti
mate that each account must yield 12
cents to the bank for every check caslied
throughout the year, so if you issue a
thousand checks the bank will havo to
make at least 3120 out. of you or it will
refuse to keep your account. There are
now aftout 5000 private accounts carried,
and the private deposits average over $100,
000,000. A largo part of the business of the bank
pered a curse. His" fumbling hand drew
out a flask. With his teeth he pulled the
cork and drained the liquor in audible
gulps. Raising himself by a swift ef
fort, ho flung the emptied bottle far out
tb where he had last seen the struggling
boatpuller. Then with a raucqus lntako
of hl3 breath he dived under theboat
Tho dawn was blowing Into day when
the llfesaving crew from Point Adama.
put out into the chops and made fast ts
an upturned flshboat.
"Right her and ball her out." said the
captain "Maybe there's a body under
her poor devil!"
The men clambered over, and under
their simultaneous effort boat W 03
tilted and swept upright. As tho water
washed Into the bottom a coughing, snarl
ing figure emerged from under the seat1?.
It was Jan Vragnizan.
"You're a clever one!" gasped the cap
tain. How did you manage it?"
There was no answer, only a sullen stare.
"You Just missed washing up on the
spit," continued the captain. "Lucky for
you you didn't,"
Jan Vragnizan shook himself and
stepped into the lifeboat. "Bad night,"
he said, briefly, without thanks.
The men looked at each other, and one
said, shortly: "Where's your boatpuller?"
"Bo pu'? N hell"
When the lifeboat towing W 803 reached
the landing on tho rivor beach, Jan Vrag
nizan stepped out and stretched himself.
"Likker," he growled.
"Go and ask the steward," the captain
said. "I'll make your boat fast here,
and you can take her up on the tide."
Without a wqrd the fisherman moved
up the sand to the station. As be crossed
the rise of the beach he came full upon a
man sitting against a log In the sun. He
halted, ponderously, a moment, and then
spoke: "How did you get ashore, Drav
han?" The young boatpuller looked up slowly,
and In his eyes welled a passion that par
took of anger. "Picked up by launch
Triton," he returned, curtly.
His captain muttered In his beard, and
then shook himself again In his reeking
clothes. "We'll go upon this tide' he said.
Dravhan rose. "I'm going over and
take tho- early train for Astoria."
"Helma?"
There was a significant pause, and the
men measured each other. "Yes," came
the defiant answer.
The boatpuller strode away through the
yielding eands, crusted over with the
damp of night, and Jan Vragnizan looked
ai him as he went. Suddenly out of his
past rushed a vision. He saw Helma's
meeting with Dravhan. Then he shook
a little as he remembered how, once. In
another land, two softly flashing arms
had gone around his own neck as the surf
sweeps around a lonely rock.
He passed in and sought the steward.
. As the latter handed him a glass of liquor.
"What was the matter?" the. steward
asked.
"Fo-sot tho tide." answered the fisher
man. JOHN FLEMING WILSON.
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7 Five-pound bank of England flote ;
London . Royal Exchange n front
is in handling the Government debt. I
saw the clerk paying out dividends In the
dividend room. Here are Government se
curities of all kinds, and the stockholders
come to cash their cqupons. It is esti
mated that there are 275,000 persons who
own such stocks, and & large number of
them come here In person for their money
The interest paid out amounts to more
than $3,000,000,000 a year, and a good part
of ft is now going to Amerlcanst as they
have but lately been investing in English
Government securities.
And does the big Bank of England ever
have a run upon It?
Yes, Indeed! This has been the case in
times of panic, and there have been in
stances when the bank has had to suspend
specie payments. It did so during the
first year of Its existence. The Govern
ment had called In the silver to have It
recoined,and the bank was hard up for
currency. Its stock went down from 110
to S3, and its directors issued a call of 20
per cent on the shareholders. The bank
suspended specie payments from 1T97 to
1S19, ,and when It resumed it had about
$100,000,000 worth of gold and silver to be
gin with. There have been times when it
has paid out depositors in shillings and
sixpences in order to gain time to get
money to meet its obligations, and once
at least it had a line of its own men who
accepted such silver payments and de
posited them again as fast as they were
received, so that a continuous stream of
the same silver flowed In and out
of the bank while the depositors waited.
