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Excited Crowds Gather Around Doors of First National. BLAMED ON PROMOTERS Institutions In Other Cities It Is Feared May Become Involved. FREELAND, Pa., March 17.-There was intense excitement about the doors of the closed First National Bank here this morning when a crowd of anxious depositors gathered. They included the wives of many coal mine workers, who had been saving for a possible strike. The only information offered was contained in a notice posted on the window during the night that the bank would remain closed until the bank examiner made an inspection. If the defalcation is found not to exceed $59,000. confessed to by Cashier F. N. Everett. it is claimed every dollar will be returned to the depositors. The bank is capitalized at $50,000. which, together with the bond of $15,000 of Cashier Everett, furnished by a Baltimore trust company, and the probable personal assets of William D. Beckley, a stockholder. also Lider arrest. the deficit is amply covered. Beckley Principal Promoter. The Beckley and McAuliff paper mills at Catawissa were the dumping ground for the bank's cash. Beckley appears to have been the master mind as the promoter, in establishing a chain of financial institutions in the different mining towns, As a consequence of his arrest and implication here. apprehension is felt in Bloomsburg, Catawissa, and Mt. Carmel, where enterprises with which he is identified are to lated. The friends of Cashier Everett claim he was made the scapegoat of the combinations. Cashier Everett. who is charged with embezzlement, and Beckley, charged are still in They have James ton with jail. conspiracy, engaged the Attorneys HazleScharlett. of Danville, and J. H. Bigelow. of Hazleton. to defend them. t They will be given a hearing this afternoon before United States Commissioner Hill. and expect to be released in the sum of $10,000 each. Needed More Time. Everett and Beckley claim that are not as bad as II and ditions had represented, conthey been given twenty-four hours' notice the bank would have been fully protected. A run occurred on the Citizens' Bank S in Freeland this morning and residents I are wild over revelations of last night. 2
