[Volume XXVII
THE CHICAGO BANKER
26
bank swindlers in the business, who has travelled under various aliases has been placed under arrest at Rock Island. The specific charge is that he defrauded the Iowa City State out of $600, June 8th. In his pocket were found certificates of deposit for various amounts in banks at Omaha, Knoxville, Tenn., Jasper, Indiana; Detroit, Sullivan, Ind., and Elwood, Ind. Bauer it is said has been identified by the cashier of the Iowa City Bank, P. A. Korad.
Queer Use of Safety Deposit Box
Des Moines bankers have been met with many requests but one of the queerest was that of a young man who wished to rent a safety deposit vault from a Des Moines banker in which to stow away a quantity of cigarettes. On July 1st, the Iowa law forbidding the sale of cigarettes went into effect. Many smokers of the weed laid in supplies and in this particular instance the young man said he wished to place a quantity of the cigarettes where they would not be molested and where they would be safe from thieves. The box was rented to him.
Message on Five Dollar Bill
Ray H. Jones, assistant cashier of the Citizens at Storm Lake, while counting a roll of bills noticed that someone had written a message on a $5 bill. He stopped counting and read it, and this is what the message was: “This is the last $5 of a fortune of $43,000. Women, wine, and gambling are the cause of it all. C. A. R.” The young bank official preserved the bill and its peculiar message has been printed in all the newspapers of the state. Statement of Banks Outside Reserve Cities
The abstract of the condition of the national banks of Iowa outside of the reserve cities at the close of business on June 23d, as reported to the comptroller of the currency, shows that the average reserve held is 16.42 per cent against 16.73 per cent on April 28th. Loans and discounts increased from $94,584,875 to $94,703,436; gold coin from $2,720,740 to $2,-746,121; lawful money reserve decreased from $8,065,814 to $7,646,393; individual deposits from $94,154,349 to $92,496,902.
Dispute Over Form of Pay
Des Moines is having trouble with a bricklayers’ strike which is tying up not a little of the business of the city. The primary cause of the strike is that the bricklayers declare the contractors pay them in check instead of cash and that they receive the checks after banking hours, thus necessitating that they cash them in the saloons. Several East Des Moines business men have started a movement to have the banks open from 5 to 6 on Saturday so that workingmen may cash their checks and thus avoid a recurrence of the trouble which the bricklayers are meeting.
Exciting Golf Tournament
Homer Miller’s little golf tournament during the trans-Mississippi tournament in Des Moines attracted quite a little attention. Mr.
TO IOWA BANKERS
Please forward marked copies of your home paper to the Chicago Banker when It con• tains anything about Iowa Banks or bank• ers. The favor will be appreciated.
Des Moines, July 21.—In the death of John P. Woodbury, president of the First National at Marshalltown, Iowa lost one of the best known financiers of the state. At the time of his death, Mr. Woodbury was 73 years old and for the past sixteen years he had headed the Marshalltown institution. Some time ago he was taken ill and was told a few days before his death that there was no hope. This seemed to take away his courage and from that time until his death last week, he failed
JOHN P. WOODBURY
Late President First National, Marshalltown, Iowa
rapidly. Mr. Woodbury was a native of New York, born at Spencerport, August 19, 1837. He came West with his father when a small boy and began to work in his father’s mill where Marshalltown now is when that city was a wilderness. The father later organized the First National and at his death in 1874, Mr. Woodbury became vice-president. Upon the resignation of George Click in 1893, he became president and has won himself a name in the financial circles of the state.
A Puzzling Question
Judge Henry Banks at Keokuk, by refusing Leroy Ware, cashier of the defunct Farmers and Drovers, his liberty after he had been arrested following his parole, has raised a question that is vexing attornej^s in the state. Ware it will be remembered was convicted and sent to the penitentiary for making false entries. He was paroled by the state board of parole but was immediately re-arrested upon one of the other indictments. Ware applied for a writ of habeas corpus, claiming that the parole wiped the slate clean. Judge Banks denied the writ and Ware must now stand trial. If he is convicted, the state board of parole will parole him again in which case he will probably be arrested on another of the thirty-two indictments thus establishing in effect an endless chain.
Expert Bank Swindler Caught
John Bauer, said to be one of the shrewdest