At one time a depositor demanded $150,000
in gold coin, and at another the strain
was so great that some of the richest of.
the English nobility drove to the bank in
coaches filled with golden guineas, which
they deposited to help the bank meet its
demands.
I spent some time in the council room
where the directors' meet and In the
library chatting with the secretary about
GEQRGE- ADE'S
OF
THE
NCE ihere was a left-hahded So
O
ciety Selling-Plater who never land
ed In the Money.
Of all the Sexes that roam the Earth,
his pick was the Feminine. Ho was very
partial to the Women Folks. Even the
Blondlnes who worklhe Toothpicks In
the Rotunda, and the Fat Ones who talk
Baby Talk, and the Chickadees who
chew Gum on the Trolley, and the dark
eyed Duennas who forget to do up their
Back Hair, and the Lumpy Ones who
never go all the way around with the
Powder Puff, and the Flltty Ones who
give the Soubrette Zip when they turn
the Corner, and the Mopey Ones who wear
Wrappers and eat Pickles, and the little
Maudle Freshes who turn out on Saturday
Night looking for Drummers, and the
Spindly Ones In Rainy-Day Skirts who
lead Dogs, and a good many others who
never get into the Gibson Pictures they
may have had their Fallings, but they
looked Purty Fair to him. t
The last one out was always Number
One with Phllo, for such was the Name
of Our Hero.
During many a long Afternoon when he
should have been busy with the Books,
Phllo leaned back, combing -hla Mustaches
with a Steel Pen and looking at the Wall.
He could see himself In a Cozy Corner
under a Red Light. Beside him sat a
Prize Beaut of tho kind that makes a
Star Feature for the Sunday Paper. She
was holding him by the Hand and whis
pering, "You for Me, and nothing elso
doing."
Almost every Nightfall he would change
to a White Vest and splash himself with
Violet Watert Then he would start out
to see It he couldn't make the Lithograph
come true.
Phllo always had his Plan of Campaign
ribbed up. He knew what he was going to
say when she came breezing Into the
Front Room. Then when she, had said so-and-so,
as a playful Come-Back he would
say something Keen, apparently right off
the Reel, and that would lead up to che
Scene in the Cozy Corner.
Phllo wag always Letter Perfect at Re
hearsals, but when It came to the Night
Show he was a Scamp.
The Trouble was that the Little Lady
never came back with the Right Cue. Af
ter about two Moves she would hand him
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Bank of England
x.
ct
A
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xtc:
with Bank at befir
the Kovernment of the hank. It has a
governor, a deputy governor and 24 direc
tors. The governor receives $10,000 a year
and each of the directors Is paid $2500.
The governor is usually chesen from one
of the directors, and on the average he
is about 20 years In the directorate before
he Is elevated to the office of governor. .
ine capital of the bank Is at present a
little less than $75,000,000, and its dividends
last year were about 10 per cent.
Tho notes now In circulation amount to
more than $150,000,000. and there are some
thing like $110,000,000 worth pf notes on
hand. The bank has $15,000,000 worth o.
gold and silver coin and .bullion, and alto
gether it is in such a condition that those
holding Its stock and notes are not .lying
awake at night for fear of its insolvency.
Gnnrded nt Night by Soldiers.
Indeed the management of the funds Is
under such restrictions that It would be
impossible for the officials to make .way
with them, and the vaults and officers are
guarded by policemen and watchmen by
day and by a company of soldiers at
night.
Even the shrewdest of our American
criminals could hardly make their way
into this Bank of England. Nevertheless
some of the greatest frauds which have
been perpetrated upon it were by Ameri
cans. You may have heard of the forgeries of
George Bldwell and his brother Austin,
who together with McDonald and Hill
created such a sensation here about 20
years ago. These four men forged notes
upon the bank to tho extent of half a
million dollars and got away with the
money, although they were afterward
arrested.
Forprcrlc of Half a Million.
These men were croojes from New York
who came to London with a capital of
$50,000. George Bldwell was the forger.
