Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1894 — HE STOPPED A PANIC. [ARTICLE]

HE STOPPED A PANIC.

Millionaire Armour's Wonderful One-Da/ Record la Chicago. Philip D. Armour, of Chicago, is an indefatigable worker. Here is a record of one day s work during the panic time of the summer of Chicago suffered then as the rest of the country did under the severe stroke of depression. But Chicago had something more than her business reputation to maintain. There was the exhibition. No white feather should be shown, for the White City’s sake. Still, in that trying time, it was courage like Armour's that saved the exhibition from passing into the hands of a receiver. Chicago stood together, and with true civic zeal saved the threatened misfortune and enabled the World's Fair to pa-son to its triumphant conclusion. One morning Armour learned at his office that in the distress of the hour a “run" had set in upon the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank. ‘This must lie stopped," said he. There were two reas >ns for his zeal: first, the maintenance of the general credit of the city, which would be shaken in the probable event of “runs” upon the banks becoming contagious; second, his eldest son was a director in the assaulted institution. Armour quietly left his office and mixed with the throng in front of the bank. He went about among the depositors and pledged his own credit to induce them to leave their funds where they were. He remained in the crowded street all day and personally persuaded hundreds of the depositors to return to their homes. At the end of banking hours he arranged for a meeting of prominent Chicago men, to be quietly held the next morning, to grapple with the disasters which threatened the city. He cabled to London and bought half a million dollars in gold on his own account. Then he drove to the Armour Institute, to inspect the equipments then being put Into place, ana he serenely asked his usual question: “Is anything wanted?” On the way out he learned that the little daughters of an employe were dangerously ill with diphtheria. Ho went for his accustomed drive and for his almost daily call at the homes of his sons. Then he went home to dinner, and by 9 o'clock he was soundly sleeping, as if nothing had happened. The next morning he walked to his office, and on the way left 150 for the stricken family of his employe; he transacted his own business as calmly as ever; went to the bank again, turned away more depositors: and then left for the Mission Hall to play with the little children there. Meanwhile, his action In the crowd, and his purchase of gold, had set an example for other men; confidence began to set in once more; the tide was turned.