Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 233, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1912 — Naval Recruits’ $20 Bills Cause Money Panic [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Naval Recruits’ $20 Bills Cause Money Panic

CHICAGO.— Eighty recruits from the naval training station at Lake Bluff nearly caused a financial panic at High wood and Highland Park the other day. The recrultq, each bearing a S2O bill received from the naval station, boarded a Chicago and Milwaukee car in the morning. They were all bound for Chicago, from which city they were to leave for their homes on the seven-day furlough, John Hall of Highwood, the conductor, held out a hand invitingly to the first recruit in the car for 35 cents, the fare to Evanston. The recruit pulled up one trouser leg, unbuttoned the flap of a secret pocket' and presented the conductor with a S2O bill. “Is that the'smallest you have?" asked the conductor, "That's the smallest, the largest and ail," said the recruit, “and every one of these eighty men has one just like if j Hall telephoned to the paymaster of /the company, who boarded the train

at Highwood with a hand grip full of bills and started tp change the big bills into smaller ones. Before he was half way through the car his .sup* ply of bills had been exhausted. When the car reached Highland Park the paymaster hurried to the bank and threw a bundle of twenties to the teller, saying he wanted a lot of ones, twos and Uvea The teller reached into the drawer and before all the twenties had been changed the second time the small bills of the bank were almost gone. The eighty recruits had completed their course at the naval station and had been granted a seven days’ furlough before reporting for dutp aboard their respective ship*.