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Home , Panic of 1907

~ ~’~ lthough the headline referred to events in New ~--q// York, Boston Post readers knew exactly what it " / [/ meant. Effectsofthefinancialcrisiswerecertainto ~ reach beyond . ¶ Financial.panics and bank runs were all too common during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Some were more severe than others, but most followed the same general pattern. The misfo’rtunes of a pron~inent speculator wouldundermine pubhc qonfidence in the financial system. Panic-stricl~en investors would then sci’amble to cut their losses. And because it wasnit unconm~on for ~peculators to double as bank officials, worried depositors would rush to withdraw their money fi’om any bank associated with a troubled specula~tor. Ira

beleaguered bank couldn’t meet its depositors’ demands for cash, panic would quickly spre.ad to other banks. (l~emember! There was no federal deposit until 1933. If a bank failed, depositors had little hope of ever seeing their money again.) ¶ With far les~ government regulation of the financial system than there is today and with no govenm~ent welfare "safety net," many Americans suffered sudden and dramatic reversals of fortune whena panic str.uck. Even in a relatively n-tild panic, fortunes evaporated and lives ended in ruin. ¶ The following pamphlet" recaps the chain of events that came to be known as The Bank Panic of 1907. By most measures, it was not- the worst panic in U.S. history. But in retrospedt, it was a watershed event that had a lasting impact on the financial system. PART I

COPPER BREAKS HEINZE WaTERlOO Co~,iES TO YOUN6 NAPOLEON aND BANKS TOTTER Headline, 13oston Post - October 17, 1907

/0 n October 14, 1907, the of United Copper Company (~ /,~soared past $62a share. Two days later it closed at $15, and one ~ F. Augustus Heinze was well on his way to financial ruin.

The rise and fall of F.A. Heinzd had been nothing less than spectacular. Only 18 months earlier, the.onetime owner of a Montana copper mine had ridden into New York with $25 millio~a in cash and garnered in an out-of-court legal settlement with a rival mining company. He soon attracted notice by aggressively purchasing interests iu several New York banks and engaging in speculative activities.

As is so often the case when things are going well, Heinze seemed incapable of making a bad business deal. His downfall took everyone by surprise.

