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The National Bank of the Republic, one of the oldest and best liked banking institutions in the city, will go into voluntary Liquidation today. At a meeting of the stockholders yesterday, called by the board of directors to consider the proposition of going into liquidation, a resolution was adopted by a vote of 1,937 of the shares, no dissenting vote being cast that the bank should not go into liquidation, the date being fixed for August 11, today. Several of the owners of small lots of stock are not in the city who would have voted for the liquidation, and it may be said practically that the vote was unani mous and that none of the shareholders were opposed to it This action was at the instanceof Messrs. S. W. Woodward and E. S. Parker, who hold much more than the required twothirds of the bank stock. No more deposits will be received, and the accounts will be settled as rapidly as possible. As required by law, the fact of the liquidation will be advertised here and in New York for sixtydays. The bank will be run, until its business is closed out, by the cashier, Mr. Charles S. Bradley, under the supervision of the Treasury authorities. The depositors will, of course, be paid in full, ample funds being immediately available. It is the expectation of Messrs. Woodward and Parker that but a short time will be required for the complete settlement of all business. The good business judgment of these gentlemen in acquiring this property some monthsagonow becomes apparent. Shortly after Mr. George E. Lemon's death the stock in the bank which he held, 1,348 shares, Was put on the market. For some time before it had been known that he desired to sell out. Messrs. Woodward and Parker, then interested in the Columbia National Bank, bought Mr. Lemon's shares for $221, not $227, as has been stated. Since that time they have been quietly acquiring other blocks of the stock, until at present they own in the neighborhood of 1,700 shares, OT something like seveneighths of the entire 2,000 shares. Recently the regular 4 per cent dividend and an extra dividend of 50 per cent was declared by them. There are many old accounts, the owners of which have disappeared, that willmake part of the assets of the bank. Its investments have turned out wellalso, and when Messrs. Woodward and Parker secured the majority of the stock of the bank in June they began to sell off the securities owned by the bank in New York. These had been purchased some time ago, for the most part when their prices were low. and they were sold by these gentlemen when money was very plentiful and the price of securities of allkinds had gone up largely. All these will swellthe liquidation value of the shares. It Is now asserted confidently by people who know the property that $210 to $220 will be the value of the shares in liquidation. The six months' investment has thus far netted these gentlemen something like $80,000 to $90,000. A Times reporter saw both Mr. Woodward and Mr. Parker yesterday with regard to the liquidation. "We bought to liquidate, said. "It was our intention to do SO at some future time when we acquired the Lemon stock, but we were not ready to do SO then. "The proposition to close out the bank had been broached before we bought into it. Mr. Lemon bimself had intended to do it." Since that time several hundred more shares of the stock have been acquired by these gentlemen with this intention. It is now a much better investment than it would have been then. An idea of what Messrs. Woodward and Parker expect to realize on the stock may be inferred easily from the fact that until the present time $200 has been bid for the stock on the Washington exchange. Mr. Woodward made the statement that the present move does not in any way indicate a like action with regard to the Columbia or the National Metropolitan Banks. We bought one bank to liquidate, and the others to run," he said. It was the hope of many of the friends of the bank that it might be continued. It is a solid, old institution with many good business connections. Its depositors are loath to give it up, and even now when the intention to liquidate has been known for some time. over two-thirds of the de posits-a half million or more-are still in the bank. Several of the old directors and patrons of the bank recently attempted to form a syndicate to purchase the property, but were unsuccesssful in securing enough
