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RUN ON THE BANKS WAS STARTED IN ST. LOUIS BY A CHICAGO RUMOR. ALL DEMANDS WERE MET. OFFICIALS PARTIALLY CONVINCED DEPOSITORS OF THEIR SAFETY. It Was Reported from Chicago That Two Directors of a St. Louis Institution Had Been Unable to Negotiate a $2,000,000 Loan-On the Savings Departments of Three Banks the Run Then Commenced. Anxiety Finally Allayed. St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 27.-From shortly before 1 o'clock to-day until the closing hour, 3 o'clock, runs were made on the savings departments of three banks of St. Louis, and at the same time more than the ordinary amount of withdrawals by depositors were noticeable in the other banking institutions. The run, so far as it can be traced. was started by a disquieting rumor from the outside that seemed to strike St. Louis shortly after noon, to the effect that the savings institutions here were unsound. With a rush the corridors of the Lincoln Trust Company, the Mercantile Trust Company and the Mississippi Valley Trust Company were filled with men and women, all eager to withdraw their money. The scene in any one bank was duplicated in the other two. A line of people, with bankbooks in their hands and faces eagerly scanning the little barred windows of the bank tellers, stretched out into the street and intermingled, were policemen and bank officials counselling calmness and giving assurances of solvency. It is stated that the rumor that started the run came from Chicago, and was to the effect that two directors of the Mississippi Valley Trust Company had recently endeavored to negotiate a loan of $2,000,000 in that city, and had been refused. To-day this rumor was pronounced an absolute canard by the directors concerned. As soon as the runs started all other business was laid aside, and every facility was afforded for the prompt payment of deposits. The clause which gives the bank the privilege of withholding payment until sixty days after notification was waived, and amounts were paid rapidly, regardless of their size. There was no disorder manitested at any of the institutions, and in many cases depositors, who had hurried to withdraw amounts, departed without their money, after having conversed a few moments with the officials and had been made confident that the bank would continue to do business. At the Missouri Trust Company a number of depositors had collected to demand payment, but the crowd soon thinned out, and before 3 o'clock the incipient run had ceased. Presidents of the different national banks assembled during the afternoon and issued a statement, in which they announced that the banks of St. Louis are perfectly solvent and amply able to liquidate all demands. All the banks closed at 3 o'clock, the usual hour, and announcement was made that they will open to-morrow morning at the usual hour, at 10 o'clock, and will meet all demands made. The directors of the different trust companies at meetings to-night decided to enforce the thirty and sixty day notification clause to-morrow and this, it is believed, will doubtless stop all tendency to a continuation of the runs. A statement was given out saying that the trust companies were In need of no assistance whatever.
