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DONNELL, LAWSON AND SIMPSON,
NEW YORK, May 15, The New York Tribune of Friday will say: The statements made by members of Donnell, Lawson & Simpson on Wednesday, that their suspension was due wholly to the suspension of the Metropolitan National bank, were not confirmed. Yesterday, the Metropolitan having resumed, similar action on the part of the banking firm was anxiously waited. Toward the close of working hours it began to be whispered around that their failure would be total. Bonds of the Cleveland, Youngstown & Pittsburg railroad were mentioned as the matter in which they had been most crippled. This was the security over which the Bank of the Republic directors had a difference about a month ago, which resulted in President Ford's resignation. The Bank of the Republic was one of two banks with which Donnell, Lawson & Simpson did business. Simpson had been a director in it. It was said George I. Seney had unlonged a lot of these.
"They will be more than that. We shall pay every dollar, I now think." "Is there any truth in the rumors that Seney unloaded Cleveland, Youngstown and Pittsburg bonds on you?"
"Not a word of truth. President Seney has unloaded nothing on us at any time,"
"What has been the character of your securities?"
They have been such as would commend themselves to conservative judgment. The greatest shrinkage in their value has been in some railroad bonds upon which we made advances Cleveland, Youngstown and Pittsburg those and some others.
How much are your deposits in the Metropolitan?
It was a good deal larger than we could have wished.
Can you not remember, now that the Metropolitan has done so? That is what we are trying to find out. We shall know tomorrow.
It is understood you have been offered two hundred thousand to help you out?
bonds on the firm, and that their dependence on the Metropolitan was such that they could not refuse to be thus used. At the firm's office on Broadway there was a long list of notices from their correspondents stating where drafts would hereafter be paid, which indicated how widely their business was distributed. There were over 400 banks for whom they transacted New York business, scattered through Georgia, Florida, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado, Utah and other territories. Over 100 bulletins were posted on the door inside. Donnell and Simpson were busy all day trying to see where they stand. Lawson is in Europe.
To a Tribune reporter yesterday Simpson said: "We are still figuring up and trying to get to the point where we can resume. We can't tell you anything until about to-morrow after noon. There is a prospect that we will resume. That is the point toward which our arrangements are tending."
"Has the assignee or receiver been decided upon?"
"No, sir; nothing of that kind has been or will be done now. We shall not make an assignment unless satisfied we cannot go on or settle our business satisfactorily without it,"
"What are your liabilities?"
"We can't tell exactly in the neighborhood of three millions,"
"How much are your assets worth?"
"Yes, S. B. Elkins offered that, but that would have been a drop in the bucket. We were offered several hundred thousand dollars by cable but we must see where we stand first. One attache of the firm told a reporter that matters had gone so far that resumption would be impossible. The offer of $200,000 by S. B. Elkins was made in good faith and it may lead to the re-establishment of the concern under a new name.