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LOOKS BAD. The Commercial Bank of Guthrie, Oklahoma, Succumbs. The Deposits About $40,000, With Assets Unknown-The Cashier and President Have Fled. Suspicious Circumstances That Make the Fail* ure Look Like a Grand Steal-Other Failures Feared. Special to the Gazette. GUTHRIE, O.T., Nov. 21.-This has been Guthrie's Black Friday. The Commercial bank, the hitherto solid banking institution of the Territory, has succumbed. Its oreditors are numbered by the score in various amounts aggregating upwards of $25,000. Last night, long after banking hours, J. M. Ragsdale, president of the concern. went to the sheriff and stated that owing to the suspension by assignment of the Newton, Kan., national bank, which was & part of the Commercial, the latter institution would be compelled to turn its assets over to him. This information came to the public about midnight, whereupon depositors and their friends CIRCULATED THE REPORT of the failure most fully in consequence of which, by 9 'elock this morning there were thirty attachments fil ed ,amounting to the above stated sum. Mr. Blewer, the cashier, had taken the precaution to skip the town several days since, thus leaving the trusted president to bear the blame, but the latter saw proper 10 exercise the same judgment, and some time during the night is supposed to have gathered unto himself his family and the little remalning in the vaults and to have taken himsef hence on 8 freight train for his former haunts in the state of Kansas. From the time the intelligence of the failure was made known until this hour GREAT EXCITEMENT HAS PREVAILED. Owing to the advice of the News, a morning paper, a run was made upon the Guthrie national bank, but it proved futile and the bank still maintains the confidence of its patrous. It will be remembered that about two months since there was a run made upon this same Commercial ban k, but by the assistance of friends it tid ed over its difficulty, much to their grati fication. It may be possible that the present suspension is an honest one, but the general belief prevails that it is one grand steal by taking advantage of the depressed condition of the money market of the East. It is probable and highly possible that this failure will be followed by others in the different pursuits of trade who are heavy losers. All are free to acknowledge that the town and territory have received A BLACK EYE in this failure. The deposits, when all in, will certainly reach $40,000, with assets unknown. The vaults containing the books, cash and other collaterals, have not been opened, but it is generally believed, and with every circumstance to justify the belief, that when the affair is thoroughly ventilated a grand steal will stand glaringly before the people. The actions of the officers in leaving town mysteriously seems to verify this belief. Other fail-
