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Hysteria Is A Wicked Thing Hysteria is a wicked and appalling thing. It turns a group of thinking individuals into fear ridden creatures who can only play one game-follow the leader-and they wilfully follow the leader until they bring hardship and suffering unto themselves. That was the case with the First National Bank here almost two years ago. They started a run on that bank and forced the directors to close the doors and the bank's affairs in the hands of the comptroller of currency desperate attempt to safeguard the investments of the public. And now the announcement has been made that the receiver for the First National will pay an additional seven per cent dividend to depositors. The dividends already made total 70 per cent. Any bank that can pay out such high dividends as this one has done under the present adverse conditions was most assuredly sound and solvent. The people learned to rue their part in the closing of that institution and the past banking crisis in Newport showed clearly that the citizens have learned that the bank must be preserved in order that the town may not go to pieces.-Newport Plain Talk.