The financial empire ofF. Augustus Heinze began to unravel ill October 1907 when he overreached himself in an effort to corner the stock of United Copper Company. (An investor who tries to "corner the market" on a com~nodity or a stock is attempting to gain control in order to fix the price.) In less than 24 hours, he dropped $50 million, and the financial markets went hay~;cire. According to an article in the October 18, 1907 edition of the Boston Post: Sensatiotu fidlou~ed ead~ other in rapid succession in the financial district toda}, as the restdt of the collapse ~f the projected corner Uttited Copper and the suspension of a pronlinetlt brokerage firm ),esterda},. As a result of these sensations the lvas halting and irregular, but there urns an apparent fee, ling that the break ~f the attempted corner in United Copper had cleared the atmosphere sonleu&at, and tll~ nlarket rallied before the close. (The ~’prominent brokerage firm" tions. Their association with him mentioned in the article was otto prove, d to be their undoing. Heinze & Co., which was run by the brother of F. Augustus Heinze The first high-profile New York tlld was heavily involved in the banker to experience difficulty disastrous attempt to corner United because ofhis association with Copper. In addition, F.A. Heinze’s Heinze was C~vr. Morse of Mer- Butte (Montana) Savings Bank failed cantile Nationa-1 Bank. Morse’s ion October 17, 1907.) involvmnent in the United Copper debacle had undermined co~ .~fidence Predictions that the atmosphere had in Mercantile National, so on cleared proved for too optimistic." October 19, he resigned his seat The worst was yet to conxe. on the bank’s board of dire. ctors and severed all official ties with more Had F. Augustus Heinze been a than half a dozen other banks and mere copper speculator, the finan- companies. cial markets might have been able to shake off the news of his collapse. Most of the pressure for Morse to Unfortunately, he was also deeply leave banking had come from the involved in banking, and his financial. New York Clearing Ho’use Com- reversM had a far-reaching effect. n~ittee’. In generic terms, a clear- inghouse is an association in which Shortly after midMght on October member banks agree to exchange 17, Heinze announced his inten- and’process checks for one another. tion to resign as president of But the New York Clearing Home Mercantile . He was Conmxittee, which counted some not a bankei" by training nor by of the city’s most respected and temperament, a fact ~rated in a influential baukm~ among i~s menx- fi’ont-page story in the New York_ bers, algo assumed many of the Times (October 17, 1907): respomibilities now performed by Frie~ds of Mr. Heinze I~a~,e government regulators. said re.qardillg 1.1is assumptiolt of tl~e Preside~cy of tl~e Adcrcamile When the preserlce-of Heinze and tidal lie did ~lotpretend to k~lOUd- Morse threatened to erode confi- edge of the banki~g busi~less and dence in New York’s banks, the ttlat lie meant rather to lear11 tile Clearh~g House ~onmxittee pressured bus)~less as Preside~tt of the ~Ier-" them to leave banking. It then calttile tlla~ persollally_to direct assigned a task force to determine its operatio~ls. whether or not Mercantile Na- In his effort to "learn the business," tional and .other troubled bm~ks Heinze had formed relationships were solvent and worthy of with bankers at a nulnber ofinstitu- Cleari[~g House support. Ultima~ely, the Unfortunately, Committee these statm~ents pledged to stand proved to be little behind Mercan- more than "whis- tile National and tling past the extend whatever graveyard. " aid’ was necessary T.hings had yet to to meet the de- hit bott6m. man.ds of the bank’s depositors. Back.on October in other words, ~8, depositors of banks that were New York’s members oi" the Clear~ng House Knickerbocker Trust Company would contribute funds to help started a run after they,.learned cover th~ withdrawals by Mercan- that Kickerbocker’s president, tile National’s depositors. Charles T. Barney, was a business associate ofF.A. Heinze and C.W. The front page of the New Yorle Morse. Later that day, the situation Times (October 51).pron~inently worsened when the National featured .s’tatements. by leading Bank of Commm’ce announced bankers lauding the it would no longer adt as Co~ma~it[ee’s decisive action. James ¯ Knickerbocker’s Clearing House Speye~, head ofSpeyer & Co., was ,agent. (A~ a trust company, of the opinion that, "Everyon,e will Knickerbocker wa~ not eligible be ~re’pressed by the prompt action for membershiP in the Cleating and by this new proof that the men House and, therefore, needed an at the head of the i.mportan, t banks agent to process its checks. In the stand together solidly, thereby event that Knickerbocker failed, accomplishing necessary refonns National Bank of Conm~erce didn’t and preventing inj ury to depositors want. to be stuck with a lot of and shareholders." He also called I4_a~ic .kerbocker checks that wouldn’t for "every one to keep cool and be honored.) show common sense." On October 21, with the situation Noted financier Jacob H. SchitTtold continuing to .deteriorate, Charles the Times that, " Barney stepped down ,as Conm~ittee is so able and so conser- Knickerbocker’s president. vative that tiaey deserve tl~e full By October 22, I~ickerbocker’s confidence of the coimnmfity," and depositors were so desperate to added that," So far as nay own knowl- withdraw their money that its edge of the situation goes, I bdlieve teller’s paid out more than $8 mil- it to be entirely sound." lion during.a three-hour run, and the beleagured trust company closed "Knickerbocker Will Not Open - its doors shortly after noon. Conference of Bankers Deems It Unwise to Aid the Trust Company Further To-day," read the Times PANIC WAS SPREADING. headline on October 23. Instead, ENTER J.P. MORGAN. Morgan had decided to aid another institution, the Trust Cmnpany of j. Pierpont Morgan had an ahnost America, which was considered to legendary capacity to control the be in nluch better condition than outcome of a situation through Knickerbocker. sheer force of will. Even at age 70, he was still the don~inant figure in According to the Times, "The rea- American finance. son the Knickerbocker Trust was not aided by the Clearing House When the financial situation in Association and Mr. Morga’n and New York continued to deterio- his associates was that the company’s rate, Morgan decided to take capital and surplus, were impaired, charge. He was neither elected nor and that Mr. Morgan did not care appointed to the task. He simply to assume the responsibilities of pge- decided that the time had come for vious poor management." him to take action. was He started by designating a com- another case altogether. It was a mittee 0f bankers to audit the basically sound institution hurt by ’books of Charles Barney’s troubled widespread reports suggesting that Knickerbocker Trust. (One of the it had lent heavily to C.W. Morse bankers, Benjamin Strong, would and ’Charles T. Barney. The one day head the Federal R_eserve reports ultimately proved to be Bank of New York.) Morgan’s exaggerated, but the damage had committee began its work on been done. The Times’ front page October 22, as Knickerbocker’s article on October 23, stating that fi’enzied depositors were lining Morgan had pledged to help Trust up to withdraw $8 million in Company of America, probably little lnore than three hours. added to the m~xiety of the trust company’s depositors. The Nelv .Yorle Times headline on October 22 had declared that, Morgan’s decision to aid Trust "Knickerbocker Will Be Aided - Company of America was an- J.p. Morgan & Co. Help." But no nounced after a meeting with U.S. aid was forthcon~ing. On the basis Treasury Secretary George of his committee’s report, Morgan Cortelyou, who had traveled to had decided not to bail out New York to help manage the Knickerbocker Trust. crisis. (Note how {hings have changed since ,,and-I hope.the good 1907. The Trea- COlaamon sense of sury Secretary our American traveled to New . people will control York. Morgan did the situation .... Ev- not travel to Wash- eryone having, the ington.) good of his country at heart Should by Shortly after i a.m. word and deed lend on October 24, a hand now to re- Secretary establish confidence; ’ Cortelyou emerged from a meet- and I hope to do my part to the full ing with Morgan to announce that extent of ll’lyresources." $25 million in U.S. government fundg would be deposited in New Nevertheless, depositors continued York City’s banks to meet any to line up outsidebanks in hope of further emergencies that l~~ight withdrawing their cash. Not that arise. "If the press of this city will they were. 1.ess patriotic than John continue its cooperation, and if the D. They simply preferred not to public, on its part, will reflect upon risk losiiag money that may have the real strength of our banking taken them a lifetime to save. institutions," read Cortelyou’s official statement, "there will be a And as always, certain people prompt return of the confidence managed to .find opportunity in which their condition warrants. adversity. Some earned as much as As evidence of the Treasury’s dis- $10 a day by holding places"in line position, I have directed-deposits for weary depositors. in this city to the extent of $25 million." (Twenty-five million Others seized the moment in dif- dollars may not sound like much feren~ ways. Mitchell the Tailor to present-day .Anael-icans, but in placed an ad in the Boston Post to 1907 the govenm~ent’s action and announce "Panic Prices~" Accord- the sum of money involved were ing to the ad, "One of Boston’s nothing of extraordinary.) prominent merchants finding him- self hopelessly involved in the stock Also pivching in to do his part was market crash this week closed out to John D. Rockefeller, who pledged me at private sale for cash." to deposit $10 million of his own money in New ~ork’s financial One person who didn’t seek institufions. "The existing alarm advantage in the crisis was Williana among investors is not warranted," Jennings Bryan, the Democrats’ declared the oil tycoon in a state- perennial presidential candidate. ment to the , In an. impromptu speech to the assembled crowd" at the minutes to pressure bankers into Binghamton, New York train coming up with $25 million.) station, he came to the defense of President Theodore 1Koos~velt, a According to the Times, "The Stock 1Kepublican. "I notice," said Bryan, Exchange had a brief quarter of an "that one of the officers of the bank hour when utter demoralization that just closed-its doors yesterday seemed a..question of each passing attributed it tO President l~oosevelt. second, but the throwing into the Tl~at is not the reason. Don’t Marne Exchange of the Morgm~ pool’s the She.rift, but tlie horse thief. $25,000,000 of call money changed Don’t. blame the officials who all this." The influx of funds made make and enforce the 1.aw~, but it possible for brokers to borrow blame the criminals who-make and remain solvent. necessary such laws. Blame the unscrt]pulous financiers who have But the relief was only temporary. piled up predatory wealth and who The next day, October 25, brokers "exploit a whole nation as high again had difficulty borrovcing finance." money, even at usurious rates, and many faced the.prospect of failure. The first tentative impr6venaent in the crisis CalT~e on October 24 Morgan again took charge by when the Trust Company of marching down to the New York AmeriCa survived a run and the Clearing House and prevailing upon stock marl~et narrowly averted the bankers to issue Clearing House disaster. The headline of a fro,nt certificates (scrip) intended to func- page article in the getv York Times tion as a tempor~iry substitute for (October 25) announced that, scarce cash. When they processed "Trust Company of America Keeps cheeks, Clearing House banks used Ope~? Its Doors and Pays All Who the certificates in place of cash to Come." The article’s lead sentence settle acdounts with one another. reported that, "The power of They were thus better able tc~ meet millions pohred into the banks by the demands of anxious depositors the Government, into the Trust who were demanding to withdraw Company of An~erica by the pow- their cash. The certificates also fi-eed erful group of" bankers which is up mo)e cash for loans to cash- standing .by’tllat institution, and strapped stockbrokers. into. the Stock E±change by a $25,000,000 money pool con- Latdr in the week, Morgan tried ducted by J.P. Morgan & Co., to bolster public confidence by brought the financial community employing a less conventional through another day of stress measure. He exhorted the city’s yesterday.’I (Such was Morgan’s. clergy to preach sermons urging influence that he required only 15 calm and forbearance. "From pulpits throughout remedy, which the city," reported centered on efforts the Times (October to form a $25 mil- 28), "words of ad- lion pool of funds vice were deliv- to rescue ~he ailing ered, and calmness trusts. During an all and confidence night bargaining urged upon all." session at his library, Morgan managed Even before to browbeat the Morgan’s call to assembled collection prayer, the crisis of bankers and trust showed signs Of company presidents easing. On October into putting up 26 the Times headline read, "Bankers money to rescue the weaker trusts. Calm; Sky Clearing." The next day’s (According to some accounts, he ¯ headline was equally optimistic, actually kept them locked in a room "Banks Leaving Trouble Behind." until they saw things his way.)

