was closing the doors. The farmer said, “I have just sold my farm. Here are $3600 — all I own is in my hands. I am afraid to keep it until I go west and buy another farm. Will you open the bank, and let me deposit this money? I owe you $500. I will come in Monday and pay you.” “Sure,” replied the young cashier. He reopened the doors, took the farmer's money, gave him a deposit slip, knowing that the bank was busted, and would not reopen, Monday. He stuck the money in his expensive pants pocket, closed the doors, and later boarded a train for Dallas, for a week-end of pleasure, as was the custom in those days. He didn't open the bank on Monday. The bank later was opened, and the vault was clean of cash. A reward was offered for the cashier's arrest and return. A friend brought him in and they split the reward. The youth of the town met the train, and gave him an ovation. A “moot” court freed him. Depositors lost all. The farmer lost his $3600. The bank went to the same court and got judgment against the farmer for the note plus interest and costs of court. When I heard that story, and learned that the law permitted crooked bankers to close their doors, write off every deposit on their books, yet sue those same depositors, if they owed the bank, and get judgment; and the depositors could not sue the bankers and get judgment for the lost depositcredits; not even when the depositor had put actual cash in the day before the bank closed, as had the farmer, I said to myself, the real me:
“I shall set myself to the task of learning how such a crime against decency, justice and equity could have the sanction of law: why a deposit slip has no standing in court, yet the note a man gave the bank for the deposit slip has; why a depositor cannot sue a busted bank on a deposit slip and get judgment against the stockholders of the bank, while the stockholders can sue and get judgment on the note the depositor gave the bankers in exchange for the deposit slip; why a banker could take a farmer's cash, his life's savings, and abscond legally, then sue the victim on his note and get judgment, yet the depositor had no recourse at law.”