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# BANK FAILURES Banks are failing fast almost everywhere in the North and West, and noticing all their failures, we are reminded of the flush times of 1837, when the Brandon, Owl Creek and Pigeon Roost Banks of Mississippi busted "higher than a kite." Thus for Chicago leads the failures, and holds the blue ribbond. The Chicago Times has this to say of some of Chicago's recent failures: "The Marine Bank had no assets at all except the running account of its President. The Franklin Bauk could never at any time have paid 10 per cent. of its liabilities. The Bank of Chicago had $327,325 liabilities and not a cent of assets. The State Street Savings Bank had about $50 of assets in coal scuttles, desks, etc. The paper held by the Manufacturers' National Bank as assets sold at two cents on the dollar, and that of the Second National Bank at one and a half cents. But the insurance companies were even worse; the Great Western, which was exclusively in the hands of religious gentlemen, tailed completely for over $850,000. The Merchants' paid 8¼ per cent. on $6,000,000; the Equitable 5¼ per cent, while the assets of the Globe consisted of one single copper cent which, it was suspected, had been left there by mistake. This might be considered as the acme of failures. It is difficult to see how any company could fail worse than this, but the failure of the State Insurance Company was so much worse, that the Times, which could smile pleasantly at this penny insurance company, at last loses its temper and declares the failure "a clean steal and the most damnable piece of scoundrelism ever devised."