But the trouble wasn’t over yet. As part of the trust company bail- out, Morgan also won acceptance Just as things seemed to be improv7 ing for banks and the stock market, of a plan to rescue Moore & Schley; ’s finances took a plan that advanced his own inter- a turn for the worse. Skittish ests as well by enabling his bank to European investors were reluctant orchestrate U.S. Steel’s acquisition to buy the city’s bonds, so the mayor of a competing company. (U.S. Steel called upon Morgan for help, had very close ties to Morgan’s bank.) which he agreed to provide after "extracting a number of protective By mid-November, the panic had measures, including a bankers’ subsided. But there was to be one committee to oversee the city’s last casualty. On the afternoon of aec0unting practices~ Thursday, November 13, Charles T. Barney, former president of the As the crisis wound down, there failed Knickerbocker Trust Com- "were a few issues that needed to pany, died at his home on East 38th be addressed. Trhst companies, Streetfrom a self-inflicted gunshot. including Trust Company of Reportedly, he was despondent America, required further assistance, over J.P. Morgan’s refusal to meet and several brokerage houses still with him. faced an uncertain iCuture, most notably the firm of Moore & Schley, But Morgan and otherswere beii~g which was $25 .million in debt. showered with accolades for their Once again, Morgan devised a .handling of the situation. The New

