| "Vintage Reading® Stories Heard Over the Back Fence"
Sign Said It All
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Adapted from an 1882 Short Story
By Rita and Victor Buday
MARCH 2007 :: © 2007 Buday Books/ Vintage Reading® |
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This one particular Monday, a horse-drawn carriage stopped on Courthouse Square. The well-dressed, distinguished-looking gentleman with white hair and mustache to match got out to meet John Henty, owner of an empty building formerly known as Ed Foster's Mining Tools & Supplies, near the northeast corner of the Square.
The gentleman said he was the Elmer Tobler who'd telegraphed his interest in a presently-available location for another branch of his savings and brokerage firm. The two-floor building had been vacant for four years, but John Henty gave every assurance the town was set for solid expansion as soon as a like-minded savings office came to give impetus to growth.
Since the building looked a little shabby from being vacant so long, he offered to paint the first-floor store to spruce it up, but Mr. Tobler sensibly said that when his men moved in the huge Bulldog Safe, roll-top desk, swivel chair and filing cabinet, there were always unavoidable scrapes and dings. So, his own crew painted and varnished after an office was installed. Tobler gave Henty three months' rent in cash against an option to buy if the location proved suitable.
~ ~ ~
Wednesday, three men unloaded the roll-top desk, swivel chair, and filing cabinet; then struggled to move that big black safe with silvered hinges and combination lock; over the door--"Bulldog Reliance Safe Mfrs."; on the door--a blindfolded young woman; in her right hand she held the Scales of Justice; her left hand clutched a chain attached to the spiked collar around the neck of a vicious-looking bulldog; below the door--a banner read: "Thieves Beware! We Show No Mercy!" Even tho' the safe was always kept closed; it certainly was very impressive and reassuring.
The men cleaned and polished the store's front window; one man lettered "Union Savings & Brokerage" on it in bright gilt letters. There should've been two more men--painters--but, Mr. Tobler explained, they were redecorating headquarters offices. Besides, he said cheerfully, with the furniture and that massive Bulldog Safe installed, the paint didn't look so bad after all. Now it was time to see if there was enough bank and brokerage activity; repainting could wait.
~ ~ ~
Arrival of such an august business was the buzz in the whole County. Mr. Tobler took out a full-page ad in the weekly newspaper to say US&B offered 6% per annum interest for 6 month deposits, and 9% for 12 months. That sure beat the stingy one percent paid by Bank & Trust and the grudging one-and-a-quarter offered by the Building Association!
Monday morning, lines of people waited to deposit savings they'd withdrawn from Bank & Trust, the Building Association, and a small bank in the next county. Every day, the Western Union office was swamped with telegrams to and from US&B headquarters, recording deposits, buying stocks for customers, receiving purchase confirmations. It was so busy, the office had to stay open an extra day--Saturday--every week, just to keep up. It was incredible!
As a free service for those who might want it, Mr. Tobler could have their stocks and bonds-- available by the next train whenever they wanted to have them in hand--kept in US&B headquarters' 60-ton Excelsior Vault that was encased in 3-foot-thick reinforced concrete. That Vault was the bane of cutting torch thieves, safe-crackers, lock-pickers, and dynamiters. There certainly was nothing inferior about that Bulldog Safe in the office, but if thieves were determined . . . after all, three men with planks, jacks, and crowbars did move it in; a 60-ton vault encased in concrete was a whole different matter. Either way, complete and absolute safety!
~ ~ ~
Three months flew by like three days. In his weekly full-page ad, Mr. Tobler announced business exceeded his expectations to where he was dickering to buy the building. Meanwhile, the office had to be closed for one business day-- next Saturday--to do the long-delayed painting and decorating.
Early Saturday morning four men came with a wagonload of ladders, paint and varnish cans, drop cloths, boxes, brushes, etc. They moved furniture and struggled that big, black Bulldog Safe into the back room, hung drop cloths over windows, doors, and woodwork.
They worked all day into the night, but by ten p.m. were finally done--then reloaded boxes, ladders, some sheets of metal and pieces of lumber on the wagon, wearily climbed aboard, and drove off to flag down the 11 p.m. freight train headed west. Then three men off-loaded the roll-top desk, swivel chair, and empty filing cabinet from the wagon into a boxcar, and stayed on the train. The fourth man drove off with boxes of savings records from emptied file drawers, and those black metal sheets and pieces of lumber that may've been a mock-up display for a Safe Mfr.--something about "We Show No Mercy."
~ ~ ~
Sunday--passersby noted the painters forgot to remove drop cloths from windows and doors; one cloth had slipped a little, leaving a gap through which you could see the painters also forgot to return the roll-top desk, swivel chair, filing cabinet, and Bulldog Safe from the back room.
Monday--the office did not open. Someone with a uncharitable view of life informed Sheriff Judd.
Meanwhile the janitor, Jim Todd, used his key to let himself in the office, looked around, took out his jackknife and scraped some gilt letters off the window. Some--but not all.
When he started it read: "Union Savings & Brokerage."
When he finished it read "Un...i...Broke."
~ ~ ~
Sheriff Judd prevented a riot by promising, "The Law will spare no effort, leave no stone unturned--" etc., etc. But by now the roll-top desk, swivel chair, and empty filing cabinet were stored at a train warehouse 'way to the west; boxes of savings account and brokerage records were dead ashes on an abandoned farm 40 miles east; metal sheets, painted black and lettered "Bulldog Reliance Safe Mfrs." rested at the bottom of an old quarry filled with 65 feet of water; three men on the train melted through the railroad terminal crowds to head 100 miles north of the border where they were joined by a fourth man.
The Sheriff heard from City Police back east that "US&B Headquarters"--an old desk, an even older chair, bootleg telegraph sending outfit, and nothing else--vacated its broom-closet space last Friday. The long arm of The Law groped frantically, but found nothing.
~ ~ ~
Four months later on a particular Monday, 200 miles away, a well-dressed, distinguished-looking gentleman with flaming red hair and mustache to match, stepped from his horse-drawn carriage to meet Silas Dobbs, real estate agent for a now-empty building that had been a small bank. The banker died a year ago. His big steel safe, desk, swivel chair, marble counter and low iron fence with gate that separated customers from himself were still in place.
The community sorely missed having a bank. The property could be had very reasonable--"might even be a get acquainted rental period, say maybe three months with an option to buy--if someone came here to start up the bank again..."
The gentleman with flaming red hair and mustache to match gave Silas Dobbs an engraved card: "Investments Of Unsurpassed Security; Sam'l Clarke, President." Mr. Clarke allowed as how he was quite interested in the building--a new branch for his savings and brokerage firm--as he gave Dobbs three months' rent in cash.
~ ~ ~
Three months of incredible savings and brokerage business flew by like they were three days. Then, a week later, Dobbs finally found the engraved card "Sam'l Clarke, President" had given him. Sheriff Harder and the long arm of The Law wanted it for evidence. Dobbs noticed the initials of "Investments Of Unsurpassed Security" spelled I-O-U-S.
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Fifty years later, rural communications and postal service were so improved, it was clear drastic action such as "Bank Holidays" could and should be used to root out fraud and restore confidence to banking.
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