Click image to open full size in new tab
Article Text
A PANIC AT AKRON Caused by a Rumor That the Paige Failure Affected a Bank in That Town-The Institution Probably Sound-$1,000,000 in Forged Paper. CLEVELAND, April 2.-Rumors that the failure of the Painesville Bank had weakened the Citizens' Savings Bank at Akron caused a run on the latter institution last night and this morning. Depositors made a rush for their money, and after $125,000 had been paid out the bank decided to suspend payment on interest-bearing deposits for 30 days. This was due to a lack of currency. The bank is said to be perfectly sound, and not a single business man in Akron drew out a cent of his deposits, while many of them continued to make deposits, as usual, to-day. O. C. Barber, the millionaire match manufacturer, expressed his confidence in the bank by offering to honor drafts of depositors. The excitement, which was intense for a time, has been allayed, and no further withdrawal of deposits is anticipated. A dispatch from New York says: More of the commercial paper of Paige, Carey & Co., of No. 45 Broadway, bearing the forged endorsement of John Huntington, was brought up in New York than bankers are willing to admit, and the publicity which bas been given to the affair led to the disclosure that a large part of the assets of the North River Bank, which is now in the hands of Receiver Higgins, consists of notes bearing this signature. It is known that several hundred thousand dollars of the assets of the bankrupt bank are in notes bearing the signature of John Huntington, and none of them have yet been paid. It is believed the total amount of forgeries will be found to be almost $1,000,000. As the worthless paper is 8 at tered all over New England, and some of it is in New York City, it will be some time before the exact figures will be learned. No one will attempt to accuse any one man of forging all the notes.
