Article Text
about the only man found who thought that Davis had money when he went away. He says that he examined the books of the commission house in Kansas City with which Davis did business, and found that they had paid him much more money than he paid them. Davis and Sherman are bitter political enemies. "I have been expecting this for some time," said Mr. Sherman, "and I warned the only friend I had that Davis owed to get his money. He laughed at me. Mr. Smith, of the commission house with which Davis did business, told me that Davis must have had $40,000 or $50,000 when he went away." I, H. Alter, cashier of the Rossville bank, said: "This matter was a great surprise to me. No one suspected that Davis was not all right. We paid his overdrafts right along and we had no thought that there was anything wrong. When he came into the bank Wednesday and 1 told him that we would have to have money I did not notice any change in him, but when I was called to his house in the evening I found him all broken up. I. was astounded when I learned the facts. Mr. Davis himself offered to turn his property over to the bank to secure us. He was a director in our bank and no one connected with the institution was more trusted. When I went away he was left in charge of the bank because he knew more about the business than any one else. Mr. Davis was a man whose word you could depend upon, If he told you he would do a thing tomorrow you could feel sure that he would do it. The bank will lose nothing for I am satisfied that the property we have will net us over $10,000. Davis' failure caused a run on the bank last Friday, but we had money on hand to pay every check presented, and Saturday night we quit with $1,500 more than we had in our vault before the run commenced. I consider that he owed the ly." bank $5,000 directly and $4,500 indirectMrs. Davis said: "I am sure that Mr Davis had but $60 when he left. He wanted to divide with me, but I refused to accept any of the money. and told him that he would need all he had. I had just $3 in the house when he left and not a cent more, and I know he had but $60, for I took the money out of his pocket myself. This whole thing was a terrible blow to me, for I did not suspect the truth. A day before the crash came I went on an excursion to Fort Riley and Mr. Davis gave me $5. I never felt more light hearted or happy. I spent $2 and had $3 left, and that was all the money there was in the house when Mr. Davis left. He never told me a word about the trouble, and no one could have been more startled than I was when he told me Wednesday. "Where is Mr. Davis now?" "I have no idea. I don't think that any one knows. I did not want him to go away at all, but the only reason he went was because he could not face his friends. I expect to hear from him soon and Ithink he will come back.' P. H. Anderson, a brother-in-law of S Davis, and his confidential clerk, said: "There are two ways in which Davis may have lost his money. Either in straight deals on the board of trade in Kansas e City, or he took the deals himself on the bucket shop plan and tried to carry them. Farmers are always bulls, and he may have thought that he would be able to carry them. I am certain that y he has lost everything. He nover ene couraged the people to deal in options, and more than once I have heard him try a to discourage thein. I kept his books for him, but he never had anyS thing about his option deals on his books, SO I am not able to say for certain just how the money was lost. A great many 0 of the people who claim to have lost 8 money did not lose it all. They gave Davis $100 or 80 to invest, and when wheat went up their money doubled und til there was over $1,000 to the credit of some of them. But they kept on investing the money and then lost it, and now they claim he owes them." n E. B. Merriam president of the Ross0 ville State bank said "I, with other die rectors, was utterly dumbfounded, We 6 believed Mr. Davis good for everything e he called for,and that he was worth fully S $30,000. For these reasons we took care 0 of his overdrafts, this time as heretofore. He had always met them promptly up to e now. About one-half of his indebtedd ness to us is due to overdrafts. Mr. Dad vis has fully protected the bank by deed" ing us all of his real estate and assigning e over all his bank stock and book ac0 counts. We expect to realize on all of his n indebtedness to the bank within ninety 8 days. So far as our depositors are conis cerned we have the money to meet every dollar on demand." h John Fritz, one of the creditors said: p. "It has just about busted up this town8 ship. We thought that Davis was all right and trusted him. We will lose e everything unless we can knock out this transfer that." to the bank and we will try to do y e J. W. McCoy, another creditor said: d "I do not think he would have gone away e at all if he had not been advised to and if he had staid here I am confident go n that it could have been fixed up satisfacd torily. He has the sympathy of everyone K in right." the township and I believe he is all h The following is a partial list of Davis' t, e creditors and the amounts are approximately correct: C. W. Higginbotham, 1,000 bushels wheat 700 $ in store 180 at I. Trostle, endorsement on note. 400 D. Kestler grain sold e 700 James De inney n 200 Victor Case, labor 400 er James Shumway, labor 1,000 J. W. McCoy er 400 A. F. Jamison 9,500 Rossville State bank 455 James Blandon, 1,300 bushels corn 400 Wm. Strange 650 Hopkins, Bond and DeVinney, sureties is 1,600 J.C. Bradley.