First National Bank (Buffalo, NY)

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Buffalo

The government bank examiner reports the cause of suspension of the First National bank of this city, as far as now apparent, through mismanagement only.

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Bank Shut

BUFFALO, April 14.-The First National bank has closed its doors. A large number of drafts issued to live stock dealers which were drawn on the Fourth National of New York on the 4th inst. and since that date, were yesterday dishonored in New York. The extent of the drafts unpaid cannot be ascertained just now; but it is ehought to be large. The failure will closely effect a large number of cattle dealers who sent these drafts in payment for stock sold by them. It is believed depositors will be paid in full. MISMANAGEMENT DID IT. BUEFALO, N. Y., April 14.- The government bank examiner in charge of the bank reports that the cause of the suspension of the First National bank of this city, so far as now apparent was through misma nagement only.

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MISMANAGEMENT DID IT

BUEFALO, N. Y., April 14.-The government bank examiner in charge of the bank reports that the cause of the suspension of the First National bank of this city, so far as now apparent was through misma nagement only.

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Why it Failed

Buffalo, April 15.-The First national bank which suspended yesterday held an enviable financial position, although lately rumors have been flying about that the young president was speculating too much in Chicago. The bank's last statement showed assets of $1,337,000, and liabilities outside of stock of $1,130,000. It had $80,000 United States court money, $26,000 in city and $12,000 in county funds, secured by almost worthles bonds. A large defalcation is rumored but the officials deny it. President Lee says the bank did a too large discount business.

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THE First National Bank of Buffalo closed its doors and suspended business on Friday morning. A large number of drafts issued to live stock dealers drawn on the Fourth National Bank of New York the 4th inst. and since that date, were dishonordd in New York the day previous. The extent of the drafts unpaid cannot be ascertained now, but it is thought to be large. The failure will seriously affect a large number of cattle dealers who sent these drafts in payment for stock sold by them. It is believed depositors will be paid in full.

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uyimg. the en ing the medical man reached the station the sender of the message was dead.

The will of Congressman Allen, of St. Louis, covers property valued at $15,000,000. The widow is given the residences and farms in Missouri and Massachusetts, and most of the residue will be divided between several children.

The Northern Pacific road has met with complete success in its experiments with artesian wells in Dakota. Water nearly as pure as that from Lake Superior flows thirty feet above the ground at Tower City.

The Canadian senate has passed a bill legalizing marriage with a deceased wife's sister. Its opponents give notice that they will appeal to the governor general for a veto or to the queen to disallow the bill.

The prolonged libel suit in New York against Bishop Hare resulted in a verdict for $10,000 in favor of Rev. Samuel D. Hinman. On the first ballot the jury-men voted for $25,000 damages. A motion for a new trial was entered.

In an affray at Des Plaines, Ill., Christopher Howard was fatally wounded by Jack Thompson, a wood carver in Chicago, who is said to have deserted from the regular army and joined the Quantrell gang in Missouri.

A company of federal troops is removing those cattle raisers on the Cherokee strip who have failed to pay the tax levied. There are said to be a number of intruders at Eufaula whom the Indians want to have expelled.

Examiner Young finds that R. Porter Lee, president of the First National bank of Buffalo, purchased a controlling interest in that bankrupt institution with its own funds, and that a receiver is a necessity.

Congressman Dibrell, of Tennessee, in an official statement of the fiscal disposition of the confederate specie, shows that $108,322 90 was distributed to the troops at Washington, Ga., on May 3, 1865.

In the Cook county court, Judge Loomis dismissed, for lack of jurisdiction, the petition of Mrs. Scoville for the appointment of a conservator for Guiteau, but allowed an appeal to the supreme court.

The trial of the Malleys and Blanche Douglass, the murderers of Jennie Cramer, commenced Tuesday in the superior court at New Haven. Counsel was assigned to the woman, whose real name is Annie Kearns.

The United States steamship Iroquois, lying at the Mare Island navy-yard, in California, will be dispatched to the relief of the officers and crew of the Arctic steamship Rodgers, which was wrecked off the Siberian coast.

The wife of Rev. S. J. Gray, colored, of Lexington, Ky., sued the Cincinnati Southern road for $50,000 for being refused admittance to a ladies' car on a first-class ticket, and was awarded $1,000.

In accordance with the terms of his parole, Parnell has notified the governor of Kilmainham jail that he will remain in France another week on account of urgent family affairs.