FABLE IN SLANG
THE PARLOR BLACKSMITH WHO COULD NOT PUT IT OVER
PLATE, 'AND THE MORAL THERETO
a Liner which he would Muff. Then for
the next five Minutes he would be trying
to rub the Varnish off the Chair, using
himself for that Purpose.
Or perchance when he showed up with
his Lassoo hidden under his Coat and his
Soul steeled to Determination, he would
find two or three other Beaux on the
Paemises, all organized to block him off.
Some twenty Minutes later, Phllo would
be up stage "reading a Magazine.
After being Frosted from Head to Foot,
our Young Friend decided that one who
would Induce a Timid Girl to move over
and be Chummy, must not go after her,
but compel her to, follow the Trail. Phlio
read in a Book costing $1 18 at a Depart
ment Store that the blase Man of the
World who treated them wltfr cold and
smiling Indifference simply got them all
worked up.
The Game plays out as follows: Cynical
Ike, with the dark, piercing Eyes and
the lines of a Great Sorrow marked on
his Handsome Face, tells Dora that all
Women are alike. This Talk goes best
with a Turkish Cigarette. Dora tells him
that he Is Off. She says that there are
Women In the World capable of Steadfast
Love. Ike springs a pensive Sigh and says
Ah, if he could believe it. Thereupon It
is up to her to prove it or lose the Argu
ment, and that's the Answer.
So Phllo went around telling every one
who would listen to him that Women are
fickle ever. When he called he sat as far
down in the Chair as he could get and
saW cruel Things about the World of
Fashion. He wanted to get awy from all
the vain Pretendings of Artificial Society.
He would never Marry.
He worked this along the entire Chain
of Boarding-House?, and no one teased
! him to change his Mind. Some said that
Phllo had been given the Hooks and was
Sore. In the Books all the swell Lookers
are supposed to get out and chase the
Woman-Hater, but up In the 5th Ward
where Phllo resided, th'e Recipe was no
good.
Accordingly he switched. The second
Book that fell Into his Hands pictured the
Young Fellow who simply keeps at the
Girl and snoops around and plays House
Dog until her Woman's Heart is touched
by his Slavish Devotion. Phllo began to
camp out at the Home of a brunette. At
the end of six days she shivered at the
Sight of him. After he had been given I
but the others helped him carry out the
scheme.
The bank, you know, has Its branches
all over the city, and the one In the West
End has a big business In handling the
private accounts of wealthy people. Aus
tin Bldwell rented a house near this bank
and then Introduced himself as a wealthy
Amerlcan and opened an account with a
deposit of $40,000. He drew out and paid
in money for some time, cultivating the
officials of the bank, and talking to them
of his friendship with the Rothschilds and
others. He pretended to have business
with the Bothschilds, and one day brought
in a lot of notes which he had bought
of the Rothschilds in Paris, and asked
the bank manager to discount them. The
manager said he would let him know tho
next day If he would leave the notes, and
In the meantime took them to the main
office of the bank. The authorities there
informed him that he could discount such
notes by the cartload, and he did.
Other genuine notes were brought In and
discounted In the same way. This was
kept up until the bank grew accustomed
to discounting Rothschilds' notes and then
Bldwell began to forge such notes. He
shoved them In by the bushel and took out
gold to the amount ot half a million dol
lars In exchange. The most of this money
he took away In gold coin, which was car
ried off to the rented house near by. Ho
would have gotten perhaps a million dol
lars more had not Hill, one of his confed
erates, omitted to fill In a date on one of
the notes. This caused suspicion and the
forgers were discovered. They had time
to flee, but sooner or later they were all
arrested and Imprisoned.
McDonald and Hill were kept in prison
for life, but Austin and George Bldwell
were pardoned on the ground of ill-health.
They were released and came back to the
United States.
I don't know that either was able to
save anything from his stealings. The
greater part of McDonald's share fell. It
Is said. Into the hands of a detective
named Irving, who, McDonald claimed,
had agreed to allow him to escape If he
would turn the money over to him. George
Bldwell had to give up his share when he
was taken in Scotland, and I think that
$220,000 of the money was captured in the
shape of United States Government bonds
which had ben bought in London and sent
to New York in a trunk of dirty linen.
Fraud In Bnnlc Notes.
It Is hard to counterfeit the Bank of
England notes, not, only on account of the
paper and Ink. but also of the care which
is used by the bank to "trace the note.