York Clearing House passed a Yet even amidst the continuing. resolution th3nking Morgan "for praise there were indications that the promptness with which he had the prominent bankers and great coxne to the aid of the situation." financiers had reached the pinnacle President Theodore P,,oosevelt of their power and influence. The commended TreasmT Secretary’ calls for major changes in the finan- Cortelyou "upon, the adnxirable way cial system were growing louder in which you have handled the and stronger. present crisls." And although he didn’t naention Morgan by n,’u-ne, l~oosevelt Senator Nelson Aldrich of I~hode ,also congratulated "those conserva- Island sunamed up the general feel- rive and substantial business men in ing. "Something has got to be this crisis who have acted with such done," he declared; "We maynot wisdom and public spirit." Lord always have Pierpont Morgan with l~othschild, of the renowned Euro- us to meet a banking crisis." pean banking fanxily, praised Morgan as "worthy of his reputation as a great And- eventually something -was financier and a man of wonderful done. In 1910,’Senator Aldrich resources. His latest action fills one introduced legislation for a U.S. with adn-firation and respect for him." . His bill failed to gain passage, but several of its provisions A New Yorker by the name of were ultimately incorporated in McLandburgh Wilson went so far as the Federal P,_eset~ce Act (1913). to compose an ode to Morgan, which Increased government oversight the Times ran in its Sunday edition o£ the financial system was in the on October 27: offing. A milliot~aire is wicked, quite; His doom should quick be knelled; On December 23, 1913, just over He should not b~ allowed to £row, sLx years after the Panic of 190,7, If 2rown he shoMd be felled, President sigmed But u,he, a citj/s bondLfall flat, the Federallq.eserveAct. It provided And no one cares for them, for "the establishment of federal l/Vho is the man who saues tl;e day? reserve banks, to furnish an elastic It’s.].P.~VL currency, to afford means of rediscounting co~mnercial paper, to l/Vhett ballks a~ld trust’s go,ct’aslli~1g down establish a more effective supetwi- From credit’s sldlied ~lame, sion of banking in the. United States, While Sp~echifi, blg Greatness adds and for other purposes." k4ore fiM to the flame, HyT, wn Titan Stre~Nth is ~leeded sore j.P. Morgan, who during Fhe Panic Black ruin’s tide to stem, of 1907, had performed many of Who is the man who does the job? the functions of a central bank, died It’s d.P.]14. in 1Lome on.March 31, 1913. PART II

