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A WALL STREET PANIC. Securities Drop Many Points and Two Failures Are Announced. BANKSCOME TO MARKET'S RELIEF The Stock Exchange Experiences One of the Worst Days in Its History-Treasury Offers a Plan of Relief-Proffered Loans of $11,000,000 Aid the Stringent Money Market-Millions Lost. NEW YORK CITY (Special).-Much the worst panic that Wall street has seen since the memorable crash of 1893, commonly known as the "Cordage Smash," came upon the Street Monday, and when the day was over market values had declined millions upon millions of dollars, men who but a few hours before had counted their money by the thousands were ruined, and gloom was everywhere. In many respects, indeed, it was probably the worst singleday panic the Street had ever known. Recorded transactions on the Stock Exchange reached the enormous total of 1,531,150 shares. On the exchanges of other cities there were also crashes and abnormally heavy trading. From various cities throughout the country came reports of disastrous speculative losses, both in local and in New York stocks. Money was lent on call as high as 186 per cent. per annum, and there was a meeting of bank presidents, followed by offers to lend $10,000,000 to stem the tide of liquidation. The Produce Exchange Trust Company, B concern with more than $5,000,000 capital and surplus, closed its doors, and there were false rumors that one other trust company and half a dozen banks had suspended payment. It did happen that the Seventh National Bank served notice on the Clearing House banks that after twenty-four hours it would cease to act as Clearing House agent for the International Bank and Trust Company. That company deposited city bonds with the bank to protect its checks and its secretary announced that it was absolutely solvent. The Stock Exchange firm of Henry Allen & Co. collapsed with estimated liabilities of more than $1,000,000. There was a violent collapse in values on the Stock Exchange. where prices of shares dropped from $8 to $21, the declines of $2 to $9 a share between sales being a frequent happening. Late in the. afternoon the presidents of the larger banks met at the Clearing House to adopt measures to relieve the situation, but it was not until the bankers had offered to lend millions of dollars at six per cent. that the backbone of the panic was broken. Meantime the actual and contingent losses were enormous. Trust company stockholders had $5,000,000 tied up, while depositors' money, to the sum of from $2,000,000 to $3,000,000, had been locked up. A brokerage firm had failed with liabilities of more than $1,000,000, while securities worth several times that sum were involved. And the loss to holders of securities, when the slump In the market prices is considered, had mounted up into many more millions. The crash was purely speculative in its character-similar to the Grant & Ward failure in 1884. On Monday the failures were comparatively few, and none of the. Clearing House banks or big investment houses in Wall street was threatened. In fact, the break from the high interest rates came when J. P. Morgan & Co. dumped $1,000,000 into the Stock Exchange and lent it at six per cent., although the firm might have got 100 per cent. The panic in money was provoked by the failure of the trust company when the tension in the money markets was great, for fear the foreign markets might be upset by news from the Transvaal. Already speculators had been crippled, and the fear that more bubbles would burst threw them into panic. The investment and conservative trading element of the street took it as a matter of course. They had expected a speculative whirl of some sort. It happened that the bears won because P. weak spot in a local financial institution had been uncovered.