The mayor of St. Joseph, Mo., has suspended Register Ringo, and filed charges against him for incompetency and neglect. Captain Frank M. Tufts has given bonds of $100,000 as register pro tem.

In a coach on the Texas Pacific road, near Minneola, Robert W. Fegan, of Corry, Ind., shot off the top of his head. He was going to Weatherford with his wife and child, and was in constant fear of being killed for his money.

Two hundred men of the Burlington and Missouri road, during Tuesday night, laid three hundred feet of track in thirteen minutes, to avoid an injunction by the gas company. Two thousand persons enjoyed the sport.

The case of Roderick Maclean, who attempted the life of Queen Victoria, was presented to the grand jury at Reading by Lord Chief Justice Coleridge, and resulted in a verdict of acquittal on the ground of insanity.

After a session of nine hours, the Canadian house of commons passed a bill legalizing the amalgamation of the telegraph system under the charter of the Great Northwestern company, which works in harmony with the Western Union.

A tornado which swept over Brownsville, Mo., Tuesday afternoon, killed seven persons, injured fifty others, and demolished thirty or more buildings. It appeared to be a funnel-shaped cloud, which rose after passing Brownsville, and was seen at Independence. It did some damage in the vicinity of Marshall.

Advices from Siberia are to the effect that the steamer Rodgers, which went in search of the survivors of the Jeannette, has been burned and sunk, and that Lieutenant Berry and his officers and crew, numbering thirty-six, are near Cape Serdge.

A band of Arkansas convicts, encamped near Little Rock, made a dash for freedom. Eight passed the guards, but one of them was shot dead, two were badly wounded, and five escaped to the woods, where bloodhounds are searching for them.

Bonds to the amount of $4,000,000, issued by the city of New Orleans in 1852, have been declared by the United States supreme court valid obligations, and the municipal authorities are ordered to levy special taxes for the payment of the principal and interest.

The United States supreme court has decided that the blanket mortgage given by B. F. Allen is invalid, and that the property covered by it must go to the general creditors. Receiver Burley states that about $300,000 worth of lands in Iowa and Illinois are involved.

An auctioneer in Washington has disposed of a large lot of goods taken from the white house. A few articles from the d

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THE First National Bank of Buffalo has suspended payment. The concern has a capital of $100,000, and reported loans and discounts of $1,054,849. Hugh Young, Government Bank Examiner, finds that $80,000 of Federal court funds are unsecured, and $88,000 in city and county deposits rest upon poor bonds.

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P THE comptroller of the curr ncy has appointed Elisha T. Smith as receiver for the First National Bank of Buffalo, N. Y. -

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THE First National Bank of Buffalo has suspended payment. The concern has a capital of $100,000, and reported loans and discounts of $1,054,849. Hugh Young, Government Bank Examiner, finds that $80,000 of Federal court funds are unsecured, and $38,000 in city and county deposits rest upon poor bonds.

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THE First National Bank of Buffalo has suspended payment. The concern has a capital of $100,000, and reported loans and discounts of $1,054,849. Hugh Young, Government Bank Examiner, finds that $80,000 of Federal court funds are unsecured, and $38,000 in city and county deposits rest upon poor bonds.

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A Bank President Under Arrest

BUFFALO, May 18.-R. Porter Lee, late president of the defunct First National bank, was arrested this afternoon by United States Marshal Lovel on an order issued by Judge Wallace at Utica, and on oath of Receiver E. T. Smith, F J. Lingua, of the Farmers' and Mechanics' bank. and Lewis Price of Newark, for misappropriating and embezzling $200,000 of the funds of the bank while president of that corporation. Mr. Lee will endeavor to furnish $100,000 bail.

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A BANKRUPTS ESTATE

BUFFALO, May 25.-A schedule of the assets and liabilities of R. Porter Lee, late president of the First National Bank, was filed this afternoon by the assignee. The liabilities are given at $600,000 and the assets at $46,617. The liabilities include the suit begun by the receiver of the bank to recover $200,000, and among the assets are shares of the San Juan Gold and

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A Thieving Banker Kisses His Wife and Retires to the Penitentiary.

