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AN EX-CONGRESSMAN'S AFFAIR. HON. SMEDLEY DARLINGTON EXPLAINS A LATE LAW SUIT AGAINST HIM. WEST CHESTER, Feb. 9.-Ex-Congressman Smedley Darlington yesterday handed out for publication a statement concerning the suit instituted against him by the Third National Bank of Philadelphia, for the recovery of $6,000. in which he declares that he to-day effected a settlement with the plain.iff. "During the panic of 1893," he says, "I borrowed $16,000 of the bank, in order to furnish the Chester County Guarantee Trust and Safe Deposit Company funds with which to meet the unusual demands made upon it at that time. This debt was reduced from time to time to $6,000. On February 3, the bank demanded the money at sight. I asked a little time. It was denied. Next day Luit was brought, and in fifteen days judgment would have been taken and my personal property sold by the sheriff. "This precipitous action of the bank forced me to confess judgment to my only unsecured creditors, my wife and Mary and Tacie Davis, all of whom would have much preferred that no such action be taken. But I desired to secure to them any advantage from a judgment ahead of the bank, which was amply protected by collateral. "I have this day paid the bank in full, having succeeded in selling at par the $6,000 of Western mortgages held by it as collateral. If time is given, other good Western mortgages can be realized upon. If debts are to be collected at once, and collaterals slaughtered, there will be losses; otherwise there will be none. A word to the wise is sufficient." At the office of the Chester County Guarantee Trust and Safe Deposit Company it is said it will perhaps be a week or two before it can be definitely determined whether or not depositors will accept the proffered ten-year bonds or force the institution into a receiver's hands.