Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1896 — MERCHANTS TO MOVE. [ARTICLE]

MERCHANTS TO MOVE.

■ ' VV . * WOES 0F THE BIG CHICAGO RETAILERS. -. '■ . •. • j-.: . .l/r— —?■'. V» —V- •—'aaj' / -V- “ f - Gieedy Landlords Drive Them Out of Business—Silver Bond Bill Favored bjr the Senate—Big Philadelphia Blaze—Suicide of a Bank Cashier. Eaten Up by Bert, Merchants on State street. Chicago, say they have grown tired of giving their entire profits to their landlords, and a move‘ment is now oiUfoST'ffi!' a gctieisTEtodiiS' from that thoroughfare. Wabash avenue will profit most By the move. TFTf should be made, and Dearborn and Clark streets, Michigan 'avenue, and east and west streets will also come in for a share of the retail trade should it leave State street. More than 200 feet of frontage in State street which was occupied Friday by .retail stores was . vacant Saturday."There are at least a dozen important retail stores, ithe 1 leases of which expire on May 1 or before. which may be moved from State street. There are some others which will move from one part of the street to another, leaving vacant property which has rented for large sums iu the past Rents have been as high as SI,OOO per front foot per annum. Senate Passes Silver Bill. The contest over the silver bond bill is at ap end in the Senate, that body having passed the Free silver coinage substitute to the House bill Saturday by the decisive vote of*42 to 35, a majority of seven for free silver. The bill was a,substitute for the House bond bill and provides that from the date of the act the mints of the United States shall be oi>en to the coinage of silver and the dollar shall be the present weight and fineness, and also provides for the certificates, it further provides for the coinage of the seignioriorage now in the treasury and authorizes immediate issue of certificates upon the same iu advance of it being coined. One section of the bill provides that no bank" note of less than $lO shall hereafter be issued, and those outstanding of less amount shall be taken up and canceled as rapidly as possible. Section four provides that the greenbacks and treasury notes shall he redeemed in standard silver dollars or in gold coin at the option of the treasury, aud the greenbacks, when so redeemed, shall be immediately reissued.

Suicide Causes a Bank" to Close. Cashier George Barnard, of the Fort Stanwix National Bank, Rome, N. Y-, has killed himself, and the bank is closed, pending an examination of its affairs, ordered by the Board of Directors. Mr. Barnard has been missing from his home since Wednesday. On that day the teller of the bank, Pa trie, went into the private office of the cashier and said to him: ‘‘Mr. Barnard, 1 see the bank examiner, Mr. Van Vrauken, is at the Farmers’ National Bank, and 1 suppose he will be here in a day or so.” Mr. Barnard immediately left his desk, walked out of the bank, and np to the fourth story of the building. He went iuto a storeroom, it now appears, and tying a rdpodo the door knob, fastened the other end uround his neek, aud the indications are that he then pressed his knees against, the door and died by strangulation. Before,committing the act he locked the door. Dun & Co.’s Review. R. G. Dun & Co.'s Weekly Review of Trade says: “Though business is still waiting, there are some signs of definite improvement. It is now believed that the first payment for bonds'will cause no further pressure, and the mriney markets are easier as respects loans on collateral, though the difficulty of making commercial loans still checks operations, but large maturities at the end of January were met more satisfactorily than was expected, and merchants and bankers report that the signs promise a good spring trade. No increase appears as yet in the demand for the principal products, except iron and steel, and uncertainty op to congressional action still affects both industries and commerce, but the increase in inquiry and the reports of dealers are deemed assurance of large trade coming whenever the uncertainty is over.” Laid Waste by Fire. Property with r.n estimated value of $2,000,000 was burned early Sunday morning at Philadelphia. The lag sevenstory building of Charles 11. Haseltine, Nos. 141(5 and 1418 Chestnut street, -and the' adjoining five-story structure of the Baptist Publication Society and the American Baptist Historical Society, No. 1420, were destroyed. The buildings damaged by fire and wafer and falling walls were the four-story dry goods house of Homer, I.e Boutillier & Co., Nos. 1412 and 1414, the dwelling house at 1422, owned by the Wistur estate, and the Hotel Lafayette, at Broad and Sansoin streets.