BUFFALO, N. Y., November 30.-R. Porter Lee, president of the recently suspended and plundered First National Bank of this city, was convicted on Wednesday before the United States Circuit Court at Syracuse of abstracting and misapplying the funds of the bank, and was sentenced to ten years in the Erie County penitentiary. Lee was first tried before Judge Coxe, at Canandaigua, and the jury disagreed. The last trial was before Judge Wallace, whose rulings differed in many instances from those of Judge Coxe. The testimony which was favorable to Lee at the previous trial was excluded, and the judge's charge to the jury was directly against the prisoner. The verdict was ren-

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WRECKING A BANK

The Brief Career of a Buffalo Young Man. SYRACUSE, Nov. 30.-Reuben Porter Lee of Buffalo, who was convicted in the U. S. Circuit Court of embezzling about $200,000 from the First National Bank of Buffalo, went into the employ of that institution at the age of fifteen as a messenger boy. He became successively book-keeper, teller, cashier, Vice President and President. The last named office he attained in January last at the age of 32, At that time the stock was worth 160. In three months the bank closed its doors, hopelessly insolvent. Herman J. Hall & Co., appear to have been the chief customers of the bank. When Lee became President of the bank he owned real estate in Buffalo to the value of about $90,000. He concocted a plan by which Hall was to become a director in the bank, and sold him a large block of stock, part of which was at the time hypothecated as collateral. Lee discounted his own, his wife's and his father's notes, each in amounts greater than 10 per cent of the bank's capital stock, and permitted the reserve to be drawn down below the 15 per cent required by law. When directors retired he did not fill the vacancies, so that when the bank suspended, there were only two directors. The New York correspondent was the Fourth National Bank, and the immediate cause of the suspension of the Buffalo bank was the Fourth National's demand for more collateral. At times Lee's bank was carrying over a million dollars of Hall & Co's paper. Lee received his sentence of ten years in the Erie county penitentiary with composure. He was taken there immediately, accompanied by his heartbroken young wife and other sorrowing friends.

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PENNSYLVANIA BODY SNATCHING

READING, Pa., Feb. 3.-Considerable excitement prevails in the vicinity of Reinhold's station, on the Reading & Columbia railway, owing to a case of body snatching. A young farmer, Jacob Gardner, suicided recently by hanging himself. The remains were interred at Muddy Creek church, near Adamstown. Several nights afterward a light was observed in the graveyard. Friends of the family growing suspicious, had the grave subsequently opened, when to their horror was discovered the empty coffin with nothing but the shroud remaining. It is supposed the body was stolen to be sent to some medical institution. An investigation is being made in the matter. It is feared more graves have been robbed. A HEAVY JUDGMENT AGAINST A BANK WRECKER BUFFALO, Feb. 3.-The receiver of the defunct First National bank obtained a judgment of $148,957 against H. J. Hall, now held on bail as an accessory of President Lee, now in the penitentiary, charged with disposing of the funds of the bank.

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One Caught

Buffalo, 3.-The receiver of the defunct First National Bank has obtained a judgment for $148,957 against Herman J. Hail, now on bail as accessary of President Lee, now in the penitentary on the charge of disposing of the funds of the bank.

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will Suffer, BUFFALO, Feb. 3.-The receiver of the defunct First National bank obtained judgment for $148,957 against Herman Hall, now on bail, as accessory of President Lee, now in the peuitentiary, charged with the disposing of funds of the bank.

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oners were placed in the dock. There was a painful pause when the witness Fitzsim- mons was called. The prisoners in the meantime shook hands with each other and joked among themselves, nodding to their friends. The reading of the charges that the prisoners did feloniously kill and slay Cavendish and Burke was greeted by the prisoners with loud laughter. Brady, O'Brien and McCaffrey were identified as the persons seen near the scene of the tragedy on the day of its occurrence. Fitzsimmons, who lodged in the house of Counsellor Carey, testified that he found secreted there the knives which the physicians swore could have made the rents in the clothing and wounds in the bodies of Cavendish and Burke. He was se- verely cross examined. His wife also identi- fied O'Brien and Brady. George G. Odder, a park ranger, identified Brady as one of the five men seen on a car the evening of the murder, and driving furiously. Powell, son of a small farmer, identified Brady and McCaffrey as lurking under the trees that evening. As each prisoner was identified there were loud exclamations in the Court- room, and the magistrate threatened to have it cleared. There was considerable commo- tion when all the prisoners were placed in the dock and remanded.

### Action of the French Senate.

PARIS, February 33.-The Senate has de- cided that a committee on the expulsion bill shall be elected on Monday. The Right ad- vocated Monday, the Left Thursday, and the Left Center pronounced against the bill, but will compromise on a measure that is imper- sonal and general, and not directed against a particular personage.

