Its stock, which had sold at 147 in January, fell in May to below ten dollars a share.
Though the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company, which failed in February, had a capital of $40,000,000 and a debt of more than $125,000,000, the market did not break completely under that strain.

The National Cordage had a capital of $20,000,000 and liabilities of only $10,000,000, but its collapse brought down with it the whole structure of credit.

A general movement of liquidation set in, which throughout the West was so violent as to threaten general bankruptcy.

Nearly all of the national bank failures were in the West and South, and still more extensive was the wreck of state banks and private banks.

It had been the practice of country banks, while firmly maintaining local rates, to keep the bulk of their resources on deposit with city banks at two per cent.