Part 12 (2/2)

In consequence of this determination of the new President, the bank was kept in perpetual bustle for the whole fortnight succeeding the election. What then occurred will be told in the next chapter.

CHAPTER XV.

UNHAPPY EVENT IN THE LIFE OF NICODEMUS HANDY--CONSTERNATION OF QUODLIBET--DISASTERS AMONG THE DIRECTORS--EXPLOSION OF THE BANK--CONVERSATION BETWEEN THEODORE FOG AND MR.

GRANT--FOG'S VIEWS OF THE QUESTION OF DISTRESS--COMPLIMENT TO JESSE FERRET.

I know not which way to turn. Auribus teneo lupum. I can scarcely compose myself to write. Such an event! Many things have happened in this world to excite wonder, many grief, many indignation, many wailing, lamentation, and moans; but we have had an incident in the Borough which overmasters all these emotions by the height and the depth, the length and the breadth, the stupendous magnitude of the amazement which it has spread through all minds.

The investigation of the affairs of the bank, under the direction of Mr.

Hardbottle, lasted more than a fortnight. They were not yet brought to a close, when---- Let the following paragraph from an extra Whole Hog, issued on the spur of the moment, tell the rest. I have no nerve for such a disclosure.

”ASTOUNDING WHIG DEFALCATION.

”Our Borough has just been thrown into a state of stupefaction by an event which completely eclipses every other act of crime and villainy with which the annals of Whiggery abound. Nicodemus Handy, the Whig Cas.h.i.+er of that extortionate, swindling Whig rag-factory, the Patriotic Copperplate Bank of Quodlibet, left this Borough yesterday morning in the People's Line, which runs through Thorough Blue. As this journey was undertaken with the pretense of business, it attracted no attention until this morning, when the indefatigable Democratic President of that inst.i.tution, Mr. Anthony Hardbottle, who was recently elected for the purpose of a thorough investigation into its concerns, (suspicions having been long indulged of its rottenness; and, in fact, our worthy representative, the Hon. Middleton Flam, an unterrified and incorruptible New Light, having retired from the head of the inst.i.tution on account of the disgusting irregularities which fell within his view,) laid a statement before the Board which showed that the Cas.h.i.+er had secreted upwards of $160,000, the greater part of which funds there is reason to believe he has made away with in the course of the last three months. Measures were taken to pursue the offender, and as far as possible to secure the bank by attachments upon his property, which is supposed to be considerable. For the present, we forbear all comment, except so far as to remark, that we look upon this atrocious fraud but as the natural fruit of that system of Whig measures which has c.u.mbered the land with mushroom banks, filthy rags, and swarms of scrub aristocrats in the shape of presidents, cas.h.i.+ers, directors, and clerks. We may speedily expect to hear of many more Whigs following the example of our absquatulating Cas.h.i.+er.”

The sensation produced in the Borough by this intelligence is not to be described. The flight of Mr. Handy was the only topic of conversation for a week. An officer followed him to Thorough Blue, whence, it was rumored, the fugitive had shaped his course for Texas: other reports a.s.signed Canada as his place of refuge--all was uncertainty. Legal measures were taken to secure his property. This consisted of his elegant mansion on Copperplate Ridge, sundry rows of warehouses, and other buildings in Quodlibet, a large number of which had been left for two years past in an unfinished state. Upon investigation it was ascertained that the whole of this estate had been converted into money; our worthy representative, the Hon. Middleton Flam, having an absolute conveyance for Handy House, its furniture, and appurtenances, and certain political friends, connected with the custom-house in New York, rank Whigs, having mortgages on all the rest of the property. The consequence was, the bank was able to secure nothing.

One of our first proceedings, after the flight of the Cas.h.i.+er, was to call together the New-Light Club, where resolutions were pa.s.sed denouncing his fraud as the necessary consequence of his Whig principles, censuring the bank, in the strongest terms, as a swindling Whig concern, and avowing an unalterable devotion to the Independent Treasury, as the only sound, genuine, New-Light Democratic experiment which it was proper for the government to make, in the present condition of affairs--unless the President should change his mind and find out something still more Democratic; in which event the New-Light Club pledged itself to give that other measure their cordial and patriotic support.

