The passengers who were saved had clung to doors, skylights, and such floating objects as they could reach, and were thus rescued; all the rest, some five hundred in number, had gone down with the ship.
The panic grew worse and worse, and about the end of September there was a general suspension of the banks of New York, and a money crisis extended all over the country.

In New York, Lucas, Turner & Co.

had nothing at risk.

We had large cash balances in the Metropolitan Bank and in the Bank of America, all safe, and we held, for the account of the St.Louis house, at least two hundred thousand dollars, of St.Louis city and county bonds, and of acceptances falling due right along, none extending beyond ninety days.

I was advised from St.Louis that money matters were extremely tight; but I did not dream of any danger in that quarter.
I knew well that Mr.Lucas was worth two or three million dollars in the best real estate, and inferred from the large balances to their credit with me that no mere panic could shake his credit; but, early on the morning of October 7th, my cousin, James M.Hoyt, came to me in bed, and read me a paragraph in the morning paper, to the effect that James H.Lucas & Co., of St.Louis, had suspended.
I was, of course, surprised, but not sorry; for I had always contended that a man of so much visible wealth as Mr.Lucas should not be engaged in a business subject to such vicissitudes.