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Page mg Houses-Ohlo & Bacon's and Mississippi RailroadThe Solvency of St. Louis Bankers-Standmg of Page & Bacon, die. CIRCULAR OF PAGE & BACON. 1955. 13, Jan. Sr. LOUIS, It becomes our painful duty to transmit you the card below, issued in our St. Louis papers this morning. At the present writing, we can add nothing except on matters in which you have a personal interest, and for which you may resonably have some solicitude. We beg leave to state that we have madearrangements to place all enclosures for collection from toreign correspondents. both those now in our hands and all received - and after this date, at the Bank of the State of Misseuri, for the credit of or remittance to the proper parties. All collections and moneys received on and after this date, from home and country correspondents having current accounts with us, will be placed in the hands of our esteemed and responsible fellow citizen, Robert M. Henning, Esq., who will directly advise of and account for the same. Re soon as possible, our books will be written up, and every correspondent advised of the state of his account. So soon, too, as we can cast about us and ascertain our precise situation, we shall make & full statement of our affairs; meanwhile, we ask the indulgence of our friends for the amount of time requisite for this, with a house whose operations are as extended as ours, assuring them all, that the deepest and sincerest emotion we have at this unfortunate juncture, is one of less solicitude for ourselves, than of regret for the temporary inconvemience and misrortune of such as may be involved with as. PAGE & BACON, NOTICE. All outstanding drafts drawn on Page & Bacon by J. Bunn, of Springfield, ill., will be duly honored on pre. sentation at the office of Henning & Woodruff. ST. LOUIS, January 15, 1855. [From the St. Louis Republican, Jan 15.] THE MONETARY AFFAIRS OF ST. LOUIS. The announcement contained in our yesterday's issue, of the suspension of the banking house of Page & Bacon, created a wide-spread sensation in our community, which was not diminished, but rather increased, by the fact that Messrs. Loker, Renick & Co., bankers, did not open their doors. Ordinary business was left unattended to, and the public mind seemed absorbed at first in the public calamity of the stoppage of Page & Bacon, and afterwards in the run which 00 mmenced on the other banking houses of the city. Scon after 9 o'clock A. M. it was manifest that a run had commenced upon Lucas & Simonds, L. A. Benoist & Co., and the Boatmen' Savings Institution, and it was continued uninterruptedly, but without any manifestation of unpleasant feeling, until 4 the usual hour of closing on Saturdays- when those three estabMohments closed their doors for the day, having promptBy met every call of their depositors. Other banking houses were subjected to somewhat more than ordinary salls, and all sustained themselves without faltering Many persons presented the notes of the Bank of. the State of Missouri at ITH counter, and received specie for them; but, thanks to the fact that in the most trouDied times we have ever bad, that institution has never failed in a single instance to meet. in gold and silver, all demands upon it and to the further fact, well kno vn to exist, that it has ample means at hand for any emergency, nothing like a run upon it was attemptel, nor have we the least idea there will be. It was evident throughout the day that the panic was not, to any considerable extent, among the substantial merebants of our city. Some of them doubtless, drew their deposits. but more to meet the liabilities of the day than from any fear with regard to the safety of their money No observer in the different houses could have failed to see, as we are advised the fact was, that it was the small depositors that composed the bulk of the srowds. Indeed, we know of many of our citizens, having thousands on deposit where others had tens, who did not craw a check, or make any move indicative of uneastates of feeling; but on the contrary expresse openly their regret they had not the means to increase their deposits. It mas & marked leature in the street conversaMcns that no expressions of unkind feeling towar is the bankers were heard; showing a deep-seated convistion in the minds of depositors that their money was in the hands of men of the highest integrity, who, whatever might be the resnlt of the day's pressure, were above all suspicion of any unworthy desire, purpose or act. We look back upon the proceedings of the day with a feeling of unmingled regret that, without, as we conceive, any sufficient reason, such an excite ment, leacing to such a run upon our bankers, should have sprung up. The suspension of two of our back. line bouses, with whom the others had no connection whatever, constituted no ground for a run upon the latSer. While the day lasted, it was however, man.festly of no aval to attempt to produce any ex ended counter Impression on the public mind. Unfortunately, pecu niary excitements seem to deprive many men of the espacity as well as disposition to look calmly at, or to reason dispassionately upon, the circumstances of the hour. But the day, with all its anxieties and events, bae closed, and day of rest intervenes, whizh we hope will lead to something like serenity and reflection Every hour that this excitement continues is a detriment to all the interests of our city; every man who con tributes to keep it alive assumes weight of responsibility from which he might well shrink. Every citizen who labors to calm the public mind down to sober and reasoning basis, deserves the thanks of the whole community. We unhesitatingly declare our conviction that this panie has not proceeded from any impression on the public mind that Lucas & Simonds, Benoist & Co., or the Boatmen's Institution, were, in themselves, unable . meet all legitimate demands upon them in the reguhar course of business. Not one man who withdrew late deposits from them, if he could have ans wered easy. would have affirmed that his ast WOR the resalt of anything but the suspension of the other houses. Every depositor with Lucas & Simonds knew. as the whole community does, that the senior member of that bouse is this day worth, upon moderate estimate, two and a bali millions of dollars, to say nothing of the pro perty of the other members, and the assets of the firm. It is equally well known that Benoist & Co. are men of large wealth, who have conducted their business with great prodence; and that the Boatmen's Institution is managed by some of the most careful and upright busimess men in our city, and that its loans are in every in stance on short paper, secured by three names Yet, with these facts well known, and without any single indieation of inability or indiaposition in these houses to meet all the demands of their bu iness, the apprehenalon caused by the disaste. of oth ers, led to the results we have mentioned. We are thankful that, 80 far, no injury has resulted from these untoward movements, and if depositors will make any attempt at sober consideration of what has passed. and of what their duty is under the circumstao$08, we feel an undousting certainty that confidence will be immediately restored and matters assume their prented course. OHIO AND MISSISSIPPI RAILROAD. We notice some anxiety in the community relative to the present condition of this road. The in expressed must the suspension of Page & Bacon, the financial agents of the company, will stop work upon the road, and deBy its completion to Vincennes. We do not, he vever, apprehend any such result. It is to be remembered that there is no financial consection between the Illinois division and the eastern division of this great work. The former tands alone; its stock has never been consoli dated with that of the eastern end, and is by a large per centage more valuable, the cost of con truction per mile being immensely less than in Indiana and Uhio. We have no official information of the amount of money required to complete the road to Vincennes, but expect to hear of a speedy meeting of the Board of Directors, and report from the Chief Engineer. We understand, however, from reliable authority, that less than $100,000 will fully prepare the road bed for the laying of the track, and that the monthly receipts of the road, now from $12 000 to $15,000, will, after dedu ting cost of operation, leave sufficient funds in the hands of the company to pay for laying the track. Sufficient iron is on hand here and at Vincennes to complete the road. Assuming the above to be we have no doubt the report of the Chief Engineer will corroborat every statement-the question at once arises: shall the road, under any state of the money market, be allowed to stop for a day? One hundred thousand dollars gives us & di. meet communication with the Eastera cities, shorter, (even with the temporary diverging right angle to Terre Haute,) by seventy five or eighty miles, than the present round about journey by Chicago One hundred thousan dollars gives us a good paying road, taking, from the day of its completion, more than half the travel of the Chi eago and Mississippi Railroad, probably two thirds'ef all that Eastern travel which is now compelled to pass through Chicago on its way to the Southeast Nor in this all The heavy subscription of the city and county of St. Louis to this road, in which every cit zen basan interest. must be protected. The completion of