In the course of a fortnight, the inhabitants of the Borough were surprised to read from a New York paper, in the list of pa.s.sengers who sailed for Liverpool by the packet of the first of October, among the names of sundry fas.h.i.+onables, those also of Mrs. and Miss Handy; and we were, not long afterward, relieved from all doubt as to the Cas.h.i.+er's destination, by seeing it publicly announced that he had gone to Havre, from which point, as soon as he could be joined by his interesting and distressed family, he designed making the tour of Europe.

From the period of the elopement of Mr. Handy, we had a series of convulsions. The first incident of importance that followed it, was the failure of the whole Board of Directors; each of whom, according to his own showing, had lost so much money by the absconding Cas.h.i.+er as to be totally unable to pay up his liabilities to the bank. The next disaster was the explosion of the bank itself. The abduction of so large an amount of its funds, as well as its unfortunate list of bad debts from the Directors, rendered this inevitable. Then came riots among the holders of its paper, who besieged the door for several days, and even threatened to pull down the building. Never was a community in a more unhappy commotion than ours at this eventful epoch.

Mr. Grant visited the Borough frequently during the prevalence of these disorders. One day he met Theodore Fog, who seemed to be rather pleasurably excited by the events which occupied and engrossed the public attention--for Theodore, as he was in the habit of remarking, had nothing to lose by these domestic convulsions, and everything to gain.

The election was at hand, and he was again the True-Grit candidate; but on this occasion there was no opposition from his own party, and the chance of electing a Whig was deemed hopeless. That side made no nomination; and Fog, therefore, with his two colleagues of the last year, was in a fair way to walk over the course without a contest. The interests of the election, consequently, were altogether absorbed in the other incidents of the day. Still, Theodore was not inattentive to the voters, and was, as usual, loquacious and voluble.

”A pretty considerable upheaving of the elements of social life, Mr.

Grant,” said he, upon encountering the old gentleman on Ferret's steps at the front door of The Hero.

”I think so,” replied Mr. Grant; ”you have brought your pigs at last to a fine market.”

”_Our_ pigs!” exclaimed Fog, with an excellent representation of surprise:--”well, that beats M'Gonegal, and he beat the devil. The whole litter comes from a Whig mother: it is the sp.a.w.n of that aristocracy, against which the intelligence, the honor, and the virtue of the nation have been waging war ever since the Reign of Terror;--but, sir, it is down; the intelligence and firmness of the people have triumphed at last.”

”You allude, I suppose, to your Democratic bank here,” said Mr. Grant.

”No doubt,” replied Fog, ”the Whigs will attempt to shuffle the bank off _their_ shoulders and buckle it on the Democrats. But that won't do, sir; that's too stale a trick to deceive the people. The Whigs, sir, are men of property; the Democrats are poor, sir. Banks are not made by poor men, Mr. Grant; there's the logic of the case.”

”And this Patriotic Copperplate Bank of Quodlibet was not set on foot by Nicodemus Handy and Theodore Fog?” returned Mr. Grant.

”By Nicodemus Handy,” replied Fog, ”not by me. Sir, Nicodemus was always a Whig; and, what's more, attempted to beguile me into his scheme. He took advantage of my unsuspecting temper--endeavored to lull into security my artless, confiding nature; essayed, sir, but in vain, to seduce me from my allegiance to the Democratic faith, by tempting offers of the presidency of the bank--but, sir, my virtue was too stern for his treacherous arts. I saw the gilded bait and spurned it. It was--I say it myself--a rare example of successful resistance to the fascinations of the tempter. Many a Democrat has fallen into the snare of the Whigs under less allurement. I pride myself on this evidence of self-command.

I have reason to be proud of it.”

”You have a short memory,” said Mr. Grant.

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