Page:WALL STREET IN HISTORY.djvu/95

 Rh founded. And so exact and complete is the system that no difference of any kind, from any errors, inaccuracies, or irregularities, exists in any of its books or accounts; neither has the loss of a penny occurred from its organization to the present time. The largest recorded transaction for any one day—$295,821,422—bears date Feb. 28, 1881. The least balance paid by the Clearing-house to any one bank—ten cents—is dated Dec. 16, 1873; the least balance paid to Clearing-house by any one bank—one cent—was on Sept. 2, 1862. The first manager was George D. Lyman. He was succeeded in 1864 by William A. Camp, the present manager, whose career in the Clearing-house covers a period of more than a quarter of a century, he having entered it as assistant-manager in 1857.



The machinery of the institution, as well as its value as a financial auxiliary, were thoroughly tested during the late Civil War, when it enabled the banks, united as one, to furnish funds by which the credit of the Government was preserved; and it has proven itself an arm of strength in the various financial panics, notably in 1873.

The decade between 1850 and 1860 was rendered memorable in Wall Street by many events other than those already mentioned. The Stock Exchange was the scene of a fierce tumult in 1854, when the news came that Robert Schuyler, President of the New York and New Haven Railroad, was a defaulter for $2,000,000. Almost simultaneously it was learned that Alexander Kyle, Secretary of the Harlem Railroad Company, had issued forged stock to the amount of $300,000. Other breaches of trust were suddenly discovered. Clerks, accountants and bank officers all fell under suspicion. The effect was painful in the extreme. The first mining