Every note that comes Into the bank
must be Indorsed, although It Is doubtful
whether such an Indorsement could be
enforced, as the notes are payable to bear
er. You may have heard the story of
how the bank refused to cash one of its
own notes for Pierpont Morgan a few
months ago. As the story goes. Mr. Mor
gan presented the note and asked that It
be exchange'd for gold. The cashier re
quested him to write his name on the
back, but he refused, saying that the
note was to bearer and as It was genuine
the bunk should cash it without Indorse
' ment. Upon" the cashier persisting, Mr.
Morgan said he would let the note go to
protest, whereupon the banker threw up
his hands in holy horror at the Idea of a
protest of the Bank of England. He was "
. ... . av. . .l, TLT..
uoout to nana over mo muuej ueu -.
Morgan as a favor wrote his name across l
the bacK or tne note.
How the Bank Was Bluffed.
There are few financial Institutions
which can afford to have a question raised
as to their solvency. Even the Bank of
England doesn't want Its notes to go to
protest, and It Is sensitive as to its repu
tation. I was told at the bank how a
Jew once bluffed the officials Into paying
some notes which the bank officers knew
were stolen.
The Jew was a man of wealth, and was
well known in the stock exchange. He
had bought $100,000 worth of Bank of Eng
land notes from a clerk who had been em
ployed in one of the banks of the Conti
nent, but who had absconded with this
part of the bank's funds. When the notes
were presented the officials refused to pay
them, but the Jew at once took them with
him to the stock exchange, and there
proclaimed that the Bank of England had
stopped payment. He said it had refused
to honor Its own bills for $100,000, and he
showed the notes In corroboration of his
statement. He said he-would continue to
publish the fact that the bank was in
solvent, and thereby almost created a
panic. The excitement was such that
the cashier of the Bank of England sent
for him and gave him the money for his
notes. It is doubtful, however, whether
such a thing could be done today.
FRANK G, CARPENTER.
(Copyrighted. 1002.)
the Headache Answer three times in one
Week he pulled down his Entry Money
and. coppered the whole Scheme.
Once he attempted the Impetuous Line
of Business. It always work3 out In the
Stage. The Object is to nail the Girl
without giving her a Chance to become
acquainted and Investigate. First or sec
ond meeting and then Speech about hav
ing loved her for Years before he saw her
Arm around Waist before there Is time
to Jump BIng!
One Moonlit Evening It was that $12-a-week
Phllo with a Vocabulary of 82 Words
started out to win the Fair One with just
one passionate Whirlwind that would cars
ry her off her Feet. ,
He moved alongside, got a Spilt Infini
tive crossed with a defective Adverb and
died on everything except the Hug. In
asmuch as she never stood for any Strong
Arm Plays until after the Fourth Call
she decided that she had been Insulted.
She said that her Father would kill him.
He took a short cut across the Lawn
and escaped Into the Alley back of the
Engine House. Fortunately she had
other Callers that Evening and became
so Interested that she forgot to speak
to Father.
Phllo began to weaken on the Systems.
Yet he knew there was some certain Way
of going at It for he could see what was
being pulled off all around him. Every
Nlght when he was out scanning the
Hammocks and Front Porches in order
to spot his Destiny, he saw Whole
Bunches of them snuggled together In the
Twilight. He wondered how they man
aged to Last.
As for him, the Girl Proposition had him
down and out.
If he ke)t quiet, he was a Stick. If
he talked against time, he made Breaks.
If he cbmpllmented other Girls, he lost
his Number. If he toasted other Girls,
he Insulted her Dearest Friends.
If he tried to Coddle, she called for
help. If he didn't, she would begin to
Yawn about 9:30.
He had tried all known Methods that
are supposed to be Winners and he was
still a thousand miles from the Cozy
Corner.
One day he struck upon the Explanation
of the whole sad State of Affairs. He de
cided that he was a Shell-Fish.
MORAL: Never play a system.
(Copyright 1902.)
There are 4SO0 millionaires in the United
States. New York State having more than
any other. 1045; Massachusetts, 475, and
Illinois 3S0. North Dakota is the only
state that cannot boast of more than one.