Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1875 — The “Run” on the Bank of California. [ARTICLE]

The “Run” on the Bank of California.

It was not until one p. m. that the officials of the institution became much alarmed. About that hour several checks for SIOO,OOO or $300,000, or similar amounts, came to be cashed from depositors not usually disturbed by rumors of financial trouele. All these were paid without a murmur, but theje kept on increasing. The scattering drops became a quiet patter, and the patter became a heavy shower. By two o’clock the steady withdrawal of -funds had quickened into a “ run;” which attracted attention and drew a crowd of spectators about the doors. The news ran along the street like a prairie fire, causing the. greatest commotion among brokers and operators, who rushed toward the center of interest, some with bank-books in their hands, others simply with a desire to join in the excitement. As the news spread to the adjoining streets, and into the quarter of the city devoted to heavy business, it aroused everywhere4he same attention. Stores and workshops were emptied of their occupants, either to see the excitement or to enable a withdrawal of deposits before the hour for closing the hank, which was now at hand. The people thus led by curiosity or . interest streamed from ail quarters toward the corner of California and Sanshme streets, filling the space in that locality for a square in every direction. At half-past two the excitement culminated in a scene of extraordinary interest, which could be taken in at a glance from an elevated position. The streets were thronged as far as the eye could reach, the crowd being quiet in certain places, in otters alive with motion. The steps of all banks and offices were packed with spectators., A pale face was seen at every pane of every window. Wild men were rushing in all directions, papers fluttering in their hands, and among them the inevitable bank-book. Pale women, with disordered hair and dresses, began to appear, giving the scene a little variety of color, and striving vainly to reach thenarrow entrance at the door of the Bank of California, besieged with crowding, struggling, obstreperous, white-faced men. The scene at me Uank-door was so wild, eager, confused and tumultuous that it can be but imperfectly described. Policemen, in uniforms and without, were scattered about in all available places to keep the crowd in the best order possible under the circumstances. The great iron door was closed, and through the little narrow door in the center, like the entrance to a prison cell, the panic-stricken depositors crowded, pressing their way between serried ranks of ragged, moneyless spectators, to whpm the failure of all the banks in the world would not have been a matter of the slightest consequence. An effort was made to keep out those having no business inside, but it was only partially successful. Those who came for deposits were largely brokers’ clerks and the representatives of business men in the lower part of the city. The scene inside the bank was even more intensely exciting than that outside. A crowd lined the counters from end to end, nervously shoving checks under the noses of tellers, who glanced at them and, as their only answer, shoved over to the excited men who brought them little piles of gold or great piles and boxes of silver. Every teller had a white, scared look, and the book-keepers and the faces of clerks, seen at the distant desks, looked ghastly as snow-drifts in the moonlight. Now and then a bank trustee was seen flitting about in a ghastly way, disappearing m the direction of the rooms belonging to the officers. The old Chinese clerk, who must have been contemporary with Confucius, sat on a high stool, gazing wisely through his spectacles, which are large as watch-crystals, at the half-crazed crowd pressing forward for their money. Great piles of gold and silver coin glistened on shelves just beyond the reach of those so vociferously demanding it. The clink of coin fairly drowned the din that came from the thronged street through the narrow entrance. The crowd increased rapidly from two o’clock until half-past two, when there was scarcely room for them at the counters. Then the management decided to stop payment, and so telegraphed to their Eastern correspondents. At 2:35 the little door swung to in the faces of several anxious depositors. An effort was made from without to push it open, but the policemen with strong arms shoved it to and drew the heavy iron bolts, forbidding further ingress. Then the crowd began beating a fierce tattoo, to which the tellers and clerks who stood still in their places listened with a faint smile of satisfaction and a deep-drawn sigh of relief. But the mission of the great Bank of California was ended’. After the bank had closed its doors a woman, having evidently crossed the Rubicon, but ghastly with paint and rouge, vainly endeavored to climb into the hank through a closed window, declaring she wonld have her money, every cent of it, and if her John wasn’t out to Sister Abigail’s, in Amador, he’d see that her hardearned savings Wafin’t stolen, you bet your life he would. Only desisting after finding that entrance was entirely out of the question, the frantic woman departed, wringing her hands and protesting amid torrents of tears that never again, no, never! would she put her money m Strange folks’ hands to keep for her as long as there was a spade to dig a hole in the ground with to bury it. There! And so .he perturbed female departed and was lost to view from California street While the run was at its height an old Californian, having the highest faith In the Bank of California, struggled vainly for entrance, declaring that he had $40,000 which fie Would deposit if the crowd would open its ranks and allow him admission. But the throng, drunk with excitement and alarm, paia no attention to the protesting individual, who struggled and shouted until he was exhausted and speechless, when he strode away breathing husky anathemas upon the “ plaguy cowards who thought the bank was going to bußt!”-nsa» Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 37.