The Desperate Exit of a Bank Cashier
A Colfax banker, caught in a web of financial irregularities, attempts to end his life as investigators uncover his missing funds.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
C. F. Russell, cashier of the First National bank, was found today in an ante-room in Masonic hall in a semi-conscious condition. Doctors were summoned and worked with him, and he is now reported in a fair way to recover. Russell says he took poison last night and begs that he be allowed to die. Russell had been cashier of the bank for several years, and was suspected of raising the face of notes to cover a shortage. The bank examiner discovered some irregularities. He disappeared Sunday afternoon. An investigation shows that he had taken $1,000 with him. Late this afternoon the $1,000 which it was supposed Russell had taken was found on the bank counter in a package addressed to a correspondent of the bank. Russell is now reported out of danger. His friends state that he has done nothing wrong. They say he owes the bank about $8,000 in notes, and when called on to make the sum up immediately or lose his position and stand suit he became despondent and attempted his life.
“Russell says he took poison last night, and begs that he be allowed to die.”
This story highlights the fragility of local banking and the intense personal shame tied to financial failure in the 1890s. The 'shortage' and subsequent scandal resonate with the long history of civic trust and banking regulation in the American West.
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