MONDAY acting chair~nan also announces that OCTOBER 14: the Clearing House will stand by The stock of United Copper the bank in the event of a run by Colnpany soars past $62 a share. depositors.

WEDNESDAY F RI DAY OCTOBER 16: OCTOBER 18: United Copper closes at $15 d share Nine banks form an emergency after bank owner/speculator F.A. pool of funds to aid Mercantile Heinze fails in his attempt to corner National. But depositors at the company’s shares. Knickerbocker Trust Company begin to withdraw their money. THURSDAY ;Fhey are concerned because OCTOBER 17: I~ickerbocker’s president, Charles Shortly after midnight, Heinze T. Barney, is an associate of F.A. resigns as president of Mercantile Heinze. National Bank. Later that morning, prompted by the fear that Heinze’s SATURDAY stock market losses might affect the OCTOBER 19: bank, Mercantile National’s deposi- Charles W. Morse, a banker and tors scramble to withdraw their ~peculator who was involved with money. Heinze in the disastrous copper corner, announces he will resign During the day, Heinze’s Butte official positions at nine banks and (montana) Savings Bank fails as trust companies. does the brokerage firm of Otto Hein~e &: Co., which is owned by MONDAY the brother of F.A. Heinze. OCTOBER 21: Charles T. Barney resigns as That night, the New York Clear- president of Knickerbocker Trust ing House- Conat~ittee declares Company. Depositors withdraw that Mercantile National is "per- $8 n~llion in less than four hours fectly solvent and able to meet all before Knickerbocker suspends its indebtedness." The Committee’s operations. TUESDAY The crisis takes its toll onJ.P. Mor- OCTOBER 22: gan. Under the headline "J.P. Morr- J.p. Morgan refuses to aid gan Has a Cold," the New York Knickerbocker Trust, wtiich does Times reports, "J. Pierpont Morgan not reopen for business. has a slight Cold resulting from ex- posure to the night air. In the last A headline in the Neap York ~imes week Mr. Morgan has .attended announces that Morgan Ocill many night conferences dealing organize support for Trust Com- with the banking situation.-’ In pany of America, which is deemed doing so he was obliged on several to be in much better condition than occasions to ride about in his cab Ka~ickerbocker. late at night, and in sonde instances in the early morning. The result WEDNESDAY was that he contracted a cold which OCTOBER23: gave him some tr6uble yesterday. Treasury Secretary George When he left his office late yester- Cortelyou travels to New York to day afternoon he wore a handker- meet with Morgan and other fin- chief about his neck." anciers. SUNDAY THURSDAY OCTOBER 27: OCTOBER 24: At the behest of J.P. Morgan, At 1 a.m., Cortelyou ann{~unces New York City’s clergy preach ser- that the U.S. Treasury will deposit mons urging "calmness and Confi- $25 million in several New York dence." City banks. WE~)NESDAY Later in the day, oil tycoon John D. OCTOBER 30: Rockefeller commits $10 million In response to a plea from New of his own money to stabilizing York’s Mayor, a Morgan-lffd syn- the financial siguation. dicate bails out the city by agreeing to place $30 million worth of its FRIDAY " revenue bonds with investors. OCTOBER25: Under heavy pressure, fi-om J.P. Tl{e night before, Morgan had Morgan, New York bankers con- pressured trust conlpany presidents tribute to a $25 million rescue pool into putting up funds to support for.cash-strapped stockbrokers, who the still ailing Trust Company of have been unable to borrow and America and Lincoln Trust-Com- are "facing ruin. pany. Morgan and his associates also devise a plan to save the bro- SATURDAY kerage firm of Moore & Schley OCTOBER 26: from failure.