### Plon Plon Bejected.

PARIS, February 31.-During the removal of Prince Jerome to Auteul, a strong guard was placed about to prevent his escape. No visitors are allowed to enter the asylum where the Prince is placed. The prince has become very dejected.

### A Siberian Prisoner's Story.

VIENNA, February 31.-A letter from a political prisoner in Siberia details the suf- ferings of the prisoners in the province beyond Lake Baikal. They are robbed, beaten and badly fed. The directors being informed, exclaimed it did not matter if the prisoners died of starvation.

### The Czar's Manifesto.

BERLIN, February 3.1. - It is stated that the Czar has ordered the coronation manifesto to be ready for signature on the 20th of Febru- ary.

### The Salvation Army.

GENEVA, February 3d. -The authorities of Neufchatel have prohibited evening meetings of the Salvation Army.

### A Steamship Lost.

LONDON, February 3d-The steamship James Gray has foundered, and the officers and crew were lost.

### MISCELLANEOUS,

The French Embassador at Vienna has re- signed.

The Montreal fire was extinguished Satur- day morning, with little damage to the silk factory.

Two students have been expelled from Austria, suspected of being concerned in the Socialist agitation at Berlir.

The New York Mercantile Agency has pe- titioned Congress either to retire trade-dollars or make them on a par with the gold dollar.

The Receiver of the defunct First National Bank of Buffalo has obtained a judgment for $148,957 against Herman J. Hall, now on bail as the accomplice of President Lee, now in the Penitentiary, charged with disposing of the funds of the bank.

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NUMBER 51

spondent, and suit was brought-Masick vs. the Citizens' Bank of Louisiana -and a judgment for the overcharge, $1260, recovered. An Appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of Louisiana where the judgment was affirmed. Judge Poche, in the opinion, said : " The proper and legal course for the Bank before sending the tickets to Havana for collection, without fixing or restricting the rate of commission, was to have done what it subsequently did after this objectionable charge, to have ascertained the charge for collection. It was its duty to effect collections in the most expeditious manner and on the most reasonable terms. All agents are responsible for the acts of their sub-agents, and the defendant is and must be held responsible for this overcharge in commissions made by its correspondent or agent in Havana. INSOLVENT BANK COLLECTING AND CONVERTING DRAFT.-A Chicago bank sent to its correspondent at Buffalo, a bank, a draft for $6527.75 for collection, with the instruction to remit the proceeds for its account to a New York bank. At the receipt of the draft the insolvency of the Buffalo bank was well known to its officers. During the day $23,000 was received on deposit and $61,000 paid out; there was in bank, in cash, $40,000, and the proceeds of the draft were mingled with the other moneys in the bank. A bill in equity was filed against the insolvent bank and its receiver-Illinois Trust and Savings Bank of Chicago VS. First National Bank of Buffalo-in the United States Circuit Court for the Northern District ef New York, to enforce the equitable lien of the Chicago bank for this special collection, but the bill was dismissed. Judge Wallace, in the opinion, said : "It was undoubtedly a fraudulent act by the Buffalo bank in its hopeless insolvency to mingle the proceeds of the draft with its own funds, so that all identity was lost The cases hold that if a trustee converts a trust fund into money and mingles the money with other moneys, so that it is indistinguishable, the beneficiary cannot follow his fund into the hands of an assignee in bankruptcy or an executor of the trustee, but he must occupy the position of a general creditor. The right to follow a trust fund ceases when the means of ascertainment fail, as is the case here.''-Reported for Phila. Rocord.

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bank, in cash, $40.000, and the proceeds of the draft were mingled with the other moneys in the bank. A bill in equity was filed against the insolvent bank and its receiver-Illinois Trust and Savings Bank of Chicago VS. First National Bank of Buffalo-in the United States Circuit Court for the Northern District ef New York, to en force the equitable lien of the Chicago bank for this special collection, but the bill was dismissed. Judge Wallace, in the opinion, said: "It was undoubtedly a fraudulent act by the Buffalo bank in its hopeless insolvency to mingle the proceeds of the draft with its own funds, 80 that all identity was lost The cases hold that if a trustee converts a trust fund into money and mingles the money with other moneys, so that it is indistinguishable, the beneficiary cannot follow his fund into the hands of an assignee in bankruptey or an executor of the trustee, but he must occupy the position of a general creditor. The right to follow a trust fund ceases when the means of ascertainment fail, as is the case here." -Reported for Phila. Rocord.