PART IiI

~e Panic of1907 proved to be a defining moment in U. S.financial ¯ /I hist°w; a major event that prompted widesPread calls for refo~l~. ¯/! It was also a front page sto~T played ot~t by larger-than-life cliaracters. ~~ But an~dst the financial upl:~eaval, newspapers continued to report on the ebb and flow of daffy life - a daffy life that gn-eatly differed fi-om our own in certain respects yet was remarkably si~nilar in others.

What follows is a ".parallel history" that offers a glimpse into the evewday triumphs, tragedies, follies, and fraffties of ordinary people as reported by -the New Yorle Times and the Bosto, Post during the last two weeks of October 1907.

THE POMPADOUR championship has passed fi’ol-n the VINDICATED American to the National league, Women clerks in de- and Chan’ce’s Cubs have come into partment stores, who were warned their own. For the fourth succes- that they would not be pern~itted sive time Chicago today showed to wear high pompadours while at the anguish stricken fans of ~vork, have won their fight ~gainst Tigmwillejust why Chicago made a the managers of the stores, and in runaway match of the National, future theywill wear their hair a la league race, and three-fingered pompadour or any other old way Mordecai Brown proved that they see fit. American league sluggers were no more to be feared than the boasted Front page sto~T batsmen of a rival organization. Neu~ York Times Wednesday, October 16, 1907 Front page story Boston Post CUBS WORLD Sunday, October 13, 1907 CHAMPIONS Plunged in deepest gloom is De- troit tonight, and celebrations that BEER NEEDS NO FOAM n~ight have been tendered to ON TOP Jennings’ heroes have been stricken Judge Kimball in the Police Court fiom the schedule, for the world’s today was called upon to decide whether a custoiner is entitled to by two well-dressed won~en .... beer with much or little loan1 OI1 it.’ The little girl was placed in the He decided agaiust the foam. convent a year ago when her father and mother separated. Her mother Bostol~ Post agreed to her being in the convent, .Monday, October 14", 1907 but.later wanted to tak_e charge of her and applied to the courts for the child’s CUstody. Judge Wiltbank CASHIER FOUND GUILTY decided that the child was better Paul P~. Holland, formerly cashier off to stay in the convent. The of the First National Bank of mother was much disappointed, Turtle Creek, was four~d ~uilty in and her husband thinks she has court this afternoon on four counts taken this .means of getting the girl of embezzlement, and four counts in her possession. of misappropriating funds of the bank. His peculations amounted to Front Page Story $19,000. New York Time~ Tuesday, October 22, 1907 ¯Front Page StoW New York Times Saturday, October 26, 1907 ARE NEW YORK’S, PUBLIC MANNERS REALLY GOING FROM BURGLARS IN BAD TO WORSE? WESTCHESTER , Obsmwations in the Opera, the l%obberies along the Hudson Theatre, the Fashionable IKestau- rZiver are become almost nightly rants, and the S~vell Cafes All Seen-~ occurrences in this Vicinity. The to Answer the QueStion in the burglars leave no clue behind and A~rmative ! the police are baffled. Headline of a Feature StoW Front Page Story New York Times Boston Post Sunday, October 13, 1907 ¯ Sunday, October 27, 1907

BEATEN CLOSE TO CHILD STOLEN FROM HIS HOME CONVENT Four n~en left Frank G~ll of 441 From the midst of her playmates West Seventeenth Street uncon- in the yard of St. Joseph’s Convent scious on the sidewalk 1,~st night at at McSherwsto~w~., Penn., Evelyn about 8 o’clock after brutally beat- O’Draiu, 8 years old, of Philadel- ing him because he refused to give phia, was carried otTthis afternoon theln a 1hatch when they accosted hina at the corner of Seventeenth CRUELTY TO HORSES Street and Niuth Avenue. The~ During nay travels in this country also robbed him of his gold watch for the past seven weeks .I have and about $5 in ~ash. spent a great deal of my time in the Western states, and no~v on n~y Neu~ York Times departure to England I wish to say Monday, October 14, 1907 that I have never seen such cruelty to horses as I have seen in New York City during the past x~ceek. FINED FOR SON’S DEATH The manuer of beating the poor Edwin M. Watson and wife, the beasts mid the heavy loads, which moodstown Christiau Scientists they are compelled to haul is some- recently convicted of manslaughter thing disgraceful. I have been told for ,allowing their seven-year-old son, at my hotel that you have a humane Granville, to die without medical ¯ society. If you have, I think it i~ a attendance, were sentenced here disga’ace to civilization. to-day to pay a fine of $100 each. An English Tourist Front Page Story To the Editor of New York Times Thursday, October 24, 1907 Sunday, October 27, 1907

MAN !VIARRIES WOMAN ¯ PUT CHORUS GIRL FOR THIRD TIME IN JAIL Ashley Brigham, now in the 71st Miss Cecilia V. Clark of New York, year of his life, has just married the a chorus girl, formerly with P~ogers same WOlnai~ for the third time - Brothers in Ireland, was held in the sweetheart of a childhood $500 to-day on the charge of ronlance .... "Yes we are married vagrancy .... It is charged that she again," she said. "Why?" There has threatened ~o kill two promi- was a silvery k/ugh. "Why, because nent men of Atlanta, and that last I yearned for the old love. I .wanted night s!ae told a well-known young to spend my declining years ~vith man that she inteuded to throw my ’own,’ and now we are going to carbolic acid in his face. In the begin all over again just ,-is we did woman’s room were found a 38- that beautiful June morning so inany calibre hammerless revolver and a years, ago." bottle of carbolic acid. Bostott Post Front Page Story Sunday, October 27, 1907 Nelu Yorle Tillle~ Sunday, October 20, 1907 ¯WEDDED AFTER PRICK OF THE 23 YEARS, _ HAND FATAL STATEN ISLAND Dr. Charles Eugene Monl~s, 38 COUPLE POSTPONED years old, a dentist, died to-day MARRIAGE WHILE fi’om blood poisoning contracted PARENTS NEEDED CARE in relieving a patient’s sut~-ering. Miss Margaret P~’aff and John The man suffered fi-om a badly Beaver, both of 1Kichmond, S.I., diseased tooth and before the den- were married at St. Patrick’~ Catho- tist could sterilize his instrulxlents lic Church tliere last evening after a he plunged the point of one into courtship of twenty-three years. the palm of his hand. Blood. poi- They were born in 1%ichmond, soning immediately developed and ~vent to school together, and be- death followed after three days of came engaged when nearing tlieir intense suffering. majority. Each had a father ~vho needed c~re and attention, and they Front Page Stoty decided to postpone their marriage Ne~ York Times indefinitely. Tuesday, October 29, 1907

Front Page Stoty Ne~, York Times MISER DIES IN RAGS Monday, October 28, 1907 William Henty Jay, known as the Hermit Miser, died yesterday. He was apparently destitute, and was VILLANOVA WAS RUDE clothed in rags, but it is reported WITH YALE PLAYERS, that he was worth from $~2,000 to WILL BE DROPPED FROM $15,000. He lived in a little house ELI SCHEDULE on the plains on the old Cherty Villanova’s football tactics were So Valley 1Koad, between Garden City aggressive against Yale yesterday and munson, and was rarely seen that her eleven will llOt be chosen except when he went to a groceW to fill a date on tlie Yale schedule for provisions. He is said to have next fall. In at least wvo instances made his living fi-om a strawberty the visitors used foul tactics and patch whicli was patronized by were hissed by the crowd. Villanova wealthy residents of Garden City. will be dropped, as Penn State¯ was a year ago and as Columbia ,vas two Front Page Sto~2¢ Nel~ York Times seasons ago. Wednesd,~y, October 31, 1907 Bostoll Post Monday, October 28, 1907 PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE BOSTONIAN soCIETY AND B ROV~/N BROTHERS

I~AOST OF THE FACTUAL INFOR!VL&TION IN THIS ARTICLE VqAS DRAWN FRO!V~ THE FOLLOVVING SOURCES:

"Lessons From the Panic of 1907," Ellis W. Tallman, Jon Moen, Ecol~omic Re,dew, Federal P-.esetwe Bank of Atlanta, May 1990.

Wl~e no~se of~ior~a~, P,.on Chernow, Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, 1990.

~’get~ Yort~ Wimes- September, Oc,tober, November 1907.

Bosto~, I~ost- September, October, November 1907. FORADDITIONAL COPIES CONTACT:

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